Jacques Bosch

Jacques Bosch was born as Jaume Bosch i Renard on 26 May 1825 in Barcelona (Spain). He studied piano and guitar in his hometown and first toured as a guitarist in Spain. In 1853 he settled in Paris and adapted his name to the French version Jacques Bosch. He made a living with concert tours through France, Germany and the Netherlands as well as being a guitar teacher especially for the Parisian upper-class. Notable students of him were the brothers Alfred and Jules Cottin. Jacques Bosch was also a good friend of the painter Edouard Manet who portrayed him several times. Jacques Bosch died on 31 March 1895 in Paris (France).

The work catalogue of Jacques Bosch contains many small compositions for guitar solo. A few of them were published individually, the main part in collections like his „Dix pieces pour guitare“ or „12 pieces faciles pour guitare“. Jacques Bosch also compiled a „Methode de guitare“ for which he composed many of the included compositions, a total number of 39 works. He also composed an opera „Roger de Flor“ which remained unperformed.

In my possession is the autograph manuscript of a small composition by Jacques Bosch. The work is titled "Polka Mazurka". My manuscript has the handwritten dedication "A son eleve Melle Luisita Ducouran" and is dated at the end "Paris, 17 Juin 1888".

I could not find further information about this composition nor about the dedicatee Ms. Luisita Ducouran. So maybe this work was composed earlier and Jacques Bosch presented a copy to his student in 1888, or it is an original work from that year and written for Ms. Ducouran. Due to the fact that I could not find any information about a guitarist or other instrumentalist by this name, it seems likely that the mentioned lady was one of Jacques Bosch's students from the Parisian upper-class that took lessons for amusement.

The score of the "Polka Mazurka, for guitar" can be found below: