Henri Büsser was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 classical

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, organist

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

, and conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

.

Biography

Paul-Henri Büsser was born in Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

, of partly Teutonic ancestry. He entered the Conservatoire in Paris in 1889; there he studied organ with César Franck

César Franck

César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....

 and composition with Ernest Guiraud

Ernest Guiraud

Ernest Guiraud was a French composer and music teacher born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is best known for writing the traditional orchestral recitatives used for Bizet's opera Carmen and for Offenbach's opera Les contes d'Hoffmann .- Biography :Guiraud began his schooling in Louisiana under the...

. Employed for a while as secretary to Charles Gounod

Charles Gounod

Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...

, he received valuable advice from that composer, who helped him to obtain a job as organist at Saint-Cloud

Saint-Cloud

Saint-Cloud is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.Like other communes of the Hauts-de-Seine such as Marnes-la-Coquette, Neuilly-sur-Seine or Vaucresson, Saint-Cloud is one of the wealthiest cities in France, ranked 22nd out of the 36500 in...

. In 1893, he won the Prix de Rome

Prix de Rome

The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...

 for music, and upon his return from Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, he began a career as a conductor. At the personal request of Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy

Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...

, Büsser led the fourth and numerous subsequent performances of Pelléas at Mélisande

Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)

Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande...

. Büsser also became a protégé of Jules Massenet

Jules Massenet

Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...

, and was one of the elder composer's closest friends during the last two decades of the latter's life (Massenet died in 1912).

In 1921 Büsser began teaching at the Paris Conservatoire, and was promoted to professor of composition in 1931. Noted students include Prix de Rome winner Henri Challan

Henri Challan

Henri Challan was a French composer and music educator. He had a long association with the Conservatoire de Paris where he was both a student and a faculty member. He was a pupil of Jean Gallon and Henri Büsser and was appointed a professor of harmony in 1936. That same year he won both the first...

 and the Japanese composer Tomojiro Ikenouchi

Tomojiro Ikenouchi

was a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music and professor born in Tokyo, Japan. The son of a haiku poet, Ikenouchi traveled to Paris in 1927, where he studied composition with Henri Büsser and piano with Lazare Levy. His music is influenced by French Impressionist music...

 (1906–1991). The Académie Française elected him as member in 1938. He married the famous dramatic soprano Yvonne Gall

Yvonne Gall

Yvonne Gall was a famous French operatic soprano.Gall was born and died in Paris. She trained at the Conservatoire de Paris and made her debut in 1908 at the Paris Opéra under André Messager as Woglinde in the Paris premiere of Götterdämmerung...

 (1885–1972).

While Büsser composed a wide range of compositions, his most important works were for the stage. His operas include Daphnis et Chloé, Colomba, and Les noces corinthiennes. Several stage works demonstrate his comic wit, especially Le carosse du Saint Sacrement and Roxelane, as well as the farce Diaforus 60, which is an update of Molière

Molière

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...

's Le malade imaginaire. His music exhibits a sophisticated compositional style and finely crafted orchestration, but he remained faithful to French 19th century traditions.

He also made the standard orchestration of Debussy's Petite Suite.

Henri Büsser died in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

in 1973 at the age of 101.

Selected works

Opera

• Hélène, before 1890, incomplete
• Les accordailles, 1890, unperformed
• Jane Grey, 1891
• Les Marivaudages, 1891, unperformed
• Daphnis et Chloé, 1897
• Le miracle de perles, 1898, unperformed
• Blanc et noir, 1900
• Colomba, 1921
• Les noces corinthiennes, 1922
• La pie borgne, 1927
• Rhapsodie arménienne, 1930
• Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement, 1948
• Roxelane, 1948
• Diafoirus 60, 1963
• La Vénus d'ille, 1964

Ballet

• La ronde des saisons, 1905

Incidental music

• Appassionato, 1910
• Les trois sultanes, 1923
• Manon, 1925
• Histoire de France, 1929

Chamber music

• Appassionato for viola and piano, Op. 34, 1910
• Morceau de Concert (Concert Piece in D) for horn and piano, Op. 39
• Catalane sur des airs populaires for viola and orchestra or piano, Op. 78, 1926
• Rhapsodie arménienne for viola and piano, Op. 81, 1930
• La Chasse de Saint Hubert for horn and piano, Op. 99, ca. 1937

Sources

• Sadie, Stanley (Ed.) [1992] (1994). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, vol. 1, A-D, chpt: "Büsser [Busser], (Paul-) Henri" by Arthur Hoérée & Richard Langham Smith, New York: MacMillan. ISBN 0-935859-92-6.

External links

• Classical Composers Database Profile