Early years He was born in in Lower Austria, the son of a schoolmaster named Martin Pleyl. Despite the fact that some sources claim that he had 37 siblings, he was the eighth and last child of his father's first marriage to Anna Theresia née Forster and he had eight more half siblings from his father's second marriage to Maria Anna née Placho. While still young, he probably studied with
Johann Baptist Wanhal, and from 1772 he became the pupil of
Joseph Haydn in
Eisenstadt. As with
Beethoven, born 13 years later, Pleyel benefited in his study from the sponsorship of aristocracy, in this case Count Ladislaus
Erdődy (1746–1786). Pleyel evidently had a close relationship with Haydn, who considered him to be a superb student. Among Pleyel's apprentice work from this time was a
puppet opera
Die Fee Urgele, (1776) performed in the marionette theater at the palace of
Eszterháza and in Vienna. Pleyel apparently also wrote at least part of the overture of Haydn's opera
Das abgebrannte Haus, from about the same time. Pleyel's first professional position may have been as
Kapellmeister for Count Erdődy, although this is not known for certain. Among his early publications was a set of six
string quartets, his
Opus number 1. In the early 1780s, Pleyel visited Italy, where he composed an opera (
Ifigenia in Aulide) and works commissioned by the king of Naples,
Ferdinand I.
Strasbourg 1783–1795 Attracted to the benefits associated with an organist position, Pleyel moved to
Strasbourg, France, in 1783 to work alongside
Franz Xaver Richter, the
maître de chapelle at the
Strasbourg Cathedral. The cathedral was extremely appealing to Pleyel as it possessed a full orchestra, a choir, and a large budget devoted to performances. After establishing himself in France, Pleyel voluntarily called himself by the French version of his name, Ignace. While he was the assistant
maître de chapelle at Strasbourg Cathedral, he wrote more works than during any other period in his musical career (1783–1793). At the cathedral, he would organize concerts that featured his
symphonies concertantes and liturgical music. After Richter's death in 1789, Pleyel assumed the function of full
maître de chapelle. In 1788, Pleyel married Françoise-Gabrielle Lefebvre, the daughter of a Strasbourg carpet weaver. The couple had four children, the eldest being their son
Camille.
Marie Pleyel, née Moke (1811–1875), the future wife of Camille, became one of the most accomplished pianists of her time. He was subsequently labeled a "Royalist collaborator". The outcome of the committee's attentions could easily have been imprisonment or even execution. With prudent opportunism, Pleyel preserved his future by composing several pieces in honor of the new republic, all of which were written in Strasbourg around the time of the Terror. Those pieces, with dates of publication and details: Most of these compositions debuted at the Strasbourg Cathedral, which was known at the time as the ''Temple de l'Être Suprême'' (Temple of the Supreme Being), as churches were outlawed during the Terror. Pleyel became a naturalized French citizen and thus came to be known as Citoyen (citizen) Pleyel. which among other works produced a complete edition of Haydn's string quartets (1801), as well as the first miniature scores for study (the
Bibliothèque musicale, "musical library"). The publishing business lasted for 39 years and published about 4,000 works during this time, including compositions by
Adolphe Adam,
Luigi Boccherini,
Ludwig van Beethoven,
Muzio Clementi,
Johann Baptist Cramer,
Johann Ladislaus Dussek,
Johann Nepomuk Hummel,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and
Georges Onslow. Pleyel visited Vienna on business in 1805, meeting his now elderly mentor
Haydn for a final time and hearing
Beethoven play. In 1807, Pleyel became a manufacturer of pianos; for more on the Pleyel piano firm, see
Pleyel et Cie.
Old age Pleyel retired in 1824 and moved to the countryside about 50 km outside Paris. He died in 1831, apparently quite aware that his own musical style had been fully displaced by the new
Romanticism in music. He was buried in
Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. ==Pleyel's music==