Marcel Landowski

Composer

1915 – 1999

 Credit »
14

Who was Marcel Landowski?

Marcel François Paul Landowski was a French composer, biographer and arts administrator.

Born at Pont-l'Abbé, Finistère, Brittany, he was the son of French sculptor Paul Landowski and great-grandson of the composer Henri Vieuxtemps.

As an infant he showed early musical promise, and studied piano under Marguerite Long. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1935; in addition one of his teachers was Pierre Monteux.

Landowski's greatest musical influence was Arthur Honegger. His entire output bears testimony to Honegger's impact. Landowski went on to write a biography of his mentor.

Between the 1940s and the 1960s, Landowski composed the scores for several dozen films, most notably Gigi.

Landowski eschewed the avant-garde approaches to music of his contemporaries, preferring a more conservative style. In 1966, France's Cultural Affairs minister André Malraux appointed Landowski as the ministry's director of music, a controversial appointment made in the teeth of opposition from the then ascendant modernists, led by Pierre Boulez.

One of his first acts was the establishment, in 1967, of the Orchestre de Paris.

We need you!

Help us build the largest biographies collection on the web!

Born
Feb 18, 1915
Pont-l'Abbé
Also known as
  • Marcel Landovski
Nationality
  • France
Profession
Education
  • Conservatoire de Paris
Lived in
  • Brittany
Died
Dec 23, 1999
Paris

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

Citation

Use the citation below to add to a bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"Marcel Landowski." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/marcel_landowski>.

Discuss this Marcel Landowski biography with the community:

0 Comments

    Browse Biographies.net