Air Religieux

Joseph Nicolas Edmond Juvin, born in Valréas on August 6, 1811 and died on February 16, 1895.

Son of a notary, Edmond Juvin was to succeed his father. But after his studies of notary in Avignon and Orange, he decided, against the advice of his family, to become a composer of music. He stayed in Naples throughout the year 1833 to study harmony. Then he follows in Paris the teaching of the Czech composer Anton Reicha, born in Prague but settled in Paris in 1808, where he will be from 1818 professor at the conservatory, but also composer of Te Deum commissioned in 1823 by Louis XVIII.

Edmond Juvin is credited with symphonies and overtures, lyric works including the opera La Belle Ferronnière in 1840, melodies, and an abundant production of religious music, including in 1839 his Requiem and the same year one of his masses Solemns very well received at Notre-Dame de Paris and at Saint-Eustache Church.

Like his master Reicha, he wrote in 1850 a Te Deum for men's voices and a Mass of orphéons, played in 1870 at the Saint-Ambroise church in Paris. He was the composer and publisher of a large number of Canticles used in all dioceses, litanies, a magnificat and 1884 vespers for choir and organ. He has also written chamber music for various ensembles, including string quartets, quintets and septets. Many of his works are lost, but two chamber music for brass remain, the First Grand Quartet, op. 2 and the Grand Nonetto, op. 3 testify to Juvin's interest in brass, an interest he also manifested through the society of Popular Music of the Republic and the City of Paris of which he was a director and whose purpose was to serve as music to all the guilds of workers.
*This recording is with the middle and rear samples only due to RAM restraints on my computer.