Ovide Musin

Ovide Musin (1880)

Ovide Musin (born September 22, 1854 in Nandrin near Liège , † October 30, 1929 in Brooklyn , New York) was a Belgian violinist and composer of the Romantic period.

Live and act

Ovide Musin is one of the most important representatives of the so-called Franco-Belgian violin school in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Musin received a children's violin as a gift from his father at the age of six. An amateur double bass player from the village gave him the first instructions to play. From then on, Musin played tunes that had been recorded once by ear. Three years later, a Liège violinist became aware of him and recommended that the parents give the child a solid musical education. In October 1863, after an entrance exam at the Liège Conservatory, he entered the class of Désiré Heynberg (1831–1897), who trained numerous important violinists. At the same time, Musin attended general education classes at a grammar school after morning music lessons.

At the same time as Eugène Ysaÿe he received the “second prix” in 1867, the “premier prix” in 1869, and in 1870 he passed his concert qualification with the “médaille d'or”. During their studies, he and his classmates Eugène Ysaÿe, César Thomson and Martin Marsick gained orchestral experience in the ensemble of the “Pavillon de Flore”, which was directed by Nicolas Ysaÿe, Eugène's father.

Due to the Franco-Prussian War, the violinist Hubert Léonard fled to his hometown in 1870 and opened a further training class at the Liège Conservatory, which Musin entered. At the end of the academic year he got a position as concert master in the "Kursaal Orkest" of the then fashionable Ostend , which was under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Singelée . Here he had five major concerts and several chamber music appearances a week. There he met Henryk Wieniawski , to whom he was able to play his 1st Caprice de concert .

In 1872 Ovide Musin began his studies in Paris, with Léonard, who had returned there. During this time he earned his living with solo appearances and membership in a string quartet. Léonard introduced Musin to the Parisian social salons, where he made the acquaintance of musicians such as his compatriot César Franck , but also Camille Saint-Saëns , Gabriel Fauré and Raoul Pugno , as well as writers such as Jules Verne , Émile Zola or Guy de Maupassant and others Public figures. These contacts enabled him to build a network of relationships that was helpful in his international career.

Camille Saint-Saens dedicated the Morceau de concert pour violon, avec accompagnement d'orchestre ou de piano op.62 to Musin , which is sometimes considered to be his 4th violin concerto.

During his solo career, Musin has given concerts in all major concert halls in Europe, North and Latin America, in Australia and New Zealand, but also in major cities in China and Japan. During his first tour of the United States, he met his future wife, the soprano Anna Louise Tanner, the daughter of a judge at the United States Supreme Court. They married in Brooklyn on October 7, 1891. The couple now went on other major concert tours together.

Because of his mother's age, Musin returned to Liège, where he took over the class from César Thomson, who was appointed to the Brussels Conservatory . After his mother's death, he returned to New York in 1909 to head the Ovide Musin's Belgian School of Violin , which had been founded a year earlier .

Ovide Musin describes his international concert tours, experiences and encounters in a detailed travelogue, which he published in book form under the title Un Violoniste aux Antipodes . He wrote his entire life story and musical legacy in four volumes, which appeared in 1920 as My Memories: A half-century of adventures and experiences and globe travel written by himself by the Musin Publishing Company in New York.

Works (selection)

• Ma Belle Amie , Valse chantante, Londres, 1882
• Mazurka de Concert: pour violon et piano, New York, Eddy E. Schuberth, 1887
• Caprice de Concert, op. 6, New York, E. Schuberth, 1893
• Valse de concert pour violon avec accompagnement de piano: Op. 7, New York, E. Schuberth, 1893
• Berceuse pour violon avec accompagnement de piano, op.9, New York, E. Schuberth, 1893
• Mazurka romantique, op.11, no.3, New York, Carl Fischer, 1898
• Mazurka de bravoure, op.14, no.2, New York, Carl Fisher, 1898
• Paraphrase of 'Words from the Heart', Op. 16
• Mazurka elegant: for violin with piano accompaniment, op.25, no.4, New York, O. Musin Publishing, 1912
• The nightingale (Le Rossignol), op. 24, New York, O. Musin Publishing, 1912
• Belgian School of Violin, vol. 4 (22 special daily exercises: for violin, with scales), O. Musin Publishing, 1915
• Seconde valse de concert
• Capriccio notturno

Web links

• Sheet music and audio files by Ovide Musin in the International Music Score Library Project

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Autobiography: "My Memorys" from Ovide Musin (1920)
2. ↑ Clothile Larose: Master thesis on Ovide Musin (2010)