Ernest Chausson
Ernest Amédée Chausson (born January 20, 1855 in Paris , † June 10, 1899 in Limay , Yvelines department ) was a French composer .
Life
Chausson came from a wealthy family and enjoyed an excellent, very varied education. Interest in painting, literature and music arose in him early on. Chausson was also creative in all three areas. However, he initially complied with his parents' wish to study law. In 1877 he completed this course with his doctorate and became a lawyer for some time .
Soon, however, his interest in music took hold. Therefore, around 1879, he began to take private lessons, then lessons in the composition class at the Paris Conservatory with Jules Massenet . In 1881 he left the conservatory without a degree because he was extremely angry about the decisions of the jury of the Prix de Rome , the most prestigious composition prize of the Paris Conservatory. Until 1883 he took lessons from César Franck . After that, Chausson worked as a freelance composer, but also appeared temporarily as a pianist.
His Paris Salon was one of the most important meeting places for the French capital's artistic elite - famous musicians such as Paul Dukas and Claude Debussy , writers and painters such as Eugène Carrière came together here. From 1886 he was secretary of the Société Nationale de Musique . Chausson traveled to Germany several times, including the Bayreuth Festival , in order to gather musical impressions.
Chausson died in a bicycle accident at the age of only 44. The opera Le roi Arthus , motivated by Wagner's Tristan and Isolde , was premiered posthumously in 1903 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels .
style
Chausson developed an independent style of composition very early on. Essentially, the influences of two composers can be identified: that of his teacher César Franck and that of Richard Wagner . While Franck mainly passed on the formal design and processing of the compositional material as well as the tendency to great technical perfection to his pupils, Chausson orientated himself clearly on Wagner, especially in harmony . His music has a rather melancholy mood and a predilection for far-flung melodies. In almost all major works, Chausson uses cyclical principles to underline the unity of the work. In doing so, he draws on both the use of a cyclical theme and the technique of quoting from the previous sentences in the finale. It has often been pointed out that some of his works already refer to the music of Impressionism . Today the “Poème” for violin and orchestra is probably his best-known composition. Without a doubt, Chausson is one of the most important French composers.
Works
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literature
- Charles Oulmont: Musique de l'amour. I. Ernest Chausson et “la bande à Franck” , 1935
- Jean Gallois: Ernest Chausson , Paris 1994
Web links
- Sheet music and audio files by Ernest Chausson in the International Music Score Library Project
- Free digital scores by Ernest Chausson in the OpenScore Lieder Corpus
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Chausson, Ernest |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Chausson, Ernest Amédée |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French composer |
DATE OF BIRTH | January 20, 1855 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
DATE OF DEATH | June 10, 1899 |
Place of death | Limay |