Nicolas Roze (17 January 1745 – 30 September 1819) was a French

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 ...

and music theorist.

Biography

Born in

Mercurey Mercurey () is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of eastern France. The village dates from pre-historic times and is the most widely recognized and important wine village of the Côte Chalonnaise ...

, Roze was a choirboy at the , Nicolas Roze was noted for his beautiful voice and received a good musical training. He was not twelve years old when he composed a

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

with orchestra. He was invited to enter the King's music as a page, but his parents preferred to have him finish his studies at the

Beaune Beaune () is the wine capital of Burgundy in the Côte d'Or department in eastern France. It is located between Lyon and Dijon. Beaune is one of the key wine centers in France, and the center of Burgundy wine production and business. The annua ...

college and then at the

Autun Autun () is a subprefecture of the Saône-et-Loire department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of central-eastern France. It was founded during the Principate era of the early Roman Empire by Emperor Augustus as Augustodunum to give a Ro ...

seminary. A master of music in Beaune from 1767 to 1769, he had a mass of his composition performed there, and went 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 ...

to present it to

Antoine Dauvergne Antoine Dauvergne (3 October 1713 – 11 February 1797) was a French composer and violinist. Dauvergne was born in Moulins, Allier. He served as master of the ''Chambre du roi'', director of the Concert Spirituel from 1762 to 1771, and direc ...

, superintendent of the music of the king. In 1769, the latter commissioned him the motet ''Dixit insipiens'', given to the

Concert Spirituel The Concert Spirituel ( en, Spiritual Concert) was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790. Later, concerts or series of concerts of the same name occurred in Paris, Vienna, Londo ...

. His first published work was a Quartet for flute and strings in C minor (1769). After spending a few years at the Cathédrale Saint-Maurice d'Angers, he settled in Paris, where in 1775 he became a chapel master in the . In 1779, after a dispute with the ecclesiastical authorities, he devoted himself to the teaching of music and wrote his system of harmony, which was published by

Jean-Benjamin de La Borde Jean-Benjamin François de la Borde (5 September 1734 – 22 July 1794) was a French composer, writer on music and '' fermier général'' (farm tax collector). Born into an aristocratic family, he studied violin under Antoine Dauvergne and composi ...

. His

''Vivat in æternum'' was performed during the coronation of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

(2 December 1804) under the direction of his former student

Jean-François Lesueur Jean-François is a French given name. Notable people bearing the given name include: * Jean-François Carenco (born 1952), French politician * Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832), French Egyptologist * Jean-François Clervoy (born 1958), Fr ...

. From 1807 to his death he was a librarian 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 ...

. Along

François-Joseph Gossec François-Joseph Gossec (17 January 1734 – 16 February 1829) was a French composer of operas, string quartets, symphonies, and choral works. Life and work The son of a small farmer, Gossec was born at the village of Vergnies, then a French exc ...

and

Étienne Ozi Étienne Ozi (9 December 1754 – 5 October 1813) was a French bassoonist and composer. He is known for his concertos, symphonies concertantes, and pedagogical pieces. His works were influential in the development of the bassoon and remain a stapl ...

, abbott Roze was the author of the first published method of

serpent Serpent or The Serpent may refer to: * Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes Mythology and religion * Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature * Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts * Serp ...

(1814). This instrument, which had been in use for about two centuries, was soon to begin to decline. But one reason for this was that his use in military music had grown strongly during the Revolution and the Empire, and whose teaching at that time was often diffused by private teachers for lack of schools. A freemason, he was reported as a member of the lodges ''Les Cœurs Simples de l'Étoile Polaire'' (1778–1779), ' (1783) and ''L'Olympique de la Parfaite Estime'' (1786), then ''

Les Neuf Sœurs La Loge des Neuf Sœurs (; The Nine Sisters), established in Paris in 1776, was a prominent French Masonic Lodge of the Grand Orient de France that was influential in organising French support for the American Revolution. A "Société des Neuf Sœ ...

'' (1806).Notice
dans le ''Musée virtuel de la musique maçonnique'' He died in

Saint-Mandé Saint-Mandé () is a high-end commune of the Val-de-Marne department in Île-de-France in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is one of the smallest communes of the Île-de-France by land area, but i ...

aged 74.

Bibliography

* Sylvie Jeannerot, ''L'Abbé Nicolas Roze (1745-1819), maître de chapelle et bibliothècaire'', thesis, Université Strasbourg 2, 1998 *

François-Joseph Fétis François-Joseph Fétis (; 25 March 1784 – 26 March 1871) was a Belgian musicologist, composer, teacher, and one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century. His enormous compilation of biographical data in the ''Biographie univer ...

, ''Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique'', volume 7, Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1867, p. 502.

References

External links

Nicolas Rozé
on Musicalics.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Roze, Nicolas People from Saône-et-Loire 1745 births 1819 deaths 18th-century French composers 18th-century French male musicians 19th-century French composers 19th-century French male musicians French Freemasons French librarians French male composers French music educators Sacred music composers