Antoine François Marmontel

French pianist (1816–1898)

Antoine François Marmontel (ɑ̃twan fʁɑ̃swa maʁmɔ̃tɛl) (18 July 1816 – 16 January 1898) was a French pianist, composer, teacher and musicographer. He is mainly known today as an influential teacher at the Paris Conservatory, where he taught many musicians who became leading voices of French music in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Marmontel was born in Clermont Ferrand. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1827. His teachers were Pierre Zimmerman in pianoforte, Victor Dourlen in harmony, Jacques Fromental Halévy in fugue and Jean François Le Sueur in composition. He achieved a First Prize for his piano playing (1832). In 1837, he became professor of singing at the Conservatory. In 1846, Marmontel married Françoise Mélanie Pelletier, and in 1848 Marmontel succeeded Zimmerman as professor of piano, beating his former teacher Charles Valentin Alkan, and as a consequence derailing the latter's career. His memoir of Alkan in his book Les Pianistes célèbres is nonetheless one of the most valuable sources for Alkan's biography. Marmontel achieved renown as an effective and imaginative teacher. He had many pupils including Isaac Albéniz, Georges Bizet, Claude Debussy, Louis Diémer, Théodore Dubois, Dominique Ducharme, Gustave Gagnon, Ernest Guiraud, Vincent d'Indy, Albert Lavignac, Marguerite Long, Edward MacDowell, Zulema Garcia Olsen, Émile Paladilhe, Gabriel Pierné, Francis Planté, Paul Rougnon, Paul Wachs, Józef Wieniawski, André Wormser, and Antoine Simon. Marmontel's career is marked by a great number of educational works (more than 200 opus numbers) as well as nocturnes, romances and many other pieces. His musicographical works number among the best sources for the history of piano and pianists, particularly for the 19th century. Marmontel died in Paris aged 81. His son Antonin Marmontel (1850–1907) was also a piano teacher at the Conservatoire. He wrote many salon pieces.