Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (; 5 April 1869 – 23 August 1937) was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. His early works were strongly influenced by the Impressionism of Debussy and Ravel, while he later turned toward neoclassicism.

Biography

Born in Tourcoing, Roussel's earliest interest was not in music but mathematics. He spent time in the French Navy, and in 1889 and 1890, he served on the crew of the frigate Iphigénie and spent several years in southern Vietnam. French composer and musicologist Yvonne Rokseth also studied with Roussel.

His sixtieth birthday was marked by a series of three concerts of his works in Paris; the concerts also included the performance of a collection of piano pieces, Homage to Albert Roussel, written by several composers, including Ibert, Poulenc, and Honegger.

One 21st-century critic, in the course of discussing the Third Symphony, wrote:

The Albert Roussel Collection

The association Les Amis belges d'Albert Roussel (The Belgian Friends of Albert Roussel) was founded in 1979 by André Peeters. In 1986 the association donated a collection of Roussel-linked documents to the Music Division of the Royal Library of Belgium, thus creating the most important collection of archival sources on the composer outside of France. The collection contains many unique documents including a dozen musical manuscripts, autographs, around 250 letters (100 of them unpublished), a travel diary, recordings (including most of the early recordings of his compositions), iconography, a large collection of press clippings, programs and other documents linked to Roussel's works and life.<!--This links to the front page of the Belgian Royal Library's website. There is nothing at all there about Roussel, the Amis belges, André Peeters, or the collection of Roussel documents.-->

Works

Stage

  • ' (The Sandman), incidental music for a verse play by Jean-Aubry, Le Havre, 16 December 1908, Op. 13
  • Le festin de l'araignée, ballet in one act. f.p.&nbsp;3 April 1913, Op. 17
  • Padmâvatî, opera in 2 acts (1913–18, Louis Laloy, after T.-M. Pavie). f.p. Paris Opéra, 1 June 1923, Op. 18
  • La naissance de la lyre, opera in 1 act, Paris Opéra, 1 July 1925, Op. 24
  • Sarabande (1927; for the children's ballet L'éventail de Jeanne, to which ten French composers each contributed a dance)
  • Bacchus and Ariadne (ballet), ballet in two acts. f.p. Paris Opéra, 22 May 1931, Op. 43
  • Aeneas, ballet for chorus and orchestra, Op. 54, 1935
  • Le testament de la tante Caroline, opera in 3 acts, 14 November 1936
  • Prelude to Act 2 of Le Quatorze juillet by Romain Rolland, Paris, 14 July 1936
  • Elpénor, for chamber ensemble, radio score, 1947, Op. 59 (LAST FINISHED OPUS – 1937)

Orchestral

  • Résurrection, Prelude for orchestra Op. 4 (1903)
  • Symphony No. 1 in D minor The Poem of the Forest, Op. 7 (1904–1906)
  • Evocations, for orchestra, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone and chorus, Op. 15 (1910–11)
  • Padmâvatî Suites (Nº 1 & 2), Op. 18 (1918)
  • Pour une fête de printemps, Op. 22, symphonic poem (1920)
  • Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 23 (1919–1921)
  • Suite for Orchestra in F major, Op. 33 (1926)
  • Concert for small orchestra, Op. 34 (1926–1927)
  • Petite Suite, Op. 39 (1929)
  • Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 42 (1929–30), commissioned by the Boston Symphony for its 50th anniversary

References and further reading

  • Nicolas Slonimsky, ed., The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed. (NY: Schirmer Books, 19930,
  • Damien Top, Albert Roussel 1869–1937, un marin musicien (Paris: Séguier, 2000)
  • Damien Top, "Albert Roussel", collection Horizons, (Paris: Bleu Nuit, 2016)
  • Henry Doskey, The Piano Music of Albert Roussel (Indiana University, 1981)
  • Basil Deane, Albert Roussel (London: Barrie & Rockliff, 1962; Greenwood Press Reprint, 1980)
  • Norman Demuth, Albert Roussel: A Study (United Music Publishers, 1946. Westport, CT: Hyperion Press, 1979)