Paul Émile Ladmirault (8 December 1877 – 30 October 1944) was a

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

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 critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

whose

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

expressed his devotion to

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

wrote that his work possessed a "fine dreamy musicality", commenting on its characteristically hesitant character by suggesting that it sounded as if it was "afraid of expressing itself too much".

Florent Schmitt Florent Schmitt (; 28 September 187017 August 1958) was a French composer. He was part of the group known as Les Apaches. His most famous pieces are ''La tragédie de Salome'' and ''Psaume XLVII'' ( Psalm 47). He has been described as "one of t ...

said of him: "Of all the musicians of his generation, he was perhaps the most talented, most original, but also the most modest".

Peter Warlock Philip Arnold Heseltine (30 October 189417 December 1930), known by the pseudonym Peter Warlock, was a British composer and music critic. The Warlock name, which reflects Heseltine's interest in occult practices, was used for all his published ...

dedicated his

Capriol Suite The Capriol suite is a set of dances composed in October 1926 by Peter Warlock and is considered one of his most popular works. Originally written for piano duet, Warlock later scored it for both string and full orchestras. According to the compose ...

to him and

Swan Hennessy Edward Swan Hennessy (24 November 1866 – 26 October 1929) was an Irish-American composer and pianist who lived much of his life in Paris. In his pre-War piano music, he excelled as a miniaturist in descriptive, Program music, programmatic music. ...

his Trio, Op. 54.

Life

Ladmirault was born in

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

. A child prodigy, he learned

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

and

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

from an early age. At the age of eight, he composed a

sonata In music a sonata (; pl. ''sonate'') literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cantare'', "to sing"), a piece ''sung''. The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until th ...

for

and

. At the age of fifteen, when still a student of the Nantes

High School A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

, he wrote a three-act

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

''Gilles de Retz''. It was first performed on 18 May 1893. He was admitted to the

Paris Conservatoire 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 ...

to study under

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. ...

, learning

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 ...

under Antoine Taudou and

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

from

André Gedalge André Gedalge (27 December 1856 – 5 February 1926) was a French composer and teacher. Biography André Gedalge was born at 75 rue des Saints-Pères in Paris where he first worked as a bookseller and editor, specialising in ''livres de prix' ...

. He orchestrated a few works by Fauré. Like fellow students

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

Louis Aubert Louis François Marie Aubert (19 February 1877 – 9 January 1968) was a French composer. Biography Born in Paramé, Ille-et-Vilaine, Louis Aubert was a child prodigy. His parents, recognizing their son's musical talent, sent him to Paris to re ...

Jean Roger-Ducasse Jean Jules Aimable Roger-Ducasse (Bordeaux, 18 April 1873 – Le Taillan-Médoc (Gironde), 19 July 1954) was a French composer. Biography Jean Roger-Ducasse studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Émile Pessard and André Gedalge, and was the ...

and Georges Enesco, he had become well known before he left the Conservatory. In 1903, he wrote a ''Breton Suite'' in three movements and then the ''Brocéliande de matin''. These two works were orchestral extracts from his second opera ''Myrdhin'' (Merlin), an epic work which he worked on from 1902 to 1909, and continued to revise until 1921, but which has never been performed. He also wrote ''Young Cervantes'' for small orchestra, ''Valse triste'' and ''Épousailles'' for piano and orchestra. The

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

''La Prêtesse de Korydwenn'' (The Priestess of

Ceridwen Ceridwen or Cerridwen ( ''Ke-RID-wen'') was an enchantress in Welsh medieval legend. She was the mother of a hideous son, Morfran, and a beautiful daughter, Creirwy. Her husband was Tegid Foel and they lived near Bala Lake () in north Wales ...

) was first performed at the Paris Opéra Garnier on 17 December 1926. In the field of

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 ...

, he wrote a brief mass for organ and choir and a ''Tantum ergo'' for voice, organ and orchestra. He also wrote articles on music in various periodicals. Appointed professor of harmony and counterpoint at the Nantes conservatoire, Ladmirault rarely left the Nantes region, calling himself a "homebody" who disliked to travel.quoted, Xavier Deletang, ''Ladmirault, Quatuors, Trios, Fantasie'', Les Amis de Paul Ladmirault, 2002. He died in Kerbili en Kamoel, St. Nagoire, France.

Breton Celticism

All Ladmirault's music is imbued with his attachment to Brittany. It is found throughout his ''Gaelic Rhapsody'', ''Briere'', ''Forest'' and a symphony (1909). He was also closely associated with

Breton nationalism Breton nationalism (, ) is the nationalism of the historical province of Brittany, France. Brittany is considered to be one of the six Celtic nations (along with Cornwall, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales). Breton ''nationalism'' wa ...

. He advocated cultural autonomy for Brittany in the face of the centralisation of French culture in Paris and became a subscriber of the Breton fascist paper Breiz da Zont, an offshoot of the

Breton Autonomist Party The Breton Autonomist Party ( or PAB, ) was a political party which existed in Brittany from 1927 to 1931. Origin The party was created at the first congress of the nationalist journal '' Breiz Atao'' in Rosporden in September 1927. It followed fr ...

. He also joined the artistic group

Seiz Breur Seiz Breur was an artistic movement founded in 1923 in Brittany. Although it adopted the symbolic name ''seiz breur'', meaning ''seven brothers'' in the Breton language, this did not refer to the number of members, but to the title of a folk-story. ...

. He was initiated into the Celtic esotericist movement led by

François Jaffrenou François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * François Amoudruz (1926–2020), French resistance fighter * François-Marie Arouet (better known as Voltaire; ...

. In 1908, the Gorsedd of Brittany nominated him as a Druid, and he took up the bardic name 'Oriav'.Bempéchat, Paul-André: 'Allons enfants de "quelle" patrie? Breton nationalism and the Impressionist aesthetic' (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University, Center for European Studies Working Paper No. 106, 2012
pdf
In 1912, Ladmirault was one of the founding members of the short-lived Association des Compositeurs Breton. He composed music on Celtic themes, such as the ballet ''La Prêtesse de Korydwenn'' and the symphonic poem he wrote as musical accompaniment for the film ''

La Brière ''La Brière'' (translated as ''Passion and Peat'') is a 1923 novel by Alphonse de Chateaubriant that won the Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française for that year. The novel is set in the rustic fenland landscape west of Nantes, known as ...

''. He worked on translations of ancient Gallic texts. In 1928, Ladmirault published a manifesto of Breton music in the first issue of the Celticist journal ''Kornog''. He argued that Breton composers should follow the example of the Mighty Handful, the Russian nationalist musical group, by rejecting German and Italian musical models and relying on folk traditions and

pentatonic scale A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to heptatonic scales, which have seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancient ci ...

s. Nevertheless, he took the view that Breton folk music was cruder than its "civilised" Irish and Scottish counterparts. He justified his use of only Irish musical sources in his Celtic ballet ''La Prêtesse de Korydwenn'', writing "several themes, jigs, war dances are Irish. You would find no borrowings from Breton folk music". In 1929, he helped to found the Nantes Celtic Circle.

Selected works

Opera and ballet

* ''Gilles de Retz'', opera, performed at Nantes, 18 May 1893 * ''Myrdhin'', opera, completed 1921 (never performed) * ''La Prêtesse de Korydwenn'', ballet performed by l'Opéra-Comique, 17 December 1926 * ''Glycères'', operetta (Paris, 1928)

Orchestral music

* Symphony, four movements (1909) * '' En Forêt'', symphonic poem, performed Paris, 31 January 1932 * ''Suite bretonne'' (1903) * ''Tristan et Iseult'', incidental music (Nantes, 1929) * ''Valse triste'', for piano and orchestra, performed at Paris, 4 March 1934 * ''Brocéliande au matin'', symphonic poem,

Concerts Colonne The Colonne Orchestra is a French symphony orchestra, founded in 1873 by the violinist and conductor Édouard Colonne. History While leader of the Opéra de Paris orchestra, Édouard Colonne was engaged by the publisher Georges Hartmann to lead ...

, 28 November 1909 * ''Épousailles'', for piano and orchestra * ''

'', orchestral suite, 1925 * ''La Jeunesse de Cervantès'', for small orchestra

Chamber music

* Fantaisie, for violin and piano (1899) * ''Chevauchée'', fantasia on Scottish reels, for piano trio * ''Romance'', for string quartet * ''The River'', for piano trio * '' Mémoires d'un âne'', after

Sophie Rostopchine, Comtesse de Ségur Sophie is a feminine given name, another version of Sophia, from the Greek word for "wisdom". People with the name Born in the Middle Ages * Sophie, Countess of Bar (c. 1004 or 1018–1093), sovereign Countess of Bar and lady of Mousson * Sophi ...

* ''Carillon'' (1929) * Sonata for violin and piano (1931) * String Quartet (1933) * String Quintet (1933) * ''De l'ombre à la clarté'', for violin and piano (1935) * ''Chorale et variations'', for wind quintet and piano (1936) * Sonata for violoncello and piano (1939) * Sonata for clarinet and piano (1942)

Piano music

* ''Quatre Pièces'' (1900). Contains: ''Impromptu''; ''Regrets''; ''Plaisanterie''; ''Valse fantastique''. * ''Rhapsodie gaélique'', for piano duet (1903) * ''Variations sur des airs de biniou trécorois (tirés du Recueil de Quellien)'', for piano duet (1907) * ''Suite bretonne'', for piano duet (1908) (arranged from opera ''Myrdhin'') * ''Musiques rustiques'', for piano duet (1908) * ''Quatre Esquisses'' (1909). Contains: ''Chemin creux''; ''Valse mélancolique''; ''Vers l'église dans le soir''; ''Minuit dans les clairières'' * '' Mémoires d'un âne'' (1930) * ''Deux Danses bretonnes'' (1957)

Songs (voice and piano)

* ''J'ai peur de t'aimer'' (1900) * ''Madrigal'' (1900) * ''Spleen'' (1900) * ''Lied'' (1901) * ''Quelques chansons de Bretagne et de Vendée'', 2 vols (1906) * ''Quelques vieux cantiques bretons'' (1906) * ''Noëlz anciens composés en l'honneur de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ'' (1908) * ''Mélodieux automne'' (1912) * ''Gnomes'' (1912) * ''Six cantiques bretons du XVIIe siècle'' (1926) * ''Chansons écossaises'' (1927), also a version for choir * ''Triolets à Catherine'' (1928) * ''Chansons de marins'' (1931)

Other vocal music

* ''Old Melodies'', for tenor, string quartet and piano (1897) * ''Messe brève'', for choir and organ * ''Tantum ergo'', for voice, organ and orchestra

References

Bibliography

: "Paul Émile Ladmirault", in: ''Gil Blas'' (9 March 1903). * Octave Séré: ''Musiciens français d'aujourd'hui'' (Paris: Mercure de France, 1921). * Paul Landormy: ''La Musique française après Debussy'' (Paris: Gallimard, 1943). *

Gustave Samazeuilh __NOTOC__Gustave Marie Victor Fernand Samazeuilh (2 June 1877 – 4 August 1967) was a French composer and writer on music. He produced many piano transcriptions of orchestral works, and also wrote musical biography. Life and career Gustave Sama ...

: ''Musiciens de mon temps'' (Paris: M. Daubin, 1947). * Robert Marot: ''Les Compositeurs bretons. Les Sources de leur inspiration'' (Nantes: CID Éditions, 1988); . * Mikael Bodlore-Penlaez, Aldo Ripoche: ''Musique classique bretonne'' (Spézet: Coop Breizh, 2012); .

External links

*
Association Les Amis de Paul Ladmirault (Pieces of Ladmirault's music can be heard here by clicking "discography")

Paul Ladmirault at compositeursbretons.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ladmirault, Paul 1877 births 1944 deaths 19th-century French classical composers 19th-century French male musicians 20th-century French classical composers 20th-century French male musicians Breton musicians Breton nationalists Conservatoire de Paris alumni French ballet composers French opera composers French operetta composers French male opera composers Musicians from Nantes