Charles-Simon Catel

Charles-Simon Catel (1773–1830) was a French composer and educator born at L'Aigle, Orne. Catel studied at the Royal School of Singing in Paris. He was the chief assistant to François-Joseph Gossec at the orchestra of the National Guard in 1790. A member of the Institute, he jointly composed pieces of military music for official state ceremonies, including L'Hymne à la Victoire (Victory Hymn), with words by Ponce-Denis Écouchard-Lebrun. He was appointed inaugural professor of harmony at the Conservatoire de Paris, but was destitute in 1814. Amongst his students were the Prix de Rome winning composers Joseph Daussoigne-Méhul and Victor Dourlen, the Belgian composer Martin-Joseph Mengal, and the famous, if eccentric, harpist Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. Catel died in Paris. His works include a Treatise on Harmony (1802), which was used by the young Berlioz, several concert band works, several dramatic compositions at the Opéra National de Paris: Sémiramis, Les bayadères; Wallace (1817); symphonies, quartets etc.