Henry Benoît François Darondeau (born as "d'Arondeau") (28 February 1779 – 30 July 1865) was a 19th-century French composer and piano teacher.

Life

Henry Darondeau was born in

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

, the son of the Munich-born French composer Benoni Darondeau who came to

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 ...

as a vocal teacher in 1782. Around 1802, he studied in Paris with

Henri-Montan Berton Henri-Montan Berton (17 September 1767 – 22 April 1844) was a French composer, teacher, and writer, mostly known as a composer of operas for the Opéra-Comique. Career Henri-Montan Berton was born the son of Pierre Montan Berton.Charlton ...

(composition) and Ignaz Anton Ladurner (piano), leaving the Conservatoire without a degree.Roger Cotte, "Darondeau", in ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'' (MGG), biographical part, vol. 5 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2001), cc. 449–450. Afterwards he was active as a piano teacher and composer before he moved to

Bourges Bourges () is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre. It is the capital of the department of Cher, and also was the capital city of the former province of Berry. History The name of the commune derives either from the Bituriges, t ...

in 1836. In Bourges, he worked as an organist and gave lessons in solfège, piano,

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

and

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

, among others to the young Frédéric Barbier. In 1860, he returned to Paris, resuming his wide-spread contacts among notable musicians of his time, including Adolphe Adam and

François Antoine Habeneck François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters" * Francis II of France, Kin ...

, and poets like Marc-Antoine Madeleine Désaugiers. He was closely attached to the Théâtre des Variétés and the second

Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique The Théâtre de l’Ambigu-Comique (, literally, Theatre of the Comic-Ambiguity), a former Parisian theatre, was founded in 1769 on the boulevard du Temple immediately adjacent to the Théâtre de Nicolet. It was rebuilt in 1770 and 1786, but in ...

, for which he composed (comic) operas, ballets and

incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...

. He also excelled as a composer of romances as well as potpourris and transcriptions of popular works by other composers. He was the father of Benoît Darondeau, hydrographer, and Stanislas Darondeau, a painter. He died Paris in Paris.

Selected works

He wrote some 100 works among which: * ''Rosina et Lorenzo'', ballet by

Jean-Pierre Aumer Jean-Louis Aumer (21 April 1774 – 6 July 1833), also referred to as Jean-Pierre Aumer, was a French ballet dancer and choreographer. Early life and career as a dancer Aumer was born in Strasbourg of a manual labourer and non-theatrical parents ...

(1805) * ''Le Retour de la sentinelle'', lyrics by Louis Brault (1809) * ''Frédéric duc de Nevers'', text by Mardelle, E. F. Varez (1810) * ''Herliska'', Op. 35 for piano (1862)

References

External links

Henri Darondeau
on Data.bnf.fr
François-Joseph Fétis, ''Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique'', vol. 2 (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1866) (2^e éd.), p. 431.
1779 births 1865 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century French composers French opera composers French Romantic composers Musicians from Strasbourg {{France-composer-stub