Auguste Bazille

Auguste Bazille was a French organist, composer, and professor of music.

Career

Auguste Bazille was a brilliant student at the Conservatoire de Paris. He led a triple career as an organist, "chef de chant" at the Opéra-Comique, and professor of practical harmony and accompaniment at the Conservatoire.
Appointed to the new Suret organ at the in Paris in 1853, he was a close friend of Suret. He inaugurated several of their instruments from 1848. An appreciated improviser, he was often called for organ inaugurations in Paris and in the provinces.
As "chef de chant" at the Opéra-Comique, he was close to the Parisian milieu of opera and opéra comique. In particular, he was a close friend of Charles Gounod and Georges Bizet, of Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély.
Bazille reduced numerous opera scores of the nineteenth century, from Adam to Wagner, to vocal scores. He also wrote a few original compositions for voice, piano and harmonium.
As a teacher of practical harmony at the piano, Bazille had many students, the most famous among them being the composers Claude Debussy and Mélanie Bonis.