Georges Arnoux (3 August 1891 – 11 November 1971) was a French composer with Breton nationalist leanings.

Life and music

Born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, Arnoux was the descendant of a family originally from

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. He studied harmony, counterpoint and composition with

Vincent d'Indy Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy (; 27 March 18512 December 1931) was a French composer and teacher. His influence as a teacher, in particular, was considerable. He was a co-founder of the Schola Cantorum de Paris and also taught at the Par ...

at the Schola Cantorum de Paris. He was very interested in

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

and its traditional music (he owned a house in Brignogan) and learned the Breton language. In the 1920s, he was involved with the Breton cultural movements ( cercle celtique in Paris, K.A.V., Bleun Brug) and joined the Breton artistic movement

Seiz Breur Seiz Breur was an artistic movement founded in 1923 in Brittany. Although it adopted the symbolic name ''seiz breur'', meaning ''seven brothers'' in the Breton language, this did not refer to the number of members, but to the title of a folk-story. ...

in 1939. From 1934 he argued for a conservatory of Breton music that never came to fruition.De Bellaing (1992), p. 25. He died in Vevey,

Selected works

Compositions

Large-scale works * ''Koroll ar vuhez hag ar maro'', ballet work for orchestra (1939) * ''Gethsemanie'', "sacred poem" for soloists and orchestra (Radio-Lausanne, 1948) * ''Suite pittoresque et brève'', for string orchestra (1949) Piano music * ''Valse des Korrigans'' (1907) * ''Voici la saison joyeuse du délicieux printemps'' (1920) * ''Pages bretonnes'' (1938) * ''Tarik lan la'' (1951) Songs * ''Noel des prisonniers'' (1923) * ''20 Chansons bretonnes'' (1933) * ''Kanaouennou goueliou ar Bleun-Brug'' (several volumes, 1935–1939) * ''Petites histoires bretonnes en huit chansons'' (1942) * ''Chansons pour Martine'' (1948) * ''Adieu Bretagne'' (1964)

Writings

* ''Conditions du répertoire musical breton'' (1934) * "L'Harmonisation des chants populaires", in: ''La Bretagne à Paris'', 11 April 1936 * ''Mathématique de la mise en scène'' (Paris, 1956) * ''Science et musique'' (Nimes, 1956) * ''Musique platonicienne'' (Paris, 1960) * ''La Vache enchantée'' (Paris, 1961) * ''Demain sera détruit'' (Lausanne, 1967)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnoux, Georges 1891 births 1971 deaths 20th-century classical composers 20th-century French composers 20th-century French male musicians Breton musicians Breton nationalists French classical composers French male classical composers Musicians from Paris