Background
Gossec was born at the village of Vergnies, then a French exclave in the Austrian Netherlands, now in Belgium. The son of a small farmer. Showing an early taste for music, he became a choir-boy in Antwerp.
(1. Symphony, Op.12, No.6 2. Symphony No. 2 in E flat majo...)
1. Symphony, Op.12, No.6 2. Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 5 3. Symphony, Op.12, No.6 4. Symphony in D major, Op 5/3 5. Symphony in D major, B86 DDD
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Gossec was born at the village of Vergnies, then a French exclave in the Austrian Netherlands, now in Belgium. The son of a small farmer. Showing an early taste for music, he became a choir-boy in Antwerp.
He went to Paris in 1751 and was taken on by the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. He followed Rameau as the conductor of a private orchestra kept by the fermier général Le Riche de La Poupelinière, a wealthy amateur and patron of music. Gradually he became determined to do something to revive the study of instrumental music in France.
Gossec's own first symphony was performed in 1754, and as conductor to the Prince de Condé's orchestra he produced several operas and other compositions of his own. He imposed his influence on French music with remarkable success. His Requiem premiered in 1760, a ninety-minute piece which made him famous overnight.
In the 1780s Gossec's symphonic output decreased as he began concentrating on operas. He organized the École de Chant in 1784, together with Etienne Méhul, was conductor of the band of the Garde Nationale of the French Revolution, and was appointed (with Méhul and Luigi Cherubini) inspector of the Conservatoire de Musique at its creation in 1795. He was an original member of the Institut and a chevalier of the Legion of Honour. In 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, the Conservatoire was closed for some time by Louis XVIII, and the eighty-one-year-old Gossec had to retire. Until 1817 he worked on his last compositions, including a third Te Deum, and was supported by a pension granted by the Conservatoire.
(1. Symphony, Op.12, No.6 2. Symphony No. 2 in E flat majo...)
He wrote several works in honor of the French revolution, including Le Triomphe de la République, and L'Offrande à la Liberté.
He was an original member of the Institut and a chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
Quotes from others about the person
In 1778 Mozart visited Gossec during a trip to Paris, and described him in a letter to his father as "a very good friend and a very dry man".