Nicolas Roze (17 January 1745 – 30 September 1819) was a French

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and music theorist.

Biography

Born in Mercurey, Roze was a choirboy at the , Nicolas Roze was noted for his beautiful voice and received a good musical training. He was not twelve years old when he composed a

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

with orchestra. He was invited to enter the King's music as a page, but his parents preferred to have him finish his studies at the

Beaune Beaune (; in Burgundian: ''Beane'') is widely considered to be the wine capital of Burgundy in the Côte d'Or department in eastern France. It is located between Lyon and Dijon. Beaune is one of the key wine centers in France, and a major ...

college and then at the

Autun Autun () is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Saône-et-Loire Departments of France, department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region of central-eastern France. It was founded during the Principate era of the e ...

seminary. A master of music in Beaune from 1767 to 1769, he had a mass of his composition performed there, and went to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to present it to Antoine Dauvergne, superintendent of the music of the king. In 1769, the latter commissioned him the motet ''Dixit insipiens'', given to the

Concert Spirituel The Concert Spirituel () was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790. Later, concerts or series of concerts with the same name occurred in multiple places including Paris, Vienna ...

. His first published work was a Quartet for flute and strings in C minor (1769). After spending a few years at the Cathédrale Saint-Maurice d'Angers, he settled in Paris, where in 1775 he became a chapel master in the . In 1779, after a dispute with the ecclesiastical authorities, he devoted himself to the teaching of music and wrote his system of

harmony 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 ...

, which was published by Jean-Benjamin de La Borde. His

''Vivat in æternum'' was performed during the coronation of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

(2 December 1804) under the direction of his former student Jean-François Lesueur. From 1807 to his death he was a librarian at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

. Along François-Joseph Gossec and Étienne Ozi, abbott Roze was the author of the first published method of serpent (1814). This instrument, which had been in use for about two centuries, was soon to begin to decline. But one reason for this was that his use in military music had grown strongly during the Revolution and the Empire, and whose teaching at that time was often diffused by private teachers for lack of schools. A

freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

, he was reported as a member of the lodges ''Les Cœurs Simples de l'Étoile Polaire'' (1778–1779), ' (1783) and ''L'Olympique de la Parfaite Estime'' (1786), then ''

Les Neuf Sœurs La Loge des Neuf Sœurs (; The Nine Sisters), established in Paris in 1734, was a prominent French Masonic Lodge of the Grand Orient de France that was influential in organising French support for the American Revolution. A "Société des Neuf S ...

'' (1806).Notice
dans le ''Musée virtuel de la musique maçonnique'' He died in

Saint-Mandé Saint-Mandé (; named for Saint Maudez) is a Communes of France, commune in the Val-de-Marne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France, in the high-end eastern inner suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre zero, cent ...

aged 74.

Bibliography

* Sylvie Jeannerot, ''L'Abbé Nicolas Roze (1745-1819), maître de chapelle et bibliothècaire'', thesis, Université Strasbourg 2, 1998 *

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 ...

, ''Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique'', volume 7, Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1867, p. 502.

References

External links

Nicolas Rozé
on Musicalics.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Roze, Nicolas People from Saône-et-Loire 1745 births 1819 deaths 18th-century French composers 18th-century French male musicians 19th-century French composers 19th-century French male musicians Classical composers of church music French Freemasons French librarians French male composers French music educators Sacred music composers