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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Napoléon Henri Reber (21 October 1807, Mulhouse, Alsace – 24 November 1880, Paris) was a French composer.
He studied with Anton Reicha and Jean François Lesueur, wrote chamber music, and set to music the new poems of the best French poets. He became professor of harmony at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1851 and succeeded Fromental Halévy as professor of composition in 1862, was inspector of the branch conservatories from 1871, and was elected to George Onslow's chair in the Académie française in 1853.
Among his works are a ballet, Le Diable amoureux (written jointly with François Benoist, 1840); the comic operas, Le nuit de Noël (1848), Le père Gaillard (1852), Les papillotes de M. Benoist (1853), and Les dames capitaines (1857); four symphonies, and much chamber music. He wrote a Traité d'harmonie (1862), which went through many editions.
His instrumental arrangement of Frédéric Chopin's Funeral March from the Funeral March Sonata was played at the graveside during Chopin's burial at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris on 30 October 1849.
He was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1855, and an officer in 1870. On his death, he was succeeded as a member of the Institut by Camille Saint-Saëns.
Reber's compositions include a string quintet (his opus 1; with extra cello), a string quartet a piano quartet (1866) and seven piano trios, and the four symphonies mentioned above.
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