Martin-Joseph Mengal

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Martin-Joseph Mengal in 1845

Martin-Joseph Mengal (born January 27, 1784 in Gent ; † July 4, 1851 ibid) was a Belgian horn player , composer and conductor.

Life

Martin-Joseph Mengal, who came from a family of musicians, received horn and violin lessons as a child. He began composing at the age of 12, and in 1797 he became first horn player at the Ghent Opera. From 1804 Mengal began his studies at the Paris Conservatory with Frédéric Nicolas Duvernoy (1765-1838) (horn) and with Charles-Simon Catel (harmony and composition), but in December of the same year he joined the band of the Imperial Guards . In his military service he took part in Napoleon's campaigns against Italy, Austria and Prussia. Between the campaigns he took up his studies again and again.

One of his main teachers was Anton Reicha , who worked in Paris . Mengal became a horn player at the Opéra-Comique in 1812 . In Tailleyrand's favor , he was able to perform some of his operas there. In 1825 he returned to his hometown Ghent to first take over the management of the theater there and later the orchestra direction. In 1830 he became conductor of the Antwerp Opera Orchestra, and shortly afterwards he held the same position in The Hague. In 1835, at the suggestion of Jan Frans Willems, he became the founding director of the Ghent Conservatory. His most important student was François-Auguste Gevaert (1828–1908).

Some compositions have also come down to us by his brother, the horn player Jean-Baptiste Mengal (1792–1878), who studied with Heinrich Domnich in Paris.

Works (selection)

  • 3 concerts for horn and orchestra
  • Concert symphony for 2 horns and orchestra
  • Suite for harmony orchestra
  • Duo et Fantaisie, for horn and piano
  • Trios for flute, violin and viola
  • 3 duets for 2 clarinets
  • 3 quartets for horn and strings
  • 4 wind quintets (based on Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Rossini)
  • 3 quartets op. 18 for flute, clarinet (or oboe), horn and bassoon
  • 3 quartets op. 19 for flute, clarinet, horn and bassoon
  • Octet for 6 horns and 2 trombones

vocal

Operas

  • Une nuit au Château (1818)
  • L'Ile de Babilary (1819, Paris)
  • Les Infidèles (1823, Paris)
  • Le Vampire ou L'Homme du néant (1826, Ghent)
  • Apothéose de Talma (1826, Ghent)
  • Un jour à Vaucluse ou Le Poète ambassadeur , Comic Opera (1830, Ghent)
  • La Rencontre imprévue ou Les Noces

Web links

Discography

  • All of Mengal's wind quintets, with the wind ensemble "Das Reicha'sche Quintett" (Label NCA Music, 2004)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thierry Levaux: Le Dictionnaire des Compositeurs de Belgique du Moyen Age à nos jours , p 428-429, Editions: "Art in Belgium" in 2006, ISBN 2-930338-37-7
personal data
SURNAME Mengal, Martin-Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian horn player and composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1784
PLACE OF BIRTH Ghent
DATE OF DEATH 4th July 1851
Place of death Ghent