Edmond Dédé

Edmond Dédé (November 20 1827, New Orleans - 1903, Paris) was a black French creole American composer.

As a boy, he first learned the clarinet, but soon switched to the violin, on which he was considered a prodigy. His teachers in his youth included violinists Constantin Debergue and Italian-born Ludovico Gabici. He was taught music theory by Eugène Prévost and New York-born black musician Charles Richard Lambert.

His instruction from Gabici ended when white hostility towards musicians of colour forced him to flee to Mexico. When he eventually returned to the States, he worked as a cigar maker, saving money to be able to travel to Europe. This he successfully did — arriving first in Belgium, then Paris, where he managed to obtain an ultimately successful audition at the Paris Conservatoire. There he was taught by Jacques-François Halevy and Jean Delphin Alard. He later served for 27 years as the conductor of the orchestra at the Theatre l'Alcazar in Paris.

Dédé returned to New Orleans only once, in 1893, before returning to Paris.

Dédé's parents had arrived from the French West Indies around 1809.

ome compositions

* "Quasimodo Symphony" (1865)
* "Le Palmier Overture" (1865)
* "Le Sermente de L'Arabe" (1865) (written during a stint in Algeria)

External links

* [http://www.frenchcreoles.com/MusicEvents/edmonddede/edmonddede.htm Brief biography of Dédé]

Bibliography

* Edmond Dede, CD Naxos 8.559038 (2000). Liner Notes by Lester Sullivan, University Archivist, Xavier University, and Richard Rosenberg, Conductor, Hot Springs Music Festival.

* Microsoft Encarta Africana Encyclopedia, on CD-ROM and in book form published by Basic Civitas Books. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Editors.