Paul Paray
Encyclopedia
Paul Paray was a French
conductor
, organist
and composer
. He is best remembered in the United States
for being the resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
for more than a decade. He married Yolande Falck on 25 August 1944.
and organist at St. Jacques church, and leader of an amateur musical society. He put young Paul in the society's orchestra
as a drummer
. Later, Paul Paray went to Rouen to study music
with the abbot
s Bourgeois and Bourdon, and organ
with Haelling. This prepared him to enter the Paris Conservatoire. In 1911, Paul Paray won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome for his cantata Yanitza.
As World War I
started, Paul Paray heeded the call to arms and joined the French Army. In 1914, he was a prisoner of war
at the Darmstadt camp, where he composed a string quartet.
After the war, Paray was invited to conduct the orchestra of the Casino de Cauterets, which included players from the Lamoureux Orchestra. This was a springboard for him to conduct this Orchestra in Paris. Later he was music director of the Monte Carlo Orchestra, and president of the Concerts Colonne
.
In 1922, Paray composed the ballet Adonis troublé. In 1931, he wrote the Mass for the 500th Anniversary of the Death of Joan of Arc, which was premiered at the cathedral in Rouen
to commemorate the quincentenary of Joan of Arc's martyr
death. In 1935, he wrote his Symphony No. 1 in C major, which was premiered at the Concerts Colonne. He composed his Symphony No. 2 in A major in 1941.
Paray made his American debut with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra in 1939. In 1952, he was appointed music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
, conducting them in numerous recordings for Mercury Records
' "Living Presence" series.
Paray could and did conduct the entire orchestral repertoire well, but he specialized in the French symphonic literature. One of Paray's most renowned recordings, made in October 1957, is that of the Saint-Saëns
' Symphony No. 3 in C minor. The circumstances surrounding the recording were fortuitous. Paray had built the Detroit Symphony Orchestra into one of the world's most distinguished. Marcel Dupré
, a friend and fellow student from childhood, was organist for the session. Dupré, as a young student, had pulled the organ stops for the composer Camille Saint-Saëns
in a performance of the Symphony No. 3 in Paris, and the organ of Ford Auditorium in Detroit was well suited to the work. As well as being among the most authoritative readings of the work, the original analogue recording on the Mercury label remains an audiophile reference in vinyl, and the analogue-to-digital transfer produced by the original recording director Wilma Cozart for compact disc is also available from Mercury (recording number 432 719-2).
He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron
, an international professional music fraternity.
Orchestral
Concertante
Chamber music
Piano
Vocal
Choral
Bibliography (in French): Jean-Philippe Mousnier: "Paul Paray", Editions L'Harmattan (1998).
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...
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...
, 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 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...
. He is best remembered in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for being the resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood...
for more than a decade. He married Yolande Falck on 25 August 1944.
Biography
Paray's father, Auguste, was a sculptorSculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
and organist at St. Jacques church, and leader of an amateur musical society. He put young Paul in the society's orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
as a drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
. Later, Paul Paray went to Rouen to study music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
with the abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
s Bourgeois and Bourdon, and organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
with Haelling. This prepared him to enter the Paris Conservatoire. In 1911, Paul Paray won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome for his cantata Yanitza.
As World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
started, Paul Paray heeded the call to arms and joined the French Army. In 1914, he was a prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
at the Darmstadt camp, where he composed a string quartet.
After the war, Paray was invited to conduct the orchestra of the Casino de Cauterets, which included players from the Lamoureux Orchestra. This was a springboard for him to conduct this Orchestra in Paris. Later he was music director of the Monte Carlo Orchestra, and president of the Concerts Colonne
Concerts Colonne
The Colonne Orchestra is a French symphony orchestra, founded in 1873 by the violinist and conductor Édouard Colonne.-History:While leader of the Opéra de Paris orchestra, Édouard Colonne was engaged by the publisher Georges Hartmann to lead a series of popular concerts which he founded under the...
.
In 1922, Paray composed the ballet Adonis troublé. In 1931, he wrote the Mass for the 500th Anniversary of the Death of Joan of Arc, which was premiered at the cathedral in Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
to commemorate the quincentenary of Joan of Arc's martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
death. In 1935, he wrote his Symphony No. 1 in C major, which was premiered at the Concerts Colonne. He composed his Symphony No. 2 in A major in 1941.
Paray made his American debut with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra in 1939. In 1952, he was appointed music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood...
, conducting them in numerous recordings for Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
' "Living Presence" series.
Paray could and did conduct the entire orchestral repertoire well, but he specialized in the French symphonic literature. One of Paray's most renowned recordings, made in October 1957, is that of the Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
' Symphony No. 3 in C minor. The circumstances surrounding the recording were fortuitous. Paray had built the Detroit Symphony Orchestra into one of the world's most distinguished. Marcel Dupré
Marcel Dupré
Marcel Dupré , was a French organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue.-Biography:Marcel Dupré was born in Rouen . Born into a musical family, he was a child prodigy. His father Albert Dupré was organist in Rouen and a friend of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who built an organ in the family house when...
, a friend and fellow student from childhood, was organist for the session. Dupré, as a young student, had pulled the organ stops for the composer Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
in a performance of the Symphony No. 3 in Paris, and the organ of Ford Auditorium in Detroit was well suited to the work. As well as being among the most authoritative readings of the work, the original analogue recording on the Mercury label remains an audiophile reference in vinyl, and the analogue-to-digital transfer produced by the original recording director Wilma Cozart for compact disc is also available from Mercury (recording number 432 719-2).
He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron
Delta Omicron
Delta Omicron is a co-ed international professional music honors fraternity whose mission is to promote and support excellence in music and musicianship.-History:...
, an international professional music fraternity.
Selected works
Stage- Yanitza, Scène lyrique d'après une légende albanaise (1911); poem by Georges Spitzmuller
- Artémis troublée, Ballet by Léon BakstLéon BakstLéon Samoilovitch Bakst was a Russian painter and scene- and costume designer. He was a member of the Sergei Diaghilev circle and the Ballets Russes, for which he designed exotic, richly coloured sets and costumes...
(1911–1912)
Orchestral
- Symphonie d'archets for string orchestra (1919); orchestration of the String Quartet
- Nocturne for chamber orchestra
- Symphony No. 1 (1934)
- Symphony No. 2 (1936)
Concertante
- Fantaisie for piano and orchestra (1909)
- Humoresque for violin and chamber orchestra (1910)
Chamber music
- Piano Trio (1905)
- Sérénade for violin (or flute) and piano (1908)
- Sonata in C minor for violin and piano (1908)
- Humoresque for violin and piano (or chamber orchestra) (1910)
- Nocturne for violin (or cello) and piano (1910)
- String Quartet in E minor (1919)
- Sonata No. 1 in B major for cello and piano (1919)
- Sonata No. 2 in C major for cello and piano
Piano
- Tarantelle
- Scherzetto
- Impromptu
- Vertige
- Incertitude
- Entêtement
- Berceuse
- Valse-caprice (1906)
- Romance (1909)
- Portraits d'enfants (1910)
- Valse sur un thème de Franz Schubert (1911)
- Impressions (1912)
-
- Nostalgie
- Eclaircie
- Primesaut
- Reflets romantiques (1912)
- Avec esprit et charme
- Ardemment
- En rêvant
- Avec fougue
- Souple
- Léger
- Tender
- Energique
- Sept pièces (1913)
- Presto (1913)
- Prélude, scherzo et allegro
- Thème et variations (1913)
- Prélude en fa majeur (1913)
- Allegro (1913)
- Scherzo (1913)
- D'une âme... (1914)
- Pièces pour piano à quatre mains for piano 4-hands (1914)
- Éclaircie (1923)
- Prélude (1930)
- Allegretto
- Prélude en mi bémol mineur
- Prélude en fa mineur
- Sur la mer
- Valse en fa dièse mineur
- Valse en fa mineur
- Vertige
- La vraie furlana
Vocal
- Nuit d'Italie for voice and piano; words by Paul BourgetPaul BourgetPaul Charles Joseph Bourget , was a French novelist and critic.-Biography:He was born in Amiens in the Somme département of Picardie, France. His father, a professor of mathematics, was later appointed to a post in the college at Clermont-Ferrand, where Bourget received his early education...
- Laurette for voice and piano; words by Alfred de VignyAlfred de VignyAlfred Victor de Vigny was a French poet, playwright, and novelist.-Life:Alfred de Vigny was born in Loches into an aristocratic family...
- Sépulcre for voice and piano; words by Leon Volade
- Paroles à la lune for voice and piano (1903); words by Anna de Noailles
- Panis Angelicus for voice and cello (1904)
- Dans les bois for voice and piano (1904); words by Gérard de NervalGérard de NervalGérard de Nerval was the nom-de-plume of the French poet, essayist and translator Gérard Labrunie, one of the most essentially Romantic French poets.- Biography :...
- La promesse for voice and piano or orchestra (1910); words by Gabriel Montoya
- La plainte for voice and piano or orchestra (1911); words by Lucien Paté
- Le papillon for voice and piano or orchestra (1911); words by Jean AicardJean AicardJean François Victor Aicard was a French poet, dramatist and novelist.-Biography:He was born in Toulon. His father, Jean Aicard, was a journalist of some distinction, and the son early began his career in 1867 with Les Jeunes Croyances, followed in 1870 by a one-act play produced at the Marseille...
- Le champ de bataille (1912); words by Théophile GautierThéophile GautierPierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, art critic and literary critic....
- Trois mélodies for voice and piano or orchestra (1912); words by Théophile GautierThéophile GautierPierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, art critic and literary critic....
-
- Infidélité
- La Dernière feuille
- Serment
- Villanelle for voice and piano or orchestra (1912); words by Théophile GautierThéophile GautierPierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, art critic and literary critic....
- Chanson violette for voice and piano or orchestra (1913); words by Albert SamainAlbert SamainAlbert Victor Samain was a French poet and writer of the Symbolist school.Born in Lille, his family were Flemish and had long lived in the town or its suburbs. At the time of the poet's birth, his father, Jean-Baptiste Samain, and his mother, Elisa-Henriette Mouquet, conducted a business in "wines...
- Le chevrier for voice and piano or orchestra (1913); words by José-Maria de Heredia
- Il est d'étranges soirs for voice and piano or orchestra (1913) words by Albert SamainAlbert SamainAlbert Victor Samain was a French poet and writer of the Symbolist school.Born in Lille, his family were Flemish and had long lived in the town or its suburbs. At the time of the poet's birth, his father, Jean-Baptiste Samain, and his mother, Elisa-Henriette Mouquet, conducted a business in "wines...
- Viole for voice and piano (1913); words by Albert Samain
- In manus tuas for voice, oboe and organ (1914)
- Quatre poèmes de Jean Lahor for voice and piano or orchestra (1921)
- Villanelle for voice and piano or orchestra (1912); words by Théophile Gautier
- Après l'orage
- Adieux
- Après le bal
- Dèsir de mort
- Vocalise-étude for medium voice and piano (1924)
- Le Poèt et la muse for voice and piano; words by E. Thévenet
- L'embarquement pour l'idéal for voice and piano; words by Catulle MendèsCatulle MendèsCatulle Mendès was a French poet and man of letters.Of Portuguese Jewish extraction, he was born in Bordeaux. He early established himself in Paris and promptly attained notoriety by the publication in the Revue fantaisiste of his Roman d'une nuit, for which he was condemned to a month's...
- Mortes les fleurs for voice and piano; words by P. May
- Chanson napolitaine for voice and piano; words by P. May
Choral
- Os Justi, Offertorium for chorus and organ (1903)
- Acis et Galatée, Cantata (1910)
- Jeanne d'Arc, Oratorio (1913); words by Gabriel Montoya
- Salve Regina for chorus a cappella (1929)
- Messe du cinquième centenaire de la mort de Jeanne d'Arc (Mass for the Fifth Centenary of the Death of Joan of Arc) for soloists, chorus and orchestra (1931)
- Nuit tombante for chorus and orchestra
- Pastorale de Noël pour for soloists, chorus and orchestra
- Soleils de septembre for chorus and orchestra
External links
Bibliography (in French): Jean-Philippe Mousnier: "Paul Paray", Editions L'Harmattan (1998).