Albert Lavignac
Alexandre Jean Albert Lavignac was a French music scholar, known for his essays on theory, and a minor composer.Biography
Lavignac was born in Paris and studied with Antoine François Marmontel, François Benoist and Ambroise Thomas at the Conservatoire de Paris, where later he taught harmony. Among his pupils were Henri Casadesus, Claude Debussy, Vincent d'Indy, Amédée Gastoué, Philipp Jarnach, Henri O'Kelly, Gabriel Pierné, Wadia Sabra, Florent Schmitt.
In March 1864, at the age of eighteen, he conducted from the harmonium the private premiere of Gioachino 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 and of each key, somewhat in the way Berlioz and Gevaert had done:
Major keys:
- C-sharp major: ?
- F-sharp major: Rough
- 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
- C-flat major: ?
Minor keys:
- A-sharp minor: ?
- D-sharp minor: ?
- G-sharp minor: Very somber
- 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
- A-flat minor: Lugubrious, anguished
His more popularized works discussed the music dramas of Richard Wagner, summarised in Le Voyage artistique à Bayreuth.Selected works
Lavignac edited the compendious Encyclopédie de la Musique.
- Cours complet théoretique et pratique de dictée musicale
- École de la pédale
- La musique et les musiciens. Translated into English, 1905
- Le voyage artistique à Bayreuth. An analysis of Wagner's leitmotifs
- The Music Dramas of Richard Wagner and His Festival Theater in Bayreuth
Footnotes
