José Melchor Gomis y Colomer (6 January 1791 – 4 August 1836) was a Spanish Romantic

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 Defi ...

Career

He was born in

Ontinyent Ontinyent ( es, Onteniente) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Vall d'Albaida in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is situated on the banks of the Clariano River, a tributary of the Xúquer, and on the Xàtiva–Alcoi railway. Ontinyen ...

Vall d'Albaida Vall is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Ely Ould Mohamed Vall (born 1953), Mauritanian military officer * Raymond Vall (born 1942), French politician See also * Örjans Vall, football stadium in Halmstad, Sweden * Vall, the ...

Valencia Province Valencia ( ca-valencia, València) is a province of Spain, in the central part of the autonomous Valencian Community. Of the province's over 2.5 million people (2018), one-third live in the capital, Valencia, which is also the capital of the au ...

. He was director of music for an artillery regiment during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. An early melodrame by Gomis for voice and orchestra was performed at Valencia in 1817.Dowling (n.d.) He wrote the music of the ''

Himno de Riego The "Himno de Riego" ("Anthem of Riego") is a song dating from the '' Trienio Liberal'' (1820–1823) of Spain and named in honour of Colonel Rafael del Riego, a figure in the respective uprising, which restored the liberal constitution of 1812. ...

'', named after the rebellious General Riego (1784-1823) and since used as the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European n ...

by various republican governments of Spain. Gomis's political views caused him to live in exile after the accession of

Ferdinand VII , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles IV of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Parma , birth_date = 14 October 1784 , birth_place = El Escorial, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Madrid, Spain , burial_plac ...

in 1823, in Paris and in London. In both cities he was a friend of his fellow exile the composer Santiago Masarnau, whom he may have introduced to London musical life. In Paris, Gomis wrote a successful singing method, published in 1826 with dedications to

Gioacchino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards ...

and

François-Adrien Boieldieu François-Adrien Boieldieu (, also ) (16 December 1775 – 8 October 1834) was a French composer, mainly of operas, often called "the French Mozart". His date of birth was also cited as December 15 by his biographer and writer Lucien Augé de Lass ...

, and in London his choral work ''L'inverno'' was performed in 1827. In 1830 his opera ''Aben-Humeya'' was performed in Paris. Gomis's Paris operas ''Diable à Seville'' (1831) (staged with the support of Rossini) and ''Le revenant'' (1836) gained respectful reviews from

Hector Berlioz In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...

. ''

Le portefaix ''Le portefaix'' (The Porter) (full title ''Le portefaix ou le jardinier de Grenade (The Porter, or the Gardener of Grenada)'') is an opéra comique in three acts composed by José Melchor Gomis. The libretto by Eugène Scribe is based on an episo ...

'', the most successful of his operas, had a

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

Eugène Scribe Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of man ...

(originally offered to the composer

Giacomo Meyerbeer Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le di ...

).Letellier (2014), 1 Gomis was made a Chevalier of the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

by King

Louis-Philippe Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate List of French monarchs#House of Orléans, July Monarchy (1830–1848), monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, h ...

. Gomis died in Paris in 1836 of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

, leaving a number of works unfinished, including the opera ''Le comte Julien'', also to a libretto by Scribe (and eventually set in 1851 by

Sigismond Thalberg Sigismond Thalberg (8 January 1812 – 27 April 1871) was an Austrian composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. Family He was born in Pâquis near Geneva on 8 January 1812. According to his own account, h ...

as ''Florinda'').

Bibliography

* Berlioz, Hector (ed. Katherine Kolb): ''Berlioz on Music: Selected Criticism, 1824–1837'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015); * Dowling, John
"Gomis_(y_Colomer),_José_Melchor_[Melchior
/nowiki>".html" ;"title="elchior">"Gomis (y Colomer), José Melchor [Melchior
/nowiki>"">elchior">"Gomis (y Colomer), José Melchor [Melchior
/nowiki>" in ''Grove Music Online'' , accessed 23 August 2015. * Johnson, Janet: "Rossini in Bologna and Paris during the Early 1830s: New Letters", in ''Revue de Musicologie'', vol. 79 (1993) no. 1, pp. 67–83. * Letellier, Robert: ''Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots: An Evangel of Religion and Love'' (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014);

References

1791 births 1836 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis 19th-century Spanish male musicians Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Male opera composers People from Vall d'Albaida Spanish classical composers Spanish male classical composers Spanish opera composers Spanish Romantic composers Tuberculosis deaths in France {{Spain-music-stub