Edmond Dédé Biography

Edmond Dede was born on November 20, 1827, in New Orleans, Louisiana. His parents had shifted to the USA from the West Indies when it was still under the occupation of the French. His father was a musician who played with the militia.

Edmond was a free-born Creole. Creole were the people who were descended from the colonial inhabitants of Louisiana. Due to his father’s profession as a musician, Edmond himself had become inclined towards becoming a musician in his childhood. He thus began his music training as a kid.

He started with clarinet, which he thought was the instrument he would play thereafter. However, once he began learning the violin, he stuck to it and turned out to be a quick learner of the instrument. He was known as a violin prodigy since he learned to play the instrument very quickly.

Quickly, Edmond had also begun composing violin songs on his own. He also played Rodolphe Kreutzer’s violin suites, an artist he deeply admired. Edmond furthered with professional training in violin from teachers such as  Constantin Debergue and Ludovico Gabici. In addition to learning to play the violin, Edmond also received training in music theory by theorists such as Eugene Prevost.

Another one of his teachers was Charles Richard Lambert, who was a black musician, teacher and music conductor hailing from New York.

In 1848, following the end of the American-Mexican War, he made up his mind to move to Mexico. It was also due to the widespread racism against the creoles of colours. Many people from his community had made the move to save themselves from racial prejudice. However, by that time, he was still not able to make a good living as a musician. He was compelled to move back to the United States in 1852. He began working at making cigars upon his return. He had planned to save money to travel to Europe, where he thought his music career would really flourish.

One other reason for his big move was the limited opportunity for a black man in the United States. When he exhausted all the attempts of making it as a musician in the US, he was advised by a few close friends of him to make a move to Europe, where he could have a better career.

After his return to the US from Mexico, he did some music work and wrote his first major composition in 1852, titled Mon Pauvre Coeur.

Finally, in 1857, came the time when he saved enough to make the trip to Europe. He moved to Belgium first and from there, he moved to the Mecca of classical music, Paris, to enrol into the Paris Conservatory. Enrolling into the Paris Conservatory was not a difficult task for a prodigious young musician like him. He continued his advanced music studies there.

He was nicely welcomed in Paris. There was no colour prejudice and his talents were fully recognized. He further perfected his skills as a violinist at the Conservatory, working with musicians such as Jean Delphin Alard and Fromental Halevy.

His skills were being noticed and he became a popular young name in the Parisian violinist circles. He moved to Bordeaux in 1860 and was hired as an assistant conductor of ballet at the Grand Theatre of Bordeaux. He worked there for about 25 years and delivered some of his best compositions while there. He was later hired as conductor at Théâtre l'Alcazar, a popular concert cafe in Bordeaux.

While working in Bordeaux, he composed all different sorts of music, ranging from operettas, ballets and chamber music. He also composed many popular songs and thus his popularity soared among the music lovers of southern France. One other reason for his immense success was his unique musical style, which had a raw American feel to it. But the French training he had received also showed in his music which also exuded a familiar vibe at the same time.

Around this time, he composed about 250 dance songs. Most of his most popular and surviving work was composed in this period of time.

He composed some celebrated songs such as Quasimodo Symphony and Le Palmier Overture. While he spent most of his time in Bordeaux, he also performed in other places as well. For instance, during his brief visit to Algeria, he composed Le Serment de L’Arabe in 1865.

In all those years, he only visited his home country, the USA, only once. He did not travel to the country to perform often, but his music did. Samuel Snair Jr., an American musician and composer performed Edmond’s composition Quasimodo Symphony in Louisiana in 1865. Many people of colour along with North American white people were present during the occasion. However, Dede was not there to celebrate his success in his native country.

During the prime of his career, Edmond did not visit the USA. However, he only visited New Orleans once in 1893. Bad weather caused his ship to change the route and the landing took place at Galveston, Texas, where Edmond got stuck for the next two months. In the entire fiasco, he also ended up losing his favourite violin Cremona.

Despite losing his prized possession to the accident, Edmond used a new instrument to play his songs. He played one of the most emotional songs in the United States, titled Patriotisme. In the song, he described how he wasn’t satisfied with his destiny that he had to work far away from his homeland due to an ‘implacable prejudice’.

Upon reaching the United States, Edmond stayed there for about a year. During that time, he travelled around various cities in the country, organizing violin concerts. Several benefits concerts were also organized in his name, which he himself attended. Several esteemed musicians from the country were also present during the concerts.

In the United States, he was also offered membership in Société des Jeunes-Amis. It was a social group of coloured creoles that fought the prejudice in American society. However, Edmond turned down the offer due to his permanent life being in France.

In 1894, he returned to France and upon his return, he became a member of the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers.

Among all his major compositions, his final two are considered to be Morgiane, ou, Le sultan d'Ispahan and Méphisto Masqué.

Edmond Dede married Sylvie Leflet, a French woman. They had one son together, named Eugene Dede. Eugene went on to become a music composer and a conductor.

Edmond passed away on January 5, 1903. He was 75 years old at the time of his demise.

Most of his compositions are preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.