Pierre Dupont (23 April 1821 – 25 July 1870) was a French songwriter. Dupont was born in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

as the son of a blacksmith. His mother died before he was five years old, and he was brought up in the country by his godfather, a village priest. He was educated at the seminary of L'Argentière, and was afterwards apprenticed to a notary at Lyon. In 1839 he found his way to

Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and some of his poems were inserted, in the ''Gazette de France'' and the ''Quotidienne''. Two years later he was saved from the conscription and enabled to publish his first volume – ''Les Deux Anges'' – through the exertions of a kinsman and of Pierre Lebrun. In 1842 he received a prize from the Academy, and worked for some time on the official dictionary.

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 ...

's appreciation of his peasant song, ''Les Bœufs'' (1846), settled his vocation as a songwriter. He had no theoretical knowledge of music, but he composed both the words and the melodies of his songs, the two processes being generally simultaneous. He himself remained so innocent of musical knowledge that he had to engage

Ernest Reyer Louis Étienne Ernest Reyer (1 December 1823 – 15 January 1909) was a French opera composer and music critic. Biography Ernest Reyer was born in Marseille. His father, a notary, did not want his son to take up a career in music. However, he ...

to write down his airs. He sang his own songs, as they were composed, at the workmen's concerts in the Salle de la Fraternité du Faubourg Saint-Denis; the public performance of his famous "Le chant du pain" was forbidden; "Le chant des ouvriers" (1846) was even more popular; and in 1851 he paid the penalty of having become the

poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

of the

socialistic Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...

aspirations of the time by being condemned to seven years of exile from France. The sentence was cancelled, and the poet withdrew for a time from participation in politics. He died at Lyon, where his later years were spent, on 25 July 1870. His songs have appeared in various forms: *''Chants et chansons'' (3 vols., with music, 1852–1854) *''Chants et poesies'' (7th edition, 1862) Among the best-known are "Le Braconnier", "Le Tisserand", "La Vache blanche", "La Chanson du blé", but many others might be mentioned of equal spontaneity and charm. His later works have not the same merit.

External links

''The Song of the Workers''
at marxists.org
pictures and documents
picasa album {{DEFAULTSORT:Dupont, Pierre 1821 births 1870 deaths 19th-century French poets French male songwriters French socialists Writers from Lyon

See also

External links