François Joseph Gossec
Encyclopedia
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
composer of operas, string quartets, symphonies, and choral works.
Life and work
The son of a small farmer, Gossec was born at the village of Vergnies, then a French exclave in the Austrian Netherlands, now in Belgium. Showing an early taste for music, he became a choir-boy in Antwerp. He went to Paris in 1751 and was taken on by the composer Jean-Philippe RameauJean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François...
. He followed Rameau as the conductor of a private orchestra kept by the fermier général Le Riche de La Poupelinière
Alexandre Le Riche de La Poupelinière
Alexandre Jean Joseph Le Riche de La Pouplinière was an immensely wealthy fermier général who was one of the greatest patrons of music and musicians of the eighteenth century. A true patron of the Enlightenment he gathered round him a circle of artists, men of letters and musicians...
, a wealthy amateur and patron of music. Gradually he became determined to do something to revive the study of instrumental music in France.
Gossec's own first symphony was performed in 1754, and as conductor to the Prince de Condé’s orchestra he produced several operas and other compositions of his own. He imposed his influence on French music with remarkable success. His Requiem premiered in 1760, a ninety minute piece which made him famous overnight. Years later, in 1778, Mozart visited Gossec during a trip to Paris, and described him in a letter to his father as "a very good friend and a very dry man".
Gossec founded the Concert des Amateurs in 1770 and in 1773 he reorganised the Concert Spirituel
Concert Spirituel
The Concert Spirituel was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790; later, concerts or series of concerts of the same name occurred in Paris, Vienna, London and elsewhere...
together with Simon Leduc and Pierre Gaviniès
Pierre Gaviniès
Gavini, son of a violin maker, was one of the most significant of the French school of violin in the eighteenth century. At the age of thirteen, he was already noticed alongside Joseph-Barnabé Saint-Sevin said the Rev. Son in a duo of Jean-Marie Leclair the Spiritual Concert...
. In this concert series he conducted his own symphonies as well as those by his contemporaries, particularly works by Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
, whose music had become increasingly popular in Paris, finally even superseding Gossec's symphonic work.
In the 1780s Gossec's symphonic output decreased as he began concentrating on operas. He organized the École de Chant in 1784, together with Etienne Méhul
Étienne Méhul
Etienne Nicolas Méhul was a French composer, "the most important opera composer in France during the Revolution." He was also the first composer to be called a "Romantic".-Life:...
, was conductor of the band of the Garde Nationale of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, and was appointed (with Méhul and Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries....
) inspector of the Conservatoire de Musique at its creation in 1795. He was an original member of the Institut and a chevalier
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
of the Legion of Honour. In 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, the Conservatoire was closed for some time by Louis XVIII, and the eighty-one year-old Gossec had to retire. Until 1817 he worked on his last compositions, including a third Te Deum
Te Deum
The Te Deum is an early Christian hymn of praise. The title is taken from its opening Latin words, Te Deum laudamus, rendered literally as "Thee, O God, we praise"....
, and was supported by a pension granted by the Conservatoire.
He died in the Parisian suburb of Passy
Passy
Passy is an area of Paris, France, located in the XVIe arrondissement, on the Right Bank. It is traditionally home to many of the city's wealthiest residents.Passy was formerly a commune...
. The funeral service was attended by former colleagues, including Cherubini, at the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. His grave is near those of Méhul and Grétry
Grétry
People of the surname Grétry include* André Grétry , composer of opéras comiques;* Jeanne-Marie Grandon Grétry , painter, wife of André;...
.
Some of his techniques anticipated the innovations of the Romantic era: he scored his Te Deum for 1200 singers and 300 wind instruments, and several oratorios require the physical separation of multiple choirs, including invisible ones behind the stage. He wrote several works in honor of the French revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, including Le Triomphe de la République, and L'Offrande à la Liberté.
While most people would have difficulty recognizing Gossec's Gavotte
Gavotte
The gavotte originated as a French folk dance, taking its name from the Gavot people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné, where the dance originated. It is notated in 4/4 or 2/2 time and is of moderate tempo...
by its title, the melody itself remains familiar in the United States and elsewhere because Carl Stalling
Carl Stalling
Carl W. Stalling was an American composer and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.-Biography:Stalling was born to Ernest and...
used an arrangement of it in several Warner Brothers cartoons.
He was little known outside France, and his own numerous compositions, sacred and secular, were overshadowed by those of more famous composers; but he was an inspiration to many, and powerfully stimulated the revival of instrumental music.
For Orchestra
- Sei sinfonie a più strumenti op. 4 (1759)
- Sei sinfonie a più strumenti op. 5 (1761)
- Six symphonies op. 6 (1762)
- Six symphonies à grand orchestre op. 12 (1769)
- Deux symphonies (1773)
- Symphonie n° 1 (c. 1771-1774)
- Symphonie n° 2 (c. 1771-1774)
- Symphonie en fa majeur (1774)
- Symphonie de chasse (1776)
- Symphonie en ré (1776)
- Symphonie en ré (1777)
- Symphonie concertante en fa majeur n° 2, à plusieurs instruments (1778)
- Symphonie en do majeur for wind orchestra (1794)
- Symphonie à 17 parties en fa majeur (1809)
Chamber music
- Sei sonate a due violini e basso op. 1 (c. 1753)
- Sei quartetti per flauto e violino o sia per due violini, alto e basso op. 14 (1769)
- Six quatuors à deux violons, alto et basse op. 15 (1772)
Vocal and Choral Works
- Messe des morts (Requiem) (1760)
- La Nativité, oratorio (1774)
- Te Deum (1779)
- Te Deum à la Fête de la Fédération for three voices, men's chorus and wind orchestra (1790)
- Hymne sur la translation du corps de VoltaireVoltaireFrançois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
au PanthéonPantheon-Mythology:* Pantheon , the set of gods belonging to a particular mythology* Pantheon * Pantheon, Rome, now a Catholic church, once a temple to the gods of ancient Rome* Any temple dedicated to an entire pantheon-Other buildings:...
for three voices, men's chorus and wind orchestra (1791) - Le Chant du 14 juillet (Marie-Joseph Chénier) for three voices, men's chorus and wind orchestra (1791)
- Dernière messe des vivants, for four voices, chorus and orchestra (1813)
Gossec also wrote a piece by the name of tambourin for Flute & Guitar ca. 1790
Operas
- Le tonnelier, opéra comique (1765)
- Le faux Lord, opéra comique (1765)
- Les pêcheurs, opéra comique en 1 act (1766)
- Toinon et Toinette, opéra comique (1767)
- Le double déguisement, opéra comique (1767)
- Les agréments d'Hylas et Sylvie, pastorale (1768)
- Sabinus, tragédie lyrique (1773)
- Berthe, opera (1775, not extant)
- Alexis et Daphné, pastorale (1775)
- Philémon et Baucis, pastorale (1775)
- La fête de village, intermezzo (1778)
- Thésée, tragédie lyrique (1782)
- Nitocris, opera (1783)
- Rosine, ou L'éposue abandonnée, opera (1786)
- Le triomphe de la République, ou Le camp de Grandpré, divertissement-lyrique en 1 acte, (Chénier) (1794)
- Les sabots et le cerisier, opera (1803)