Auguste Pilati

Auguste Pilati (actual name "Auguste Pilate") (29 September 1810 – 1 August 1877) was a prolific French composer, opera conductor and occasional singer. He employed several pseudonyms including "Auguste Pilati Juliano", "A. P. Juliano", "Ate. P. Juliano", "A. Ruytler", "P. Ruytler", and "Wolfart". He wrote about 40 works for the stage, including operas, operettas, and ballets besides a very large number of popular songs and piano works.

Born in Bouchain, a small town between Cambrai and Valenciennes in the French département Nord, Pilati studied at the Paris Conservatory where he won a first prize in solfège as early as 1823, but from which he was dismissed.

Arthur Pougin (1880) described him as an "extremely fertile composer, whose name is virtually unknown to the public, although he was not without talent" ("extrêmement fécond, dont le nom est pourtant à peu près inconnu du public, quoiqu'il ne fût point sans talent"). He seems to have been able to live mainly from the sale of his own compositions and conducting his stage works, although he also had short-term employments as musical director of small theatres in Paris such as the Théâtre Beaumarchais and the Théâtre des Folies-Marigny, and he often conducted the orchestra of the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin. He also frequently appeared as a singer or duo partner in the Parisian café-concerts of his day.

Pougin considered his music "graceful and distinguished", but also thought that he "overdid himself under poor conditions and ended up sacrificing art to craft" ("gracieuse et distingué, mais qui s'est trop prodigué, et dans de mauvaises conditions, et qui a fini par sacrifier l'art au metier").

In the last fifteen years of his life, Pilati signed his vocal and piano works as either "A. P. Juliano" or "Ate. P. Juliano". Among these are a large number of technically easy works intended for children, but also numerous salon works, waltzes, quadrilles etc. intended for showy performance as well as home use.

Pilati died in Paris.