Antoine François Marmontel
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Antoine François Marmontel (July 16, 1816, Clermont-Ferrand – January 16, 1898, Paris) was a French pianist, teacher and musicographer.
Marmontel entered the Paris Conservatory in 1827. His teachers were Pierre Zimmerman in pianoforte, Victor Dourlen in harmony, Jacques Fromental Halévy in fugue and Jean-François Lesueur in composition. He achieved first prizes in theory of music and piano. In 1837, he became an assistant in theory of music at the Conservatory. In 1848 he succeeded Zimmerman as Professor of Keyboard at the Conservatory, beating off his former teacher Charles-Valentin Alkan, and as a consequence derailing the latter's career. His memoir of his sometime colleague in his book 'Les pianistes célèbres' is nonetheless one of the most valuable sources for Alkan's biography.
Marmontel achieved renown as an effective and imaginative teacher. He had many pupils including Georges Bizet, Vincent d'Indy, Théodore Dubois, Ernest Guiraud, Emile Paladhile, Edward MacDowell, Gabriel Pierné, Louis Diémer, Francis Planté and Claude Debussy.
Marmontel's career is marked by a great number of pedagogical works (more than 200 opus numbers) as well as nocturnes, romances and many other pieces. Notably, he published The art of deciphering (100 easy studies) ; Basic school of mechanism and style (24 studies) in 1847 ; Study of mechanism ; 5 parlour studies ; The art of deciphering for four hands in 1847 ; and Progressive and rational piano teaching in 1887.
Marmontel's musicographical works number among the best sources for the history of piano and pianists, particularly for the 19th century. They include his Symphonists and virtuosi of 1880 ; Famous pianists of 1878 ; Contemporary virtuosi of 1882 ; Fundamentals of musical aesthetics and thoughts on the beautiful in the arts of 1884 ; and History of the piano and its origins of 1885.
Marmontel's son, Antonin Emil Louis Corbaz Marmontel (b. 24 April 1850 Paris, d. 23 July 1907) was also a piano teacher at the Conservatoire. He also wrote many salon pieces.
