A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Prumier, Antoine
PRUMIER, Antoine, born in Paris July 2, 1794, learned the harp from his mother, and afterwards entered the Conservatoire, and obtained the second harmony prize in Catel's class in 1812. After this however he was compelled by military law to enter the Ecole polytechnique; but in 1815 he gave up mathematics, re-entered the Conservatoire, and finished his studies in counterpoint under Eler. He then became harpist in the orchestra of the Italiens, and, on the death of Nadermann in 1835, professor of the harp at the Conservatoire. In the same year he migrated to the Opéra Comique, but resigned his post in 1840 in favour of his son, the best of his pupils. Prumier composed and published about a hundred fantasias, rondeaux, and airs with variations for the harp—all well written but now antiquated. He received the Legion of Honour in 1845, and was vice-president of the Association des Artistes Musiciens for 17 years consecutively. He died from the rupture of an aneurism at a committee meeting of the Conservatoire, Jan. 21, 1868. He had retired on his pension the year before, and been succeeded by Labarre, at whose death (April 1870) the professorship devolved upon
Conrad Prumier, born in Paris, Jan. 5, 1820, and lauréat in 1838. Like his father he writes well for the instrument, and is considered a skilled performer and a musician of taste.[ G. C. ]