François-Joseph Gossec (1734 — February 16, 1829) was a Belgian composer who worked in France.
Son of a small farmer, Gossec was born at the village of Vergnies, in Belgian Hainaut. Showing an early taste for music, he became a choir-boy in Antwerp. He went to Paris in 1751 and was taken up by the great composer, Jean-Philippe Rameau. He became conductor of a private band kept by La Popelinière, a wealthy amateur, and became gradually determined to do something to revive the study of instrumental music in France.
Gossec's own first symphony was performed in 1754, and as conductor to the Prince de Condé’s orchestra he produced several operas and other compositions of his own. He imposed his influence on French music with remarkable success, founded the Concert des Amateurs in 1770, organized the École de Chant in 1784, was conductor of the band of the Garde Nationale at the French Revolution, and was appointed (with Etienne Méhul and Luigi Cherubini) inspector of the Conservatoire de Musique on its creation in 1795. He was an original member of the Institut and a chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Outside France he was little known, and his own numerous compositions, sacred and secular, were overshadowed by those of greater composers; but he was an inspiration to many, and powerfully stimulated the revival of instrumental music.
He died at Passy.
This entry is based on the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article.
