Félix Godefroid
Dieudonné-Félix Godefroid (born July 24, 1818 in Namur , † July 12, 1897 in Villers-sur-Mer near Lisieux ) was a Belgian harpist and composer .
Life
After Godefroid's father got into financial difficulties running a festival and event hall, the latter moved with his family to Boulogne-sur-Mer in France, where he founded a harp school. There Félix Godefroid learned to play the harp and the piano. From 1832 he was a student of François-Joseph Naderman (harp) and Friedrich Kalkbrenner (piano) at the Paris Conservatory , which he left in 1835. Convinced of the usefulness of the double-pedal harp developed by Sébastien Érard in 1811 , Godefroid left the conservatory to perfect himself on this new instrument with Théodore Labarre and Elias Parish Alvars . From 1839 he began a notable career as a harp soloist, which led him first to Germany, later throughout Europe and the Middle East. In 1847 he settled in Paris. In 1856 he was invited to Brussels to give a gala concert on the 25th anniversary of King Leopold I's throne . On this occasion he was awarded the Knight of the Leopold Order .
As a composer he wrote both for harp and for piano, which he also mastered with virtuosity. He also composed several masses and the three stage works A deux pas du bonheur , La Harpe d'or (Paris, 1858) and La Fille de Saül . His textbook, Mes exercices pour la harpe , was used as a standard work by several generations of harp students.
He kept in touch with his Belgian homeland all his life, as in 1856 Félicien Rops , a painter also from Namur, portrayed him . On the occasion of the inauguration of a monument erected in Namur for the deceased King Leopold I , Godefroid composed a cantata in 1869, which he himself performed with 500 musicians.
It is not certain that Godefroid was a member of the Parisian Masonic Lodge Les Frères unis inséparables , for which he gave a charity concert.
His older brother Jules-Joseph Godefroid (1811-1840) was also active as a harpist and composer.
Works (selection)
Difficult concert pieces were preserved as manuscripts after Godefroid's death; they were only published several years later.
- Sonata pour violoncelle et piano (1841).
- La Harpe d'or
- La fille de Saül (1882)
- Le rouet de Marguerite (1889)
- "Romance sans paroles"
- École Mélodique sur des mélodies de Schubert: Quand tu me vois souffrir
- École Mélodique sur Schubert: Le désir
- École Mélodique sur Schubert: Sois toujours mes seules amours
- École Mélodique sur Schubert: Les ris et les pleurs
- Étude de concert en mi bémol mineur pour harpe
- Mes exercices pour la harpe (1891)
Web links
- History of the Godefroid family, Autour de Félix Godefroid et de la harpe In Le guetteur wallon (1998)
- Sheet music and audio files by Félix Godefroid in the International Music Score Library Project
Individual evidence
- ^ François-Joseph Fétis : Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique, Volume IV, p. 43 (1863)
- ^ Godefroid in Le musée virtuel de la musique maçonique
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Godefroid, Felix |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Godefroid, Dieudonné-Félix (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian-French harpist and composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 24, 1818 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Namur , Belgium |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 12, 1897 |
| Place of death | Villers-sur-Mer near Lisieux |