Francois-Joseph Gossec (Gossé real name) (17/01/1734 - 16/02/1829) was a French composer, born in Vergnies, died Passy. Francois-Joseph Gossec was born in Vergnies, a French village in the landlocked county of Hainault area then the Austrian crown. This village is now located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. Formed in Walcourt before becoming a chorister at the Cathedral of Antwerp (where he completed his musical studies), then in Brussels and Liege, Gossec was hired as a violinist in the orchestra of La Pouplinière in Paris. Between 1762 and 1770, he directed the theater of the Prince of Conde at Chantilly (as master of music). He then served as Superintendent of the Prince de Conti Music. He founded the Concert des amateurs in 1769, he directed until 1773. Between 1773 and 1777 he was director of the Concert Spiritual. In 1780 he became deputy director of the Opera and then, after the resignation of Antoine Dauvergne at Easter 1782, CEO. However, its powers were limited because offset by the Secretary of State to the King's House and the committee of artists [1]. In 1784, he left the management committee to lead the new Royal School of Singing. He became known also by its action in the revolutionary movement. It was indeed recognized as "official musician of the Revolution", making himself a reputation inventor of music and the Democratic People's Choral Art. This characteristic earned him the displeasure of the rest during the Restoration. After 1789, he wrote many works inspired by the Revolution, such hymns. Also regarded as the father of the French symphony, he was good friends with Mozart and founded with a musician André-Modeste Gretry Liege, the Paris Conservatoire where he taught composition between 1795 and 1814 and which will be one of the inspectors. Its 50 symphonies whose first, composed in 1756, are earlier than those of Joseph Haydn contributed to the development of its kind in France. Composed in 1809, the Symphony in 17 games, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, was the last of the series. He also composed operas, including The Fisherman (1766) and Toinon and Toinette (1767), Sabinus or Theseus, works of chamber music and sacred pieces, as the oratorio The Nativity (1774). His Missa pro defunctis also called Grande Messe des morts and known as the Requiem composed in 1760 novel is a work of great beauty that has probably inspired Mozart to his famous Requiem High Mass but also the deaths of Berlioz. Mass of the Living, composed in 1813 and sadly named, was one of his last compositions. He died after sixty-five year career that ended with his final Te Deum in 1817. Gossec was buried in Pere Lachaise Cemetery where he is buried near the grave of his friend Gretry.