François-Joseph Gossec (; 17 January 1734 – 16 February 1829) was a French composer of

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 ...

string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

s, symphonies, and choral works.

Life and work

The son of a small farmer, Gossec was born at the village of Vergnies, then a French

exclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

in the

Austrian Netherlands The Austrian Netherlands was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The period began with the acquisition by the Austrian Habsburg monarchy of the former Spanish Netherlands under the Treaty of Ras ...

, now an '' ancienne commune'' in the municipality of Froidchapelle,

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 ...

. Showing an early taste for music, he became a choir-boy in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

. He went to Paris in 1751 and was taken on by the composer

Jean-Philippe Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau (; ; – ) was a French composer and music theory, music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of ...

. He followed Rameau as the conductor of a private orchestra kept by the '' fermier général'' Le Riche de La Poupelinière, a wealthy amateur and patron of music. Gradually he became determined to do something to revive the study of instrumental music in France. Gossec's own first symphony was performed in 1754, and as conductor to the Prince de Condé's orchestra he produced several operas and other compositions of his own. He imposed his influence on French music with remarkable success. His ''Requiem'' premiered in 1760, a ninety-minute piece which made him famous overnight. Years later, in 1778,

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

visited Gossec during a trip to Paris, and described him in a letter to his father as "a very good friend and a very dry man." Gossec founded the '' Concert des Amateurs'' in 1769 and in 1773 he reorganised the ''

Concert Spirituel The Concert Spirituel () was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790. Later, concerts or series of concerts with the same name occurred in multiple places including Paris, Vienna ...

'' together with

Simon Le Duc Simon Le Duc, more commonly Leduc (Paris, 15 January 1742 22 January 1777), was a French violinist, soloist at the Concert Spirituel, music publisher and composer. His younger brother, Pierre Le Duc (1755–1818), was also a violinist. Leduc was a ...

and

Pierre Gaviniès Pierre Gaviniès (11 May 1728 – 8 September 1800) was a French violinist, pedagogue and composer. Life Born in Bordeaux as the son of a luthier, Gaviniès was taken to Paris by his father in 1734. At age 13, he made his debut at the Concert Spi ...

. In this concert series he conducted his own symphonies as well as those by his contemporaries, particularly works by

Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( ; ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...

, whose music had become increasingly popular in Paris, finally even superseding Gossec's symphonic work. In the 1780s Gossec's symphonic output decreased as he began concentrating on operas. He organized the ''École de Chant'' in 1784, together with Etienne Méhul, was conductor of the band of the ''Garde Nationale'' of the French Revolution, and was appointed (with Méhul and

Luigi Cherubini Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini ( ; ; 8 or 14 SeptemberWillis, in Sadie (Ed.), p. 833 1760 – 15 March 1842) was an Italian Classical and Romantic composer. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethov ...

) inspector of the ''Conservatoire de Musique'' at its creation in 1795. He was an original member of the ''Institut'' and a '' chevalier'' 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 ...

. In 1803, he met

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

, who admired Gossec very much and asked him if he wanted to work under him, which Gossec declined. In 1815, after the defeat of his friend Napoleon at Waterloo, the Conservatoire was closed for some time by

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...

, and the eighty-one-year-old Gossec had to retire. Until 1817 he worked on his last compositions, including a third ''

Te Deum The ( or , ; from its incipit, ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to a date before AD 500, but perhaps with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin ...

'', and was supported by a pension granted by the Conservatoire. He died in the Parisian suburb of

Passy Passy () is an area of Paris, France, located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th arrondissement, on the Rive Droite, Right Bank. It is adjacent to Auteuil, Paris, Auteuil to the southwest, and Chaillot to the northeast. It is home to many ...

. The funeral service was attended by former colleagues, including Cherubini, at

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...

in Paris. His grave is near those of Méhul and Grétry. Some of his techniques anticipated the innovations of the Romantic era: he scored his ''Te Deum'' for 1,200 singers and 300 wind instruments, and several oratorios require the physical separation of multiple choirs, including invisible ones behind the stage. He wrote several works in honor of the French Revolution, including ''Le Triomphe de la République'', and ''L'Offrande à la Liberté''. Gossec's ''

Gavotte The gavotte (also gavot, gavote, or gavotta) is a French dance, taking its name from a folk dance of the Gavot, the people of the Gap, Hautes-Alpes, Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné in the southeast of France, where the dance originated, accordin ...

'', from his opera ''Rosine, ou L'épouse abandonnée'' (1786), remains familiar in popular culture because Carl Stalling and Charles M. Jones used arrangements of it in several

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

cartoons. Arguably the most notable of these is

Porky Pig Porky Pig is a cartoon character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his celebrity, star power, and the animators created man ...

's dance to an uncredited version of Gossec's Gavotte in Jones’ ''Porky's Cafe'' (1942).Soundtrack, Porky’s Cafe, IMDB, https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0035202/soundtrack Gossec was little known outside France, and his own numerous compositions, sacred and secular, were overshadowed by those of more famous composers; but he was an inspiration to many, and powerfully stimulated the revival of instrumental music.

Works

Symphonies

* Sei sinfonie a più strumenti op. 4 (1759) * Sei sinfonie a più strumenti op. 5 (1761) * Six symphonies op. 6 (1762) * Six symphonies à grand orchestre op. 12 (1769) * Deux symphonies (1773) * Symphonie No. 1 (c. 1771-1774) * Symphonie No. 2 (c. 1771-1774) * Symphonie en fa majeur (1774) * Symphonie de chasse (1776) * Symphonie en ré (1776) * Symphonie en ré (1777) * Symphonie concertante en fa majeur No. 2, à plusieurs instruments (1778) * Symphonie en do majeur for wind orchestra (1794) * Symphonie à 17 parties (1809)

Chamber music

*Sei sonate a due violini e basso, Op. 1 (c. 1753) *Sei quartetti per flauto e violino o sia per due violini, alto e basso, Op. 14 (1769) *Six quatuors à deux violons, alto et basse, Op. 15 (1772)

Vocal and choral works

* (Requiem) (1760) *''La Nativité'', oratorio (1774) * (1779) *''Te Deum à la Fête de la Fédération'' for three voices, men's chorus and wind orchestra (1790) *''Hymne sur la translation du corps de

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

Panthéon The Panthéon (, ), is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, Paris, Latin Quarter (Quartier latin), atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was built between 1758 ...

'' for three voices, men's chorus and wind orchestra (1791) *''Le Chant du 14 juillet'' ( Marie-Joseph Chénier) for three voices, men's chorus and wind orchestra (1791) *Dernière messe des vivants, for four voices, chorus and orchestra (1813)

Operas

*''Le tonnelier'', opéra comique (1765) *''Le faux Lord'', opéra comique (1765) *''Les pêcheurs'', opéra comique en 1 act (1766) *''Toinon et Toinette'', opéra comique (1767) *''Le double déguisement'', opéra comique (1767) *''Les agréments d'Hylas et Sylvie'', pastorale (1768) *'' Sabinus'', tragédie lyrique (1773) *''Berthe'', opera (1775, not extant) *''Alexis et Daphné'', pastorale (1775) *''Philémon et Baucis'', pastorale (1775) *''La fête de village'', intermezzo (1778) *''Thésée'', tragédie lyrique (1782) *''Nitocris'', opera (1783) *''Rosine, ou L'épouse abandonnée'', opera (1786) *''Le triomphe de la République, ou Le camp de Grandpré'', divertissement-lyrique en 1 acte, (Chénier) (1794) – includes a famous ''Tambourin''. *''Les sabots et le cerisier'', opera (1803)

Notes

References

*Thibaut, W., ''François Joseph Gossec, Chantre de la Révolution française'', (1970)

External links

Life and detailed work list

François-Joseph Gossec: "Le Tyrtée de la Révolution" – the official composer of the French Revolution
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gossec, Francois Joseph 1734 births 1829 deaths 19th-century Belgian male musicians Belgian classical composers Belgian male classical composers Belgian opera composers Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Classical-period composers Knights of the Legion of Honour Directors of the Conservatoire de Paris Directors of the Paris Opera French male opera composers French string quartet composers Walloon musicians Composers awarded knighthoods