Introduction
Victor-Charles-Paul Dourlen (born 3 November 1780 in Dunkerque – died 8 January 1864 in Paris) was a French composer and music teacher at the Conservatoire de Paris during the first half of the nineteenth century. He is primarily known as a theorist being his treatises on harmony, based on the methods of Charles Simon Catel, widely used as reference, especially his Traité d’harmonie (1838), and his Traité d’accompagnement pratique (1834), as well as his Méthode élémentaire pour le piano-forte (1820).
Biography
Victor Dourlen entered the Conservatory de Paris in 1799 at the age of 19 as a pupil of Francois-Joseph Gossec and Francois-Adrien Boieldieu. He became a teacher of elementary singing in 1800 and, presented with the Prix de Rome by his teachers in 1805, he won the first prize for musical composition with his cantata Cupidon pleurant Psyché. He subsequently went to Italy and on his return to Paris he produced several operas, among which are Philocles and Limnée. He was appointed professor of harmony and composition in 1816, a position which he held until 1842. Among his graduated pupils were Charles-Valentin Alkan, Ambroise Thomas, Francois Bazin, Henri Herz, Antoine François Marmontel, Félix Le Couppey, Alexandre Goria and Louis Désiré Besozzi.
Works
Victor Dourlen was the composer of nine comic operas, a piano concerto, a piano trio, sonatas for piano, for violin, and for flute.
- La Belle lune blanche
- Debout petit berger
- Le Soleil levant
- La patrie
- Philocles
- Solfèges sans accompagnement à l’usage des orphéons et sociétés chorales
- Cagliostro (with Anton Reicha)
- La Cupe de son Art
- Les Oies du Frère Philippe
- Appel au printemps
- Bonsoir…
- Limnée