Roussel, A :: Andante et Scherzo op. 51

Andante et Scherzo op. 51

Roussel, A

In 1894 Albert (Charles Paul Marie) Roussel (b. April 5, 1869, d. August 23 1937) decided to abandon his career as a marine officer and devote himself entirely to music. By this time he was already too old to enroll at the conservatory, and studied privately with Julien Koszul in Roubaix at first, later with Eugene Gigout in Paris. Only then did he familiarize himself with harmony and counterpoint. 

His early compositions, dating from his time in the navy, were based on what he had picked up at piano lessons from the organist Stoltz during his schooldays. In 1898 he took lessons from Vincent d'Indy at the newly established Schola Cantorum in Paris. Whilst still studying at this institute he was given the post of counterpoint teacher there. His pupils included Edgar Varese and Erik Satie. He also contributed to the development of Bohuslav Martinu. 

Due to the mature age at which he embarked on his music studies he was well able to preserve a certain intellectual distance; strongly influenced by the impressions of his time in Indo-China as a marine officer, his development as a composer was entirely autonomous. It is quite impossible to pigeonhole his output under a prevailing style or movement. 

At his death Roussel left a varied oeuvre ranging from operas and ballets to symphonies and chamber music. He wrote his Andante and Scherzo op. 51 in 1934 and dedicated it to Georges Barrere, principal flutist in the New York Symphony Orchestra at the time. The first performance was given in Milan on December 17, 1934.