Alexis Roland-Manuel

Alexis Roland-Manuel (22 March, 1891 – 2 November, 1966) was a French composer and critic, though he is remembered mainly for his work in the latter area.

He was born Roland Alexis Manuel Lévy in Paris, to a family of Belgian and Jewish origins. He studied composition under Vincent D'Indy and Albert Roussel. As a young man he befriended composer Erik Satie, who helped him to make numerous influential connections. In 1911, Satie introduced Roland-Manuel to Maurice Ravel, whose pupil, friend and biographer he soon became.

In 1947, he was appointed Professor of Aesthetics at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he remained until his retirement in 1961, making many contributions to musical theory and criticism, even assisting Igor Stravinsky in writing his theoretical work "The Poetics of Music". In addition to theoretical works, he wrote and composed various works for stage, especially comic operas, and screen, developing a partnership with director Jean Gremillon, for whose films he regularly composed the scores.

He died in Paris in 1966.

elected Works

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*"Isabelle et Pantalon" (1922)
* "Canarie" (1927; for the children's ballet "L'Éventail de Jeanne", to which ten French composers each contributed a dance)
* "Le Diable amoureux" (1929), based on the novel "The Devil in Love" by Jacques Cazotte
* "Jeanne d'Arc" (1955)

Film Scores

*"L'Etrange Monsieur Victor" (1938)
*"Lumière d'Eté" (1943)
*"Le Ciel est à Vous" (1943)