Dieudonné-Pascal Pieltain

Dieudonné-Pascal Pieltain , called the Elder, (born March 4, 1754 in Liège ; † December 10, 1833 ibid) was a Belgian composer and violinist.

Life

Pieltain received his training at the choir school of the collegiate college Saint-Pierre in Liège. He then left his hometown to continue his education in Italy, including with Giovanni Giornovichi . After all, he lived in Paris, where he was accepted into the Concert Spirituel orchestra in 1773 . Here he performed both as a violin soloist and with his own compositions. From 1782 Pieltain stayed in London, where he worked for about a decade. In London he played as a soloist in Vauxhall Gardens , the Drury Lane Theater and with the Lord Albington Orchestra. In the meantime he appeared again and again in France's capital, where he had most of his works printed by the publishing house of Jean-Georges Sieber . In London he married the opera singer Marie Chanu , who died in 1794 and left him a daughter. After her death he traveled through Central Europe, first through Germany, Poland and later also Russia.

In 1801 Pieltain returned to Liège. There he taught the violinist Auguste Rouma (1802–1874), to whom he bequeathed his entire collection of manuscripts. This collection of more than 1000 documents, including numerous works by Pieltain not listed in the RISM , was acquired by the library of the Brussels Conservatory in 2015.

One brother, Jacques-Joseph-Toussaint Pieltain (* 1757), was a student of Giovanni Punto and Carl Stamitz .

Works

• About 30 violin concertos (12 of them printed)
• About 160 string quartets and "Quatuors Concertants"
• Some “Airs variés” for two violins
• 6 duos of concertants for 2 violins

Numerous printed works, violin concertos and quartet and a lot of unseen manuscripts are in the library of the Liège Conservatory.

effect

Pieltain's compositional work is based on his contemporary music colleagues. Most of the works are based on works by the Stamitz brothers, who worked in Paris , and its richness in melodies points to the works of Giovanni Battista Viotti and Charles de Bériot . His quartets are reminiscent of Joseph Haydn's role models and occasionally have early romantic features. With his technical ability he was at the peak of his time and he plays a role that should not be underestimated in the development of the later world-famous "Liège Violin School".

Web links

• Works by and about Dieudonné-Pascal Pieltain in the catalog of the German National Library
• Search mask for the holdings of the library of the Liège Conservatory

literature

• Thierry Levaux: Dictionnaire des compositeurs de Belgique du Moyen Âge à nos jours. Pp. 487-488, Éditions Art in Belgium, 2006, ISBN 2930338377