Émile Goué

Born in Châteauroux (Indre), with a father who was inspector of primary education, a mother who was head teacher of a teacher-training school for young girls in Guéret (Creuse) and four sisters, all of whom became teachers, the path of the young Goué was clear: he was naturally destined for the teaching profession. With a keen intelligence, he 1921, he obtained the two existing baccalaureats: that of elementary mathematics and that of philosophy. he graduated in science at the age of 20. He was appointed professor at Boulogne-sur-Mer three years later. Thereafter, he transferred to Agen in 1924 where he successfully completed the physics and chemistry degree. In 1927, he married Yvonne Burg and they had three children: Michel, Bernard and Françoise. He taught successively at the Lycée Montaigne in Bordeaux and Lycée Buffon in Paris. He taught in so-called "special mathematics" classes (preparation for the Grandes Écoles competitions) and ended his university career in one of the most renowned chairs in higher education, at lycée Louis-le-Grand. Like Borodin, his scientific and academic career was coupled with regular music practice. Already in Toulouse in 1924, he conducted a youth symphony with a small university orchestra. He furthered his musical studies, which he completed under the direction of Charles Koechlin. Albert Roussel also encouraged him to compose. From 1936 onwards, an intense production began which was only interrupted by the war. Goué was revealed especially with the Psalm XIII (1938) and the Trio (1937). Living permanently in an inner dream, he could seem very dizzy: so he had gone to school one day to teach with two different pairs of shoes. With a very high moral conscience, his personal reactions were always guided by an idealistic point of view. The Second World War broke out as orchestras and ensembles began to pay attention to his production. Mobilized in 1939 as an artillery lieutenant, taken prisoner in June 1940, he spent five years in the Nienburg, Lower Saxony/Weser Oflag. His visceral need to teach was evident from the first days of captivity through a physics course given to his young classmates to help them prepare for their future exams. At the same time, he organized introductory lectures on the history of music from its origins to the present day, to which were added over the months a course on harmony and counterpoint, a course on fugue, twenty lessons on musical aesthetics and the history of the symphony. Demonstrating passionate self-denial, he wanted to complete this theoretical teaching and instil in his companions of misfortune a love of music by conducting and commenting on eighteen symphonic concerts whose programs ranged from Franco-Flemish polyphonists to Arthur Honegger. Both the musicians of the orchestra and the singers of the choir were amateurs, with instruments of very poor quality, but Goué's enthusiasm won them all over. "Captivity" - he confided in 1942, a year of despair and anguish - "removes almost all contact with real life, therefore almost all inner life" [...] "Frequent solitude is necessary to enrich one's inner life, and all solitude is lacking" [...] "The hardest thing is not to be hungry; it is to feel one's spiritual level lower". Very quickly he started composing again, with difficulty at first, then a little more serenely. As with Olivier Messiaen, the war period saw the emergence of masterpieces, revealing an incomparable mastery and artistic maturity: Psalm CXXIII (1942), Prelude, Choral and Fugue (1943), Prehistory (1943), Quintet for piano and strings (1943), Prelude, Aria and Final (1944), Theme and Variations (1945), 3rd String Quartet (1945), etc. Returning home in May 1945, Goué was unable to carry out his dual activity as a musician and teacher at the same time. Very weakened, he participated in the jury of the agrégation exams, completed the orchestration of his grandiose Inscription on a stele and died on 10 October 1946 at the university sanatorium of Neufmoutiers-en-Brie. He is buried in the cemetery of Guéret, in the Creuse, whose music conservatory has been named after him since 2007.

Source: • "More and more I feel drawn to austerity, stripping, nudity and severity of style. We must not hide the emptiness of thought under the efflorescence of the counterpoint. I would like to build works that can help men to believe in Life, in the highest and simplest, the most natural, the most primitive. I think I've already done that.". • "Music is for me a metaphysical activity, and does not separate from my life". • "It is as important for me to participate in Life, with its sufferings and joys, as it is to compose music. I would even say that the first activity allows me the second". • "The divine task of Art is to increase in us the notion of Life". • "For me, it is the spirit of Bach that matters, religious spirit: believing in Life, and, from this hope, making a lever capable of helping to accomplish one's destiny, such is the positive doctrine, this philosophy of action that is derived from the study of the Cantor's work". • "Suffering is only desperate if it is sterile." • "I know that the word conviction still has a pejorative meaning today. This is a salutary reaction against romanticism and, certainly, the most absolute conviction is not enough to generate the work of art. But without conviction, it seems impossible to me to do anything big. This conviction that the artist must bring to his work is none other than the belief in the necessity of what he writes. This belief, this certainty, I have always felt it deeply".

• Pieces for piano • 1933–1935: Ambiances, suite n° 1 • 1936–1937: Sonate • 1939: Horizons (pièces descriptives) • 1942: Ambiances, suite n° 2 • 1943: Prélude, Choral et Fugue • 1943: Préhistoires • 1944: Prélude, Aria et Final • 1945: Thème et Variations • Chamber music • 1937: Three Pieces for oboe, clarinet and bassoon • 1937: First String Quartet • 1941: Second String Quartet • 1941–1944: Sonata for violon and piano • 1942: String sextet • 1942: Duo for violin and cello • 1943: Quintet for piano and strings • 1944–1945: Third String sextet • Symphonic works • 1933: Poème symphonique • 1925–1937: Première Symphonie "classique", in G minor • 1943: Second Symphony, with main violin, in A • 1943: Esquisse pour un paysage vu du Mont Coudreau • 1944: Macbeth • 1946: Esquisse pour une inscription sur une stèle • Lyrical works • 1934: Wanda • 1938: Psaume XIII • 1940: Psaume CXXIII • Melodies • 1940: Ballade • 1942–1943: Trois Mélodies pour voix et quatuor à cordes • 1945: Deux Mélodies