André Wormser

{{Short description|French composer}}

File:André Wormser, 1903.gif

André Alphonse Toussaint Wormser (1 November 1851 – 4 November 1926) was a French Romantic composer.

Life and career

André Wormser was born in Paris and studied with Antoine Marmontel and François Bazin at the Paris Conservatoire.{{cite web |title=Wormser, Andre Alphonse |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15026-wormser-andre-alphonse |accessdate=23 February 2012}} As a very wealthy man, Wormser was able to afford a membership in the social club Cercle artistique et littéraire.{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Richard Langham |title=French music since Berlioz |last2=Potter |first2=Caroline |year=2006}}

In 1872, Wormser won the Premier Prix in piano at the Paris Conservatoire,{{cite web |author=Margell, Tad |title=The Paris Conservatoire Concours Oboe Solos:The Gillet Years (1882-1919) |url=http://www.idrs.org/publications/controlled/Journal/JNL24/paris.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140421082737/http://www.idrs.org/publications/controlled/Journal/JNL24/paris.pdf |archive-date=2014-04-21 |accessdate=23 February 2012 |publisher=IDRS Journal}} and in 1875, he won the Prix de Rome for his cantata Clytemnestre. He is best known for the pantomime L'Enfant prodigue (1890),{{cite web |title=Wormser, André |url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0021_0_21108.html |accessdate=23 February 2012}} which was performed all over Europe and revived at the Booth Theatre in New York in 1916 (as the three-act play Perroit the Prodigal).{{cite web |title=Pierrot the Prodigal |url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=8435 |accessdate=23 February 2012}} He died in Paris.

Notable students include Charles Malherbe.

Works

image:Albert Besnard, "Portrait d'André Wormser" (1877).jpg (1877).]]

Wormser composed choral and orchestra music, opera and works for solo instrument and voice. Selected works include:

  • L'Enfant prodigue, pantomime (1890; scenario by Michel Carré)
  • L'Étoile, Ballet-pantomime en deux actes (Opéra, Paris, 31 May 1897; choreography by Joseph Hansen)
  • Ballada for Oboe and Piano (1909)
  • Clytemnestre, cantata (1897)
  • Rêverie (Gypsy Suite) for violin and piano
  • Adèle de Ponthieu, opera (1887)
  • Rivoli, opera (1896)

References

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