Louis Joseph Diémer (14 February 1843 – 21 December 1919) was a French pianist and composer. He was the founder of the Société des Instruments Anciens in the 1890s, and also gave recitals on the

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

. His output as a composer was extensive, including a

piano concerto A piano concerto is a type of concerto, a solo composition in the classical music genre which is composed for a piano player, which is typically accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuoso showpiec ...

and a quantity of

salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...

pieces.

Life

Diémer was born and died 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 ...

. He studied at the

Paris Conservatoire 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 teachers included

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for composition,

Antoine Marmontel Antoine is a French given name (from the Latin ''Antonius'' meaning 'highly praise-worthy') that is a variant of Danton, Titouan, D'Anton and Antonin. The name is used in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, West Greenland, Haiti, French Guiana ...

for piano, and

François Benoist François Benoist (10 September 1794 – 6 May 1878) was a French organist, composer, and pedagogue. Benoist was born in Nantes. He took his first music lessons under Georges Scheuermann. Benoist studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris and ...

for organ. From the age of twelve, he won several first prizes (''Premiers Prix'') at the Conservatoire, in piano, harmony and accompaniment, counterpoint and fugue, and solfège, and a ''second prix'' in organ. He quickly built a reputation as a virtuoso and toured with, among others, the violinists Delphin Alard and

Pablo de Sarasate Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués (; 10 March 1844 – 20 September 1908), commonly known as Pablo de Sarasate, was a Spanish (Navarrese) violin virtuoso, composer and conductor of the Romantic period. His best known works include ...

. In 1888, Diémer succeeded Marmontel as professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory. He taught, among others,

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Lazare Lévy Lazare Lévy Lazare Lévy, also hyphenated as Lazare-Lévy, (18 January 188220 September 1964) was an influential French pianist, organist, composer and pedagogue. As a virtuoso pianist he toured throughout Europe Europe is a large peninsu ...

, Robert Lortat,

Yves Nat Yves Philippe Avit Nat (29 December 1890 – 31 August 1956) was a French pianist and composer. Biography Nat was born in Béziers and showed an early aptitude for both piano and composition. By the age of seven he was allowed to improvise eac ...

, and

Édouard Risler Joseph-Édouard Risler (23 February 1873 – 22 July 1929) was a French pianist. Biography Risler was born in Baden-Baden (Germany) of a German mother and an Alsatian father. He studied under Louis Diémer, Théodore Dubois and Émile Decomb ...

. He was also instrumental in promoting the use of historical instruments, giving a series of harpsichord performances as part of the 1889

Universal Exhibition A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

and contributing to the founding of the Société des Instruments Anciens.

Works dedicated to Diémer

Several composers dedicated compositions to Diémer. They included

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's '' Symphonic Variations'',

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's only

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's 5th Piano Concerto, and

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's Piano Concerto in F minor.

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's 3rd Piano Concerto was intended to be dedicated to him.

Recordings

Diémer was also among the earliest pianists to record for the

gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

. His recordings are said to show the best aspects of the 19th-century French piano school: clarity, point, and control in rapid, detaché passages and limpid

pianissimo In music, the dynamics of a piece is the variation in loudness between notes or phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings still require interpretation by the performer dependin ...

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number w ...

. They clearly attest to Diémer's title in the French press as "the king of the scale and the

trill TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) is an Internet Standard implemented by devices called TRILL switches. TRILL combines techniques from bridging and routing, and is the application of link-state routing to the VLAN-aware custom ...

.Schonberg (1987), p. 287. They also give evidence to comments made by his pupil

, who himself would become an influence on the French musical scene. Lévy wrote: "The astonishing precision of iémer'splaying, his legendary trills, the sobriety of his style, made him the excellent pianist we all admired".

Bibliography

* * Roger Cotte, Bernard Haultier: "Diémer, Louis (Joseph)", in: ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'' (MGG), biographical part, vol. 5 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2001), cc. 998–1000.

References

External links

*
The French School: Louis Diémer and his Pupils
Retrieved 31 Jul 2013.

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Diemer, Louis 1843 births 1919 deaths 19th-century French composers 19th-century classical composers 19th-century French male classical pianists 20th-century French composers 20th-century classical composers French Romantic composers French male classical composers Male classical pianists Musicians from Paris Conservatoire de Paris faculty Conservatoire de Paris alumni Burials at Montmartre Cemetery Pupils of Antoine François Marmontel