Louis Beydts

Louis Beydts (/bets/) was a French composer, music critic and theatre director, born 29 June 1895 in Bordeaux and died on 15 August 1953 at Caudéran in Gironde. Life and career His father was a wine-merchant who played the flute, while his mother played the piano. At 16, having finished his school studies, he went into the family business. Having learnt the piano and tried some composition, at 18 he studied harmony, counterpoint and fugue with Julien Fernand Vaubourgoin, director of the Bordeaux Conservatoire, although Beydts never enrolled there. Through Vaubourgoin he gained a strict classical harmonic technique. Beydts also studied with André Messager to whom he paid homage in Moineau with a variation on the theme of the swing duet. In Paris he had a work for voice and orchestra Le Sommeil performed at the Concerts Lamoureux in 1926. In 1927 Adieu was performed by the Concerts Colonne, and Le Promenoir des deux amants at the Concerts Pasdeloup. (originally entitled La Noce, staged at the Théâtre Marigny on 13 March 1931) with limited success. In November 1931 la S A D M P (la Société anonyme des messieurs prudents) with words by Sacha Guitry, was seen at the Théâtre de la Madele