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Andr Ernest Modeste GrtryAndr Ernest Modeste Grtry (February 8, 1741 – September 24, 1813), a Belgian-born French composer, was born at Lige, his father being a poor musician. He was a choir-boy at the church of Saint-Denis. In 1753 he became a pupil of Leclerc and later of Renekin and Moreau. But of greater importance was the practical tuition he received by attending the performance of an Italian opera company. Here he heard the operas of Galuppi, Pergolesi, and other masters; and the desire of completing his own studies in Italy was the immediate result. To find the necessary means he composed in 1759 a mass which he dedicated to the canons of the Lige cathedral, and it was at the cost of Canon Hurley that he went to Italy in March 1759. In Rome he went to the Collge de Lige. Here Grtry resided for five years, studiously employed in completing his musical education under Casali. His proficiency in harmony and counter point was, however, according to his own confession, at all time very moderate. His first great success was achieved by La Vendemmiatrice, an Italian intermezzo or operetta, composed for the Aliberti theatre in Rome and received with universal applause. It is said that the study of the score of one of Monsigny's operas, lent to him by a secretary of the French embassy in Rome, decided Grtry to devote himself to French comic opera. On New Year's day 1767 he accordingly left Rome, and after a short stay at Geneva (where he made the acquaintance of Voltaire, and produced another operetta) went to Paris. There for two years he had to contend with the difficulties incident to poverty and obscurity. He was, however, not without friends, and by the intercession of Count Creutz, the Swedish ambassador, Grtry obtained a libretto from Marmontel, which he set to music in less than six weeks, and which, on its performance in August 1768, met with unparalleled success. The name of the opera was Le Huron. Two others, Lucile and Le Tableau parlant, soon followed, and thenceforth Grtry's position as the leading composer of comic opera was safely established. Altogether he composed some fifty operas. His masterpieces are Zmire et Azor and Richard Cœur de Lion,—the first produced in 1771, the second in 1784. The latter in an indirect way became connected with a great historic event. In it occurs the celebrated romance, O Richard, O mon Roi, l'univers t'abandonne, which was sung at the banquet—"fatal as that of Thyestes," remarks Carlyle—given by the bodyguard to the officers of the Versailles garrison on October 3, 1789. La Marseillaise not long afterwards became the reply of the people to the expression of loyalty borrowed from Grtry's opera. The composer himself was not uninfluenced by the great events he witnessed, and the titles of some of his operas, such as La Rosire rpublicaine and La Fte de la raison, sufficiently indicate the epoch to which they belong; but they are mere pices de circonstance, and the republican enthusiasm displayed is not genuine. Little more successful was Grtry in his dealings with classical subjects. His genuine power lay in the delineation of character and in the expression of tender and typically French sentiment. The structure of his concerted pieces on the other hand is frequently flimsy, and his instrumentation so feeble that the orchestral parts of some of his works had to be rewritten by other composers, in order to make them acceptable to modern audiences. During the Revolution Grtry lost much of his property, but the successive governments of France vied in favouring the composer, regardless of political differences. From the old court he received distinctions and rewards of all kinds; the republic made him an inspector of the conservatoire; Napoleon granted him the cross of the legion of honour and a pension. Grtry died at the Hermitage in Montmorency, formerly the house of Rousseau. Fifteen years after his death Grtry's heart was transferred to his birthplace, permission having been obtained after a tedious lawsuit. In 1842 a colossal bronze statue of the composer was set up at Lige. See Michael Brenet, Vie de Grtry (Paris, 1884); Joach. le Breton, Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de Grtry (Paris, 1814); A Grtry (his nephew), Grtry en famille (Paris, 1814); Felix van Hulst, Grtry (Liege, 1842); L. D. S. Notice biographique sur Grtry (Bruxelles, 1869). This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. Grtry, Andr Ernest Modeste Grtry, Andr Ernest Modeste Grtry, Andr Ernest Modeste
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