TOMBELLE, Fernand de La – Suite (1921) – THREE CELLOS

Other Identification:
A substantial Suite for cellos, written and published in 1921.
The harmonic language is not advanced for its time (still very romantic), but has its beauty.

Baron Antoine Louis Joseph Gueyrand Fernand Fouant de La Tombelle (3rd August 1854 – 13th August 1928) was a French organist and composer. Born in Paris , Fernand de La Tombelle had piano lessons in his childhood with his mother Louise Gueyraud, a pupil herself of Sigismund Thalberg and Franz Liszt .
From the age of eighteen he took private organ and harmony lessons with Alexandre Guilmant . At the Conservatoire de Paris he studied counterpoint, fugue and composition with Théodore Dubois . For his compositions he was twice awarded the gold medal at the Grand Prix Pleyel, in 1888 and 1894.
In the following years he performed as a concert organist throughout France. From 1896 to 1904, he was the first harmony teacher at the Schola Cantorum . Among his students were Louis Boyer, René de Castéra, Auguste Le Guennant , Marc de Ranse , Blanche Selva , Déodat de Séverac , and Jean Vadon.
He wrote a sonata for Cello and Piano, in D Minor, in 1905.
In addition to music, La Tombelle, who was interested in many things, was active as a writer and columnist, sculptor and painter, art photographer, music ethnologist and astronomer. His wife Henriette Delacoux de Marivault (1857-1943) became known as a novelist, poet and playwright under the pseudonym Camille Bruno.