Guillaume Lasceux

Guillaume Lasceux (born February 3, 1740 in Poissy , today in the Yvelines department , † 1831 in Paris ) was a French composer and organist .

Live and act

Guillaume Lasceux began working as an organist in the parish church of Saint-Martin de Chevreuse near Paris in 1758 . From 1762 he studied composition for five years with Charles Noblet (1715–1769), the organist and harpsichordist of the royal opera. Then he followed in 1769 in Paris to the position of organist at the monastery church of the Mathurins , which belonged to the Trinitarian order . In the same year he added the position of organist at Saint Aure and ten years later the position at the Minimes monastery on the Place Royal in Paris ; then there were similar positions at the Collège de Navarre and the Séminaire Saint-Magloire . From 1769 he also represented Claude-Nicolas Ingrain, who had been employed since 1726, at the Paris church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont . In 1774 Lasceux became the official post holder there.

With the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, he lost most of his offices. The church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont had been converted into a temple of the children of piety for the théophilanthropists ; here he earned his living as the musical companion of the celebrations. After the Catholic services were reintroduced in 1803, he continued his activities here. After 50 years of service in the same parish, he took leave of his profession as a liturgical organist on January 2, 1819. The day of his death in 1831 is not known.

meaning

Lasceux can be seen as a link between the 18th and 19th centuries in French organ and church music thanks to its long life. During his lifetime he was a recognized virtuoso on the organ, the harpsichord and the pianoforte ; He was famous for his improvisations , which were inspired by the theme of the Last Judgment . The greater part of his organ compositions originated in the period before 1789. In the new century two groups of organ works were created: the Nouvelle Suite de pièces d'orgue (1810) and his Annuaire de l'organiste (1819); The latter extensive work contains four masses, Magnificat movements and a large-scale Te Deum in 16 verses . The Te Deum is a masterpiece of the organ works of its time with its novel effects, for example cluster-like sounds. In principle, Lasceux 'organ works are committed to the classical tradition ( Plain-chant, Duo, Récit de flûtes ou de hautbois, Grands jeux etc.), but also prove the organ music practice of the late 18th and early 19th centuries ( Chasse, Symphonie concertante , etc.) ). Even if his compositions are not as inventive as those of Jean-Jacques Beauvarlet-Charpentier (1734–1794) and not as artistic as those of Nicolas Séjan (1745–1819), his organ music, with its colorful and lively sound design, has a lot of attraction and verve .

Particularly important Lasceux 'textbook Essai théorique et pratique sur l'art de l'orgue from the year 1809. It is considered a valuable testimony to the development of French organ music of his time, leaving more endpoint and end the era of Organ français classique recognize (which lasted from about 1640 to 1800), as an opening to the impending romanticism: the author expresses his disappointment with an art form that is in decline. In the practical versions of the textbook, he shows the work of an organist with many details and numerous examples. In contrast to the German organ composers, for whom the musical interest is more the formal and thematic analysis, Lasceux's interest, together with that of the other French organ composers, is more focused on the tonal effect, as it is on the organs of Clicquot , Isnard and Dom Bédos de Celles unfolded under the hands of an interpreter. Even if there are isolated modern issues (e.g. the illustration of a four-manual game table with a German pedal ) and more demanding pieces are included (e.g. a Quinque , which is so skilfully constructed that experts question Lasceux's authorship), predominates in In this textbook it is more the principally backward-looking tendency.

Works (selection)

• Stage works
  • Les époux réconciliés , lyrical comedy in one act (1789?)
• Sacred vocal music
  • Mass for choir and orchestra (1804)
  • Deux Motets au Saint Sacrement for three equal voices and organ (posthumously, published Charleville 1836)
• Secular vocal music
  • Romances published individually , including Hommage à l'amour (1767), Absence et retour , Les adieux de la violette
  • Ariettes et petits airs for voice and harpsichord or pianoforte or harp (around 1775)
• Instrumental music
  • Chamber music
    • twelve sonatas for harpsichord and pianoforte and violin ad libitum in two volumes (1768, 1772)
    • Quartet for harpsichord or pianoforte, two violins and bass op.4 (1775)
  • Organ music
    • Journal de pièces d'orgue ; contains masses, Magnificat and Noëls (1772)
    • Nouveau Journal de pièces d'orgue contenant of the log, Magnificat et Noëls à l'usage of paroisses et Communautés religieuses (about 1782-1784), has contained therein a fair des Grands solemnels with a Offertoire as Symphony concertante and a Magnificat F Major with a Chasse in C major
    • Nouvelle Suite de pièces d'orgue (1810); contains a) a mass des annuels et grands solemnels , b) hymnes, proses et répons de la Fête-Dieu and c) a mass des solemnels mineurs (lost)
    • Annuaire de l'organiste (1819), containing four masses, Magnificat movements and a Te Deum
    • Douze Fugues (1820)
  • Works for harpsichord or pianoforte
    • Pot-pourri d'airs connus for harpsichord op.9 (1783)
    • Numerous published arrangements for keyboard instrument of overtures and arias from stage works by other composers (including overtures, ariettes et petits airs for piano or harp and violin ad libitum, ten volumes, 1781 to 1783), some of them contained in anthologies of the 18th century
• Teaching work
  • Essai théorique et pratique sur l'art de l'orgue - partie littéraire de Monsieur Traversier, amateur d'orgue, membre de la Société Académique des Enfants d'Apollon (1809); contains 26 musical examples of all genres of organ music with the respective registrations

Literature (selection)

• Georges Servières: Documents inédits sur les organistes français des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Paris 1924.
• Jean-Luc Perrot: L'Orgue en France de 1789 à 1860. Présentation d'une anthologie. Dissertation at the University of Lyon II, 1989.
• Nicolas Gorenstein: L'Orgue post-classique francais: du Concerts Spirituel à Cavaillé-Coll. Paris 1993.
• Brigitte François-Sappey: Guillaume Lasceux, Guide de la musique d'orgue. Edited by Gilles Cantagrel. Fayard, coll. “Les Indispensables de la musique”, Paris 2012, pp. 609–611.
• Eileen Morris Guenther: Lasceux, Guillaume. In: Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online , July 17, 2009.

Web links

• Sheet music and audio files by Guillaume Lasceux in the International Music Score Library Project

Individual evidence

1. ^ The music in past and present (MGG), Volume 10, Bärenreiter Verlag Kassel and Basel 2003, ISBN 3-7618-1120-9
2. ^ The lexicon of the organ , edited by Hermann J. Busch and Matthias Geuting, 2nd edition, Laaber Verlag Laaber 2008, ISBN 978-3-89007-508-2