Georges Longy
Georges Longy (1868 – 1930) was a French-born oboist, conductor and composer. He is the founder of
Personal life
Longy was born in
Career
Longy started his career as an oboist in Europe where he played with such orchestras as the Lamoureux and the Colonne.[3] In 1895 Longy tried to restore the Société de Musique de Chambre pour Instruments à Vent, an influential Parisian chamber group that had disbanded. In 1898, the Boston Symphony Orchestra called on him to fill the position of principal oboist in that ensemble. Longy founded a number of instrumental groups during his years in Boston. These included The New York Chamber Music Association in 1913, The Boston Orchestral Club in 1899 with his friend Elise Hall,[4] and the distinguished wind ensemble known as the Longy Club (1900-1917). From 1899 to 1911 he conducted The Boston Orchestral Club, The MacDowell Club Orchestra (1915 – 1925) and The Cecilia Society (1916).[2]
The Société de Musique de Chambre pour Instruments à Vent ("Society of Chamber Music for Wind Instruments") was an important chamber group established in 1879 in France. It promoted and commissioned new music for wind instruments. When the group came to an end in 1895, Georges Longy tried to reestablish the group with clarinetist Prosper Mimart, but it only lasted for a short period of time, as Longy had moved to Boston by 1898. In 1900 Longy took his experience in France and applied it to found the Longy Club. This lasted seventeen years, and allowed the Boston audiences to hear French works as well as newer music composed particularly for the club, which was a significant presence on the Boston musical scene.
Georges Longy was a gifted oboist, consistently praised by his peers for his abilities. In 1915 during a performance with the BSO, Fritz Kreisler became "captivated by the perfection of Mr. Longy's great art...[and] became so absorbed that he missed his entrance."
Legacy
Olin Downes, a music critic for The New York Times, said that "Longy probably influenced the musical life of Boston more than any other one man".[2]
Longy used the many positions that he held in the groups that he worked with to premier new French music to the Boston public. He premiered composers such as Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Berlioz, Hahn and D'Indy in America and brought a new wave of French music to the United States.
References
- ^ a b Jeskalian, Barbara."Georges Longy", retrieved on 24 October 2014.
- ^ a b c Whitwell, David. The Longy Club, Whitwell Books, Austin, TX 2011
- ^ Burgess, Geoffrey and Bruce Haynes. The Oboe, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT 2004
- ^ Cottrell, Stephen (2012). The Saxophone, p. 244. Yale University Press
- ^ Saffle, Michael. Perspective on American Music, 1900-1950, Routledge, New York, NY 2000.
- ^ Warner, Sam Bass.Greater Boston, Adapting Regional Traditions to the Present, Philadelphia, PA, 2001.