Composers

Ignaz Pleyel

Violin
Cello
Viola
Orchestra
Flute
Piano
Oboe
Harpsichord
Voice
French horn
Symphony
Sonata
Duet
Quartet
Trio
Quintet
Symphonies concertantes
Concertantes
Sonatina
Concerto
by popularity

#

12 Minuets, B.203-21412 String Quartets, B.331-34218 Pieces for Keyboard, B.65242 Duettini2 String Quartets, B.368-3693 Cello Duos, B.532-5343 Duos concertans de Pleyel3 Duos for Flute and Violin, B.54083 Duos for Violin and Viola, B.526-5283 Duos for Violin and Viola, B.529-5313 Flute Quartets, B.381-3833 Flute Quartets, B.384-3863 Harp Sonatas, B.62153 Keyboard Trios, B.428-4303 Keyboard Trios, B.437-4393 Keyboard Trios, B.440-4423 Keyboard Trios, B.443-4453 Keyboard Trios, B.446-4483 Keyboard Trios, B.465-4673 Keyboard Trios, B.468-4703 Keyboard Trios, B.471-4733 Keyboard Trios, B.474-4763 Quintets, B.280-2823 Sonatas3 Sonatinas, B.59233 String Quartets, B.343-3453 String Quartets, B.365-3673 String Quintets, B.271-2733 String Quintets, B.274-2763 String Quintets, B.277-2793 String Trios, B.401-40332 Scottish Folksongs, B.707-7386 Cello Sonatas, B.45036 Duos for Violin and Cello, B.501-5066 Duos for Violin and Viola, B.544-5496 Duos, B.507-5126 Duos, B.574-5796 Keyboard Trios, B.431-4366 Rondos6 Rondos for Piano and Violin6 Sonatinas6 Sonatinas, B.60116 String Quartets, B.301-3066 String Quartets, B.307-3126 String Quartets, B.319-3246 String Quartets, B.325-330A6 String Quartets, B.346-3516 String Quartets, B.353-3586 String Quartets, B.359-3646 String Trios, B.404-4096 String Trios, B.410-4156 Violin Duos, B.513-5186 Violin Duos, B.519-5246 Violin Duos, B.538-5436 Violin Sonatas9 Symphonies

C

Cello Concerto in C major, B.104Cello Concerto in D major, B.105Concerto in C major, B.106

D

Die Fee Urgele, B.701Duo for Viola and Cello, B.525Duo for Violin and Viola, B.530Duo in C major, B.574Duo in D major, B.578

F

Flute Quartet in B-flat major, B.385Flute Quartet in C major, B.386

I

Ifigenia in Aulide, B.703

K

Keyboard Trio in A major, B.434Keyboard Trio in B-flat major, B.440Keyboard Trio in C major, B.428Keyboard Trio in C major, B.443Keyboard Trio in C major, B.466Keyboard Trio in D major, B.436Keyboard Trio in D major, B.445Keyboard Trio in D major, B.461Keyboard Trio in E minor, B.435Keyboard Trio in F major, B.429Keyboard Trio in F major, B.444Keyboard Trio in F major, B.465Keyboard Trio in F major, B.474Keyboard Trio in G major, B.446

M

Méthode pour le pianoforteMinuet in C major, B.817

N

Nocturne in C major, B.215Nocturne in D major, B.201A

P

Petits airs et rondos d'une exécution facilePiano Sonata, Op.91Piano Sonata, Op.92Piano Sonata, Op.93

Q

Quintet in C major, B.281Quintet in E-flat major, B.282Quintet in G major, B.280

S

Septet in E-flat major, B.251Serenade in F major, B.216String Quartet in A major, B.303String Quartet in A major, B.335String Quartet in C major, B.334String Quartet in D major, B.369String Quartet in E-flat major, B.336String Quartet in E-flat major, B.352String Quartet in E-flat major, B.368String Quartet in F major, B.321String Quartet in G major, B.320String Quintet in A minor, B.276String Quintet in B-flat major, B.275String Quintet in B-flat major, B.278String Quintet in C major, B.273String Quintet in D major, B.274String Quintet in D major, B.284String Quintet in E-flat major, B.271String Quintet in F major, B.283String Quintet in F major, B.285String Quintet in F minor, B.277String Quintet in G major, B.279String Quintet in G minor, B.272String Sextet in F major, B.261String Trio in B-flat major, B.416String Trio in D major, B.402String Trio in D major, B.410String Trio in E minor, B.407String Trio in F major, B.411String Trio in G major, B.409String Trio in G major, B.412Symphonie concertante in A major, B.114Symphonie concertante in B-flat major, B.112Symphonie concertante in E-flat major, B.111Symphonie concertante in F major, B.113Symphonie concertante in F major, B.115Symphony in A major, B.122Symphony in A major, B.137Symphony in B-flat major, B.125Symphony in B-flat major, B.127Symphony in B-flat major, B.135Symphony in B-flat major, B.150Symphony in C major, B.128Symphony in C major, B.129Symphony in C major, B.131Symphony in C major, B.143Symphony in C major, B.158Symphony in C minor, B.121Symphony in C minor, B.142Symphony in D major, B.124Symphony in D major, B.126Symphony in D major, B.133Symphony in D major, B.145Symphony in D minor, B.147Symphony in E-flat major, B.134Symphony in E-flat major, B.139Symphony in E-flat major, B.144Symphony in F major, B.136Symphony in F major, B.140ASymphony in F minor, B.138Symphony in G major, B.130Symphony in G major, B.146Symphony in G major, B.156

T

Time

V

Violin Concerto in D major, B.103AViolin Duo, B.514Violin Duo, B.520Violin Duo, B.538Violin Duo, B.539Violin Duo, B.540Violin Duo, B.541Violin Duo, B.542Violin Duo, B.543
Wikipedia
Ignace Joseph Pleyel (French: [plɛjɛl]; German: [ˈplaɪl̩]; 18 June 1757 – 14 November 1831) was an Austrian-born French composer and piano builder of the Classical period.
He was born in Ruppersthal [de] in Lower Austria, the son of a schoolmaster named Martin Pleyl. He was the 24th of 38 children in the family. While still young, he probably studied with Johann Baptist Vanhal, and from 1772 he became the pupil of Joseph Haydn in Eisenstadt. As with Beethoven, born 13 years later, Pleyel benefited in his study from the sponsorship of aristocracy, in this case Count Ladislaus Erdődy (1746–1786). Pleyel evidently had a close relationship with Haydn, who considered him to be a superb student.
Among Pleyel's apprentice work from this time was a puppet opera Die Fee Urgele, (1776) performed in the marionette theater at the palace of Eszterháza and in Vienna. Pleyel apparently also wrote at least part of the overture of Haydn's opera Das abgebrannte Haus, from about the same time.
Pleyel's first professional position may have been as Kapellmeister for Count Erdődy, although this is not known for certain. Among his early publications was a set of six string quartets, his Opus 1.
In the early 1780s, Pleyel visited Italy, where he composed an opera (Ifigenia in Aulide) and works commissioned by the king of Naples, Ferdinand I.
Attracted to the benefits associated with an organist position, Pleyel moved to Strasbourg, France in 1783 to work alongside Franz Xaver Richter, the maître de chapelle at the Strasbourg Cathedral. The cathedral was extremely appealing to Pleyel as it possessed a full orchestra, a choir, and a large budget devoted to performances. After establishing himself in France, Pleyel voluntarily called himself by the French version of his name, Ignace. While he was the assistant maître de chapelle at Strasbourg Cathedral, he wrote more works than during any other period in his musical career (1783–1793). At the cathedral, he would organize concerts that featured his symphonies concertantes and liturgical music. After Richter's death in 1789, Pleyel assumed the function of full maître de chapelle. In 1788 Pleyel married Françoise-Gabrielle Lefebvre, the daughter of a Strasbourg carpet weaver. The couple had four children, the eldest being their son Camille. Maria Pleyel, née Moke (1811–1875), the wife of Camille, was one of the most accomplished pianists of her time.
In 1791, the French Revolution abolished musical performances in church as well as public concerts. Seeking alternative employment, Pleyel traveled to London, where he led the "Professional Concerts" organized by Wilhelm Cramer. In this capacity Pleyel inadvertently played the role of his teacher's rival, as Haydn was at the same time leading the concert series organized by Johann Peter Salomon. Although the two composers were rivals professionally, they remained on good terms personally.
Just like Haydn, Pleyel made a fortune from his London visit. On his return to Strasbourg, he bought a large house, the moated Château d'Ittenwiller 48°23′03.8″N 7°26′33″E / 48.384389°N 7.44250°E / 48.384389; 7.44250, about 35 km south, between nearby Saint-Pierre and Eichhoffen in the Bas-Rhin department.
With the onset of the Reign of Terror in 1793 and 1794, life in France became dangerous for many, not excluding Pleyel. He was brought before the Committee of Public Safety a total of seven times due to the following: his foreign status, his recent purchase of a château, and his ties with the Strasbourg Cathedral. He was subsequently labeled a Royalist collaborator. The outcome of the committee's attentions could easily have been imprisonment or even execution. With prudent opportunism, Pleyel preserved his future by writing compositions in honor of the new republic. All were written in Strasbourg at times surrounding the Terror. Below are the pieces composed with dates of publication and details:
Most of these compositions debuted at the Strasbourg Cathedral, which was known at the time as the Temple de l'Être Suprême (Temple of the Supreme Being), as churches were outlawed during the Terror. Pleyel became a naturalized French citizen and thus came to be known as Citoyen (citizen) Pleyel. With his involvement in artistic propaganda and loyalism to the new regime, Pleyel can be seen as the ultimate musical champion of Strasbourg republicanism.
In addition to composing the above works for the Strasbourg public, Pleyel also contributed to the Parisian music scene during the Revolution. One example is Le Jugement de Pâris, a pantomime-ballet by Citoyen (Citizen) Gardel and performed with Pleyel's music (along with that of Haydn, and Étienne Méhul) on 5 March 1793.
Pleyel moved to Paris in 1795. In 1797 he set up a business as a music publisher ("Maison Pleyel"), which among other works produced a complete edition of Haydn's string quartets (1801), as well as the first miniature scores for study (the Bibliothèque Musicale, "musical library"). The publishing business lasted for 39 years and published about 4,000 works during this time, including compositions by Adolphe Adam, Luigi Boccherini, Ludwig van Beethoven, Muzio Clementi, Johann Baptist Cramer, Johann Ladislaus Dussek, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Georges Onslow.
Pleyel visited Vienna on business in 1805, meeting his now elderly mentor Haydn for a final time and hearing Beethoven play.
In 1807, Pleyel became a manufacturer of pianos; for more on the Pleyel piano firm, see Pleyel et Cie.
Pleyel retired in 1824 and moved to the countryside about 50 km outside Paris. He died in 1831, apparently quite aware that his own musical style had been fully displaced by the new Romanticism in music. He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
Pleyel was prolific, composing at-least 42 symphonies, 70 string quartets and several operas. Many of these works date from the Strasbourg period; Pleyel's production tailed off after he had become a businessman.
Recent scholarship has suggested that the theme for the Variations on a Theme by Haydn, by Johannes Brahms, Op. 56a, was probably composed not by Haydn but by Ignaz Pleyel.
Pleyel also wrote music for masonic rituals.
Pleyel is one instance of the phenomenon of a composer (others include Cherubini, Meyerbeer, and Thalberg) who was very famous in his own time but currently obscure. Keefe (2005) describes a "craze for his music c. 1780–1800", and quotes a number of contemporary witnesses to this surge. For instance François-Joseph Fétis wrote, "What composer ever created more of a craze than Pleyel? Who enjoyed a more universal reputation or a more absolute domination of the field of instrumental music? Over more than twenty years, there was no amateur or professional musician who did not delight in his genius."
Pleyel's fame even reached the then-remote musical regions of America: there was a Pleyel Society on the island of Nantucket off the coast of Massachusetts, and tunes by Pleyel made their way into the then-popular shape note tunebooks. Pleyel's work is twice represented in the principal modern descendant of these books, The Sacred Harp.
In his own time, Pleyel's reputation rested at least in part on the undemanding character of his music. A reviewer writing in the Morning Herald of London (1791) said that Pleyel "is becoming even more popular than his master [Haydn], as his works are characterized less by the intricacies of science than the charm of simplicity and feeling." In the mid 20th century, the harpsichord builder Wolfgang Zuckermann reminisced about playing Pleyel in his childhood in the 1930s: "When I was ten years old, my family string quartet played a lot of Pleyel since it was the only thing easy enough to keep us going. My cello part consisted of unending stretches of quarter notes played on open strings." Pleyel continues to be known today as a composer of didactic music: generations of beginning violin and flute students, for example, learn to play the numerous duets he wrote for those instruments.
The piano firm Pleyel et Cie was founded by Ignace Pleyel and continued by Pleyel's son Camille (1788–1855), a piano virtuoso who became his father's business partner as of 1815. The firm provided pianos used by Frédéric Chopin, and also ran a concert hall, the Salle Pleyel, in which Chopin performed his first—and also his last—Paris concerts.
in September 2009 the piano maker Paul McNulty built a reconstruction of the 1830 model of Pleyel's piano. It is now one of the period instruments placed at the disposal of the International Chopin Piano Competition, run by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw and was used in The 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments.