Occupation Composer | Spouse(s) Aurélie Grégoire | |
Full Name Isidore-Edouard Legouix Born 1 April 1834 Paris Died 15 September 1916, Boulogne-Billancourt, France | ||
Isidore-Edouard Legouix (1 April 1834 – 15 September 1916) was an 19th-century French composer.
Contents
Biography
Isidore Legouix was the eldest son of the musical publisher and bookseller Onesimus Legouix (1809-1867). His father's business, he had opened early in the reign of Louis-Philippe I, was located at number 4 of rue Chauveau-Lagarde, in the 8th arrondissement. This musical library was taken over by his younger son Gustave Legouix (1844-1916), then by the latter's son, Robert Legouix. In 1960, the store, under the banner "Libraire Musicale R. Legouix" still remained at the same address (Place de la Madeleine).
In 1847, Isidore Legouix joined the Conservatoire de Paris where he studied harmony with Napoléon Henri Reber and musical composition with Ambroise Thomas. He obtained a first prize in music theory in 1850, a first prize harmony in 1855 and the following year a second runner in counterpoint and fugue. He received the Prix de Rome with an honorable mention in 1860 with his cantata Le Czar Ivan IV on Theodore Anne's words.
After studying at the Conservatoire, Legouix worked in the family music library, and engaged in composition, particularly in incidental music. He composed several operettas, of which contemporary critics praised the talent and wit. But one could hardly win against the overwhelming competition of the works by Hervé, Offenbach, Lecocq, Audran, Planquette and Varney, the masters of the Parisian operetta. Author of fifteen books, Isidore Legouix would never reach the fame, even if some of his operettas encountered a very ephemeral success.
In addition, Legouix composed some pieces for piano and songs. He wrote in English the opéra comique The Crimson scraf (L’Écharpe cramoisie), played in the 1870s in London.
Married in 1900 in Boulogne-sur-Seine with Aurélie Gregory, Isidore Legouix died September 15, 1916 in this city where he had settled for several years, three weeks after the death of his younger brother Gustave.