Hippolyte Monpou

In 1817 he entered as a pupil in the school founded by Alexandre-Étienne Choron, Institution royale de musique classique et religieuse, which he left in 1819 to be the organist at Tours Cathedral.

Here he had the opportunity of studying the works of ancient and modern composers of all schools, while taking lessons in harmony at the same time from Bernardo Porta, Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard and François-Joseph Fétis.

[1] He was organist successively at Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin and the Sorbonne, and sacred music appeared to be his special vocation until 1828, when he published a piece for 3 voices to Pierre-Jean de Béranger's song, '"Si j'étais petit oiseau".

He was now taken up by the poets of the romantic school, and published in rapid succession romances and ballads to words chiefly by Alfred de Musset and Victor Hugo.

Gustave Chouquet wrote: "These operas bear evident traces of the self-sufficient and ignorant composer of romances, the slovenly and incorrect musician, and the poor instrumentalist which we know Monpou to have been; but quite as apparent are melody, dramatic fire and instinct, and a certain happy knack.