Bonvin, Ludwig
Bonvin, Ludwig
Bonvin, Ludwig, Swiss-American organist, conductor, music scholar, and composer; b. Sierre, Feb. 17, 1850; d. Buffalo, Feb. 18, 1939. He was mainly autodi-dact as a musician. He studied medicine in Vienna and law in Switzerland before entering his noviate in a German Jesuit order in Exaeten, the Netherlands, in 1874, where he was active as organist and choirmaster. After his ordination in England in 1885, he settled in Buffalo in 1887, where he was active with various academic institutions until 1929. He championed the cause of applying mensural rhythm to Gregorian chant and publ, the study Musical Accents in Gregorian Chant (1932). In his own works, he pursued a late Romantic style. Several of his works were publ, under the pseu-dynyms J.B. Rainer, B. von Siders, and Georges De’Sierre. Among his extensive output were a Sym., 6 tone poems, 17 pieces for chamber ensembles, 10 masses and other choral works with orch., numerous sacred and secular choruses, 11 song cycles, piano pieces, and organ works.
—Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire