Joseph Lambert Massart (19 July 1811 – 13 February 1892) was a
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
violinist who has been credited with the origination of the systematic vibrato. He compiled ''The Art of Working at Kreutzer's Etudes,'' a supplement that contains 412 fingerings and bowings taken from his time studying with
Rodolphe Kreutzer
Rodolphe Kreutzer (15 November 1766 – 6 January 1831) was a French violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer of forty French operas, including ''La mort d'Abel'' (1810).
He is probably best known as the dedicatee of Beethoven's Violin Sona ...
. He was an excellent
String quartet
The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
player who gave many delightful chamber concerts, having also played
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
on 23 May 1843.
Biography
Massart was born in
Liège
Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège.
The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...
, and was taught music first by his father Joseph Marie and later by his father's eldest brother Jean-Joseph, a disciple of Leonard-Joseph Gaillard. With the death of his uncle, Massart studied under the guidance of Ambroise Delaveux who then secured for him, from the local authorities of Liège, a scholarship at the
Conservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...
, where his admission was then blocked by
Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini ( ; ; 8 or 14 SeptemberWillis, in Sadie (Ed.), p. 833 1760 – 15 March 1842) was an Italian Classical and Romantic composer. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the gre ...
on the grounds that Massart was a foreigner. He became then the favorite pupil and protégé of Kreutzer and his younger brother, Auguste Kreutzer, who took his brother's post as professor at the conservatory upon his death.
Despite being sponsored by King
William I of the Netherlands
William I (Willem Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau; 24 August 1772 – 12 December 1843) was a Prince of Orange, the King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
He was the son of the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, who we ...
, he was not accepted at the Conservatoire de Paris until 1829 because of his foreign status. He was appointed professor of violin at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1843 and subsequently taught there for 47 years as music professor. Among his pupils were
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was known ...
,
Eugène Ysaÿe
Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe (; 16 July 185812 May 1931) was a Belgian virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tsar".
Legend of the Ysaÿe violin
Eugène Ysaÿe ...
,
Léon Reynier
Léon Reynier (11 August 1833 – 5 May 1895) was a well known and greatly appreciated French virtuoso violinist.
Life
Reynier was born in Saint-Cloud. He is said to have been presented by Napoleon III with a richly varnished 1681 orange-reddish ...
,
Henryk Wieniawski
Henryk Wieniawski (; 10 July 183531 March 1880) was a Polish virtuoso violinist, composer and pedagogue who is regarded amongst the greatest violinists in history. His younger brother Józef Wieniawski and nephew Adam Tadeusz Wieniawski were al ...
,
Alfred De Sève
Alfred De Sève (May or June 1858 – 25 November 1927) was a Canadian violinist, composer, and music educator. His compositional output includes works for violin and piano, solo piano, and orchestra; many of which were published by Arthur P. S ...
Teresina Tua
Maddalena Maria Teresa Tua (23 April 1866 – 28 October 1956) was a prominent Italian violinist who demonstrated her musical talents from an early age.
Biography
Born in Turin on 23 April 1866, Maddalena Maria Teresa Tua was the daughter of ...
, and
Charles Martin Loeffler
Charles Martin Tornov Loeffler (January 30, 1861 – May 19, 1935) was a German-born American violinist and composer.
Family background
Charles Martin Loeffler was born Martin Karl Löffler on January 30, 1861, in Schöneberg near Berlin to par ...
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...