Ignaz Pleyel

Ignace Joseph Pleyel (; ; 18 June 1757 – 14 November 1831) was an Austrian-born French composer, music publisher and piano builder of the Classical period.

Life

Early years

He was born in in Lower Austria, the son of a schoolmaster named Martin Pleyl. Despite the fact that some sources claim that he had 37 siblings, he was the 8th and last child of his fathers first wedding to Anna Theresia née Forster and had eight more half siblings from his father's second wedding to Maria Anna née Placho. While still young, he probably studied with Johann Baptist Wanhal, and from 1772 he became the pupil of Joseph Haydn in Eisenstadt. As with Beethoven, born 13 years later, Pleyel benefited in his study from the sponsorship of aristocracy, in this case Count Ladislaus Erdődy (1746–1786). Pleyel evidently had a close relationship with Haydn, who considered him to be a superb student.

Among Pleyel's apprentice work from this time was a puppet opera ''Die Fee Urgele'', (1776) performed in the marionette theater at the palace of Eszterháza and in Vienna. Pleyel apparently also wrote at least part of the overture of Haydn's opera ''Das abgebrannte Haus'', from about the same time.

Pleyel's first professional position may have been as Kapellmeister for Count Erdődy, although this is not known for certain. Among his early publications was a set of six string quartets, his opus 1.

In the early 1780s, Pleyel visited Italy, where he composed an opera (''Ifigenia in Aulide'') and works commissioned by the king of Naples, Ferdinand I.

Strasbourg 1783–1795

Attracted to the benefits associated with an organist position, Pleyel moved to Strasbourg, France, in 1783 to work alongside Franz Xaver Richter, the maître de chapelle at the Strasbourg Cathedral. The cathedral was extremely appealing to Pleyel as it possessed a full orchestra, a choir, and a large budget devoted to performances. After establishing himself in France, Pleyel voluntarily called himself by the French version of his name, Ignace. While he was the assistant ''maître de chapelle'' at Strasbourg Cathedral, he wrote more works than during any other period in his musical career (1783–1793). At the cathedral, he would organize concerts that featured his symphonies concertantes and liturgical music. After Richter's death in 1789, Pleyel assumed the function of full ''maître de chapelle''. In 1788, Pleyel married Françoise-Gabrielle Lefebvre, the daughter of a Strasbourg carpet weaver. The couple had four children, the eldest being their son Camille. Marie Pleyel, née Moke (1811–1875), the future wife of Camille, became one of the most accomplished pianists of her time.

In 1791, the French Revolution abolished musical performances in church as well as public concerts. Seeking alternative employment, Pleyel traveled to London, where he led the "Professional Concerts" organized by Wilhelm Cramer. In this capacity Pleyel inadvertently played the role of his teacher's rival, as Haydn was at the same time leading the concert series organized by Johann Peter Salomon. Although the two composers were rivals professionally, they remained on good terms personally.

Just like Haydn, Pleyel made a fortune from his London visit. On his return to Strasbourg, he bought a large house, the moate
Château d'Ittenwiller
, about 35 km south, between nearby Saint-Pierre and Eichhoffen in the Bas-Rhin department.

With the onset of the Reign of Terror in 1793 and 1794, life in France became dangerous for many, not excluding Pleyel. He was brought before the Committee of Public Safety a total of seven times due to the following: his foreign status, his recent purchase of a château, and his ties with the Strasbourg Cathedral.Honegger 1987 He was subsequently labeled a Royalist collaborator. The outcome of the committee's attentions could easily have been imprisonment or even execution. With prudent opportunism, Pleyel preserved his future by writing compositions in honor of the new republic. All were written in Strasbourg at times surrounding the Terror. Below are the pieces composed with dates of publication and details:

#''La Prise de Toulon'' ("The capture of Toulon") for solo and 3 voice choir with piano accompaniment. (19 February 1794)
#''Hymne de Pleyel chanté au Temple de la Raison'' ("Hymn sung in the Temple of Reason") for choir with piano accompaniment. (1793 or 1794; dates disputed)
#''Hymne à l'Être Suprême'' ("Hymn to the Supreme Being") two part cantata (performed 8 June 1794)
#''La Révolution du 10 août'' (" The Revolution of August 10") for soloists, choir, and orchestra (10 August 1794)

Most of these compositions debuted at the Strasbourg Cathedral, which was known at the time as the ''Temple de l'Être Suprême'' (Temple of the Supreme Being), as churches were outlawed during the Terror. Pleyel became a naturalized French citizen and thus came to be known as Citoyen (citizen) Pleyel. With his involvement in artistic propaganda and loyalism to the new regime, Pleyel can be seen as the ultimate musical champion of Strasbourg republicanism.

In addition to composing the above works for the Strasbourg public, Pleyel also contributed to the Parisian music scene during the Revolution. One example is ''Le Jugement de Pâris'', a pantomime-ballet by Citoyen (Citizen) Gardel and performed with Pleyel's music (along with that of Haydn, and Étienne Méhul) on 5 March 1793.

Pleyel as businessman

Pleyel moved to Paris in 1795. In 1797, he set up a business as a music publisher ("Maison Pleyel"), which among other works produced a complete edition of Haydn's string quartets (1801), as well as the first miniature scores for study (the ''Bibliothèque musicale'', "musical library"). The publishing business lasted for 39 years and published about 4,000 works during this time, including compositions by Adolphe Adam, Luigi Boccherini, Ludwig van Beethoven, Muzio Clementi, Johann Baptist Cramer, Johann Ladislaus Dussek, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Georges Onslow.

Pleyel visited Vienna on business in 1805, meeting his now elderly mentor Haydn for a final time and hearing Beethoven play.

In 1807, Pleyel became a manufacturer of pianos; for more on the Pleyel piano firm, see Pleyel et Cie.

Old age

Pleyel retired in 1824 and moved to the countryside about 50 km outside Paris. He died in 1831, apparently quite aware that his own musical style had been fully displaced by the new Romanticism in music. He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Pleyel's music

Pleyel was prolific, composing at least 42 symphonies, 70 string quartets and several operas. Many of these works date from the Strasbourg period; Pleyel's production tailed off after he had become a businessman.

Recent scholarship has suggested that the theme for the '' Variations on a Theme by Haydn'', by Johannes Brahms, Op. 56a, was probably composed not by Haydn but by Ignaz Pleyel.

Pleyel also wrote music for masonic rituals.

Reputation and assessment

Pleyel is one instance of the phenomenon of a composer (others include Cherubini, Meyerbeer, and Thalberg) who was very famous in his own time but currently obscure. Keefe (2005) describes a "craze for his music c. 1780–1800", and quotes a number of contemporary witnesses to this surge. For instance François-Joseph Fétis wrote, "What composer ever created more of a craze than Pleyel? Who enjoyed a more universal reputation or a more absolute domination of the field of instrumental music? Over more than twenty years, there was no amateur or professional musician who did not delight in his genius."Keefe (2005, vii).

Pleyel's fame even reached the then-remote musical regions of America. There was a Pleyel Society on the island of Nantucket off the coast of Massachusetts, and tunes by Pleyel made their way into the then-popular shape note tunebooks. Pleyel's work is twice represented in the principal modern descendant of these books, ''The Sacred Harp''.

In his own time, Pleyel's reputation rested at least in part on the undemanding character of his music. A reviewer writing in the ''Morning Herald'' of London (1791) said that Pleyel "is becoming even more popular than his master aydn as his works are characterized less by the intricacies of science than the charm of simplicity and feeling." In the mid 20th century, the harpsichord builder Wolfgang Zuckermann reminisced about playing Pleyel in his childhood in the 1930s: "When I was ten years old, my family string quartet played a lot of Pleyel since it was the only thing easy enough to keep us going. My cello part consisted of unending stretches of quarter notes played on open strings." Pleyel continues to be known today as a composer of didactic music. Generations of beginning violin and flute students, for example, learn to play the numerous duets he wrote for those instruments.

Pleyel pianos and Salle Pleyel

The piano firm ''Pleyel et Cie'' was founded by Ignace Pleyel and continued by Pleyel's son Camille (1788–1855), a piano virtuoso who became his father's business partner as of 1815. The firm provided pianos used by Frédéric Chopin, who considered Pleyel pianos to be «non plus ultra». It also ran a concert hall, the Salle Pleyel, in which Chopin performed his first—and also his last—Paris concerts. In September 2009 a replica of the 1830 model of Pleyel's piano was built by Paul McNulty which is now in the collection Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw and was used in the 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments.

Recordings

# Yuan Sheng. Frederic Chopin
Ballades Nos 1-4/Impromptus Nos 1-4.
Played on the 1845 Pleyel piano. Label: Piano Classics
# Freddy Eichelberger. Beranger. Chansons. Pleyel 1845 piano
Early Piano series. CD 5.
Label: Alpha Classics.
# Ronald Brautigam. Felix Mendelssohn
Piano Concertos.
Played on a copy of the 1830 Pleyel piano made by Paul McNulty. Label: Bis
# Janus
Olejniczak
Chopin evening around 1831 Pleyel.
# Alexei Lubimov
Chopin, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven: at Chopin’s home piano.
 Played on the original 1843 upright Pleyel piano. Label: NIFCCD
# Dina Yoffe. Fryderyk Chopin
Piano Concertos No 1 & 2. Version for one piano.
  Played on the 1848 Pleyel and the 1838 Erard pianos. Label: Fryderyk Chopin Institute
# Viviana Sofronitsky, Sergei Istomin. Frederyk Chopin
Complete works for cello and piano.
 Played on a copy of the 1830 Pleyel piano made in 2010 by Paul McNulty. Label: Passacaille
# Kevin Kenner. Fryderyk Chopin
4 Impromptus.
Played on the 1848 Pleyel piano. Label: Fryderyk Chopin Institute
# Patrick Schneyder. Franz Liszt. Mazeppa. Early piano series. CD 10. Played on Pleyel piano 1846. Label: Alpha Classics.
# Arthur Schoonderwoerd. Fryderyk Chopin. Mazurkas, Valses & other dances. Early Piano series. CD 7.  Played on Pleyel piano 1836. Label: Alpha Classics.
# Tomasz Ritter. Fryderyk Chopin
Sonata in B Minor, Ballade in F minor, Polonaises, Mazurkas. Karol Kurpinski. Polonaise in D minor.
Played on the 1842 Pleyel piano, the 1837 Erard piano and a copy of Buchholtz piano from ca 1825-1826 made by Paul McNulty. Label: Fryderyk Chopin Institute

References

Bibliography

* Careful coverage of Pleyel's life and work may be found in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, available in print and online as a fee site.
* Honegger, Geneviève. "Pleyel À Strasbourg Durant La Terreur", in ''Revue de Musicologie'' 73:1 (1987), pp. 113–119.
* Keefe, Simon P. "Preface", in ''Ignaz Pleyel: Six String Quartets, Opus 1'' (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Steglein Publishing, 2005).
* Mathorez, Jules. ''Les Allemands, les Hollandais, les Scandinaves. Histoire de la formation de la population française: les étrangers en France sous l'ancien régime'' (Paris: Champion, 1921).
* Sitzmann, Édouard. ''Dictionnaire de biographie des hommes célèbres de l'Alsace depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours'' (Rixheim: Sutter, 1909).
* Tiersot, Julien. ''Histoire de la Marseillaise'' (Paris: Librairie Delagrave, 1915).
* Tourneux, Maurice. ''Bibliographie de l'histoire de Paris pendant la révolution française. Monuments, moeurs et institutions'' (Paris: Imprimerie Nouvelle, 1900).

External links

List of Pleyel works by Benton number
*
*
Pleyel pianos
21st century update on pianos & company
Salle Pleyel
a Paris concert hall built in the late 1920s
Sheet music editions from Artaria Editions
by Stephen Birkett of the University of Waterloo; includes pictures of Pleyel and of historical Pleyel pianos
Web site
of the Ignaz Pleyel Museum (in German); includes biography
Pleyel in the grand piano - PhotoarchiveSalle Pleyel Renewed
with biography
Pleyel page at the Michael Haydn projectPianola Institute Factsheet - The Pleyela Pianohttp://www.soudoplatoff.org/musiquehttps://web.archive.org/web/20100329023348/http://www.soudoplatoff.net/pianos/piano.php?cpno=278www.classical-composers.org/comp/pleyelA Collection of over 200 early printed and manuscript scores in the University of Iowa Digital LibraryPleyel Pianos - ''The Piano in Polish Collections''Paul McNulty copy of Pleyel piano from 1830

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pleyel, Ignaz
1757 births
1831 deaths
18th-century Austrian people
18th-century classical composers
18th-century French male classical pianists
18th-century French composers
18th-century keyboardists
19th-century classical composers
19th-century French composers
19th-century French male classical pianists
Austrian classical composers
Austrian classical pianists
Austrian emigrants to France
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
French Classical-period composers
Composers of masonic music
Erdődy family
French male classical composers
Male classical pianists
Piano makers
Pupils of Joseph Haydn
String quartet composers