Abraham Louis Niedermeyer (27 April 180214 March 1861) was a Swiss and naturalized French composer. He chiefly wrote

church music Church music is a genre of Christian music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclesiastical liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn. History Early Christian musi ...

and a few

operas Opera is a form of Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a li ...

. He also taught music and took over the École Choron, renamed

École Niedermeyer de Paris The () was a Paris school for church music, founded in 1853 by Louis Niedermeyer as successor to the , which had been established and run by Alexandre-Étienne Choron, Alexandre Choron between 1817 and 1834. Background Although a protestant from ...

, a school for the study and practice of church music, with students that include several eminent French musicians such as

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. ...

and

André Messager André Charles Prosper Messager (; 30 December 1853 – 24 February 1929) was a French composer, organist, pianist and conductor. His compositions include eight ballets and thirty , opérettes and other stage works, among which his ballet (1 ...

Life and career

Niedermeyer was born in

Nyon Nyon (; historically German language, German: or and Italian language, Italian: , ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Nyon District in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometer ...

in 1802. His father was a music teacher from Würzburg, Germany, who had settled in Switzerland after his marriage. When Louis reached the age of 15, his father sent him to Vienna to learn music. There, he studied piano with

Ignaz Moscheles Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 179410 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later at Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano in the Co ...

and composition with Emanuel Aloys Förster. He then studied in Rome with Vincenzo Fioravanti, the choirmaster of the papal Chapel (1819) and in Naples with Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli. While in Rome, he met

Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote man ...

, who befriended him and encouraged him to write operas. His first opera, ''Il reo per amore'' (''Guilty for Love''), premiered at the

Teatro del Fondo The Teatro Mercadante, earlier known as Teatro del Fondo, is a theatre in Naples, Italy. It is located on Piazza del Municipio, Naples, Piazza del Municipio #1, with the front facing the west side of Castel Nuovo, Naples, Castel Nuovo and near th ...

in Naples in 1820 and encountered some success. After his studies, he came back to Switzerland and composed ''Le Lac''.

''Le lac'' (1820)

In 1820, Niedermeyer composed ''Le Lac'', a musical adaptation one of

Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869) was a French author, poet, and statesman. Initially a moderate royalist, he became one of the leading critics of the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe, aligning more w ...

's most famous poems of the same name. Adapting a poem that was considered one of the jewels of French Romantic poetry was a difficult task and Niedermeyer earned praise from Lamartine himself: Saint-Saëns credits Niedermeyer for bringing an important evolution to the genre:

Collaboration with Rossini

Like Rossini, Niedermeyer settled in Paris (at the age of 21, in 1823). Encouraged by the Italian composer, he continued composing operas but never encountered success. His second opera, ''La casa nel bosco'' (''The House in the Woods'') premiered in 1828. While

François-Joseph Fétis François-Joseph Fétis (; 25 March 1784 – 26 March 1871) was a Belgian musicologist, critic, teacher and composer. He was among the most influential music intellectuals in continental Europe. His enormous compilation of biographical data in the ...

praised it, the critique was mixed and ''La casa nel bosco'' went largely unnoticed. Disappointed, Niedermeyer moved to Brussels where he lived for 18 months and started teaching music. He came back to Paris and composed his third opera, '' Stradella'' with a libretto written by Emile Deschamps and Emilien Pascini. It premiered on 3 March 1837 and was lauded by critics. He later composed '' Marie Stuart'' (on a libretto written by Theodore Anne) which premiered at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris on December 6, 1844. After ''Marie Stuart'', Niedermeyer moved to Bologna to collaborate with his friend Rossini on the assembly of ''

Robert Bruce Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (), was King of Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329. Robert led Scotland during the First War of Scottish Independence against England. He fought successfully dur ...

'' (1846), Rossini's third and last

pastiche A pastiche () is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking ...

; Niedermeyer "provided the all-important French texts with their characteristic

tone color In music, timbre (), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound of a musical note, sound or musical tone, tone. Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musica ...

and

harmonies In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

". His last opera, ''La Fronde'' (about

The Fronde The Fronde () was a series of civil wars in the Kingdom of France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659), Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The government of the young King Louis XIV c ...

), premiered on 2 May 1853 and was unsuccessful.

writes:

Religious music and teaching career

In the last decades of his life, Niedermeyer gradually abandoned his operatic career and devoted himself primarily to sacred and secular vocal music. As early as 1840, Niedermeyer and his friend, Prince de la Moskowa, had supported a revival of Baroque and Renaissance music and the rediscovery of composers such as

Palestrina Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; , ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Prenestina. It is built upon ...

Lassus Orlando di Lasso ( various other names; probably – 14 June 1594) was a composer of the late Renaissance. The chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school, Lassus stands with William Byrd, Giovanni Pierlu ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. Together, they established the ''Société des Concerts de Musique Vocale, religieuse et Classique''. In this capacity, Niedermeyer had a strong influence in the revival of religious music in France: In 1846, Niedermeyer was awarded the Ordre national de la

Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

for his efforts, on the recommendation of Prince de la Moskowa. In October 1853, Niedermeyer reorganized and re-opened the school then known as the École Choron (named after

Alexandre-Étienne Choron Alexandre-Étienne Choron (21 October 1771 – 29 June 1834) was a French musicologist. For a short time he directed the Paris Opera. He made a distinction between sacred and secular music and was one of the originators of French interest in mu ...

, who died in 1834). It was later renamed the

and remains opened to this day. Several major composers received their musical training from the École Niedermeyer: In 1857, Niedermeyer published a treatise on

plainchant Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ; ) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text. Plainsong was the exclusive for ...

(1857) and founded La Maitrise, a journal that presented writings about and examples of early church music. Shortly before his death, he published a manual for the use of organs in church music, ''Accompagnement pour Orgues des Offices de l'Église''. He died in Paris in 1861.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Niedermeyer, Louis 1802 births 1861 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century French composers 19th-century French male musicians Classical composers of church music French Romantic composers French male classical composers French opera composers Male opera composers Swiss classical composers Burials at Montmartre Cemetery People from Nyon Pupils of Ignaz Moscheles 20th-century Swiss composers