Merri Jean Baptiste Franquin (19 October 1848 in

Lançon-Provence Lançon-Provence (; also known as Lançon-de-Provence) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France. Population See also *Communes of the Bouches-du-Rhône department The following is a list of the 119 communes ...

Bouches-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône ( ; , ; ; "the Mouths of the Rhône") is a Departments of France, department in southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var (department), Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the sout ...

– 1934 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was a French

trumpeter The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

, cornetist, and

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...

ist who was professor of trumpet at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

from 1894 until 1925. Franquin was a teacher of Eugène Foveau (1886–1957) who became professor of cornet at the Paris Conservatory in 1925.

Georges Mager Georges C. Mager (1885–1950) was a French musician, and principal trumpet with the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1919 until his death in 1950. He was a renowned trumpeter in Paris before the First World War, playing at the Paris Opera, Concerts ...

(1885–1950), who was principal trumpet of the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five (orchestras), Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in ...

from 1919 until 1950, studied in the cornet class under Joseph Mellet, but seems to have been influenced as well by the teachings of Franquin; Mager may have studied with him informally and certainly worked with several of his successful students.''Shamu, Geoffrey. 2009. "Merri Franquin and His Contribution to the Art of Trumpet Playing". DMA dissertation. Boston: Boston University. , p. 75'' Franquin's collaboration with

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Georges Enescu George Enescu (; – 4 May 1955), known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor, teacher and statesman. He is regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history. Biography Enescu was bo ...

(1881–1955) led to the composition in 1906 of '' Légende'', one of the great twentieth-century works for solo trumpet and

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

. Franquin's book, ''Methode Complète de la Trompette Moderne de Cornet a Pistons et de Bugle'', has been an influential teaching aid for many trumpet players, notably

Maurice André Maurice André (21 May 1933 – 25 February 2012) was a French trumpeter, active in the classical music field. He was professor of trumpet at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris where he introduced the teaching of the pic ...

. Franquin's most notable accomplishment while at the Paris Conservatory was his push for the C Trumpet to replace the low F trumpet as a more versatile orchestral instrument. A more modern form of this instrument was introduced to American symphony orchestras by

, and it remains very much in popular use in the United States. Merri Franquin was born 1848 in the small

town of Lançon in southern France. He was self-taught on cornet for four years before moving to

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

. There he played cornet in the Marseille Casino Musical and later as soloist at the Palais Lyrique and the Théâtre Chave. In 1870 he became solo flugelhornist with the

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...

of the Marseille Garde National, and in 1872 he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory where he joined the cornet class of the famous cornetist

Jean-Baptiste Arban Joseph Jean-Baptiste Laurent Arban (28 February 1825 – 8 April 1889) was a cornetist, conductor, composer, pedagogue and the first famed virtuoso of the ''cornet à piston'' or valved cornet. He was influenced by Niccolò Paganini's virtuosic ...

. Franquin's playing career began when he was 28 years old. He was first soloist at the Concerts Pasdeloup from 1876 until 1892, solo trumpet at the

Concerts Colonne The Colonne Orchestra is a French symphony orchestra, founded in 1873 by the violinist and conductor Édouard Colonne. History While leader of the Opéra de Paris orchestra, Édouard Colonne was engaged by the publisher Georges Hartmann to lead ...

from 1884 until 1892, first solo trumpet at the Théâtre National de l'Opéra from 1880 until 1901, and solo trumpet of the

Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire The Orchestre de la Société des concerts du Conservatoire () was a symphony orchestra established in Paris in 1828. It gave its first concert on 9 March 1828 with music by Beethoven, Rossini, Meifreid, Rode and Cherubini. Administered by the phi ...

from 1892 until 1901.

References

External links

Article on O.J.'s Trumpet PageMerri Franquin and His Contribution to the Art of Trumpet Playing
French classical trumpeters French male trumpeters 1848 births 1934 deaths People from Bouches-du-Rhône {{trumpeter-stub