Joseph Léon Heckmann

Joseph Léon Heckmann, better known under the pseudonym Alcib Mario, was born in 1870 in Sierck (today Sierck-les-Bains) in Lorraine (France). There is information about his musical education, but throughout the 1890s contemporary newspaper mentioned him as the organist in Thionville. Heckmann was already active as a composer during this period. The catalogue of the Bibliothèque nationale de France attributes to Léon Heckmann a work entitled “La lyre céleste, 2e série”, published in 1893. This is the earliest composition presently traceable under his real name. 
At some point around the turn of the century Heckmann moved to Paris, where his career changed direction considerably. Instead of church music he became involved in the world of the Parisian cabarets and cafés-concerts. Under the pseudonym Alcib Mario he became particularly associated with the artistic cabaret "Les Noctambules". He was remembered there especially as a pianist. 
By 1903 the pseudonym Alcib Mario was firmly established and during the following years Mario became a prolific contributor to the Parisian popular-song repertoire. Several of his songs entered the repertoire of major performers. One example is “La pharmacie en goguette”, composed with W. Naudin to words by Léo Lelièvre and Fernand Dervyl. It was recorded by the famous singer Félix Mayol in 1908–09. Mario's most enduring success, however, appears to have been the waltz-song “Les Boîtes de Nuit”, to words by Léo Lelièvre and René Champigny. Composed in 1909, it belonged to the genre of the chanson réaliste and evoked the nocturnal entertainment world of Montmartre and Pigalle. The song remained in circulation for many years; the Musée Carnavalet names Emma Liebel, who recorded it in 1925, and Berthe Sylva among its best-known interpreters.
Mario continued to compose topical, humorous and sentimental songs during the years before and during the First World War. Unlike many composers associated exclusively with the Belle Époque café-concert, Mario remained active after the First World War and successfully adapted to the changing world of popular entertainment and recorded music. His name occurs on numerous songs, waltzes and dance pieces of the 1920s and 1930s. Among them was the waltz “Pour t'oublier”, written with accordionist and composer Frédo Gardoni to words by Pierre Alberty and recorded by Gardoni's ensemble with singer Marcel Véran in 1933. 
Joseph Léon Heckmann died on 26 October 1945 in Paris (France).

In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the song "Le Vague de l'Ame" by Joseph Leon Heckmann on a text by Gabriel Montoya.