Isidore Legouix

Isidore Edouard Legouix (1 April 1834 – 15 September 1916) was a 19th-century French composer. Biography Isidore Legouix was the eldest son of the music publisher and bookseller Onesimus Legouix (1809–1867). His father’s business, which had opened early in the reign of Louis-Philippe I, was located at 4, rue Chauveau-Lagarde, in the 8th arrondissement. In 1847, Isidore Legouix entered the Conservatoire de Paris where he studied harmony with Napoléon Henri Reber and composition with Ambroise Thomas. He obtained a first prize in music theory in 1850, a first prize in harmony in 1855, and the following year a “2me accessit” in counterpoint and fugue. Competing for the Prix de Rome in 1860, he received an honorable mention for his cantata Le Czar Ivan IV to words by Theodore Anne. After graduating from the Conservatoire, Legouix worked in the family music shop and engaged in composition, particularly in incidental music. He composed several operettas, of which contemporary critics praised the talent and wit. But one could hardly win against the overwhelming competition of the works by Hervé, Offenbach, Lecocq, Audran, Planquette and Varney, the masters of Parisian operetta. Despite his