Paul-Gilbert Langevin

Paul-Gilbert Langevin (July 5, 1933 in Boulogne-Billancourt – July 4,1986 in Paris) was a French musicologist, musical critic and physicist who wrote several books on 19th-century classical music.

Life

Paul-Gilbert Langevin was the son of French physicist Paul Langevin (1872–1946)^[1] and Eliane Montel (1898–1992),^[2] a private teacher at the Sorbonne science department.

Langevin attended the ESPCI as a Latin student, the school which his father directed from 1925 to 1946. He went on to complete his scientific education at the Sorbonne and Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, obtaining a degree in physical chemistry under the supervision of René Freymann, who became one of his close friends. Langevin also befriended the physicist Herbert Überall^[3] who supported a thesis under the supervision of Hans Bethe, and his wife.

From a young age, Langevin had a deep interest in classical music, listening to Anton Bruckner's symphonies on radio recordings during his youth and meeting young prodigy conductor Roberto Benzi.^[4] Having completed his scientific degrees, he decided to write a thesis under the supervision of Daniel Charles at the Centre Universitaire de Vincennes about 19th century Austrian music, focusing on Bruckner and the so-called "ethnoromantic" period.

He became a physics teacher at the Sorbonne science department and at the Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie^[5] which was created in the '60s, and wrote books on classical music. During this time, he met musicologists Harry Halbreich, Gustave Kars, Jacques Feschotte, Pierre Vidal, Marc Vignal and Jean-Luc Caron. Langevin went on to create the Anton Bruckner French society,^[6] wrote a considerable number of books on 19th-century symphonic music, edited in Musical Review and l'Age d'Homme^[7], and became a music critic in The World of Music, edited by his friend Anne Rey.

During the 1950s, Langevin focused on classical music, symphonic music, and writing. Specifically, he wrote articles, monographs and books about Anton Bruckner, Franz Schubert, Guillaume Lekeu, Albéric Magnard, Joseph-Guy Ropartz and Charles Koechlin. He was also interested in works by Hugo Wolf, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, Franz Schmidt, Ferruccio Busoni,^[8] Leoš Janáček or Carl Nielsen.

In the 1970s, Langevin married Anne-Marie Desbat. They had two children: Paul-Eric Langevin, born in 1979, who graduated in mathematics and linguistics^[9]; and Isabelle Langevin, born in 1983, who became a kinesitherapy specialist. He died from kidney cancer in 1986.

Works

• Research on intermolecular actions by nuclear magnetic resonance, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, 1972
• Bruckner's Century, Musical Review, 1975
• Anton Bruckner, the Symphonic Heights, L'Âge d'Homme, 1977.
• Musicians from France, the great symphonists generation, Musical Review, 1979.
• Anton Bruckner and austrian ethnoromantism, PhD thesis, 1980.
• Franz Schubert and Symphony, elements of a new perspective, Musical Review, 1982.
• Musicians from Europe, ethnoromantic renewal figures, Musical Review, 1986.
• Franz Schubert, symphonist found (unfinished)
• Anton Bruckner, an esthetic perspective and an analytic study linked with critical editions
• Bruckner's Century, an essay for a new perspective on second golden age Viennese masters
• Treaty of musicology, directed by Jacques Chailley, PUF, contribution (1958)
• Encyclopedy of sacred music, directed by Jacques Porte, contribution (1971)
• Larousse of music, directed by Marc Vignal, contribution (1982)
• Poems from childhood and youth (1946–1966)^[10]
• A transfigurated symphony, a dramatical story in four movements and two times (1966–1968)

See also

• Ernst Hilmar

References