Gustave Nadaud (20 February 1820 – 28 April 1893) was a French composer and

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic so ...

nier.

Career

Born in

Roubaix Roubaix ( or ; nl, Robaais; vls, Roboais) is a city in northern France, located in the Lille metropolitan area on the Belgian border. It is a historically mono-industrial commune in the Nord department, which grew rapidly in the 19th century ...

, Nadaud's first career was as an accountant; he took up songwriting as a hobby at age 28. His friends encouraged him, and he submitted his work for publication in

L'Illustration ''L'Illustration'' was a weekly French newspaper published in Paris from 1843 to 1944. It was founded by Édouard Charton with the first issue published on 4 March 1843, it became the first illustrated newspaper in France then, after 1906, the ...

and

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of r ...

. This genre of songwriting followed on from writers of the previous generation such as

Pierre-Jean de Béranger Pierre-Jean de Béranger (19 August 178016 July 1857) was a prolific French poet and chansonnier ( songwriter), who enjoyed great popularity and influence in France during his lifetime, but faded into obscurity in the decades following his deat ...

. Many of his songs were political; his ''Pandore'' and ''Soldat du Marsala'' were both forbidden under the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France. Historians in the 1930 ...

. Others were like simple folk songs, such a
''Carcassonne''
which is the lament of a peasant who was never able to visit

Carcassonne Carcassonne (, also , , ; ; la, Carcaso) is a French fortified city in the department of Aude, in the region of Occitanie. It is the prefecture of the department. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Carcassonne is located in the plain of the Au ...

, a city on the Aude River near the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

, famous for its medieval fortress. Although Nadaud wrote over 300 songs, he died in poverty. A college in

Wattrelos Wattrelos (; archaic ) is a commune in the Nord department in the Nord-Pas de Calais region of northern France. It is located on the border with Belgium, northeast of the city of Lille. The fifth-largest component of the Métropole Européenne ...

in northern France is named after him. He died in Passy, near Paris.

Recordings

* Gustave Nadaud, ''Bouche à l'oreille et les autres nouveautés'' Arnaud Marzorati, Daniel Isoir (Alpha CD, 2010).

References

External links

* * * 1820 births 1893 deaths 19th-century French composers 19th-century French male musicians French male composers French songwriters Male songwriters People from Roubaix {{Songwriter-stub