Théodore Gouvy at 200

Thursday, July 4, 2019

After having recently celebrated the 200th birthday of Jacques Offenbach, today we turn to (Louis) Théodore Gouvy (1819-1898), a composer who not only shares this anniversary year with him but who also has a French/German background. Born in Goffontaine (today in Saarbrücken, Germany), Gouvy devoted himself to music after abandoning studies in law. He spent almost his entire life moving between Leipzig, Paris, Berlin, and his hometown. While his personal mixture of French esprit and German thoroughness was praised during his lifetime, this combination later proved to be unfortunate: during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, Gouvy virtually lost his musical homeland and is almost completely forgotten today. The Institut Théodore Gouvy would like to take the anniversary as an occasion to make his works better known again.

Among the Gouvy sources in RISM are the Wind Octet op. 71, a short autograph quotation (nine measures from his 4th Symphony) in an album that belonged to Ferdinand Möhring, and three songs.

Image: Portrait of Théodore Gouvy, via Wikimedia Commons

Category: Musical anniversaries