1888–1954 · France
Claude Delvincourt (1888–1954) was a French composer and pianist. He won the Prix de Rome in 1913, later headed the Paris Conservatoire and, during the occupation, helped its students avoid forced labour. For players he left Heures juvéniles, a set of twelve piano pieces from 1928.
Claude Delvincourt came into the world in Paris on 12 January 1888. His father, Pierre Delvincourt, was a diplomat, and his mother, Marguerite Fourès, played the piano well. It was beside her that the boy's pull towards music appeared early.
Piano lessons began when he was seven. His teacher was a friend of the family, Léon Boëllmann, and later Henri Büsser, then a young winner of the Prix de Rome. The young man wanted to become a composer, but his father wanted him to prepare for the Polytechnique entrance competition first. He took bachelor's degrees in letters and in mathematical sciences, yet still entered the conservatoire.
At twenty Delvincourt enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire. Georges Caussade taught him counterpoint and fugue, and Charles-Marie Widor taught him composition.
Among his early works are a Quintet for piano and string quartet (1907), Thestylis for soprano and orchestra to a poem by Leconte de Lisle (1908) and the cantata Acis et Galathée to words by Eugène Adenis (1910). In 1912 the choral piece La Source brought him first place in the trial round of the Prix de Rome competition.
In 1913 he was awarded the Prix de Rome for the cantata Faust et Hélène, to words by Eugène Adenis, sharing the prize with Lili Boulanger.
After war was declared, on 10 August 1914, Delvincourt joined the army. On 31 December 1915 he was badly wounded in the Argonne and lost the sight of his left eye. His recovery took more than two years.
He spent his long convalescence near Dieppe, where he became friends with the priest of the parish of Saint-Jacques. In July 1926 Delvincourt took the post of organist at that church, and in 1929 its organ was rebuilt by Victor Gonzalez.
In 1918 he began composing again; among his works of those years is music to six poems by Maurice d'Assier.
Works of these years include the choreographic poem for large orchestra L'offrande à Siva (1921) and Ce Monde de rosée, a collection of fourteen old Japanese uta written in 1925. The orchestral suite Bal vénitien (1927) has five dances; Walther Straram gave its first performance in 1930.
For piano he wrote Boccacerie (1926), five portraits after the Decameron that also exist in an orchestral version, as well as twelve pieces called Croquembouches and twelve pieces called Heures juvéniles (1928). For four-hand piano came Images pour les contes du temps passé (1935).
He wrote for the voice as well: Onchets to poems by René Chalupt (1929), six melodies in a popular style, Chansons de la ville et des champs (1933), and Four Songs by Clément Marot (1935). In 1947 he added three more motets to his Ave Verum, Ave Maria, Tu es Petrus and a Tantum ergo, first performed on 4 March 1951 at the Concerts Lamoureux. Among his chamber works are a Trio for piano, violin and cello (1909) and five pieces for violin and piano, Danceries.
Delvincourt also wrote for film: he composed the music for the documentary La Croisière jaune by Léon Poirier and André Sauvage (1934). The orchestral suite Pamir, which gathers the essentials of that music, was first heard at the Concerts Colonne.
In December 1938 the Théâtre Montansier in Versailles staged his opéra-bouffe La Femme à barbe, with a libretto by André de la Tourasse; in October 1954 the Opéra-Comique put it on again. He also wrote music for productions of Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and of Oedipus Rex in the adaptation by Gabriel Boissy (Orange, 1939).
Lucifer ou Le Mystère de Caïn is a mystery in a prologue and three episodes, to a text by René Dumesnil and freely inspired by Lord Byron's Cain. It was first staged on 15 December 1948 at the Opéra. In place of a narrator, a vocal quartet sang in the pit, and the choruses were placed on either side of the orchestra.
In 1932 Delvincourt was appointed director of the conservatoire at Versailles, and in the early 1940s he took over from Henri Rabaud at the head of the Paris Conservatoire.
During the German occupation of France he was obliged to enforce the Vichy government's race laws at the conservatoire, which meant excluding Jewish teachers and students. With Marie-Louise Boëllmann, a niece of his former teacher, and with Jacques Chailley, he helped pupils avoid the compulsory labour service (STO) set up by the law of 16 February 1943.
To do this he gathered the young musicians concerned into the Orchestre des Cadets du Conservatoire and persuaded the German authorities that they were thus doing their duty. At the orchestra's first concert, on 12 December 1943, Roger Désormière conducted a symphony by Joseph Haydn and mostly French music. Delvincourt also joined the Front National des Musiciens, an organisation of resistance to the occupiers.
In the spring of 1944 the Germans saw through the trick. Delvincourt played for time, supplied threatened pupils with false identity papers and helped them go underground. He himself was threatened by the Gestapo. Soon he had to disappear, hidden by a Jewish friend in the rue de Messine until the Liberation.
In 1953 Delvincourt introduced a compulsory course in general culture for every student of the conservatoire, so that musicians would not remain shut away in their own world.
The String Quartet was the last work he managed to finish. He was travelling to Rome for the quartet's first performance when he was in a car accident on a road near Orbetello in Italy; Delvincourt died of his injuries on 5 April 1954. He was still director of the conservatoire, and Marcel Dupré followed him in the post. A concerto for piano and orchestra was left unfinished.
The composer was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery. A portrait of him drawn by Roger Guit is kept at the Musée Carnavalet in Paris.
Delvincourt's catalogue covers orchestral suites and choreographic poems, chamber music, songs and choruses, church motets, and music for the stage and film. For orchestra he wrote the Serenade, also known as the Radio-Serenade (1914), Bal vénitien (1927), a Choreographic Prelude (1931) and Film d'Asie (1937). His chamber works include a Quintet for piano and string quartet (1907), a Trio for piano, violin and cello (1909), Danceries and Contemplation for violin and piano (1935), and a String Quartet.
For voice he composed songs and choral pieces to poems by Victor Hugo, Leconte de Lisle, Maurice d'Assier, René Chalupt and Clément Marot, among them Aurore (1910), Nuit tombante (1911), La Source (1912) and Four Songs by Clément Marot (1935). Onchets is five melodies to poems by René Chalupt (1929), and Chansons de la ville et des champs is six melodies in a popular style (1933). His sacred works include Ave Verum and Tota pulchra es for choir, soloist, organ and strings, Pater Noster for mezzo-soprano or soprano with organ (1937), and Salut solennel en sol (1948).
Delvincourt wrote for theatre and cinema as well: the farce La femme à barbe (1936), music for the productions Automne (1937) and Œdipe-roi (1939), and the mystery Lucifer ou Le Mystère de Caïn. He composed for the documentary La Croisière jaune (1934), for Léon Poirier's films Sœurs d'armes (1937) and Brazza ou l'Épopée du Congo (1940).
Delvincourt's piano catalogue holds Boccacerie (1926), Croquembouches and Heures juvéniles (1928); Bal vénitien (1927) was also arranged for two pianos, and Images pour les contes du temps passé (1935) is a piano duet. Boccacerie has five pieces, while Croquembouches and Heures juvéniles have twelve each. Boccacerie also exists in an orchestral version, and Bal vénitien is a suite of five dances. He also wrote three organ pieces, including Marche d'église and Méditation (1937).
The site has one edition by Delvincourt: Heures juveniles (No5 missing) for solo piano, at the level "Intermediate+". Heures juvéniles is a set of twelve pieces written in 1928; the title of the edition notes that the fifth piece is missing from it. It is the only way into his piano music on the site, so it is the natural place to begin.