Henri Moreau (composer)

{{Short description|Belgian composer}}

Henri Moreau (15 July 1728{{spaced ndash}}3 November 1803) was a composer and teacher born in Liège in what is now modern-day Belgium.{{cite book |last=Quitin |first=J. |date=1997 |title=La musique à entre deux révolutions (1789-1830) |trans-title=Music between two revolutions (1789-1830) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WxhyZ-LnYWwC |publisher=Editions Mardaga |page=178 |isbn=9782870096222 |language=French |quote=On voit disparaître petit à petit les musiciens qui avaient été formés dans les anciennes maitrises : les compositeurs Henri Moreau (1728-1803) et Simon Leclercq (1736-1806)...}}{{cite book |last=Van Boer |first=Bertil H. |date=2012 |title=Historical Dictionary of Music of the Classical Period |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mUEAR9mWEWwC |publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=390 |isbn=9780810871830 |quote=Moreau, Henri (bap. 16 July 1728, Liège, to 3 November 1803, Liège). Belgian composer.}} He studied with Bartolomeo Lustrini and Antonio Aurisicchio and he is known to have taught André Ernest Modeste Grétry.{{cite book |last=Pfitzinger |first=S. |date=2017 |title=Composer Genealogies: A Compendium of Composers, Their Teachers, and Their Students |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ugfWDQAAQBAJ |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |page=212 |isbn=9781442272255}} Moreau composed religious works which were never printed but would have included Christmas carols popular at the time in Liège.{{cite book |last=Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique |date=1895 |title=Biographie nationale |trans-title=National biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kDsOAQAAMAAJ |language=French |lccn=06046328 |publisher=H. Thiry-Van Buggenhoudt |quote=Comme compositeur, Moreau a écrit de la musique religieuse qui n'a pas été imprimée. On cite notamment des chants de Noël qui, d'apres Fétis, auraient été populaires dans le pays de Liège;}} Moreau wrote a number of instrumental works, for example 6 trios, which are known to have been written in Liège around 1777 but were subsequently lost.{{cite book |last=Vendrix |first=Philippe |year=2001 |title=Moreau, Henri |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.19100 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9781561592630 |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.19100}}

In 1783 his treatise L'harmonie mise en pratique was published by Chez J. G. M. Loxhay. The method was aimed at those studying composition or accompaniment, with a table of two, three and four-part chordal formations with consonances and dissonances to help with practicing, along with fugues and organ points, all of which were collated from notable examples.{{Cite book |last=Moreau |first=Henri |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/05039752/ |title=L'harmonie Mise en Pratique |date= |publisher=Chez J. G. M. Loxhay |year=1783 |location=Liège |language=Fr |quote=L'harmonie mise en pratique. Avec un tableau de tous les accords, la méthode de s'en servir, & des règles utiles à ceux qui étudient la composition ou l'accompagnement. Cet ouvrage qui est recueilli de tous les meilleurs auteurs, contient des exemples sur toutes les consonnances & dissonnances à deux, à trois, & à quatre parties, & c. de même que fugues, points d'orgue, chromatique,...}}