The composing career of Albert Roussel got off to a wayward start, and received one of its biggest boosts from a lie.

Roussel was orphaned¹ at the age of eight and went to live with his grandfather. He built on the music he had learned from his mother, entertaining himself by reading through the family music collection and playing operatic selections and popular songs on the piano.

Three years later Roussel’s grandfather died, and his mother’s sister took him in . Her husband arranged for young Albert to take piano lessons. Summer vacations at a Belgian seaside resort added a second love to his life—the sea. He studied to be a naval² cadet, but still made time to study music.

In the French Navy, while he was stationed on a cruiser based at Cherbourg, he and two friends found the time to play the piano trios of Beethoven and other composers. Roussel also began composing. At the Church of the Trinity in Cherbourg on Christmas Day 1892, he had his debut³ as a composer with the performance of his Andante for string trio and organ.

That success encouraged Roussel to write a wedding march, and one of his fellow naval officers offered to show it to a prominent conductor, Edouard Colonne. When Roussel’s friend returned with the manuscript, he reported that Colonne had advised Roussel to give up his naval career and devote his life to music.

Not long afterward⁴, at the age of 25, Roussel did just that. He applied⁵ the self-discipline, conciseness⁶, and spirituality that he had developed in the navy to his composing and became a major force in twentieth century French music. As for Eduoard Colonne’s inspiring advice that Roussel devote his life to music—Roussel’s navy friend later admitted that he had made it up and that he had never even shown Roussel’s manuscript to the conductor.

作曲家阿尔伯特•鲁塞尔的创作生涯起初莫测不定，但却在一次谎言中获得了极大的飞跃。

鲁塞尔在八岁时成为孤儿，和他的祖父一起生活。从母亲那里学到的音乐知识为鲁塞尔的音乐事业奠定了基础，他遍读家里的音乐书籍，在钢琴上弹奏歌剧选集中的选段和流行歌曲，以此来娱乐和丰富自己。

三年后，鲁塞尔的祖父去世了，姨母收留了他。姨父安排年幼的鲁塞尔去上钢琴课。鲁塞尔的暑假都是在比利时的一处海滨胜地度过的，于是，他的生命中又多了一份爱好，那就是对大海的热爱。鲁塞尔成为了海军军校的学生，但他依然腾出时间来学习音乐。

在法国海军服役期间，鲁塞尔被派到一艘驻扎在瑟堡的巡洋舰上。他和两个朋友抽空就会一起演奏贝多芬和其他作曲家的三重奏钢琴曲。鲁塞尔还开始去尝试谱曲。1892年圣诞节的那天，鲁塞尔作为一名作曲家在瑟堡的三一教堂进行了首演，他的演出作品是（弦乐三重奏与风琴的）《行板乐曲》。

这次成功激励鲁塞尔写出了一首婚礼进行曲，他的一位海军军官战友提出要把这首曲子拿给著名指挥家埃多尔德•科龙内过目。这位朋友拿着乐谱手稿回来后告诉鲁塞尔，科龙内建议他放弃海军生涯，投身于音乐事业。

不久后，25岁的鲁塞尔的确照做了。他把在海军服役期间培养出的律己、简练和灵性脱俗应用于自己的音乐创作之中，并成为20世纪法国音乐界的一个主力。而至于埃多尔德•科龙内鼓舞他献身音乐事业的建议，鲁塞尔的那位海军朋友后来承认说，那是他自己瞎编的，他压根就从未把鲁塞尔的乐稿拿给那位指挥家看过。