Jean-Baptiste Bréval
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Jean-Baptiste Sebastien Bréval (6 November 1753 – 18 March 1823) was a French cellist and
composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...
. He wrote mostly for his own instrument, including pedagogical works as well as virtuoso display pieces.


Life

Bréval was born in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, and went on to study with François Cupis (1735-1810) and Martin Berteau. By 1774, he was an active cello teacher. In 1775, he published his opus 1, six concertante quartets. In 1776, he became a member of the «Société Académique des Enfants d'Apollon». Kicking off his career by performing one of his
sonata In music a sonata (; pl. ''sonate'') literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cantare'', "to sing"), a piece ''sung''. The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until th ...
s at a
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 ...
in 1778, he became a member of their orchestra from 1781 to 1791, and from 1791 to 1800 he played in the orchestra of the Théâtre Feydeau. Later he became involved in the administration of the «Concerts de la rue de Cléry» and a member of the Paris Opera orchestra. He retired from the orchestra in 1816. The ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' states that Bréval taught at the Conservatoire although this can not be verified by Conservatoire documents. However, Bréval's compositions were definitely used for instruction at the Conservatoire. Bréval died in Colligis,
Aisne Aisne ( , ; ; ) is a French departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne (river), Aisne. In 2020, it had a population of 529,374. Geography The department borders No ...
.


Compositions

Bréval compositions written between 1775 and 1805 consisted mostly of instrumental pieces. His music reflected the Parisian love for graceful melodies and energetic rhythms. Before 1784 his works were usually two or three movement compositions employing sonata and rondo form, or a one movement work using variations. His later works, such as ''Symphonie concertante for clarinet, horn and bassoon'', Op. 38 (c. 1795), show diversity and experimentation. His concertos, written for his own performance, were influenced by Giovanni Battista Viotti who utilized a precise thematic organization interjected with virtuosic passages. Bréval is most well known for his ''Sonata in C major'' Op. 40, No. 1, which is one of the classics of student cello literature, and often one of the first full sonatas a cello student will learn. The original version is available from several different publishers. Versions have also been published transcribed for other string instruments, including the viola, and for
bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common Soprano clarinet, soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays no ...
. Perhaps his most important and influential work was ''Traité du Violoncelle'' (1804), a cello method. It was probably the first systematic treatise on the cello. Ill-reviewed in the ''Correspondance des amateurs musiciens'', it overlooked technical advances in the design of the cello that allowed for greater virtuosity on the instrument and was overshadowed by Jean-Louis Duport's 1806 ''Essai''.


Orchestral

Symphonies concertantes (only solo instruments listed): *2 as Op. 4 (1777), No. 1, 2 violins, viola obbl, cello in Andante, No. 2, 2 violins, cello obbl; *2 as Op. 11 (1783), No. 1, No. 2, 2 violin, cello; *1 as Op. 30, oboe, horn (c1789), lost; *1 as Op. 31, flute, bassoon (c1790), ?arr. by Devienne of Op. 30; *1 as Op. 33, violin, viola (c1792), lost; *1 as Op. 38, clarinet, horn, bassoon (c1795); *1 for violin, cello, perf. Paris, Concert Spirituel, 1787; *1 for 2 cello, performance Paris Conservatoire, 1800 Cello Concertos: *No. 1, G, Op. 14 (1784); *No. 2, D, Op. 17 (1784); *No. 3, F, Op. 20 (1785); *No. 4, C, Op. 22 (1786); *No. 5, Op. 24 (1786); *No. 6, C, Op. 26 (1786);


Chamber

Quartets: *6 quatuors concertants, 2 violin, viola, bass, Op. 1 (1775); *6 quatuors concertants et dialogués, violin/flute, violin, viola, bass, Op. 5 (1778); *6 quatuors concertants et dialogués, 2 violins, viola, bass, Op. 7 (1781); *6 quatuors concertants et dialogués, 2 violins, viola, bass, Op. 18 (1785); *Quatuors in dis, bassoon, viola, cello, doublebass, CZ-Pnm Trios: *6 trios concertants et dialogués, violin, viola, cello, Op. 3 (1777); *6 for (flute, violin, cello)/(2 violins, bass), Op. 8 (1782); *6 trio ... concertants et dialogués, violin, viola, cello, Op. 27 (c1786), ? 3 as Op. 32 (London, n.d.); *3 for violin, cello obbl, doublebass, Op. 39 (c1795) Duets: *1 violins: 6 as Op. 6 (1780), arr. 2 violins/violin, cello (London, n.d.); *6 as Op. 10 (1783), arr. 2 violins/violin, cello (London, n.d.); *6 for 2 violins/violin, cello, Op. 19 (1785); *6 for 2 violins/violin, cello, Op. 23 (1786), lost, arr. 2 violins/violin, cello (London, n.d.); *6 as Op. 29 (c1783), lost; 6 as Op. 32 (c1791); *6 as Op. 34 (c1794), ?lost, arr. 2 violins/(violin, cello)/2 cello as Op. 35 (London, n.d.); *6 as Op. 37 (c1795), lost; *6 duos concertantes, 2 violins/violin, cello, Op. 41 (c1798), nos.3, 5, 6 as duets (London, n.d.) Other duets: *6 for 2 cellos, Op. 2 (1783); *6 for violin, viola, Op. 15 (1784); *6 for 2 flutes, Op. 16 (1784); *6 ''duos faciles'', violin, cello/bn, Op. 21 (1785), ? also as 6 duos, violin, cello, Op. 1 (Berlin, n.d.); *6 ''duos … pour faciliter l’étude des différentes clefs'', 2 cellos, Op. 25 (1786) Sonatas: *Cello, b: 6 for cello/violin, b, Op. 12 (1783), also as Op. 2 (Berlin and Amsterdam, n.d.), ? also as 6 solos, Op. 10 (London, n.d.); *6 as Op. 28 (1787); *6 as Op. 40 (c1795) ---Other works--- *''Inès et Léonore, ou La sœur jalouse'' (oc, 3, Gautier, after Caldéron), Versailles, 14 Nov 1788 (1789); *ov. arr. pf, J.B. Cramer (1790) ''À ma marraine, air populaire avec paroles nouvelles'', 1v unacc., F-Pn *''Airs variés: Les nocturnes, ou 6 airs variés'', violin, cello, Op. 9 (1782), as ''6 Favorite Airs with Variations'' (London, no date); *''Air de Marlborough'' (cello, doublebass)/(violin, cello) Op. 13 (1783); *''Petits airs variés'', hpd, Op. 36 (c. 1795), lost; *''12 petits airs'', cello (1799), ?arr. of Op. 36 *''Allegro First Movement from Concertino''


Treatises

* Partial English translation (?1810).


References

* http://www.cello.org/heaven/wasiel/18france.html * http://www.grovemusic.com/


External links

* * . Duration: 8 min 01 sec.
Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is a French-born American Cello, cellist. Born to Chinese people, Chinese parents in Paris, he was regarded as a child prodigy there and began to study the cello with his father at age four. At the age of seven, ...
, violoncello, and his sister Yeou-Cheng Ma, piano, perform the First movement of Concertino No. 3 in A major by Jean-Baptiste Bréval (1753-1823) on 29 November 1962. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. {{DEFAULTSORT:Breval, Jean-Baptiste 1753 births 1823 deaths Composers for cello French classical cellists French Classical-period composers 18th-century French composers French male classical composers Musicians from Paris