Ropartz, Joseph Guy

Ropartz, Joseph Guy – Deuxième Symphonie en fa mineur

(b. Guingamp, France, 15 June 1864 – d. Lanloup, France 22 November 1955)

for orchestra
(1899-1900)

Preface
Guy Ropartz was born in Guingamp, a small town in the Côtes-d’Armor department of Brittany, France. He showed an early aptitude for music as a child, playing instruments such as horn, double bass, and even the bugle in various amateur ensembles. In deference to his parents’ desires, he studied law at Rennes to ensure he could enter a profession. Immediately after obtaining his degree in 1885, however, Ropartz enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied harmony under Theodore Dubois (1837-1924) and composition under Jules Massenet (1842-1912). Yet two years later, upon hearing music by a student of the renowned organist, teacher, and composer César Franck (1822-1890) in 1887, Ropartz was so moved he left the Conservatoire to study with Franck himself for three years, becoming one of his last pupils.

Ropartz was destined to spend his professional life as an administrator and conductor. In 1894 he was appointed director of the Nancy Conservatory. At only thirty years old, this made Ropartz the youngest man in his position in the entire country. Ropartz was an energetic and capable director, enlarging the conservatory’s curriculum, growing its attendance, and conducting its orchestra. Ropartz particularly excelled as a conductor, presenting the music of contemporaries like Debussy, Fauré, and d’Indy while inviting the composers themselves to Nancy as guest conductors. Ropartz developed themes for concert programs such as “The Symphonic Poem” and “The German Symphony” and premiered works by Ernest Chausson and Albéric Magnard as well as giving the first French performance of Bach’s St. John Passion in 1902. Over an extraordinary twenty-five years at Nancy, Ropartz developed the conservatory into a leading regional institution. …

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