Pierre Petit (21 April 1922 – 1 July 2000) was a French composer.

Life

Petit was born in

Poitiers Poitiers (, , , ; Poitevin: ''Poetàe'') is a city on the River Clain in west-central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and the historical centre of Poitou. In 2017 it had a population of 88,291. Its agglome ...

, the son of a professor of the khâgne. He studied literature and music in Paris ( Hattemer Course, Lycée Louis-le-Grand) and literature at the Sorbonne. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire from 1942, his teachers included Georges Dandelot for music analysis,

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist. From a ...

for harmony,

Noël Gallon Noël Jean-Charles André Gallon (11 September 1891 – 26 December 1966) was a French composer and music educator. His compositional output includes several choral works and vocal art songs, 10 preludes, a ''Toccata'' for piano, a ''Sonata ...

for counterpoint and

fugue In music, a fugue () is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the co ...

, and Henri Busser for composition. In 1946, he won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome with the lyrical scene ''Le jeu de l'amour et du hasard'', which was performed in the same year by the orchestra of the ''Cadets du Conservatoire'' under the direction of Claude Delvincourt. From 1951 Petit taught the history of civilization at the Conservatoire de Paris and the

École polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern Franc ...

. In 1960, he began working for the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française. At first he was head of light music, and then from 1965 he was musical director. Among others, he produced music for ''accords parfaits'', ''contre-ut'', ''Presto'', ''Figaro ci figaro là''. In 1963, he was appointed director of the

École normale de musique de Paris The École Normale de Musique de Paris "Alfred Cortot" (ENMP) is a leading conservatoire located in Paris, Île-de-France, France. At the time of the school's foundation in 1919 by Auguste Mangeot, Alfred Cortot. The term ''école normale'' (En ...

, succeeding Alfred Cortot and working alongside such musicians as

, Georges Dandelot, Alfred Desenclos, Norbert Dufourcq and

Marguerite Roesgen-Champion Marguerite Roesgen-Champion (24 January 1894 – 30 June 1976) was a Swiss composer, pianist and harpsichordist. Roesgen-Champion studied at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, notably with Marie Panthès. From 1926, she lived as a composer ...

. He held the position for 35 years, when he was succeeded by Henri Heugel. His students included Roger Bellon. He was also on the jury of the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition.

Output and awards

Petit composed operas, operettas and ballets, orchestral works, concertos, chamber music and songs. He was also noted as a music writer, writing books on

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

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

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

, and a study of the musical problems of

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatet ...

. He was also a music critic for ''

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French Newspaper of recor ...

''. For his musical work, in 1965 he was awarded the Grand Prix du Conseil Général de la Seine, and in 1985, the Grand Music Prize of SACEM.

Personal life

He married the singer

Christiane Castelli Christiane is a given name, a form of the Latin ''Christiana'', feminine form of ''Christianuis'' (see Christian), or a Latinized form of Middle English ''Christin'' 'Christian' (Old English ''christen'', from Latin).. A short form is Chris. Alter ...

, famous for her interpretation of

Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language dr ...

at the

Opéra de Paris The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to b ...

. They had three children, Claude (journalist and writer), Didier (singer, songwriter and performer under the name

Romain Didier Romain may refer to: People Given name * Romain Bussine (1830–1899), French poet and voice professor * Romain Rolland (1866–1944), French writer * Romain de Tirtoff (1892–1990), French artist and designer known as Erté * Romain Bellenge ...

) and Marie-Laurène. Later he married the violinist Marie-Claude Theuveny in 1958, and had two children with her,

Carolin Petit Carolin is a given name. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Carolin Babcock (1912–1987), female tennis player from the United States *Carolin Bachmann (born 1988), German politician *Carolin Fortenbacher (born 1963), German Musica ...

, composer and arranger of music for film and television, and Nicolas. Finally, in 1974 he married his third wife Liliane Fiaux.

Works

Compositions

* ''Mélodie'' for voice and piano, 1941 * ''6 Petites pièces à 4 mains'', piano pieces for children, 1942 * ''Concertino pour piano'', 1942 * ''Suite'' für vier Celli, 1942 * ''Bois de Boulogne'', five pieces for piano, 1946 * ''La Maréchale Sans-Gêne'', operetta, 1948 * ''Zadig'', ballet, 1948 * ''Deux mélodies sur des poèmes de

Charles Oulmont Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

'', 1949 * ''Romanza romana'', 1950 * ''Ciné-Bijou'', ballet after jazz themes, composed for

Roland Petit Roland Petit (13 January 192410 July 2011) was a French ballet company director, choreographer and dancer. He trained at the Paris Opera Ballet school, and became well known for his creative ballets. Life and work The son of shoe designer Rose ...

, 1952 * ''Feu rouge, feu vert'', ballet, 1953 * ''Saxopéra'', for saxophone, 1955 * ''Furia italiana'', opera, 1958 * ''Concertino'' for organ, strings and percussion, 1958 * ''Concerto pour tête-à-tête'', opera, 1959 * ''Migraine'', comic opera, 1959 * ''Toccata et Tarentelle'' for two guitars, 1959 * ''Andante und Fileuse'' for saxophone, 1959 * ''Concerto'' for two guitars, 1964 * ''Quatre poèmes de Paul Gilson'', 1965 * ''Le Diable à deux'' for two pianos, 1970 * ''Tarentelle'' for orchestra, 1971 * ''Suite'' for two cellos and orchestra, 1974 * ''Orphée'', ballet, 1975 * ''Oregon'', piano suite for children, 1979 * ''Mouvement perpétuel'' for guitar, 1984

Writings

* ''Autour de la chanson française'', 1952 * ''Verdi'', 1958 * ''Ravel'', 1970 * ''Mozart'', 1991

References

* "Pierre Petit", in '' Sax, Mule & Co'',

Jean-Pierre Thiollet Jean-Pierre Thiollet (; born 9 December 1956) is a French writer and journalist. Primarily living in Paris, he is the author of numerous books and one of the national leaders of the European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CEDI), a ...

, H & D, Paris, 2004, s. 160-161
Pierre Petit
in the

Encyclopédie Universalis ''Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers'' (English: ''Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts''), better known as ''Encyclopédie'', was a general encyclopedia publis ...

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Petit, Pierre 20th-century French composers French operetta composers People from Poitiers 1922 births 2000 deaths 20th-century classical composers Conservatoire de Paris alumni École Normale de Musique de Paris alumni Academics of the École Normale de Musique de Paris Composers for the classical guitar Prix de Rome for composition French music critics