Guillaume Couture (musician)

Guillaume (William) Couture (born October 23, 1851 in Montreal ; † January 15, 1915 ibid) was a Canadian music teacher, music critic, conductor, choir director, composer, organist and singer (baritone).

Couture had solfège lessons and at the age of thirteen became choirmaster at the Ste-Brigide church . From 1868 to 1873 he worked as a choirmaster at the Church of St-Jacques and taught solfège at the École normal Jacques Cartier . From 1873 to 1875 he studied singing (with Romain Bussine ), harmony (with Théodore Dubois ), counterpoint, fugue, orchestration and composition at the Conservatoire de Paris .

After his return to Montreal, he resumed his activities as a choir director and teacher and worked as a music critic for La Minerve . In 1976 he returned to Paris and in the following year became choirmaster at Ste-Clotilde , where César Franck was organist on the great organ and Charles Bordes was organist on the choir organ. At the end of 1877 he returned to Canada again. There he worked as a choir director at various churches, most recently from 1893 until his death at the St-Jacques Cathedral .

Couture taught at the Villa-Maria Convent , the Hochelaga Convent , the High School for Girls , the Protestant High School , the McGill Conservatory and, from 1896, at the New England Conservatory in Boston. His students included Guillaume Dupuis , Lynnwood Farnam , LJ Oscar Fontaine , Achille Fortier , Henri Gagnon , George Alfred Grant-Schaefer , Arthur Laurendeau , Édouard LeBel , Léo-Pol Morin , Ada Moylan , Rodolphe Plamondon , Caroline Racicot and Alexis Contant .

In 1878 he founded the Société des Symphonistes and from 1880 he was conductor of the Montreal Philharmonic Society , with which he also accompanied concerts by Emma Albani . In 1890 he founded the Montreal Amateur Operatic Club and the Montreal Ladies Vocal Society , and in 1894 the first Montreal Symphony Orchestra , which he directed for two years. As a music critic, he wrote for the Revue de Montréal (1877), La Patrie (1879–84) and the Montreal Daily Star (1889–90, under the pseudonym Symphony ).

The most important compositions of Couture are the Requiem Mass , which was performed in 1906 for the funeral of the politician Raymond Préfontaine (and later his own), as well as the oratorio Jean le Précurseur , composed between 1906 and 1909 , whose first performance he did not live to see again (1923). France honored him in 1900 as Officier d'Académie and Officier de l'Instruction publique et des Beaux-Arts . The city of Montreal named a street after him for his 100th birthday in 1951 and an avenue in 1962; In 1985 it was renamed Saint Fabien Park to Guillaume Couture Park , and a school was named Couture. The composer Jean Papineau-Couture is Couture's grandson.

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• The Canadian Encyclopedia - Guillaume Couture
• Dictionnaire biographique du Canada - Couture, Guillaume
• Guillaume Couture in the database of Find a Grave (English)