Joseph-Henri Altès (18 January 1826 – 24 July 1899) was a 19th-century French

flautist The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

, composer and pedagogue.

Biography

Born in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

, Joseph-Henri Altès was the son of a soldier. Violinist and conductor

Ernest Eugène Altès Ernest Eugène Altès (March 28, 1830 – July 8, 1899) was a French violinist and conductor. Life He was born in Paris, the younger brother of the flute-player Joseph-Henri Altès. Sons of a soldier and brought up in the regiment, the boys wer ...

was his younger brother. He began studying the flute at the age of ten and enrolled in 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 ...

in December 1840, where he studied in 1840-1842. Degas_l'orchestre

Like his teacher,

Jean-Louis Tulou Jean-Louis Tulou (born 12 September 1786 in Paris – died 23 July 1865 in Nantes) was a French flute teacher and player, composer, and instrument maker. Family and life His father, Louis-Prosper Tulou (1749–1799), was a bassoonist in the ...

, he played a flute with four valves and only later changed to a Theobald Boehm model. As early as 1841, in the competition of the Conservatory, he received a second prize and the following year a First Prize. From 1848 to 1872, he was first flautist at the

Orchestre de l'Opéra national de Paris The Orchestre de l'Opéra national de Paris is a French Symphonic Orchestra dating from 1672. Since the opening of the Opéra Bastille in 1989, the orchestra has also been called the ''Orchestre de l'Opéra Bastille''. History In 1672, the Paris ...

and in 1868 he was the successor of

Louis Dorus Louis Dorus (born Vincent Joseph van Steenkiste; 1 March 1812 – 9 June 1896) was a 19th-century French classical flautist. Vincent-Joseph van Steenkiste, his real name, was instrumental in the adoption of the modern concert flute. He is the yo ...

as a flute teacher at the Conservatoire, where he remained until 1893. Among his pupils were

Georges Barrère Georges Barrère (Bordeaux, October 31, 1876 - New York, June 14, 1944) was a French flutist.Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001) Early life Georges Barrère was the son of a cabinetmaker, Gabriel Barrère, and Marie Périne Courtet, ...

and

Adolphe Hennebains Adolphe Hennebains (14 November 1862 – 17 September 1914) was a French classical flautist and music teacher. Biography Hennebains comes from a large shoemaker family. In 1878, he entered the class of Joseph-Henri Altès at the Conservatoire ...

. Altès is the author of a method of flute, ''Célèbre méthode complète de flûte'' (1880) and left about 40 compositions, including six solos for the entrance competition at the Paris Conservatory and transcriptions or fantasies on opera themes. Altès was a friend of the painter

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

, who depicted him in 1870 on the painting entitled ' housed at the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...

, ''L'Orchestre de l'Opéra'',

musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...

br>(Read online)
/ref> He died in Paris. He was buried on the

cimetière de Montmartre The Cemetery of Montmartre (french: link=no, Cimetière de Montmartre) is a cemetery in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, France, that dates to the early 19th century. Officially known as the Cimetière du Nord, it is the third largest necropolis ...

(33rd division) with his wife, the opera singer Émilie-Francisque Ribault.

References

Bibliography

* U. Pešek et Ž. Pešek, ''Flötenmusik aus drei Jahrhunderten'' (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1990) * A. Goldberg, ''Porträts und Biographien hervorragender Flöten-Virtuosen -Dilettanten und -Komponisten'' (Celle: Moeck, 1987 (reprint of 1906 original) * Julia Soriano Rodríguez (ed.), ''Lexikon der Flöte'' (

Laaber Laaber is a municipality in the district of Regensburg in Bavaria in Germany. It lies on the River Schwarze Laber (note the spelling difference). The now-ruined medieval castle on the hill above the town centre was once the seat of the Lords of ...

: Laaber-Verlag, 2009),

External links

*
Biography of Joseph Henri Altes (1826-1899)

Altès, Portrait by Degas, 1868 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Portrait
on Gallica {{DEFAULTSORT:Altès, Joseph-Henri 1826 births 1895 deaths 19th-century classical composers Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris Burials at Montmartre Cemetery Conservatoire de Paris alumni French classical flautists French Romantic composers Musicians from Rouen 20th-century flautists