Joseph Canteloube

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Joseph Canteloube

Marie-Joseph Canteloube de Malaret (born October 21, 1879 in Annonay , Département Ardèche , † November 4, 1957 in Grigny ), briefly called Joseph Canteloube , was a French composer and musicologist . He added the addition "de Malaret" to his name as a sign of pride in his property in the South Auvergne.

Life

Canteloube was born in France in the Ardèche department in Annonay.

His father came from the Auvergne , his mother from the Cevennes. The Auvergne is known for its fertile soils, the Massif Central , its extinct volcanoes and its vast, dense forests. All his life he occupied himself with the original music and the folk songs of his home region. In 1900 he left his homeland and studied piano in Paris with Amelie Doetzer , a student of Chopin, and composition with Vincent d'Indy - to whom he felt close because his family owned a country estate in the Ardèche - at the Schola Cantorum in Paris .

The first Canteloube composition (Colloque Sentimental) for voice and string quartet dates from 1903. Within a very short time he became a recognized composer. His works have been performed at established concerts by Édouard Colonne , Charles Lamoureux , Jules Pasdeloup and the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire . Between 1910 and 1913 he wrote his opera Le Mas as a testament to his connection to the Massif Central .

In 1925 Canteloube founded an organization called la bourree in Paris as a contact point for Auvergne enthusiasts and Auvergnees (residents of the Auvergne) in Paris to present the culture and nature of the Auvergne.

As an adult, still fascinated by the music of the rural population, whom he had met as a child and to whom he felt connected, he returned to his home region of Auvergne to collect songs. He wandered through the places of his homeland, from farm to farm and across the pastures and had songs, texts and music performed. It is the music of the farmers, the shepherds and farm workers that once shaped the region. However, he also collected music from other regions of France , Alsace and Languedoc , but also from Spain , such as Catalonia or the Basque Country . He published this material in various works and collections such as the anthology des chants populaires francais or the famous Chants d'Auvergne .

In 1941 the politically naive Canteloube met the Pétain government in Vichy . He wrote in the nationalist newspaper l'Action Française , and he and his works appeared on various radio programs during this time. The radio seemed to him to be the ideal medium for the dissemination of “his” beloved folk music, and for this he allowed himself to be politically abused for the ideology of the Vichy regime . He publicly proposed that the radio be "purged" of what he considered to be low music.

In his later years as a musicologist he published a biography of Vincent d'Indy in 1949 and a biography of his friend Déodat de Séverac in 1950 .

The fame of Canteloubes, who was also known as the "Bard of Auvergne" ( le barde d'Auvergne ), is based almost exclusively on arrangements that were compiled in five volumes of the Chants d'Auvergne (songs of Auvergne) over a period of 1923 until 1955 were published. He preserved the charm and the simple beauty of these folk songs in his own piano and orchestral arrangements, which are part of the repertoire of many concert halls.

He wrote down one of the best-known and most beautiful songs in this collection, the Baïlèro, while overhearing the chants of two shepherds singing to each other over mountain pastures that were far apart. The content of the songs deals with rural topics such as herding sheep, harvesting and processing agricultural products, but of course also with universal topics of human sensitivities, such as love. Canteloube wrote his songs both in the ancient dialect of the region ( langue d'Oc , see also Occitania ) and in a modern French translation. In his own special way he breathed life into the old songs and gave them such a presence that the listener can easily feel transported centuries back to the Auvergne.

Services

In his long career he created both musical and musicological works. His musical oeuvre includes self-composed works as well as arranged songs. His compositional work also includes a number of chamber music pieces , orchestral works, concerts and two operas . Canteloube is considered one of the best connoisseurs of French folk song , which he not only researched scientifically, but also made it accessible to wider circles through appropriate arrangements.

Works

Most important musical works

• Colloque sentimental (1903), chamber music (vo, 2vln, vla, vc)
• Dans la montagne: suite (1904), chamber music (from left to right, p)
• chants populaires de Haute-Auvergne et Haut-Querey (1907), folk song arrangements (vo, p)
• Eglogue d'automne (1909), song (vo, orch)
• Vers la Princesse Lointaine (1910–1911), orchestral work
• Le Mas (1910-1913), opera
• Au printemps (1913), song (vo, orch)
• Tryptique (1914), lied (vo, orch)
• L'arada six pieces (1918–1922), song (vo, p)
• Als catalans (1923) folk song arrangements (6vo)
• Chants d'Auvergne (1923–1930; according to some sources 1923–1955), folk song arrangements (vo, orch)
• Cinq chants paysans (1927), folk song arrangements (choir)
• Chants religieux de Haute-Auvergne (1929), folk song arrangements (vo, p)
• Nouveaux chants paysans (1931), folk song arrangements (choir)
• Trois esquisses symphoniques “Lauriers” (1931), orchestral work
• Vercingétorix (1930-1932), opera
• Chansons galantes du XVIII siècle (1933), arrangements (4vo, p (clvsn))
• Pièces Françaises (1934–1935), concert (p, orch)
• Chansons galantes deuxième série (1935), arrangements (vo, p)
• Chants paysans troisième série (1935), folk song arrangements (choir)
• Poèmes (1937), concert (from left to right, orch)
• Chants des terroirs Français (1939), folk song arrangements (choir)
• Chants de France, deuxième série (1939–1940), folk song arrangements (choir, orch)
• Anthologie des Chants Populaires Français (1939–1943), folk song arrangements
• Chanssonier alsacien (1945), folk song arrangements (choir)
• Rustiques (1946), chamber music (ob, cl, bssn)
• Chants de lcAngoumais (1947), folk song arrangements (vo, p)
• Chants du languedoc (1947), folk song arrangements (vo, p)
• Noëls populaires français , folk song arrangements (1948) (vo, p)

Important musicological work

• Biography of Vincent d'Indy 1949
• Biography of Déodat de Séverac 1950

literature

• Jean-Bernard Cahours d'Aspry: Joseph Canteloube: 1879-1957, 2000, Séguier, ISBN 978-2840492047

Web links

• Joseph Canteloube (French), musicologie.org