Émile-Jean-Joseph Vuillermoz (23 May 1878 – 2 March 1960) was a French critic in the areas of music, film, drama and literature. He was also a composer, but abandoned this for criticism.

Early life

Émile Vuillermoz was born in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

in 1878. He studied literature and law at University of Lyon, then became a music student at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or 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 Jean Ja ...

, his teachers being

Jules Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are ''Manon'' (1884 ...

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. ...

, Antoine Taudou and Daniel Fleuret. Among his fellow students was

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

, who became his lifelong friend.Maurice-ravel.net fro
the original
/ref> He was a member of Les Apaches, along with Ravel,

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was a Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20t ...

and others.

Career

He had early success as a writer of songs and operettas, and with settings of French and Canadian folk songs, but chose to follow the career of a critic instead. He wrote initially for the ''Mercure musical'', and then he edited the '' Revue musicale SIM'' ( Société internationale de musique). With Ravel,

Paul Dukas Paul Abraham Dukas ( 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best-k ...

, Florent Schmitt,

Charles Koechlin Charles-Louis-Eugène Koechlin (; 27 November 186731 December 1950), commonly known as Charles Koechlin, was a French composer, teacher and musicologist. Among his better known works is '' Les Heures persanes'', a set of piano pieces based on th ...

and others, he co-founded the Société musicale indépendante (SMI). Its first concert, on 20 April 1910, contained three world premieres:

's song cycle " La chanson d'Ève" (its first complete performance; excerpts had been presented earlier);

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

's "D'un cahier d'esquisses", performed by

; and Ravel's own ''

Ma mère l'oye ''Ma mère l'Oye'' (English: ''Mother Goose'', literally "''My Mother the Goose''") is a suite by French composer Maurice Ravel. The piece was originally written as a five-movement piano duet in 1910. In 1911, Ravel orchestrated the work. Pian ...

'' in its original version for piano 4-hands, played by Jeanne Leleu and Geneviève Durony.Roger Nichols, ''Ravel''
/ref> His interests extended beyond music to drama and literature, and he wrote for ''Le Temps'', ''L'Excelsior'', ''L'Illustration'', ''L'Éclair'' and ''Candide''. He also contributed to the '' Encyclopédie française'', and to foreign journals.Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed (1954), Vol. IX, p. 80 In 1916 he described Debussy as "a pupil of

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

", a description the composer was happy to accept. Also from around 1916 Émile Vuillermoz was at the forefront of serious film criticism in France, often using the pseudonyms Gabriel Darcy and Claude Bonvin. In 1924 he helped organise the first important exhibition on film at the Musée Galliera, "L'Exposition de l'art dans le cinéma français". In 1921, Federico Mompou's ''Scènes d'enfants'' (1915–18), performed by Ferdinand Motte-Lacroix, inspired Vuillermoz to proclaim Mompou "the only disciple and successor to Claude Debussy". He wrote "in the Middle Ages the people would have condemned to the stake an artist gifted with such powers". Ravel's 50th birthday in March 1925 was celebrated by an edition of the ''Revue musicale'' devoted to him, with contributions from many people including Vuillermoz. In 1933 he published his work ''Clotilde et Alexandre Sakharoff '' about the expressionist dancers Alexander Sakharoff and Clotilde von Derp, who were at that time based in Paris.Clotilde et Alexandre Sakharoff
Émile Vuillermoz, retrieved 19 February 2014 In 1935, Émile Vuillermoz and Jacques Thibaud started a new project, called Cinéphonies, to create a series of short films of musicians performing classical music. They employed directors such as

Max Ophüls Maximillian Oppenheimer ( , ; 6 May 1902 – 26 March 1957), known as Max Ophüls ( , , ) or simply Ophuls, was a German and French film director and screenwriter. He was known for his opulent and lyrical visual style, with heavy use of trac ...

and Dimitri Kirsanoff, and artists such as Elisabeth Schumann, Alfred Cortot, Alexander Brailowsky and Ninon Vallin. The composers represented were Albéniz, Chopin, Debussy, Fauré, Mompou,

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...

and Szymanowski. In 1936 he was a member of the jury of the 4th Venice International Film Festival. Following on from this, he played a significant role in the creation of the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

. He and fellow film historian René Jeanne suggested the idea to Jean Zay, the Minister of Public Instruction at the time, who liked the idea and supported its establishment. After Ravel's death in 1937, Vuillermoz wrote a substantial review of the composer's oeuvre, ''Maurice Ravel par quelques-uns de ses familiers'', for the memorial volume published by some of his friends in 1939. Also in 1937 he was the uncredited musical director for the classic film ''

La Grande Illusion ''La Grande Illusion'' (French for "The Grand Illusion") is a 1937 French war drama film directed by Jean Renoir, who co-wrote the screenplay with Charles Spaak. The story concerns class relationships among a small group of French officers who ...

''. He founded the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors in 1951, as an adjunct to the Besançon International Music Festival, founded in 1948.D. Kern Holoman, ''The Société Des Concerts Du Conservatoire, 1828–1967''
/ref> Vuillermoz's publications included: *''Musique d'aujourd'hui'' (1923) *''La Vie amoureuse de Chopin'' (1927) *''Cinquante ans de musique française'' *''Visages de musiciens'' *''Clothilde et Alexandre Sakharoff'' *books on Ravel, Chopin, Fauré and Debussy. Émile Vuillermoz was appointed an Officer of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

. He died in Paris in 1960, aged 81.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vuillermoz, Emile 1878 births 1960 deaths Writers from Lyon French music critics French film critics French literary critics French theatre critics 20th-century French journalists 20th-century French musicologists 20th-century French composers French male composers Officers of the Legion of Honour French male non-fiction writers Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 20th-century French male musicians Fauré scholars