A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Tolbecque
TOLBECQUE, a family of Belgian musicians, who settled in France after the Restoration. The original members were four brothers:—the eldest, Isidore Joseph (born at Hanzinne Ap. 17, 1794, died at Vichy May 10, 1871), was a good conductor of dance-music. Jean Baptiste Joseph (born at Hanzinne in 1797, died in Paris, Oct. 23, 1869), violinist, composer, and excellent conductor, directed the music of the court balls during Louis Philippe's reign, and also those at Tivoli when those public gardens were the height of the fashion. He composed a quantity of dance-music—quadrilles, valses, and galops—above the average in merit; an opéra-comique in one act 'Charles V. et Duguesclin' (Odéon, 1827), with Gilbert and Guiraud; and with Deldevez, 'Vert-Vert' (Opéra, 1851), a 3-act ballet, his most important work. He was a member of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire from its foundation in 1859. The third brother, Auguste Joseph, also born at Hanzinne, Feb. 28, 1801, died in Paris, May 27, 1869. A pupil of Rudolph Kreutzer, he took the first violin prize at the Conservatoire in 1821, made some mark as a virtuoso, was an original member of the Société des Concerts, and one of the best violinists at the Opéra, and for several seasons was well known in London, where he played first violin at Her Majesty's Theatre. The youngest, Charles Joseph, born May 27, 1806, in Paris, where he died Dec. 39, 1835, was also a pupil of R. Kreutzer, and an original member of the Société des Concerts. He took a prize at the Conservatoire in 1824, and became conductor at the Variétés in 1830. In this capacity he composed pretty songs and pieces for interpolation in the plays, several of which attained some amount of popularity.
The Tolbecque family is at this moment represented by Auguste, son of Auguste Joseph, a distinguished cellist, born in Paris, March 30, 1830. He took the first cello prize at the Conservatoire in 1849, and has published some 15 works of various kinds for his instrument, including 'La Gymnastique du Violoncello' (op. 14), an excellent collection of exercises and mechanical studies. He is also a clever restorer of old instruments, and formed a collection, which he sold to the Brussels Conservatoire in 1879. His son, Jean, born at Niort, Oct. 7, 1857, took the first cello prize at the Paris Conservatoire in 1873, and has studied the organ with César Franck.[ G. C. ]