François Antoine Camille Durutte, comte Durutte (15 October 1803 – 24 September 1881), was a French composer and

music theorist Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the " rudiments", that ...

Life

Born in

Ypres Ypres ( ; ; ; ; ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres/Ieper ...

, the son of General

Pierre François Joseph Durutte Pierre François Joseph Durutte (; 13 July 1767 – 18 April 1827) joined the French army at the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars. Rapidly promoted for feats of bravery under fire at Jemappes in 1792 and Hondschoote in 1793, he found ...

, he was destined for a military career. He studied at the

Lycée Louis-le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on Rue Saint-Jacques (Paris), rue Saint-Jacques in central Par ...

and then at the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

both in Paris from 1823 to 1825. It was only after the death of his father in 1827 that he turned to music. He conceived a mathematical

musical theory Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the "rudiments", that a ...

based on the work of

Josef Hoëné-Wronski Josef may refer to *Josef (given name) *Josef (surname) * ''Josef'' (film), a 2011 Croatian war film *Musik Josef Musik Josef is a Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments. It was founded by Yukio Nakamura and is the only company in Japan spec ...

and which he presented in his books ''Esthétique musical'' (1855) and ''Technie harmonique'' (1876). His theories were not very fruitful for musical practice and were only taken up in isolation, for example by

Edgar Varèse Edgar is a commonly used masculine English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Edgar'' (composed of '' ead'' "rich, prosperous" and '' gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the Late Middle Ages; it was, howeve ...

. Durutte also composed several operas,

religious music Religious music (also sacred music) is a type of music that is performed or composed for Religion, religious use or through religious influence. It may overlap with ritual music, which is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as a ri ...

and

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

. Durutte died in Paris at age 77.

Works

* ''Esthétique musicale: Technie ou Lois générales du système harmonique''. 1855 * ''Résumé élémentaire de la Technie harmonique et complément de cette Technie''. 1876 * ''Réponse du comte Camille Durutte, d'Ypres, compositeur ... à la prétendue réfutation de son système harmonique, par M.F.-J. Fétis, ... : suivie de L'exposé du principe absolu du rhythme musical et de la sanction physiologique de ce principe.''''Réponse du comte Camille Durutte, d'Ypres, compositeur ... à la prétendue réfutation de son système harmonique, par M.F.-J. Fétis, ... : suivie de L'exposé du principe absolu du rhythme musical et de la sanction physiologique de ce principe.''
on WorldCat

Bibliography

* , « Notice sur le comte Durutte », dans ''Mémoires de l'Académie de Metz'' 1881–1882, 1885,
(read online)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Durutte, Camille French music theorists French Romantic composers 1803 births 1881 deaths Musicians from Ypres 19th-century French musicologists