Louis Lacombe
Illustration — Louis Lacombe, photo by Étienne Carjat, ca. 1880, Bibliothèque nationale de France. • Illustration — Louis Lacombe, (incorrectly stated as age 10 instead of age 12) in 1831, upon winning first prize for piano at the École Royale de Musique. Pierre Louis Trouillon-Lacombe (26 November 1818 – 30 September 1884) was a French pianist and composer.
Also recorded as Pierre Louis Trouillon-Lacombe
Louis Lacombe

~Pyb · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Born
- 1818 · Bourges.
- Died
- 1884 · Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue.
- Nationality
- France
- Occupation
- pianist · composer · musician
- Fields
- opera
- Movements
- Romanticism · classical music
- Education
- Conservatoire de Paris
- Teachers
- Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann
- Honours
- First Prize
- Languages
- French
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Illustration — Louis Lacombe, photo by Étienne Carjat, ca. 1880, Bibliothèque nationale de France. • Illustration — Louis Lacombe, (incorrectly stated as age 10 instead of age 12) in 1831, upon winning first prize for piano at the École Royale de Musique. Pierre Louis Trouillon-Lacombe (26 November 1818 – 30 September 1884) was a French pianist and composer.
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wikipedia incomplete · checked 25 September 2026
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
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- Admitted assertions
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Authority files
gnd · 5333633-1 · museum · 5ceff1cc-99ed-4f76-8c6d-349828c97635 · wikidata · Q320962 · wikipedia · Louis Lacombe
In this article
Biography
Biography
Lacombe was born in Bourges (Cher), the brother of composer Felicita Casella. He showed unusual musical abilities at very young age and was soon hailed as a child prodigy. He studied piano at the Paris Conservatoire from 1829 to 1832 with Pierre Zimmerman and won first prize in piano performance at age 12 in 1831. He began touring Western Europe after leaving the Conservatoire, and in 1834 studied composition in Vienna with Carl Czerny as well as theory with Ignaz von Seyfried and Simon Sechter. At the end of the decade, he settled in Paris and married his first wife; his second wife, Andrea Lacombe (née Favel), whom he married in 1869, was a singer. In Paris, Lacombe initially established himself as a virtuoso pianist, increasingly dedicating himself to composition and music criticism (his essays were partly reprinted in a posthumous collection, Philosophie et musique, 1896). Lacombe's first published works include a piano quintet, a trio, and some piano pieces. He wrote a number of dramatic symphonies with soloist and choir, and his cantata, Sapho, was performed at the Paris Exposition Universelle (1878). He wrote several operas, but only two were performed in his lifetime. La Madone was a modern composition with musical continuity through each act, elaborate orchestration, and only a small amount of spoken dialogue. However, the opening night response was described as lukewarm. Madame Boniface, a two-act comic piece, was performed in 1883, late in his life. Perhaps his finest work is Winkelried (1892), a four-act grand opera that premiered posthumously. Steven Huebner, writing in Grove, states "musically the score is worth more recognition than it has received. It betrays none of the influence of Gounod seen in so many French operas of the period. Though it is conservative in form, the orchestration and harmonic style are rich (...) Stirring homorhythmic choruses make Winkelried a fine vehicle for Swiss patriotic sentiment". Lacombe died in Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, a small town located on the English Channel, at age 65.
Operas
Operas
• La Madone, opéra comique, 1 act (P. F. de Carmouche), f.p. 16 January 1861, Théâtre Lyrique, Paris. • Winkelried, opéra, 4 acts (L. Bonnemère & Moreau-Sainti), ms. 1876–1881, f.p. 17 February 1892, Grand Théâtre, Geneva. • Madame Boniface, opéra, 3 acts (E. Dupré & Clairville), f.p. autumn 1883, Théâtre Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris. • Le Tonnelier de Nuremberg, opéra-comique, 2 acts Charles-Louis-Etienne Nuitter, after E.T.A. Hoffmann) in German as: Meister Martin und seine Gesellen, f.p. 7 March 1897, Koblenz. • Le Corrigane, ou La Reine des eaux, opéra, 3 acts (Nuitter), in German as: Die Korrigane, f.p. 14 March 1901, Sondershausen. • Le Festin de pierre, comic opera, 1 act (Clairville), in German as: Der Kreuzritter, f.p. 21 March 1902, Sondershausen.
Identity
Identity
Louis Lacombe is recorded as pianist, composer and musician.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1818
Louis Lacombe born at Bourges.
1884
Louis Lacombe died at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
FR.
Country
Bourges.
Birth place
Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q320962: Louis Lacombe
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Louis Lacombe”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Institutional database
- MusicBrainz artist record for Louis Lacombe
Scholarly · MetaBrainz Foundation
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 5333633-1, Conférence sur Louis Lacombe et son Oeuvre (1891 : Bourges).
Unverified · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Dictionnaire de la musique. Bordas. 1979. 2-04-010721-5.
- 2.The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. St. Sadie, 1991, vol. 10, p. 351.
- 3.Cimetière du Père Lachaise - APPL - FAVEL, Eugénie Claudine DUCLAIRFAIT, dite Andrea, Mme LACOMBE (1831-1902). Cimetière du Père Lachaise - APPL. 2023-03-21.
- 4.Biographie universelle des musiciens (Fr.J. Fétis), Paris, 1867, tome 5, p. 156-157.
- 5.Biographie universelle des musiciens (Fr.J. Fétis), op. cit., p. 157.
- 6.D’après plusieurs sources, dont : Biographie universelle des musiciens (Fr.J. Fétis), Paris, 1867, tome 5, p. 156-157 – Universal-Handbuch der Musikliteratur aller Zeiten und Völker, Fr. Pazdírek, vol. 6, Vienne, 1904-1910, p. 909-911 – Kammermusik-Katalog, W. Altmann, Fr. Hofmeister, 1944.
- 7.The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, op. cit.
- 8.D’après The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, op. cit..
Bibliography printed in the source article · 4
- E. Bourdin, La Musique et les musiciens : Louis Lacombe, Paris, 1882
- H. Moreno, « Louis Lacombe », dans Le Ménestrel, n° 1, 1883-1884, p. 358 s.
- H. Boyer, Louis Lacombe et son œuvre, Paris, 1888
- L. Gallet, Louis Lacombe et son œuvre, Bourges, 1891
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
MusicBrainz artist record for Louis LacombeMetaBrainz Foundation
Verifiedauthority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 5333633-1, Conférence sur Louis Lacombe et son Oeuvre (1891 : Bourges).Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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