Victor Serventi (23 June 1907 – 16 March 2000) was a French composer.

Life

Born in Algiers, Serventi studied 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 ...

from 1921; piano with Joseph Morpain then Lazare-Lévy,

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

with

Jean Gallon Jean Charles Claude Gallon (25 June 1878 - 23 June 1959) was a French composer, choir conductor, and music educator. His compositional output consists of six antiphons for strings and organ, one mass, one ballet, and several art songs. Biography ...

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

and

fugue In music, a fugue () is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the c ...

with

Noël Gallon Noël Jean-Charles André Gallon (11 September 1891 – 26 December 1966) was a French composer and music educator. His compositional output includes several choral works and vocal art songs, 10 preludes, a ''Toccata'' for piano, a ''Sonata ...

and

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

with

Henri Busser Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry. People with this given name ; French noblemen :'' See the 'List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.'' * Henri I de Montm ...

. From 1934, he competed several times to the

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

where he won the first Grand Prix in 1937 with his

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

''La Belle et la Bête''. From 1943 to 1977, he was professor at the Conservatoire de Paris. His compositions include ''Variations sur une complainte corse'' for piano in 1938, a piano suite in 1942 and variations for clarinet and piano. His most famous work, regularly given in concert and recorded several times, is the ''Largo et scherzando''''Largo et scherzando''
/ref> for double bass and piano which he composed in 1944. Serventi was married to singer

Suzanne Juyol Suzanne Juyol (1 January 1920 in Paris – 20 July 1994 in Paris) was a French opera singer, the leading dramatic soprano of her era in France. Suzanne Juyol studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and made her professional debut at the Palais Garni ...

(1920-1994). He died at

Margency Margency () is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department and Île-de-France region of France. The composer Victor Serventi died in Margency on 16 March 2000. See also *Communes of the Val-d'Oise department The following is a list of the 184 co ...

(

Val-d'Oise Val-d'Oise (, "Vale of the Oise") is a department in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It was created in 1968 following the split of the Seine-et-Oise department. In 2019, Val-d'Oise had a population of 1,249,674.

) at the age of 92.

References

External links

Victor Serventi Largo-Scherzando
(YouTube) {{DEFAULTSORT:Serventi, Victor French classical composers French male classical composers 20th-century French composers French male composers Prix de Rome for composition Conservatoire de Paris alumni Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris Musicians from Algiers 1907 births 2000 deaths 20th-century French male musicians Emigrants from French Algeria to France