Roussel, Albert (Charles Paul

Marie)
(b Tourcoing, 5 April 1869; d Royan, 23 Aug 1937). French
composer. Though he was touched by the successive waves of
impressionism and neo-classicism in French music, he was an
independent figure, his music harmonically spiced and rhythmically
vigorous.
1. Life.
2. Works.
WORKS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
NICOLE LABELLE
Roussel, Albert
1. Life.
Roussel was born into a family of industrialists, highly regarded
makers of curtains and carpets. His early childhood was
overshadowed by an unusual incidence of bereavements, which
may explain the solitary and independent aspects of his
personality. He lost first his father, who died of consumption in
1870, next his paternal grandparents, between 1874 and 1876, and
then his mother, who succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis in
1877. He went to live with his maternal grandfather, Charles
Roussel-Defontaine, mayor of Tourcoing, who died in his turn in
1879. At the age of ten, Roussel was taken into the care of his
maternal aunt, Eugénie, and her husband, Félix Réquillart. He had
learnt the rudiments of music from his mother, and in 1880 he had
his first lessons with the parish organist, who recognized his
natural talent. He attended the Institution Libre du Sacré-Coeur,
where his exam results indicated a gifted and diligent student,
especially in French composition and mathematics.
When he was 15, his guardians decided to send him to Paris, to
pursue his studies at the Collège Stanislas. Jules Stolz, organist of
St Ambroise, gave him piano lessons and introduced him to the
cardinal works of the repertory. Roussel passed the entrance
examination for the Ecole Navale in 1887 and embarked in October
of that year on the Borda, passing out as a midshipman two years
later. He was sent to sea several times, notably to the Near East.
He first essayed musical composition in 1892, during a voyage on
the Melpomène: it was no doubt for a violin-playing fellow-sailor
that he wrote his Fantaisie for violin and piano, and he went on to
set several excerpts from an Indian legend. In 1893, by then a
lieutenant, he set sail on the Styx for Cochin-China. On his return
to France in 1894 he took three months' leave, which he extended
and passed in Roubaix, where he studied harmony with Julien
Koszul. Koszul urged him to settle in Paris and recommended him
to the celebrated organist Eugène Gigout.
At 25 Roussel decided to become a musician and sent a letter of
resignation from the navy, dated 14 June 1894. He settled in Paris
that October and began to study music. Four years later he entered
the Schola Cantorum, where he studied under d'Indy. In 1902
d'Indy entrusted him with the counterpoint class, which he took
until June 1914; his pupils included Varèse, Satie, Le Flem, Raugel
and Roland-Manuel. Later, during the 1920s, he was to be the
mentor of composers such as Martinů, Conrad Beck and Jean
Cras.
He became known to a limited public thanks to Cortot, who
conducted his first orchestral work, Résurrection (1903), at one of
the concerts of the Société Nationale. Cortot's interest in Roussel's
music led him to feature Soir d'été (1904) at one of the ‘lectures’ of
the Société des Concerts Cortot. Soir d'été became the third
movement of the First Symphony, the Poème de la forêt (1904–6),
which was first performed in 1908, in Brussels, under Sylvain
Dupuis.
It was also in 1908 that Roussel married Blanche Preisach (1880–
1962), a Parisian of Alsatian descent, and composed music for
Jean-Aubry's Marchand de sable qui passe. Jean-Aubry had this
refined and delicate score performed at the Cercle de l'Art
Moderne in Le Havre, of which he was the founder. In September
1909 the Roussels set sail on a three-month voyage to the Indies
and Cambodia, an experience which inspired two of the
composer's major works: Evocations (1910–11) and Padmâvatî
(1913–18).
Following the resounding success of Evocations, Jacques Rouché,
then director of the Théâtre des Arts, asked Roussel to write the
ballet score Le festin de l'araignée (1913). This was so successful
that Rouché, newly appointed director of the Opéra, next
commissioned an opera from Roussel to inaugurate his term of
office there. Recalling a Hindu legend he had heard during his
voyage to India, Roussel began to compose Padmâvatî to a libretto
by Louis Laloy.
But war interrupted the work. Though he had been removed from
the reserve list in 1902 for health reasons, Roussel took steps to
join the army as a lieutenant in the artillery. From 1915 he served
as a transport officer in Champagne and the Somme until Verdun.
He was finally invalided out in February 1918. In the summer of
1919 he moved to Cap Brun, near Toulom, where he began his
Second Symphony. Illness forced him to break off work and go to
convalesce in the mountains near Grenoble early in 1920. There
he wrote his symphonic poem Pour une fête de printemps, which
he dedicated to his teacher Gigout.
In 1920 Roussel and his wife bought a magnificent property at
Varengeville, not far from the sea, near Dieppe. Here Roussel
finished the Second Symphony and composed most of his
remaining works. The Second Symphony was coolly received at its
première on 4 March 1922, but when Koussevitzky conducted it the
following year the public was more responsive. The première of
Padmâvatî, for which Roussel had been hoping since the end of
the war, at last took place in 1923, to critical acclaim.
The war years had marked a caesura in Roussel's work, and he
had the chance to reflect. The near failure of the Second
Symphony prompted him to take a new direction and abandon the
outdated aesthetics that had held him in thrall. From this time
forward he aspired to compose a purer music: less cluttered,
cleansed, more personal. La naissance de la lyre was the first
product of this resolve, exhibiting a new simplicity and a serenity in
which music, dance, spoken dialogue, singing and choral writing all
blend.
His reputation was spreading outside France: his music was played
in numerous European and North American venues, and he
received commissions from foreign performers, patrons and
publishers. In Paris, festivals of his works were organized by the
Société Musicale Indépendante, in 1925 and 1929; on the latter
occasion his 60th birthday was marked by four concerts of
orchestral, vocal and chamber music. This was the highpoint of his
career. In 1930 he and his wife went to Boston and Chicago to
hear the Third Symphony, written for the 50th anniversary of the
Boston SO and conducted by Koussevitzky, and the Trio op.40, an
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge commission. The journey was a
triumphant success and the American public received him warmly.
In 1931 the ballet Bacchus et Ariane was performed at the Paris
Opéra, choreographed by Serge Lifar. Roussel's theatrical and
symphonic qualities had equal scope in this exceptional score. The
operetta Le testament de la tante Caroline (1932–3) reveals the
poker-faced humour that is also present in several of the chamber
works. Roussel had the pleasure of seeing Le testament presented
at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in March 1937, after its première in
Olomouc in November 1936, in a Czech translation by his pupil
Julia Reisserova.
In February 1934 he had suffered pneumonia, complicated by
jaundice. He was confined to bed until the summer and returned to
work only slowly, in his house in Varengeville, where he wrote his
Sinfonietta for Jane Evrard's string orchestra. At the same time he
composed his Fourth Symphony, which received a breathtaking
performance under the baton of Albert Wolff. Hermann Scherchen
commissioned the ballet score Aeneas for a concert given on 31
July 1935 at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. The Belgian
press was unanimous in its praise for this very personal work.
In the desire to build on this success, Roussel in April 1936
composed his Rapsodie flamande on five themes from Ernest
Closson's collection Chansons populaires belges. Then, just after
finishing his Cello Concertino, he was laid low by an attack of
angina, on 27 August. After a long convalescence in Nice he
resumed work on the preparations for the musical section of the
Paris Exhibition of 1937 and the ISCM Festival, of which he was
president. Back in Varengeville, he composed his Trio op.58. He
fell ill again and regretfully left his much-loved home, where the
climate was too severe for him, and moved to Royan. Though very
tired, he began a wind trio, but did not finish it. He suffered a heart
attack on 13 August 1937 and died ten days later. He was buried,
in accordance with his wishes, in the little cemetery of Varengeville,
overlooking the sea.
Roussel, Albert
2. Works.
Roussel's career coincided with two distinct historical periods, the
first stretching from the late 19th century to the outbreak of World
War I, the second ending as World War II approached. To some
extent his music reflects the predominant styles of French music in
those years. It is certainly stamped by the lateness of his decision
to dedicate himself to composition. Diverse influences are evident
in the works of his early manner, but he gradually shed them work
by work, until he arrived at a unique personal language in which he
was to have no followers. His career was one of evolution, not
revolution, and though traces of various aesthetic schools can be
found in his music, the distinctive, representative signs of a
Rousselian style shine through.
The traditional forms, cyclic principle and programmatic content of
the earliest works (the Piano Trio, Violin Sonata and First
Symphony) testify to the influence of the Schola. The composer's
personality begins to reveal itself in chamber works and the eight
Régnier songs. The Divertissement for wind quintet and piano
(1906) exhibits several elements of his future style: sprightly
rhythms and dissonance-enriched harmonies. The Deux poèmes
chinois op.12 presage his future oriental interests, while the
delicate incidental music for Le marchand de sable qui passe
reveals a poet of sensations. Roussel's impressionism is not that of
Debussy or Ravel, for his music transmutes sensations into more
abstract images.
If Rustiques (1904–6) presents a sharp contrast to its predecessor
among his major piano works in respect of harmonic language,
counterpoint and rhythmic ingeniousness, the Suite op.14,
composed five years later, testifies to a profound change. While
rhythm becomes more stable, the harmonic writing ranges wider,
through the use of the tritone and certain destabilizing intervals,
notably ones originating in Indian modes, and through Roussel's
liking for uncommon harmonic combinations and independent
counterpoint. Although the Suite contains Roussel's first
experiments with Indian modality, the full depth of this influence
emerged only in the later Evocations. A broad panorama in three
movements, with chorus and soloists, transporting the listener to
India, this symphonic poem is in its dramatic power, orchestral
colour, exotic influences and structure one of the great successes
of French music in the period immediately before World War I. A
renewal of interest in the piano led Roussel to write the Sonatine,
which is distinguished by its formal elegance and the crystallization
of previous experiments with rhythm, harmony, counterpoint and a
more homogenous and coherent pianism. Le festin de l'araignée
marks the conclusion of Roussel's first period. This first ballet score
has a seductive lightness, spontaneity, irony and refinement of
style and orchestration. It is realistic rather than impressionistic,
depicting the ferocity of the insect world meticulously but not
excessively so, and it exhibits characteristically Rousselian
rhythmic motives.
Padmâvatî represents the culmination of Roussel's fascination with
India, in its subject matter – the legend of the Queen of Chitor –
and in its masterful integration of an Indian modal language into the
composer's harmonic style. Dark, brooding orchestral colours,
emotionally effective choruses and danced numbers, and poignant
solo writing all evoke the majesty of Hindu temples and the tragic
destiny of the characters.
Roussel reached a turning-point as the 1920s dawned. He looked
for a style and new techniques that would enable him to organize
his musical ideas, and Pour une fête de printemps and the Second
Symphony are the witnesses to this process. More chromaticism,
the use of bitonality in more ample forms and a more complex
harmonic language in the symphony are the dominant
characteristics of this period of transition.
The mature works which begin with the orchestral Suite in F
include several compositions for a variety of ensembles, but the
flute occupies a privileged position. Roussel pays his dues to
contemporary taste in borrowing musical forms from the 18th
century and rediscovering the spirit of concision typical of that
epoch in the Concert for small orchestra, the Piano Concerto, the
Cello Concertino, the Petite suite, the Sinfonietta, the String
Quartet and the Third and Fourth symphonies, but it is the
grandeur of his contrapuntal and linear writing that makes the
greatest impression. The melodies, now of an unprecedented
amplitude and often using large intervals, are closely interwoven so
that they generate harmonic amalgamations of astonishing novelty.
The orchestration, whether vivid and richly coloured or slender and
pared down, always serves the cleanly shaped themes. There is no
denying Roussel's rhythmic ingenuity, with its predilection for the
anapaest and for irregular subdivisions of the beat. He may seem
reserved, but he allows his passionate nature to express itself
without restraint in Bacchus et Ariane, a dazzling, sumptuous
score. The imposing Psalm lxxx and Aeneas – choral symphonies
in their way, but stripped of excess – move the listener by their
 simplicity and interiority. An extreme refinement informs the last
songs and the String Trio.
In the music Roussel composed after 1925 he achieved his ideal of
‘a music willed and realized for its own sake’. An eclectic, he forged
a personal, unique style in a modern idiom resting on the
foundations of traditional music. Never having wished for disciples,
he remained independent and unique.
Roussel, Albert
WORKS
stage
op.
13 Le marchand de sable qui passe (incid music, 1, G. Jean-Aubry), 1908;
cond. Roussel, Le Havre, 16 Dec 1908
17 Le festin de l’araignée (ballet-pantomime, 1, G. de Voisins after H.
Fabre: Souvenirs entomologiques), 1912–13; cond. G. Grovlez, Paris,
Arts, 3 April 1913; extracts arr. as Fragments symphoniques, 1913
18 Padmâvatî (opéra-ballet, 2, L. Laloy), 1913–18; cond. P. Gaubert, Paris,
Opéra, 1 June 1923
24 La naissance de la lyre (conte lyrique, 1, T. Reinach, after Sophocles),
1922–4; cond. P. Gaubert, Paris, Opéra, 1 July 1925
— Sarabande [for L’éventail de Jeanne], ballet, 1927; cond. Désormière,
Paris, 16 June 1927
43 Bacchus et Ariane (ballet, 2, A. Hermant), 1930; cond. P. Gaubert,
Paris, Opéra, 22 May 1931; extracts arr. as 2 orch suites; no.1, Paris
SO, cond. Münch, Paris, Salle Pleyel, 2 April 1933; no.2, Paris SO,
cond. Monteux, Paris, Salle Pleyel, 2 Feb 1934
— Le testament de la tante Caroline (opéra-bouffe, 3, Nino [M. Verber]),
1932–3; cond. A. Heller, Olomouc, 14 Nov 1936; in Fr., cond. R.
Désormière, Paris, OC (Favart), 11 March 1937
54 Aeneas (ballet, 1, J. Weterings), chorus, orch, 1935; cond. Scherchen,
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 31 July 1935
— Prelude to Act 2 of Le quatorze juillet (incid music, Rolland), 1936;
cond. Désormière, Paris, Alhambra, 14 July 1936
59 Elpénor (radio score, Weterings), fl, str qt (1947)
orchestral
— Marche nuptiale, 1893, destroyed
4 Résurrection, sym. prelude after Tolstoy, 1903, cond. A. Cortot, Paris,
Nouveau Théâtre, 17 May 1904
— Vendanges, sym. sketch, c1905, cond. Cortot, Paris, Nouveau Théâtre,
18 April 1905; destroyed
7 Le poème de la forêt (Symphony no.1): Forêt d’hiver, Renouveau, Soir
d’été, Faunes et dryades, 1904–6; complete, cond. S. Dupuis, Brussels,
Monnaie, 22 March 1908
15 Evocations (M.D. Calvocoressi): Les dieux dans l’ombre des cavernes,
La ville rose, Aux bords du fleuve sacré, A, T, Bar, chorus, orch, 1910–
11; cond. Rhené-Baton, Paris, Salle Gaveau, 18 May 1912
22 Pour une fête de printemps, sym. poem, 1920; cond. Pierné, Paris,
Châtelet, 29 Oct 1921
23 Symphony no.2, B , 1919–21; cond. Rhené-Baton, Paris, Champs-
Elysées, 4 March 1922
33 Suite, F: Prélude, Sarabande, Gigue, 1926; cond. Koussevitzky,
Boston, 21 Jan 1927
34 Concert, small orch, 1926–7; cond. W. Straram, Paris, Salle Gaveau, 5
May 1927
36 Piano Concerto, G, 1927; A. Borovsky, cond. Koussevitzky, Paris, Salle
Pleyel, 7 June 1928
39 Petite suite: Aubade, Pastorale, Mascarade, 1929; cond. Straram,
Paris, Champs-Elysées, 11 April 1929
42 Symphony no.3, g, 1929–30; Boston SO, cond. Koussevitzky, Boston,
24 Oct 1930
48 A Glorious Day, military band, 1932; Garde Républicaine, Paris, 14 July
1933
52 Sinfonietta, str, 1934; cond. J. Evrard, Paris, Salle Gaveau, 19 Nov
1934
53 Symphony no.4, A, 1934; cond. A. Wolff, Paris, Opéra-Comique, 19 Oct
1935
56 Rapsodie flamande, 1936; cond. Kleiber, Brussels, Philharmonie, 12
Dec 1936
57 Concertino, vc, orch, 1936; Fournier, cond. Siohan, Paris, Salle Pleyel,
6 Feb 1937
chamber
— Fantaisie, vn, pf, 1892, destroyed
— Andante (Ave Maria), str trio, org, 1892; Cherbourg, 25 Dec 1892;
destroyed
— Horn Quintet, c1901; Paris, 2 Feb 1901; destroyed
— Violin Sonata, c1902; Paris, 5 May 1902; destroyed
2 Piano Trio, E , 1902; Paris, 14 April 1904; M. Dron, A. Parent, L.
Fournier, Paris, Salle Pleyel, 4 Feb 1905; rev. 1927
6 Divertissement, wind qnt, pf, 1906; Société Moderne des Instruments à
Vent, E. Wagner, Paris, Salle des Agriculteurs, 10 April 1906
11 Violin Sonata no.1, d, 1907–8; A. Parent, M. Dron, Paris, Salon
d’Automne, 9 Oct 1908; rev. 1931
21 Impromptu, harp, 1919; L. Laskine, Paris, 6 April 1919
— Fanfare pour un sacre païen, brass, drums, 1921; Lamoureux Orch,
cond. Wolff, Paris, Opéra, 25 April 1929
27 Joueurs de flûte: Pan, Tityre, Krishna, Monsieur de la Péjaudie, fl, pf,
1924; L. Fleury, J. Weill, Paris, Vieux-Colombier, 17 Jan 1925
28 Violin Sonata no.2, A, 1924; A. Asselin, L. Caffaret, Paris, Salle
Gaveau, 15 Oct 1925
29 Ségovia, gui, 1925; Segovia, Madrid, 25 April 1925
— Duo, bn, vc/db, 1925; F. Oubradous, A. Navarra, Paris, Revue
Musicale, 30 Nov 1937
30 Sérénade, fl, str trio, hp, 1925; Paris Instrumental Quintet, Paris, Salle
Gaveau, 15 Oct 1925
40 Trio, fl, va, vc, 1929; Prague, 22 Oct 1929
41 Prelude and Fughetta, org, 1929; P. Piédelièvre, Paris, 18 May 1930
45 String Quartet, D, 1931–2; Pro Arte Qt, Brussels, Palais des Beaux-
 Arts, 9 Dec 1932
51 Andante and Scherzo, fl, pf, 1934; G. Barrère, A. Roussel, Milan,
Convegno, 17 Dec 1934
— Pipe, D, flageolet, pf, 1934
58 String Trio, 1937; Trio Pasquier, Paris, Ecole Normale, 5 April 1938
— Andante [for inc. Trio], ob, cl, bn, 1937; Paris Wind Trio, Paris, Revue
Musicale, 30 Nov 1937
vocal
— Two Madrigals, chorus 4vv, 1897; cond. Roussel, Paris, Salle Pleyel, 3
May 1898; unpubd
— Les rêves (A. Silvestre), Pendant l’attente (Mendès), Tristesse au jardin
(L. Tailhade), 1v, pf, c1900
3 Quatre poèmes (H. de Régnier): Le départ, Voeu, Le jardin mouillé,
Madrigal lyrique, 1v, pf, 1903; J. Bathori, Cortot, Paris, Salle Pleyel, 21
April 1906
8 Quatre poèmes (Régnier): Adieux, Invocation, Nuit d’automne,
Odelette, 1v, pf, 1907; Bathori, Roussel, Paris, Salle Erard, 11 Jan
1908; no.1 orchd, 1907
9 La ménace (Régnier), 1v, pf/orch, 1908; E. Emgel, cond. L.
Hasselmans, Paris, 11 March 1911
10 Flammes (Jean-Aubry), 1v, pf, 1908; S. Berchut, Roussel, Le Havre, 14
Feb 1909
12 Deux poèmes chinois (H.P. Roché, after Giles): Ode à un jeune
gentilhomme, Amoureux séparés, 1v, pf, 1907–8; no.1, M. Pironnay,
Roussel, Le Havre, 28 June 1907; no.2, S. Berchut, Roussel, Le Havre,
14 Feb 1909
19 Deux mélodies: Light (Jean-Aubry), A Farewell (E. Oliphant), 1v, pf,
1918; Lucy Vuillemin, Louis Vuillemin, Paris, Salle des Agriculteurs, 27
Dec 1919
20 Deux mélodies (R. Chalupt): Le bachelier de Salamanque, Sarabande,
1v, pf/orch, 1919; pf version as op.19; orch version, Croiza, Paris SO,
cond. L. Fourestier, Paris, 9 Dec 1928
25 Madrigal aux muses (G. Bernard), SSA, 1923; Groupe Nivard, Paris,
Salle Pleyel, 6 Feb 1924
26 Deux poèmes de Ronsard: Rossignol, mon mignon, Ciel, aer et vens,
1v, fl, 1924; no.1, N. Vallin, R. Le Roy, Paris, Vieux-Colombier, 15 May
1924, no.2, Croiza, R. Le Roy, Paris, 28 May 1924
31 Odes anacréontiques (trans. de Lisle): Ode XVI: Sur lui-même, Ode
XIX: Qu’il faut boire, Ode XX: Sur une jeune fille, 1v, pf, 1926; no.3,
Bathori, 17 May 1926; complete, E. Warnery, 30 May 1927; no.1 orchd,
n.d.
32 Odes anacréontiques (trans. de Lisle): Ode XXVI: Sur lui-même, Ode
XXXIV: Sur une jeune fille, Ode XLIV: Sur un songe, 1v, pf, 1926; no.3,
Bathori, 17 May 1926; complete, E. Warnery, 30 May 1927; nos.1, 2
orchd, n.d.
— Le bardit des francs (Chateaubriand), male chorus 4vv, brass and perc
ad lib, 1926; Chorale Strasbourgeoise, cond. C. Münch, Strasbourg, 21
April 1928
35 Deux poèmes chinois (H.P. Roché, after Giles): Des fleurs font une
broderie, Réponse d’une épouse sage, 1v, pf, 1927; no.1, Bernac,
 Fontainebleau, 5 July 1928; no.2, M. Gerar, Paris, 23 May 1927; no.2
orchd, c1927; Croiza, Paris SO, cond. Fourestier, Paris, 9 Dec 1928
— Vocalise no.1, 1v, pf, 1927; J. Darnay, Roussel, 20 Dec 1928
— Vocalise no.2, 1v, pf, 1928; R. de Lormoy, P. Maire, Paris, 13 April
1929; orchd A. Hoérée, c1930; arr. A. Hoérée as Aria, fl/ob/cl/va/vc,
pf/orch, n.d.
37 Psalm lxxx, T, chorus, orch, 1928; Jouatte, Nantes Schola Chorus,
Lamoureux Orch, cond. Wolff, Paris, Opéra, 25 April 1929
— O bon vin, où as-tu crû? (Champagne trad.), 1v, pf, 1928; Lormoy, P.
Maire, 13 April 1929
38 Jazz dans la nuit (R. Dommange), 1v, pf, 1928; Croiza, Roussel, Paris,
Salle Gaveau, 18 April 1929
44 Deux idylles: Le kérioklèpte (Theocritus, trans. de Lisle), Pan aimait
Ekho (Moskhos, trans. de Lisle), 1v, pf, 1931; Lormoy, Hoérée, Paris,
Salle de l'Ancien Conservatoire, 5 March 1932
— A Flower Given to my Daughter (Joyce), 1v, pf, 1931; D. Moulton,
London, 16 March 1932
47 Deux poèmes chinois (H.P. Roché, after Giles): Favorite abandonnée,
Vois, de belles filles, 1v, pf, 1932; Bourdette-Vial, Y. Gouverné, Paris, 4
May 1934
50 Deux mélodies (Chalupt): Coeur en péril, L’heure de retour, 1v, pf,
1933–4; no.1, M. Bunlet, Jan 1935; no.2, Bunlet, Dec 1934
55 Deux mélodies (G. Ville): Vieilles cartes, vieilles mains, Si quelquefois
tu pleures …, 1v, pf, 1935; Blanc-Audra, D. Dixmier, Paris, 24 Jan 1936
piano
— Badinage, c1897, destroyed
— Fugue, c1898
1 Des heures passent:
Graves, légères …,
Joyeuses …, Tragiques …,
Champêtres …, 1898
— Conte à la poupée, 1904
5 Rustiques: Danse au bord
de l’eau, Promenade
sentimentale en forêt,
Retour de fête, 1904–6; B.
Selva, Paris, Salle Pleyel,
17 Feb 1906
14 Suite, f : Prélude,
Sicilienne, Bourrée, Ronde,
1909–10; Selva, Paris, Salle
Pleyel, 28 Jan 1911
16 Sonatine, 1912; Dron, Paris,
Salle Erard, 18 Jan 1913
— Petit canon perpetuel, 1913
— Doute, 1919; Mme Grovlez,
Paris, 15 May 1920
— L’accueil des muses [in
memoriam Debussy], 1920;
 E. Lévy, Paris, Salle des
Agriculteurs, 24 Jan 1921
46 Prelude and Fugue, 1932–4;
H. Gil-Marchez, Paris, Salle
Chopin, 23 Feb 1935
49 Three Pieces, 1933; R.
Casadesus, Paris, Ecole
Normale, 14 April 1934

Principal publishers: Durand, Rouart-Lerolle/Salabert,

Heugel

Roussel, Albert
BIBLIOGRAPHY
L. Vuillemin: Albert Roussel et son oeuvre (Paris, 1924)
Courrier musical & Théâtral, xxxi/8 (1929) [Roussel issue]
ReM x/6 (1928–9) [Roussel issue]
ReM, no.178 (1937) [Roussel issue]
A. Hoérée: Albert Roussel (Paris, 1938)
Catalogue de l'oeuvre d'Albert Roussel (Paris, 1947)
N. Demuth: Albert Roussel (London, 1947/R)
R. Bernard: Albert Roussel (Paris, 1948)
W. Mellers: Studies in Contemporary Music (London, 1947/R)
M. Pincherle: Albert Roussel (Geneva, 1957)
B. Deane: Albert Roussel (London, 1961/R)
J.M. Eddins: The Symphonic Music of Albert Roussel (diss.,
Florida State U., 1967)
A. Surchamp: Albert Roussel (Paris, 1967)
Zodiaque, no.80 (1969) [Roussel issue]
R. Crichton: ‘Roussel's Stage Works’, MT, cx (1969), 729–33
F. Lesure: Albert Roussel, 1869–1937, Bibliothèque Nationale, 23
Sept – 15 Oct 1969 (Paris, 1969) [exhibition catalogue]
E.D.R. Neill: ‘Albert Roussel’, Musicalia, i/1 (1970), 5–10 [with
work-list and discography]
L. Davies: Paths to Modern Music (London and New York, 1971),
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