Composer, born in Paris, France. He studied law there from a sense of family duty, but at the same time developed an interest in musical composition under the guidance of César Franck. He helped to found the Schola Cantorum in 1894, and taught there and at the Conservatoire until his death. His works include several operas and orchestral pieces, notably Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français (1886, Symphony on a French Mountaineering Song).
Life
D'Indy was born in Paris into a military family of royalist and Catholic persuasion.
Vincent d'Indy, together with Charles Bordes and Alexandre Guilmant, founded the Schola Cantorum, a Franckist conservatory, in 1894. Although D'Indy was often accused of harboring vehement anti-Semitism (like his musical inspiration Wagner), which together with his lifelong monarchist bent led him to join the Action Française for some time, he nevertheless won respect from fellow musicians totally opposed to his outlook, such as Camille Saint-Saëns, Claude Debussy, Pierre Monteux, and Charles Munch.
Few of d'Indy's works are performed with any regularity today.
Among d'Indy's other works are other orchestral music, chamber music, piano music, songs and a number of operas, including Fervaal (1897). As well as Franck, d'Indy's works show the influence of Richard Wagner (he attended the premiere of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1876).
D'Indy helped revive a number of then-largely forgotten early works, for example, making his own edition of Claudio Monteverdi's opera L'Incoronazione di Poppea.
D'Indy died where he was born, in Paris.
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