Guy ROPARTZ

In 1885, after studying law to comply with his parents’ wishes, Ropartz entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he took lessons with Théodore Dubois, Jules Massenet, then later César Franck, becoming one of the last 20th-century champions of the latter’s music. Among his best friends were other disciples such as d’Indy and Magnard. At the same time as studying music, Ropartz was also writing literature, for which he showed an early talent. In 1894, he was appointed director of the Nancy Conservatory, a post which he held for a quarter of a century with great authority and tireless enthusiasm. He had a great impact on the musical life of the town, in particular by conducting regular symphonic concerts to great acclaim. In 1919, Ropartz was made director of the Strasbourg Conservatory and put in charge of the town’s Concerts Symphoniques. In 1929, he retired to his native region of Brittany, which he frequently depicted in his works, particularly in his opera Le Pays(1910), hence his nickname of the “bard of Armor”. Until 1950, Ropartz regularly added to his catalogue. The two hundred or so works he left to posterity include five symphonies, some religious pieces, chamber music and symphonic poems. His music was wonderfully disciplined with a solid structure inherited from Franck, harmonically rich, in the tradition of Wagnerian chromaticism, and increasingly modal, although never unnecessarily bombastic. Ropartz’s work displays a genuinely Post-Romantic sensuality, despite his often exaggerated reputation for severity.