Nationality French Name Paul-Gilbert Langevin | Residence France | |
Born 5 July 1933Boulogne-Billancourt, France ( 1933-07-05 ) Parents Eliane Montel, Paul Langevin Alma mater ESPCI ParisTech, University of Paris Grandparents Victor Charles Langevin, Pinel Marie-Adelaide | ||
Paul-Gilbert Langevin (July 5, 1933 in Boulogne-Billancourt – July 4,1986 in Paris) was a French musicologist, musical critic and physicist who wrote several books on 19th-century classical music.
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Life
Paul-Gilbert Langevin was the son of French physicist Paul Langevin (1872–1946) and Eliane Montel (1898–1992), a private teacher at the Sorbonne science department.
Langevin attended the ESPCI as a Latin student, the school which his father directed from 1925 to 1946. He went on to complete his scientific education at the Sorbonne and Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, obtaining a degree in physical chemistry under the supervision of René Freymann, who became one of his close friends. Langevin also befriended the physicist Herbert Überall who supported a thesis under the supervision of Hans Bethe, and his wife.
From a young age, Langevin had a deep interest in classical music, listening to Anton Bruckner's symphonies on radio recordings during his youth and meeting young prodigy conductor Roberto Benzi. Having completed his scientific degrees, he decided to write a thesis under the supervision of Daniel Charles at the Centre Universitaire de Vincennes about 19th century Austrian music, focusing on Bruckner and the so-called "ethnoromantic" period.
He became a physics teacher at the Sorbonne science department and at the Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie which was created in the '60s, and wrote books on classical music. During this time, he met musicologists Harry Halbreich, Gustave Kars, Jacques Feschotte, Pierre Vidal, Marc Vignal and Jean-Luc Caron. Langevin went on to create the Anton Bruckner French society, wrote a considerable number of books on 19th-century symphonic music, edited in Musical Review and l'Age d'Homme, and became a music critic in The World of Music, edited by his friend Anne Rey.
During the 1950s, Langevin focused on classical music, symphonic music, and writing. Specifically, he wrote articles, monographs and books about Anton Bruckner, Franz Schubert, Guillaume Lekeu, Albéric Magnard, Joseph-Guy Ropartz and Charles Koechlin. He was also interested in works by Hugo Wolf, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, Franz Schmidt, Ferruccio Busoni, Leoš Janáček or Carl Nielsen.
In the 1970s, Langevin married Anne-Marie Desbat. They had two children: Paul-Eric Langevin, born in 1979, who graduated in mathematics and linguistics; and Isabelle Langevin, born in 1983, who became a kinesitherapy specialist. He died from kidney cancer in 1986.