Jean Cras, Polymath of Music and Letters

This revised, enhanced edition of the life and works of composer and Admiral Jean Cras traces, through new research, the remarkable career of this celebrated composer, decorated war hero, scientist and inventor. As Henri Duparc's only protégé, his "spiritual son" enjoyed the same level of esteem during the 1920s as his friends Ravel and Roussel. This edition sustains the renaissance of Jean Cras and includes a new chapter devoted to the composer's early songs, to be released concurrently.

« Le Canadien Paul-André Bempéchat, est parfaitement francophone mais c'est en anglais qu'il rédige cette somme dédiée à Jean Cras ... Tout y est, ... sa carrière marine, ... l'inventeur brilliant, l'esthète pétri d'humanisme, le musicien dans son oeuvre. ... Le portrait est vivant, Jean Cras se tient devant vous et tous les secrets de son art subtil sont démontrés. »

- Diapason

"There is no doubt that, in subsequent studies of Jean Cras's life and works, this book will be the first source to which the researcher turns. Bempéchat's deft and skilful blending of a beautifully written and engaging biography with lucid and erudite musical analysis, interspersed with tales of military history and scientific discovery, has resulted in a book that is absolutely engaging on its own, as it tells the life story of a most extraordinary man."

- Nineteenth-Century Music Review

Franco-Canadian pianist and musicologist Paul-André Bempéchat studied at the Manhattan and Juilliard Schools of Music and the Sorbonne. A contributor to The Revised New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, and to numerous academic and performing arts journals, Bempéchat has enjoyed research and lecturing appointments at Harvard University, where he remains an affiliate at its Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and a visiting lecturer at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Bempéchat sustains the career which has brought him to the Wiener Festwoch and Berlin’s Konzerthaus. In 2017, the author was decorated Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and as Honourary Fellow of the Royal Academic Chapel and Orchestra at Uppsala University.