French composer born in Tourcoing where a place of the center town has his name and dead in Royan. When he was 15 years old, he decides to become sailor and will be received at the Naval college in 1887, then he will embark on a training ship, frigates, a battleship. Promoted sub-lieutenant, he commands a destroyer in 1893 and leaves for Saigon. He returns to Roubaix in 1894 and resigns of the navy to devote himself to the music. His musical career can be divided into three periods:

• from 1898 to 1913, he lets perceive the influence of Debussy and Vincent d'Indy, in the First Symphony or the Feast of the Spider;

• from Padmavati, the style changes with more daring sequences;

• lastly, from 1926 come orchestral suites, symphonies and concertos and works for piano.

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