Cécile Chaminade
Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade (born August 8, 1857 in Paris , † April 13, 1944 in Monte Carlo ) was a French composer and pianist .
Life
Cécile Chaminade was born at the foot of Montmartre and came from a family of officers and sailors. Among her ancestors is the French priest Guillaume-Joseph Chaminade , who founded the Congregation of the Marianists in 1817 . Cécile Chaminade was first taught by her mother (a pianist), then by Félix Le Couppey (piano), Augustin Savart, Martin Pierre Joseph Marsick and Benjamin Godard , albeit only unofficially, because her father - the head of an insurance company - disapproved of her musical training.
Her first attempts at composition date back to early childhood, and at the age of 8 she played her own works to Georges Bizet , who was very impressed by her talent. At the age of 18 she gave her first concert, on May 3, 1877 she made her debut in the Salle Pleyel as a pianist in a piano trio by Charles-Marie Widor . From this time on, her compositional work gained increasing popularity. She mainly wrote character pieces for piano and salon songs, most of which were also published. In 1882 her one-act comic opera La Sévillane op. 10 was premiered.
In the previous years Chaminade made several concert tours through France, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland. In 1892 she made her debut in England, which she then toured several times. Her work became very popular there. Queen Victoria invited her to spend some time at Windsor Castle .
In 1901 Chaminade married Louis-Mathieu Carbonel, a music publisher from Marseille who was twenty years his senior ; Because of his advanced age, it was rumored that it was a marriage of convenience. He died in 1907 and Chaminade did not remarry.
Further concert tours took her to Greece, Turkey, Canada and in 1908 to the USA , where numerous admirers gave her a warm welcome. Her compositions were extremely successful with American audiences, and pieces such as the scarf dance or the ballet No. 1 became an integral part of the repertoire of lovers of piano music. She composed a concert piece op. 40 for piano and orchestra, ballet music for Callirhoé and other orchestral works, including the large-scale Symphonie lyrique Les Amazones for choir and orchestra. Her songs, such as The Silver Ring and Ritournelle , also became popular. The French composer and writer Ambroise Thomas said of Chaminade: "This is not a composing woman, but a composer who is a woman."
In 1913 she was the first female composer to become a member of the Legion of Honor with the rank of Chevalier . In 1914 she traveled again to England, where she again celebrated triumphs. After the First World War , at the age of 57, she took over the management of a hospital. Before and after the First World War, Chaminade recorded numerous piano roles . With increasing age, due to illness - her foot had to be amputated - her creative power declined. In 1936 she settled in Monte Carlo , where she died in 1944.
With her piano pieces and songs, Chaminade was largely forgotten in the second half of the 20th century, only her Concertino for flute and orchestra op. 107, which was a competition piece at the Paris Conservatory in 1902 , is still played regularly today. Her mass for soprano, alto and organ can still be heard from time to time. In the last two decades, however, it has become clear what value her compositions have, and a real Chaminade renaissance began.
Works
Cécile Chaminade has left an extensive work, including around 200 pieces for piano solo and more than 100 songs.
- 1927: Mass pour deux voix égales , Op. 167
- 1928: La Nef sacrée Recueil de Piècespour orgue ou harmonium , Op. 171
- 1882: La Sevillane , comic opera
- 1888: Callirhoë , Ballet Symphonique, Op. 37th first performance on March 16, 1888 in Marseille
Discography
- Cécile Chaminade. The composer as pianist . All of Her Known Recordings for G&T and Duo Art. The Hall Collection, Vol. 1. Pierian 0042
literature
- Marcia Citron: Cécile Chaminade: a Bio-Bibliography . Connecticut. Greenwood Press 1988.
- Macia Citron: Gender and the Musical Canon . Cambridge University Press 1993.
- Cécile Tardif: Portrait de Cécile Chaminade . Montreal: Louise Courteau 1993
- Herbert Schneider: Chaminade, Cécile. In: MGG Online (subscription required).
Web links
- Works by and about Cécile Chaminade in the German Digital Library
- Sheet music and audio files by Cécile Chaminade in the International Music Score Library Project
- Free digital scores by Cécile Chaminade in the OpenScore Lieder Corpus
- Lexical article on Cécile Chaminade at MUGI - "Music and Gender on the Internet".
- FemBiographie Cécile Chaminade
- Catalog raisonné, op.1a-op. 161; Works Without Opus Number
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Chaminade, Cecile |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Chaminade, Cécile Louise Stéphanie (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French composer and pianist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 8, 1857 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 13, 1944 |
| Place of death | Monte Carlo |