Albert Lavignac

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Albert Lavignac (Paris 21 January 1846 – Paris, 28 May 1916) was a French music scholar, known for his essays on theory, and a minor composer.

Lavignac studied with Antoine François Marmontel, François Benoist and Ambroise Thomas at the Conservatoire de Paris where later he taught harmony. Among his pupils were Vincent d'Indy, Philipp Jarnach, Gabriel Pierné, Amédée Henri Gustave Noël Gastoué and Florent Schmitt.

In March 1864, at the age of eighteen, he conducted from the harmonium the private premiere of Gioacchino Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle.

His condensed work, La Musique et les Musiciens, an overview of musical grammar and materials, continued to be reprinted years after his death. In it he characterised the particular characteristics of instruments^[1] and of each key, somewhat in the way Berlioz had done:

B major: Energetic
E major: Radiant, warm, joyous
A major: Frank, sonorous
D major: Joyful, brilliant, alert
G major: Rural, merry
C major: Simple, naive, commonplace
F major: Pastoral, rustic
B flat major: Noble and elegant, graceful
E-flat major: Vigorous, chivalrous
A-flat major: Gentle, caressing, or pompous
D-flat major: Charming, suave, placid
G flat major: Gentle and calm
G sharp minor: Very sombre
C-sharp minor: Brutal, sinister, or very sombre
F sharp minor: Rough, or light, aerial
B minor: Savage or sombre but vigorous
E minor: Sad, agitated
A minor: Simple, naive, sad, rustic
D minor: Serious, concentrated
G minor: Melancholy, shy
C minor: Gloomy, dramatic, violent
F minor: Morose, surly, or energetic
B-flat minor: Funeral or mysterious
E flat minor: Profoundly sad

His more popularized works discussed the music dramas of Richard Wagner, summarised in Le Voyage artistique à Bayreuth.

[edit] Selected works

Lavignac edited the compendious Encyclopédie de la Musique.

Cours complet théoretique et pratique de dictée musicale (1882)
École de la pédale (1889)
La musique et les musiciens (1895) Translated into English, 1905
Le voyage artistique à Bayreuth (1897) An analysis of Wagner's leitmotifs.

[edit] Footnotes

^ "The timbre of the trombone is in its nature majestic and imposing. It is sufficiently powerful to dominate a whole orchestra and produces an impression of superhuman power . . . it con become terrible . . . or mournful and full of dismay: or it may have the serenity of the organ . . . It is a superb instrument of lofty dramatic power, which should be reserved for great occasions."