Octave Pradels (15 February 1842 – 30 April 1930) was a French poet, novelist, vaudevilliste and

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income ...

Biography

Octave Frederick Pradels published his first monologues, tales in verse and songs in 1883. Among his greatest successes were ''Ça commençait si gentiment'', ''La Chula'', ''Dans l'oasis'', ' (written in collaboration with ). His songs were created in particular by Kam-Hill,

Anna Judic Anne Marie-Louise Damiens, stage name Anna Judic (18 July 1849, Semur-en-Auxois – 15 April 1911, Golfe-Juan) was a French comic actress. Life Niece of Montigny (the director of the Gymnase), in 1866 she entered the Conservatoire de Paris in ...

, Amiati (at the

Eldorado El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king o ...

) and Thérésa. A director of the

Théâtre des Capucines The Théâtre des Capucines was a former theatre on the boulevard des Capucines in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. Built in 1889 by architect Édouard-Jean Niermans, it was taken over by two brothers, Émile Isola and Vincent Isola, in 1892 ...

, Octave Pradels was also president of the SACEM from 1895 to 1898. After a first marriage in 1865 in

Villefranche-sur-Mer Villefranche-sur-Mer (, ; oc, Vilafranca de Mar ; it, Villafranca Marittima ) is a resort town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera and is located south-west of the Principality of ...

, with Angélique Thérèse De Villa-Rey, daughter of a commander of the Monaco Marine, who gave him a first son, Édouard Joseph, Pradels supposedly married the divette Maria Theresa Mirbeau in 1873. They had a son, unrecognized by the mother, Edmond André, born 26 July 1878 in the

17th arrondissement of Paris The 17th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ''le dix-septième'' (; "the seventeenth"). The arrondissement, known as Batignoll ...

, who collaborated with his father as lyricist and composer under the pseudonym Edmond Aramis. He died for France in

Fort Vaux Fort Vaux (french: Fort de Vaux), in Vaux-Devant-Damloup, Meuse, France, was a polygonal fort forming part of the ring of 19 large defensive works intended to protect the city of Verdun. Built from 1881 to 1884 for 1,500,000 francs, it housed ...

at Vaux-devant-Damloup (

Meuse The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...

), 9 April 1916. In 1917 Octave Pradels remarried with Marie Louise Fransurot. Octave Pradels took great pride of having given his two sons to France. Imbued with the

chauvinist Chauvinism is the unreasonable belief in the superiority or dominance of one's own group or people, who are seen as strong and virtuous, while others are considered weak, unworthy, or inferior. It can be described as a form of extreme patriotis ...

and

revanchist Revanchism (french: revanchisme, from ''revanche'', " revenge") is the political manifestation of the will to reverse territorial losses incurred by a country, often following a war or social movement. As a term, revanchism originated in 1870s F ...

mentality that arose after the capitulation in 1871, he contributed throughout his career to the dissemination of this feeling. Evidence is given by this excerpt from the words of this ''Marche Lorraine'' written in 1892: Tes fils n'ont pas dégénéré, Sol sacré ! Adoré ! Dans leurs veines encore ruisselle Du sang de la Pucelle !

Paulus's ''memories''

In 1906, he started helping the singer Paulus to write his memories which would be published from 1907. Paulus's memoirs were not published as a volume, but via the equivalent of booklets or black and white magazines sold each week. Rich in a sumptuous iconography, these notebooks contain reproductions of the cited figures, scores, but also small contextual ads.Alain Weill, François Caradec ''Le Café-Concert '', Hachette et Massin, 1980.

Theatre

* 1887: ''L'Agent de la sûreté de Marseille'', Marpon et Flammarion
Read online
* 1905: ''Agence matrimoniale'', coll. Auteurs célèbres, Flammarion *1886: ''Chansons, monologues, chansons à dire, fantaisies'', préface d' Armand Silvestre, éd. Paul Ollendorff, Paris,
Read online
*1887: ''Rupture de banc'', Librairie théâtrale, Paris,
Read online
*1888: ''Les Amours de Bidoche'', Marpon et Flammarion, Paris,
Read online
*1889: ''Pour dire entre hommes'', Marpon et Flammarion, Paris,
Read online
*1890: ''Robert Daniel'', Flammarion, Paris,
Read online
*1891: ''Les Desserts gaulois'', Marpon et Flammarion, Paris *1907: ''L'Héritier des Monlardon'', Publications littéraires illustrées, Paris,
Read online
*1910: ''Fleurs de Gaule, poésies gaillardes...'', Louis-Michaud, Paris,
Read online
*1913: ''Le Vin et la Chanson'', Flammarion, Paris,
Read online

References

Bibliography

Octave Praedels on Wikisource
* André Chadourne, ''Les Cafés-concerts'', E. Dentu, Paris, 1890
Read online
* Chantal Brunschwig, Louis-Jean Calvet, Jean-Claude Klein, ''Cent ans de chanson française'', coll. Points actuels,

Éditions du Seuil Éditions du Seuil (), also known as ''Le Seuil'', is a French publishing house established in 1935 by Catholic intellectual Jean Plaquevent (1901–1965), and currently owned by La Martinière Groupe. It owes its name to this goal "The ''seuil'' ...

, Paris, 1981 (1re éd. reliée) * Serge Dillaz, ''La Chanson sous la IIIe République (1870-1940)'', Tallandier, 1991 {{DEFAULTSORT:Pradels, Octave 19th-century French novelists 20th-century French novelists French lyricists 19th-century French poets 20th-century French poets French theatre managers and producers Members of the Ligue de la patrie française 1842 births People from Pas-de-Calais 1930 deaths