Roussel, Albert

Albert Roussel

Duo pour basson et contrebasse (1925)

Original version for bassoon and solo double bass
Transcribed version for bassoon and orchestral double bass

(b. Tourcoing, 5 April 1869 — d. Royan, 23 August 1937)

Albert Roussel
Duo pour basson et contrebasse (1925)
Original version for bassoon and solo double bass
Transcribed version for bassoon and orchestral double bass
(b. Tourcoing, 5 April 1869 — d. Royan, 23 August 1937)
Preface
It was not until the late age of twenty-five that Albert Roussel, then an officer in the French
navy, decided to pursue composition. He renounced the “invisible magnetism of the sea” that
had taken him to the Far East aboard the gunship Styx, divested himself of his last
compositional gaucheries, won not one but two composition prizes in 1897, and followed
Vincent d’Indy to Paris and the Schola Cantorum, where he would teach counterpoint until
1914.
Though initially oriented on the style of the César Franck School, he soon, like most composers
with something substantial to say, developed a uniquely personal voice. His first important
works – the First Piano Trio, op. 2 (1902), followed by the oddly mystic aura of the symphonic
prelude Résurrection, op. 4 (1903) – point in quite opposite directions. After a few symphonic
sketches and piano pieces he then turned out four impressionist tone-poems depicting the
seasons (1904-6). These he gathered together to create his “first symphony,” Poème de la forêt …

Read full preface / Komplettes Vorwort lesen > HERE