Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of
royalist and
Catholic persuasion. His great-grandfather was the politician . He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to
Antoine François Marmontel and
Louis Diémer. From the age of 14 d'Indy studied harmony with
Albert Lavignac. When he was 16 an uncle introduced him to
Berlioz's treatise on orchestration, which inspired him to become a composer. He wrote a piano quartet which he sent to
César Franck, who was the teacher of a friend. Franck recognised his talent and recommended that d'Indy pursue a career as a composer. In 1882 he heard Wagner's
Parsifal. In 1883 his choral work
Le Chant de la cloche appeared. In 1884 his symphonic poem
Saugefleurie was premiered. His piano suite ("symphonic poem for piano") called
Poème des montagnes came from around this time. In 1887 appeared his Suite in D for trumpet, 2 flutes and string quartet. That same year he was involved in Lamoureux's production of Wagner's
Lohengrin as choirmaster. His music drama
Fervaal occupied him between 1889 and 1895. D'Indy later taught at the Conservatoire and privately, while retaining his post at the Schola Cantorum.
Arthur Honegger and
Darius Milhaud. Two atypical students were
Cole Porter, who signed up for a two-year course at the Schola, but left after a few months, and
Erik Satie, who studied there for three years and later wrote, "Why on earth had I gone to d'Indy? The things I had written before were so full of charm. And now? What nonsense! What dullness!" Nonetheless, according to ''
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', d'Indy's influence as a teacher was "enormous and wide-ranging, with benefits for French music far outweighing the charges of dogmatism and political intolerance". Like Franck, d'Indy revered German music, and he resented the society's exclusion of non-French music and composers. In an attempt to further a proposed merger of the two organisations during the
First World War d'Indy stepped down as president of the Société nationale to make way for the more "progressive"
Gabriel Fauré, but the plan came to nothing. ==Works==