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Born: September 3, 1846 - Quimper, France
Died: November 25, 1921 - Paris, France |
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The French pianist and composer, Théodore Lack, began to work as a musician early, when he was appointed organist of the church in his village at the age of 10. At 14 he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied piano with Antoine François Marmontel, harmony with François Bazin and theory with Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély. A graduate of the Conservatory at 18 years, he was appointed assistant professor of piano and retain this position for 57 years (1864-1921), until his death, without leaving Paris.
Théodore Lack wrote many salon pieces for piano (Tarentelle, Boléro, Etudes élégantes, Valse espagnole, Scènes enfantines, Souvenir d'Alsace, Polonaise de concert ... etc.). He undertook to annotate and fingered the book Les classiques favoris that was published in 1916 (perhaps even earlier), and which is still used today by piano students. He published other collections of sheet music for piano beginners, such as mademoiselle Didi. It is for his Méthode de piano (Ed. Leduc, 1909) that Debussy composed a ragtime-style piece The Little Nigar with the subtitle Cake Walk. Debussy completed and revised the piece for his Children's Corner under the title Golliwogs'cakewalk.
Théodore Lack was known to the people of Mauritius (Indian Ocean), but now forgotten, because at a party or festival on April 12, 1900 music composed by Lack was played. |
