Pierre-Joseph Zimmerman by Antoine-Jean Gros

Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmerman (17 March 178529 October 1853), known as Pierre Zimmermann and Joseph Zimmermann, was a French pianist, composer, and music teacher.

Biography

Zimmerman was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

on March 19, 1785, as the son of a piano maker. He attended the

Paris Conservatory The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as 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 ...

in 1798, studying piano with

François-Adrien Boieldieu François-Adrien Boieldieu (, also ) (16 December 1775 – 8 October 1834) was a French composer, mainly of operas, often called "the French Mozart". His date of birth was also cited as December 15 by his biographer and writer Lucien Augé de Lass ...

; while a student there, he won first prizes for piano in 1800 ( Friedrich Kalkbrenner came second)Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed., 1951 and harmony in 1802. He would later study under Luigi Cherubini. Zimmerman became a piano assistant at the Conservatory in 1811 and a full professor there in 1816, serving until 1848; he refused a position as a professor of counterpoint and fugue in 1821. Among his students were

Charles Gounod Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...

(who married one of his daughters), Georges Bizet,

César Franck César-Auguste Jean-Guillaume Hubert Franck (; 10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a French Romantic composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher born in modern-day Belgium. He was born in Liège (which at the time of his birth was pa ...

, Charles-Valentin Alkan,

Ambroise Thomas Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas (; 5 August 1811 – 12 February 1896) was a French composer and teacher, best known for his operas '' Mignon'' (1866) and ''Hamlet'' (1868). Born into a musical family, Thomas was a student at the Conservatoire de ...

, Louis Lacombe,

Alexandre Goria Alexandre Édouard Goria (21 January 1823 – 6 July 1860) was a French virtuoso pianist and composer recognised among amateurs enthusiasts for his numerous salon pieces of different styles, which enjoyed great success at their time. The number ...

and Lefébure-Wély. In 1842 he denied Conservatory admission to 13-year old

Louis Moreau Gottschalk Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States. Life and ca ...

without an audition on account of Gottschalk's American nationality, commenting that "America is a country of steam engines". Zimmerman was often assisted in his teaching by Gounod. Zimmerman wrote two operas, ''L'enlèvement'' ( Opéra-Comique, 1830) and ''Nausicaa'' (never staged). He also composed two piano concertos, one

piano sonata A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement ( Scarlatti, Liszt, Scriabin, Medtner, Berg), others with ...

, and numerous other works for piano. His most important legacy is considered his ''Encyclopédie du pianiste'', a complete method of piano playing, including a treatise on harmony and counterpoint. He died in Paris on October 29, 1853, at the age of 68, and is now buried in the Auteuil Cemetery in the

16th arrondissement The 16th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''seizième''. The arrondissement includes part of the Arc de Tr ...

. His daughter Juliette married

Édouard Dubufe Édouard Louis Dubufe (31 March 1819 – 11 August 1883) was a French portrait painter. Biography Dubufe was born in Paris. His father was the painter Claude Marie Paul Dubufe, who gave him his first art lessons. Later he studied with ...

References

Sources

Grave in cimetière d'Auteuil. *

Don Randel Don Michael Randel (born December 9, 1940) is an American musicologist, specializing in the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Spain and France. He is currently the Chair of the Board of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a trustee ...

, ''The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music''. Harvard, 1996, p. 1010-1011.

External links

Alkan-Zimmerman International Music AssociationCimetières de France et ailleurs: ''Cimetière d’Auteuil''
brief biography of Zimmerman and photo of his grave {{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmerman, Pierre 1785 births 1853 deaths French male classical composers French Romantic composers 19th-century French male classical pianists French music educators Piano pedagogues French opera composers Male opera composers Conservatoire de Paris faculty Conservatoire de Paris alumni 19th-century classical composers 19th-century French composers