Eugène Gigout (; 23 March 1844 – 9 December 1925) was a French organist and a composer, mostly of music for his own instrument.

Biography

Gigout was born in Nancy, and died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. A pupil of

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (, , 9October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano ...

, he served as the organist of the French capital's Saint-Augustin Church for 62 years. He became widely known as a teacher and his output as a

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

was considerable. Renowned as an expert improviser, he also founded his own music school. His nephew by marriage was Léon Boëllmann, another distinguished French composer and organist. The ''10 pièces pour orgue'' (composed 1890) include the ''Toccata in B minor'', Gigout's best-known creation, which turns up as a frequent encore at

organ recital An organ recital is a concert at which music specially written for the organ is played. The music played at such recitals is typically written for pipe organ, which includes church organs, theatre organs and symphonic organs (also known as conc ...

s. Also fairly often played, and to be found in the same collection, is a ''Scherzo in E major''. Other notable pieces by Gigout are ''Grand chœur dialogué'' (1881), and ''Marche religieuse''. Gigout's works are now available on several commercial recordings. His pupils included his nephew Boëllmann, Victoria Cartier, André Fleury, Henri Gagnon, André Marchal,

André Messager André Charles Prosper Messager (; 30 December 1853 – 24 February 1929) was a French composer, organist, pianist and conductor. His compositions include eight ballets and thirty , opérettes and other stage works, among which his ballet (1 ...

, and

Albert Roussel Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (; 5 April 1869 – 23 August 1937) was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. His ...

Selected compositions

Organ

* ''Six Pièces'' (1872, 1876, 1885) * ''Trois Morceaux'' (1888) * ''Cent Pièces brèves'' (1889) * ''Dix Pièces'' (1889) * ''Album grégorien'', 2 volumes (1895) * ''Trois Pièces'' (1896) * ''Prélude et fugue'' (1897) * ''Rapsodie sur des airs populaires du Canada'' (1898) * ''L'Orgue d'église'' (1902) * ''Poèmes mystiques'' (1903) * ''Interludium'' (1906) * ''70 Pièces'' (1911) * ''Nouveau recueil de douze pièces'' (1912) * ''Pièce jubilaire'' (1918) * ''Cent Pièces nouvelles'' (1922) * ''Dix Pièces'' (1923) * ''Deux Pièces'' (1923)

Piano

* ''Staccato-Étude''; ''Rêverie''; ''Bagatelle'' (all 1868) * ''Pièce symphonique''; ''Caprice-Ballet''; ''Fantaisie scolastique'' (all for piano 4-hands, 1879) * ''Quatre Pièces'' (1886) * ''Hymne à la France'' (1892) * Sonata (1904) * ''Trois Improvisations caractéristiques'' (1912) * ''Aux escaldes'' (1926)

External links

*
Free scores
at the

Mutopia Project The Mutopia Project is a volunteer-run effort to create a library of free content sheet music, in a way similar to Project Gutenberg's library of public domain books. It started in 2000. The music is reproduced from old scores that are in th ...

1844 births 1925 deaths 19th-century French classical composers 19th-century French male musicians 20th-century French classical composers 20th-century French male musicians Burials at Montmartre Cemetery Composers for pipe organ French classical organists French male classical composers French Romantic composers Musicians from Nancy, France Pupils of Camille Saint-Saëns French male classical organists {{organist-stub