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Paul-Marie-Theodore-Vincent D'indy

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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PAUL-MARIE D'INDY - THEODORE-VINCENT (1851-), French musical composer, was born in Paris, on the 2 7th of March 1851. He studied composition and the organ at the Paris Conservatoire under Cesar Franck, and obtained the grand prize offered by the city of Paris in 1885 with Le Chant de la Cloche, a dramatic legend after Schiller. His principal works, beside the above, are the symphonic trilogy Wallenstein, the symphonic works entitled Saugefleurie, La Foret enchantee, Istar, Symphonic sur un air montagnard francais; overture to Anthony and Cleopatra; Ste Marie Magdeleine, a cantata; Attendez-moi sous l'orme, a one-act opera; Fervaal, a musical drama in three acts. Vincent d'Indy is perhaps the most prominent among the disciples of Cesar Franck. Imbued with very high aims, he was always guided by a lofty ideal, and few musicians have attained so complete a mastery over the art of instrumentation. His music, however, lacks simplicity, and can never become popular in the widest sense. His opera Fervaal, which is styled "action musicale," is constructed upon the system of Leit-motifs. Its legendary subject recalls both Parsifal and Tristan, and the music is also suggestive of Wagnerian influence. D'Indy can scarcely be considered so typical a representative of modern French music as his juniors Alfred Bruneau, the composer of Le Reve, L'Attaque du moulin, Messidor, or Gustave Charpentier, the author of Louise, who chose subjects of modern life for their operatic works.