Deux quadrilles, sur les motifs du Postillon de Lonjumeau d'Adolphe Adam par Julien pour piano avec Acc. de Violon, Flûte, Flageolet ou Cornet à Piston, ad. Lib: par Marmontel - Adam, Adolphe 1803-1856; Marmontel, Jean-François 1723-1799; Julien, Louis-Antoine 1812-1860; Delahante, J. (Paris Delahante, 1836)
Parts for keyboard and various other instruments
Although the title mentions 2 quadrilles, the score contains only one ('1er Quadrille par L. Julien') consisting of 5 parts: Pantalon, Été, Poule, Pastourelle and Finale.
engraved title page by and after A. Vialon
Plate nr 1304 (1)
Le postillon de Lonjumeau (The postman of Lonjumeau) is an opéra-comique in three acts by Adolphe Adam to a French libretto by Adolphe de Leuven and Léon Lévy Brunswick, and premiered by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle de la Bourse in Paris on 13 October 1836. The opera has become the most successful of Adam's works, and the one by which (apart from his ballet Giselle and his Christmas carol Cantique de Noël) he is best known outside his native France. The opera is known for the difficult aria "Mes amis, écoutez l'histoire" which has been called a test for tenors because of the demanding high D, or D5, at the end of the aria.
Julien, musical conductor, the son of a military bandsman, was born on 23 April 1812 at Sisteron in the Basses-Alpes. He was brought up in barracks, was instructed in music by his father, and was admitted to the band as piccolo-player. From 1833 to 1836 he was a pupil of Lecarpentier and Halévy at the Paris Conservatoire, but instead of applying himself to serious study occupied himself with composing dance music. In 1836 he persuaded the manager of the Jardin Turc to allow him to direct some concerts of dance music. His skill as an advertiser combined with the quality of his music to attract large and fashionable crowds. His adaptation as quadrilles of Meyerbeer's ‘Huguenots,’ then new and very popular, was heralded in bombastic paragraphs, and was especially successful. Soon he was known in Paris as the Napoleon of music.
Keywords: 19th Century (1801-1900); Instrumental music; Quadrille; Dance; Arrangement; Opéra comique; Paris (France); boekprijs