Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (1869 – 1937) was a
French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman,
turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most
prominent French composers of the interwar period. His
early works were strongly influenced by the
impressionism of Debussy and Ravel, while he later
turned toward neoclassicism.
Roussel was by temperament a classicist. While his
early work was strongly influenced by impressionism, he
eventually found a personal style whi...(+)
Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (1869 – 1937) was a
French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman,
turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most
prominent French composers of the interwar period. His
early works were strongly influenced by the
impressionism of Debussy and Ravel, while he later
turned toward neoclassicism.
Roussel was by temperament a classicist. While his
early work was strongly influenced by impressionism, he
eventually found a personal style which was more formal
in design, with a strong rhythmic drive, and with a
more distinct affinity for functional tonality than
found in the work of his more famous contemporaries
Debussy, Ravel, Satie, and Stravinsky.
Roussel's training at the Schola Cantorum, with its
emphasis on rigorous academic models such as Palestrina
and Bach, left its mark on his mature style, which is
characterized by contrapuntal textures. Roussel's
orchestration is rather heavy compared to the subtle
and nuanced style of other French composers like
Gabriel Fauré or Claude Debussy. While Roussel did not
fully share the stylistic and orchestral aesthetic of
so-called "French" music, he was never a mere copyist
of Teutonic models. Roussel's manner could hardly be
called heavy when compared with the sound of the German
romantic orchestral tradition represented by Anton
Bruckner and Gustav Mahler.
"Andante d'un Trio d'Anches Inachevé", which roughly
translates as "Andante to an unfinished wind trio."
This charming movement represents his later neoclassic
style.
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