Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/651

 and profound students of composition as an art, and are notable for utilizing the results of progress everywhere without losing originality and freedom. In all the larger branches of composition they have fully held their own with others, and in organ music have become leaders. Their contributions to the science of musical structure are probably the most important of recent years.

Prominent representatives of the large French group are these:—

Camille Saint-Saëns, born in 1835, is not only the oldest, but one of the most versatile and powerful, having been fruitful in every style, with 5 symphonies, 4 symphonic poems, 5 piano-concertos, much chamber music, about 10 operas (from 1872), including Samson et Dalila (1877, Weimar), Henri VIII (1883) and the Biblical drama, Le Déluge, several cantatas, masses and much church music; Félix Alexandre Guilmant (d. 1911), born in 1837, a great organist, with 7 organ-sonatas, many other organ-pieces, 3 masses, motets, and choir music; Thèodore Dubois, born in 1837, also a fine organist, with 3 oratorios, as Les sept paroles du Christ (1867), many cantatas and choral works, 5 operas (from 1873), and a variety of orchestral pieces, etc.; Georges Bizet (d. 1875), whose brilliant promise, especially revealed in Carmen (1875), besides earlier operas (from 1857) and in many piano works, was cut short when he was not 37 years old; Victorin de Joncières (d. 1903), with 6 operas (from 1867), including Dimitri (1876) and Le chevalier Jean (1885), music for 'Hamlet' (1862) and considerable orchestral and chamber music; Jules Massenet, born in 1842, an exuberantly prolific writer, with about 20 dramas (from 1867), such as Le Roi de Lahore (1877), Hérodiade (1884), Manon (1884) and Werther (1892), brilliant orchestral suites and fantasias, etc.; Alexis Emanuel Chabrier (d. 1894), with 5 operas (from 1877), mostly comedies; Émile Paladilhe, born in 1844, with 6 operas (from 1872), a symphony, 2 masses, etc.; Charles Widor, born in 1845, a noted organist, with 10 organ-symphonies, 6 dramatic works (from 1880), choral and chamber works, etc.; Gaston Salvayre, born in 1847, with 5 operas (from 1877), a symphony and choral works; Benjamin Godard (d. 1895), an expert violinist, with several symphonies and chamber works of distinction, and 8 operas (from 1878), including La vivandière (1895); Vincent d'Indy, born in 1851, a master of orchestral style, with many symphonies, overtures and other pieces, a few operas (from 1882), especially Fervaal (1895-7), etc.; Alfred Bruneau, born in 1857, with 5 operas (from 1887), including L'attaque du moulin (1893), overtures and symphonic poems, songs, etc.; Gustave Charpentier, born in 1860, with the concert-drama La vie du poète (1892), several operas, including Le couronnement de la Muse or Louise (1898, Lille), and impressionistic orchestral works; and, most poetic and original of the present school, Claude Debussy, born in 1862, with striking cantatas and symphonic poems, and a few operas, including Pelléas et Mélisande (1902), besides smaller works.

To these may be added the Belgian Edgar Tinel of Brussels, born in 1854, composer of the oratorio Franciscus (1888), striking church music, some cantatas, etc.