For sailors around the world, his name remains associated with the famous “Cras rule”, a double inverted protractor, which for more than a century has guided sailing ships on the vast oceans.
But, in addition to his career as a naval officer, which he ended as major general of the Brest arsenal, the Breton Jean Cras also led a life as a composer... Sadly too forgotten these days!
With around a hundred opuses ranging from simple melody to grand opera (with
Polyphème
), his abundant work is nevertheless in the vein of a French school of composition which, at the beginning of the last century, was able to grasp orchestration with a visionary pictorial force, which continues to inspire today well beyond our borders.
As proof, the
Logbook
, which he composed at the end of 1927, aboard the battleship
La Provence,
of which he was in command, and which in many respects has nothing to envy of certain commanders. French symphonic works from the 1900s, such as
La Mer
…
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