Émile Desportes (1878, Pont l'Evêque,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

1944, Méricourt) was a French composer and conductor. He was the father of composer Yvonne Desportes (1907–93). Desportes was originally a lawyer at

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

, then professor of music and conductor. He studied composition with

Paul Dukas Paul Abraham Dukas ( 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best-k ...

, but soon became more interested in other activities. Most of his compositions were written for

wind instruments A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitch ...

, but he also wrote songs,Le Fureteur breton: bulletin documentaire 1908 "Le chanteur Marius Bouteloup, poète à ses heures, a écrit les paroles de trois gracieuses mélodies d'Émile Desportes : Ariette, Noèl d'amour, Ma mie Rosette, éditées chez Roudanez" and his best known piece is ''Pastorale joyeuse'' for flute and guitar.

References

20th-century French classical composers 1878 births 1944 deaths French male classical composers 20th-century French male musicians {{France-composer-stub