Paul de Choudens

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Paul de Choudens (born June 5, 1850 in Paris , † October 7, 1925 ) was a French music publisher and librettist .

Life

Antoine de Choudens, the father of Paul de Choudens, founded the music publisher Editions Choudens in 1845 . Paul de Choudens was a "wannabe poet" and, together with his brother Antony de Choudens, has been a partner in his father's music publishing house since 1874. In 1878 the composer Gabriel Fauré approached the publisher to publish a collection of songs. Fauré had completed 19 songs, another song was needed to get to the round number of 20. Fauré decided to set a love poem by Paul de Choudens to music, which was originally called Lucette , then renamed Sylvie , and thus kept the text and publication “in the family”. The poem was simple, Choudens not a Baudelaire , but it was precisely this simplicity that gave Fauré enough space to develop his musical ideas. In 1885 his brother Antony left the business, his father died in 1888, and Paul de Choudens took over the publishing house alone, which he ran until his death in 1925.

Choudens had many important French composers under contract in the last third of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, including Berlioz , Gounod and Saint-Saëns . Paul de Choudens also wrote libretti and song lyrics, which he usually published in his publishing house. At times there was a conflict of interest between his roles as a music publisher and as a poet. His libretto for Mascagni's Amica is considered “weak and unbalanced”, but the unusually generous offer of 75% / 50% of the income convinced Pietro Mascagni in 1905 to set Choudens' libretto to music and have the opera published by his publisher. Today the Choudens catalog belongs to G. Schirmer .

Works

Libretti for operas and musical works for the stage, texts for songs, partly under the pseudonyms Paul Bérel and Paolo Bérel :

  • 1878: Sylvie (song), composition by Gabriel Fauré
  • 1905: Amica (opera), composition by Pietro Mascagni
  • 1909: La Glaneuse (lyric piece), composition Félix Fourdrain , libretto together with Arthur Bernède
  • 1912: Vercingétorix (musical drama), composition Félix Fourdrain, libretto with Arthur Bernède
  • 1913: Madame Rolland , (lyric drama), composition Félix Fourdrain, libretto together with Arthur Bernède
  • 1913: Les Contes de Praault (fairy play), composition Félix Fourdrain, libretto together with Arthur Bernède

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Graham Johnson: Gabriel Fauré: the songs and their poets . Ashgate Publishing, 2009, ISBN 0-7546-5960-7 , pp. 111-114 in Google Book Search.
  2. ^ Alan Mallach: Pietro Mascagni and his operas . Northeastern University Press, Boston 2002, pp. 163-164.
  3. ^ Editions Choudens Joins the Music Sales Group
  4. ^ Gabriel Fauré: Sylvie , Op.6 : Notes and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
personal data
SURNAME Choudens, Paul de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bérel, Paul (pseudonym); Bérel, Paolo (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French music publisher and librettist
DATE OF BIRTH June 5, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH October 7, 1925