Henri Büsser Short Biography

One of the lesser known composers represented in the album, French composer, conductor, educator and organist Henri Büsser was born in Toulouse in 1872. Showing signs of musical proclivity from a young age, and with encouragement from his organist father, Büsser began his musical studies at the Ecole Niedermeyer in 1885 where he studied with Alexandre George [French organist, composer, and harmony teacher]. In 1889, Büsser entered The Paris Conservatoire, studying organ with Franck and Widor, as well as composition with Guiraud, Gounod, and Massenet (Kelly), and in 1893 he won the Prix de Rome. (Nichols) Also in 1893, Büsser was appointed as organist of Saint Cloud [a position which he held for 30 years]. “In 1900, Büsser was appointed conductor at the Théatre du Château-d’Eau” and in 1905 was appointed as the conductor at the Opéra-Comique, succeeding Taffanel, also acting as director from 1939 to 1941. Büsser “the Conservatoire from 1904, becoming
He arranged works by many notable French composers including Lully, Berlioz, Franck, Bizet, and Fauré, and among his transcriptions and orchestrations were “a number of Debussy’s works including Petite Suite.” (Kelly) Büsser wrote many organ and piano pieces, masses, vocal pieces, and other chamber and orchestral pieces, but some of his most important works included his ballet La ronde des saisons and his five operas: Jane Grey, Daphnis et Chloé, Colomba, Les Noces corinthiennes, and Le carosse du Saint Sacrement. Kelly writes that these dramatic works “betray Wagner’s impact in both their form and their use of the orchestra. The influence of Debussy….is also evident in certain harmonic procedures and in an acute sensitivity to orchestral colour.” In general Büsser’s style was deeply “rooted in the French 19th-century tradition. [His] symphonic and choral writing is indebted to Gounod and