Edmond Dédé (November 20, 1827 – January 5, 1901) was an American musician and composer. A free-born Creole, he moved to Europe in 1855. He worked in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

for more than forty years, first as assistant conductor at the Grand Théâtre and then as a conductor of orchestras at other local theaters. His compositions include works for orchestra and for various voices with orchestra or piano, as well as an opera ''Morgiane'', for which the score was unknown until 2007. ''Morgiane'' is the earliest known

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

by an

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

composer. It received its first complete concert performances in February 2025.

Biography

Early years

Dédé was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 20, 1827, his mother was the fourth generation of a free family of that city. His father was a marketman, poultry dealer, and music teacher who had migrated from French Caribbean colonies to New Orleans in 1809 after the Haitian Revolution where his father was a militia unit bandmaster. As a boy, Dédé first learned the

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

, but soon switched to the

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

, on which he was considered a

prodigy Prodigy, Prodigies or The Prodigy may refer to: * Child prodigy, a child who produces meaningful output to the level of an adult expert performer ** Chess prodigy, a child who can beat experienced adult players at chess Arts, entertainment, and m ...

. He later performed compositions of his own as well as those by

Rodolphe Kreutzer Rodolphe Kreutzer (15 November 1766 – 6 January 1831) was a French violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer of forty French operas, including '' La mort d'Abel'' (1810). He is probably best known as the dedicatee of Beethoven's Violin Son ...

, a favorite composer of his. Dédé's teachers in his youth included violinists Constantin Debergue and Italian-born Ludovico Gabici, who was the director of the St. Charles Theater Orchestra. He was taught music theory by Eugène Prévost and New York-born black musician Charles-Richard Lambert, the father of Sidney and Charles Lucien Lambert. Dédé's instruction from Gabici ended in 1848 when Dédé moved to Mexico in search of work. He returned to the US at the end of 1852 and worked as a cigar maker. In 1855, his savings financed a trip to Europe, where he visited Paris and then

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, where he helped his friend Joseph Tinchant set up a branch of the Tinchant family's cigar business. He returned to Paris around 1857 and took lessons at the

Paris Conservatoire 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 ...

, studying at the Conservatoire with

Jean-Delphin Alard Jean-Delphin Alard (8 March 181522 February 1888) was a French violinist, composer, and teacher. He was the son-in-law of Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, and had Pablo de Sarasate amongst his students. Biography Alard was born in Bayonne, the son of an ...

and

Fromental Halévy Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy, usually known as Fromental Halévy (; 27 May 179917 March 1862), was a French composer. He is known today largely for his opera ''La Juive''. Early career Halévy was born in Paris, son of the cantor ...

Career

Dédé held the conductor's title at the theater in

Bourges Bourges ( ; ; ''Borges'' in Berrichon) is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre (Cher), Yèvre. It is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Cher (department), Cher, and also was the capital city of the former provin ...

for several years, and then moved to Bordeaux in 1864 to take up a position as assistant conductor for the ballet at the Grand Théâtre. Within a few years, he found employment at the Théâtre l'Alcazar, a popular concert café in the city. Later in the 1870s, he moved to the Folies Bordelaises. Throughout, Dédé continued to compose art music as well as pieces in a more popular idiom suited to the city's other music venues. Samuel Snäer Jr. (1835–1900), an African-American conductor and musician, conducted the first performance of Dédé's ''Quasimodo Symphony'' on May 10, 1865, in the New Orleans Theater to a large audience of prominent

free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (; ) were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not enslaved. However, the term also applied to people born free who we ...

of New Orleans and Northern whites. In announcing the concert, the ''New Orleans Tribune'' described Dédé as "our well-known fellow citizen" and reported that the work had been "enthusiastically received" in France. Dédé returned to New Orleans only once, in 1893. When he reached New Orleans, he participated in three benefit concerts held in his honor. New Orleans' musical innovators and musical elite, including

Jelly Roll Morton Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe ( Lemott, later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American blues and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer of Louisiana Creole descent. Morton was jazz ...

's teacher, William J. Nickerson, took part in these concerts. In the course of his visit, he was made an honorary member of the Société des Jeunes-Amis, a Black fraternal organization. Dédé moved to Paris in 1889. He died there on January 5, 1901, in the 14th arrondissement. He was buried in a communal grave outside of Paris; there is no marker.

Personal life

In 1864 Dédé married a Frenchwoman, Sylvie Leflet. Their marriage was announced in newspapers with Black readership in New Orleans and New York. They had one son, , who became a music hall conductor and composer of popular songs. Dédé was

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Select compositions

* ''Mon pauvre coeur'' (1852), for voice & piano * ''Quasimodo Symphony'' (1865) * ''Le Palmier ouverture'' (1865) * ''Le Serment de l'Arabe'' (1865) (written during a stint in Algeria), for voice & piano * ''Méphisto masqué'' (186?) (for

ophicleide The ophicleide ( ) is a family of conical-bore keyed brass instruments invented in early 19th-century France to extend the keyed bugle into the lower range. Of these, the bass ophicleide in eight-foot (8′) C or 9′ B took root over the cour ...

and orchestra, including ' (possibly a form of kazoo), or for piano solo) * ''Morgiane, ou, Le sultan d'Ispahan'' (1887) (opera in four acts)

Legacy and commemoration

Many of his compositions have been preserved at the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

in Paris. On November 20, 2021, Google featured Dédé on its U.S. home page as a

Google Doodle Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running annual Bu ...

to honor his 194th birthday. In 2011 the manuscript of Dédé's ''Morgiane, ou Le Sultan d'Ispahan'' was found in a collection of other operatic manuscripts acquired by

Houghton Library Houghton Library, on the south side of Harvard Yard adjacent to Widener Library, Lamont Library, and Loeb House, is Harvard University's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. It is part of the Harvard College Library, the library s ...

at Harvard University.Jacobson, Eli. Report from New York. '' Opera/Opera News'', April 2025, Vol.76 No.4, p.530-532. It had its preview premiere as a costumed concert on January 24, 2025, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, 138 years after it was composed, with Nicole Cabell as Amine, Kenneth Kellogg as the Sultan, Mary Elizabeth Williams as Morgiane and conducted by Patrick Dupré Quigley. A world premiere tour began on February 3 at Lincoln Theatre in Washington. The majority Black productions were a collaboration between

Opera Lafayette Opera Lafayette is a baroque opera company based in Washington, D.C., that produces French operas from the 17th and 18th centuries. It was founded in 1995 by Ryan Brown and is the only opera company to produce its full season in both Washington ...

and OperaCréole, an opera company founded in 2011 to perform works by New Orleans' 19th-century Creoles.

Notes

References

;Sources * *

External links

*
Brief biography of Dédé
at frencreoles.com * Video report anticipating opera premiere
"Manuscript score for ''Morgiane, ou, Le sultan d'Ispahan'' (1887)"

, Harvard University {{DEFAULTSORT:Dede, Edmond 1827 births 1901 deaths 19th-century Roman Catholics 20th-century Roman Catholics African-American conductors (music) African-American male composers Catholics from Louisiana Musicians from New Orleans Conservatoire de Paris alumni African-American Catholics American Roman Catholics 19th-century American male musicians American expatriates in France 19th-century African-American musicians Louisiana Creole people Free people of color