Antoine Simon, commonly known as Anton Simon () (5 August 1850 – ), was a French composer, director and pianist, who made most of his career in Russia.

Biography

Born in Paris, Antoine Simon studied at

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 ...

in the piano class of Antoine François Marmontel and the composition class of Jules Duprato. Aged 21, Antoine Simon left for Moscow where he settled permanently. He was hired as a composer (''Kapellmeister'') for the Théâtre des Bouffes in Moscow and taught the piano for musical classes of the Philharmonic Society of Moscow. In 1897, he was appointed inspector of orchestras of the imperial theaters.

Work

Antoine Simon was one of the few composers in Russia at the time to create works for wind instruments such as the quartet-like sonata Op. 23 for two

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. There is also a soprano cor ...

horn Horn may refer to: Common uses * Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide ** Horn antenna ** Horn loudspeaker ** Vehicle horn ** Train horn *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals * Horn (instrument), a family ...

and

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

, or his twenty-two small pieces for ensemble, Op. 26, composed in 1887. Simon also composed three operas and a number of piano pieces. His Piano Concerto in

A major A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The A major scale is: Changes needed for the ...

, Op. 19 met with some success, as did his Clarinet Concerto, Op. 31 and his ''Fantaisie concertante'' for cello and orchestra, Op. 42. He also composed a Piano Trio in

D minor D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major. The D natural minor scale is: Changes needed ...

, Op. 16, a String Quartet in A major, Op. 24, etc. Simon also composed orchestrations for the

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

'' by

Ludwig Minkus Ludwig Minkus (), also known as Léon Fyodorovich Minkus (23 March 1826, Vienna – 7 December 1917, Vienna), was an Austrian composer of ballet music, a violinist and teacher of music. Minkus is noted for the music he composed during his caree ...

, in particular for the ''Danse de Mercedes'' and several

variations Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individual ...

, such as that of the

dryad A dryad (; , sing. ) is an oak tree nymph or oak tree spirit in Greek mythology; ''Drys'' (δρῦς) means "tree", and more specifically " oak" in Greek. Today the term is often used to refer to tree nymphs in general. Types Daphnaie Thes ...

s in the dream tableau. Antoine Simon composed his own compositions for ballet as well, like ''La Fille de Gudule'', whose

choreography Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

was by Alexander Alexeyevich Gorsky, ''Les Étoiles'' (1898) by Khlioustine, ''Les Fleurs vivantes'' (1899), performed at

Bolshoi Theatre The Bolshoi Theatre ( rus, Большо́й теа́тр, r=Bol'shoy teatr, p=bɐlʲˈʂoj tʲɪˈat(ə)r, t=Grand Theater) is a historic opera house in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové. Before the October Revolutio ...

. Simon died in Moscow. His archives are kept in in Moscow.

Collaboration with Gorski

Antoine Simon collaborated with the talented Alexander Alexeyevich Gorsky from the arrival of the latter in Moscow. They began working on Gorsky's version of ''Don Quixote'' by Minkus. Antoine Simon worked some variations, and especially composed various dances. The première took place 6 December 1900 at Bolshoi

Theatrical scenery Theatrical scenery is that which is used as a setting for a theatrical production. Scenery may be just about anything, from a single chair to an elaborately re-created street, no matter how large or how small, whether the item was custom-made or ...

Konstantin Korovin Konstantin (Constantin) Alekseyevich Korovin (; 11 September 1939) was a leading Russian Impressionist painter. Biography Youth and education Konstantin was born into a wealthy merchant family of Old Believers

, costumes by Aleksandr Golovin and musical direction by Heinrich Arends under the name ''L'Espagnol'' (the Spaniard). By the end of 1901, they started working on ''La Fille de Gudule'', ballet inspired by Victor Hugo's ''

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame ''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (, originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. The title refers to the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which features prominently throughout the novel. I ...

''. This theme was not new in the field of dance, since it was also that of '' La Esmeralda'' by Jules Perrot. However, Simon's ballet differed from the latter because the focus was on mass scenes: real crowds moved in front of the audience, in a show of four acts and nine tableaux. Gorski has carefully prepared for this work; he also went to Paris in order to assimilate the locations of the plot of this ballet which premiered 24 November 1902 at Bolshoi, on a music by Simon, theatrical scenery by

and costumes by Aleksander Golovin. Heinrich Arends ("Arends Andrei Fedorovich" in Russian) directed the orchestra. The performers were: * Esmeralda: E. Grimaldi (then S.F. Fiodorova) * Claude Frollo: Vassili Helzer * Captain Phoebus: N. Mordkine *

Quasimodo Quasimodo (from Quasimodo Sunday) is the titular protagonist of the French novel '' The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (1831) by Victor Hugo. Born with numerous deformities, most notably a hunched back, Quasimodo serves as the bell-ringer for Notre ...

: N.P. Domachov * Gringoire: K.A. Beck * Gudule: M.A. Drougachtcheva

References

External links

*
Musical archives of the Glinka Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Antoine 1850 births 1916 deaths 19th-century French classical composers Conservatoire de Paris alumni French ballet composers French Romantic composers 19th-century French male classical pianists 19th-century French classical pianists French emigrants to the Russian Empire French opera composers French male opera composers Composers from Paris