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Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy (March 27, 1851 - December 2, 1931) was a French composer
and teacher.
D'Indy was born in Paris. He had piano lessons
from from an early age, but initially studied law to please his family. He was determined to
be a musician, however, and became a devoted student of César Franck. In
1894, he co-founded the Schola
Cantorum in Paris with Charles Bordes and Alexandre Guilmant and until his death taught music there and at the Paris Conservatoire. Among his pupils were Erik
Satie, Bohuslav Martinu and Albert Roussel. He co-wrote the three volume Cours de composition musicale (1903) and wrote
studies of Franck and Ludwig van Beethoven.
Few of d'Indy's works are performed with any regularity today. His best known pieces are probably the Symphonie sur un
chant montagnard français (Symphony on a French Mountain Air) for piano and orchestra (1886) and Istar (1896), a symphonic
poem in the form of a set of variations. Among his other works are
other orchestral music, chamber music, piano music, songs and a number of
operas, including Fervaal (1897). As well as Franck, d'Indy's works show the
influence of Richard Wagner (he attended the premiere of Wagner's
Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1876).
D'Indy also helped to revive a number of then-largely forgotten early works, making his own edition of Claudio Monteverdi's opera L'Incoronazione
di Poppea, for example.
Vincent d'Indy died in Paris.
Further reading
- Andrew Thomson, Vincent d'Indy and his World (Oxford University Press, 1996)
External link
- 1932 obituary from the Musical Times
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