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Emmanuel Chabrier

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Alexis- Emmanuel Chabrier
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(born Jan. 18, 1841, Ambert, Puy-de-Dôme, France — died Sept. 13, 1894, Paris) French composer. Though he was a piano prodigy, his parents obliged him to obtain a law degree and take a government job, but he relinquished the latter in 1880 to pursue composition full-time. His opera Gwendoline enjoyed several productions in his lifetime, but he never achieved significant success. His other works include nine more operas and operettas, including Le Roi malgré lui (1887), and the orchestral rhapsody España (1883).

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Music Encyclopedia: (Alexis-)Emmanuel Chabrier
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(b Ambert, 18 Jan 1841; d Paris, 13 Sept 1894). French composer and pianist. He was trained as a lawyer and worked in the Ministry of the Interior until 1880, meanwhile developing his talents as a pianist and improviser, studying composition, publishing piano pieces and writing light stage works. His friends included Verlaine, Manet, Fauré, Chausson, d′Indy and Duparc, who encouraged his admiration for Wagner. He produced several imaginative operas, among which the Wagnerian Gwendoline (1885) and the graceful opéra comique Le roi malgré lui (1887) were favourably received in Germany. He is best known for his sparkling orchestral rhapsody España (1883), but his natural talent for the lyric, the comic and the colourful is most apparent in his piano works, notably the Impromptu (1873), the ten Pièces pittoresques (1881), the Bourrée fantasque (1891) and the Valses romantiques (1883); they show free treatment of dissonance, modality, bold harmonic contrasts, rhythmic verve and dynamic inventiveness, and inspired subsequent generations of French composers, particularly Ravel.


 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Alexis Emmanuel Chabrier
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Chabrier, Alexis Emmanuel (älĕksē' ĕmänüĕl' shäbrēā'), 1841-94, French composer. His best-known works are an orchestral rhapsody, España (1883); an opera, Le Roi malgré lui (1887); and piano pieces, such as Habanera (1885) and Bourrée fantasque (1891). Chabrier's works display vivid harmonic and orchestral color and musical drollery. His music influenced such French composers as Ravel and Satie.
Artist: Emmanuel Chabrier
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Emmanuel Chabrier
  • Period: Post-Romantic (1870-1909)
  • Country: France
  • Born: January 18, 1841 in Ambert, Puy-de-Dôme, France
  • Died: September 13, 1894 in Paris, France
  • Genres: Choral Music, Concerto, Keyboard Music, Opera, Orchestral Music, Vocal Music

Biography

Although music seems to have been his passion all along, it was not until nearly the age of 40 that Chabrier turned to composition as his full time career. When he finally did this, he crafted works characterized by brilliance, wit, and vivid harmonic, rhythmic, and orchestral coloring.

As early as age 6, Chabrier began piano lessons under the tutelage of a Spanish refugee named Saporta. At 10, he attended the Lycée Impérial at Clermont Ferrand, where he continued his keyboard studies and began to try his hand at composition. Upon the insistence of his father, however, he relegated music to be his pastime; after two years in Paris at the Lycée Louis le Grand (or the Lycée Saint Louis -- biographers disagree on which is the case), he began to study law. He continued also to take piano lessons and studied counterpoint and fugue, but when he took his law degree in 1862, he went to work for the Ministry of the Interior, where he worked for 18 years. During this time, he associated with the painter Manet and the poet Verlaine and fellow musicians including Duparc, d'Indy, Fauré, and Messager. On December 27, 1872, he married Marie Alice Dejean.

In 1879, he made his first visit to Germany in the company of Duparc; a performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in Munich so moved him that he determined to quit the law and devote his life to music. He returned to Paris, resigned from the Ministry on November 12, 1880 -- just two months before his 40th birthday -- and began to spend his days composing.

Before this monumental step, Chabrier had produced only two significant works, these being the operettas L'Étoile (1877) and Une Éducation manquée (1879); however, now freed of his routine job, he produced in short order Dix Pièces pittoresques for piano (1881), Habañera (1885), and Bourrée fantasque in 1891. His finest short work, the brilliant España Rhapsody, came forth in 1883; this piece alone established Chabrier as a composer of serious merit.

In the years 1884 and 1885 he worked as chorus master at the Château d'Eau where, among other projects, he assisted with a production of Wagner's Tristan. This close association with Wagner's music both developed his skill in orchestration and instilled in him some elements of Germanic style; in later years, these elements would appear in his own works, much to his own consternation and that of his musical compatriots in France.

Arguably Chabrier's finest work, the comic opera Le Roi malgré lui (based upon a comedy by François Ancelot) was premiered at the Opéra Comique on May 18, 1887. Still a rather old-fashioned work, in which sung portions were interspersed with stretches of dialogue, it was rebuffed by modernists; it was nonetheless considered spirited and delightfully original.

Considering his very late start and lack of substantial formal training, Chabrier must be regarded as brilliant. His music is extremely colorful, and he was particularly adept at integrating forces and resources to create a unified sound world. Not so much a dramatist as a lyricist, Chabrier seemed most comfortable writing in the realm of comedy; evidently this is an accurate reflection of his personality in general. He was a fundamental influence on Les Six, the group of young French composers who typified the emerging French nationalism in the generation following him; they took him as a model, stopping short of his later Wagnerian turn. He also heavily influenced the work of Maurice Ravel. When viewed in the context of his relatively short career, Chabrier's output indeed labels him as an overachiever. ~ Michael Morrison, All Music Guide
Wikipedia: Emmanuel Chabrier
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Emmanuel Chabrier

(Alexis-)Emmanuel Chabrier (January 18, 1841 – September 13, 1894) was a French Romantic composer. Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, España and Joyeuse Marche, he left an important corpus of operas, songs, and piano music as well. These works, though small in number, are of very high quality, and he was admired by composers as diverse as Debussy, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Satie, Florent Schmitt, Stravinsky, and the group of composers known as Les Six. Stravinsky alluded to España in his ballet Petrushka, Ravel wrote that the opening bars of Le roi malgré lui changed the course of harmony in France, Poulenc wrote a biography of the composer, and Richard Strauss conducted the first staged performance of Chabrier's incomplete opera Briséïs.

Chabrier was also associated with some of the leading writers and painters of his time. He was especially friendly with the painters Monet and Manet, and collected Impressionist paintings before Impressionism became fashionable. A number of such paintings from his personal collection are now housed in some of the world's leading art museums.

Contents

Biography

Early life in Auvergne

Emmanuel Chabrier was born in the Marsac suburb of Ambert (Puy-de-Dôme), a town in the Auvergne region of central France. His father was an attorney; his childhood nanny Anne Delayre (whom Chabrier called 'Nanine') remained close to him throughout her life. He began his music lessons at the age of six; the earliest of his compositions to survive in manuscript are piano works from 1849.
His family moved to Clermont-Ferrand in 1852 where he prepared for a legal career, studied at the Lycée imperial and had practical and theoretical music lessons with Alexander Tarnowski, a Polish-born composer and violinist. A piano piece from this period Le Scalp!!!, was later modified into the Marche des Cipayes.

Paris: student then civil servant

In 1856 the family made Paris their home, and the young Chabrier continued serious studies in both of his chosen fields. Chabrier spent a year at the Lycée St Louis, passed the Baccalauréat, and entered law school from which he graduated in 1861, and on 29 October that year began a career at the French Ministry of the Interior. Despite this, his passion was music; during the 1860s he composed a number of minor piano works. His interest in Wagner began at this time, and he copied out the orchestral score of Tannhaüser.
From 1862 he entered the circle of the Parnassians in Paris some of whom collaborated with him in his work. His interest in poetry lead to a long friendship with Paul Verlaine, who contributed librettos to two early operettas that he did not complete.

There are several descriptions of Chabrier's piano-playing from around this time; many years later d'Indy wrote "Though his arms were too short, his fingers too thick and his whole manner somewhat clumsy, he managed to achieve a degree of finesse and a command of expression that very few pianists - with the exception of Liszt and Rubinstein - have surpassed".[1] The wife of Renoir, a friend of Chabrier, wrote "one day Chabrier came; and he played his España for me. It sounded as if a hurricane had been let loose. He pounded and pounded the keyboard. The street was full of people, and they were listening, fascinated. When Chabrier reached the last crashing chords, I swore to myself I would never touch the piano again... Besides, Chabrier had broken several strings and put the piano out of action."[2] Bruneau recalled that "he played the piano as no one has ever played it before, or ever will..."[3]
Both his parents died within a few months of each other in 1869. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) and Commune, Chabrier continued with his desk job as the ministry moved from Tours to Bordeaux to Versailles. In 1873, he married Marie Alice Dejean, with whom he had three sons, one of whom died in early childhood.
He began several stage works during the 1870s, although the first one to be completed was L'étoile, which achieved 48 successful performances at the Bouffes-Parisiens in 1877, showcasing his light touch, musical aplomb, and comic wit.

Emmanuel Chabrier, 1880, painting by Edouard Manet, Ordrupgaard Museum, Charlottenlund, Denmark.

Full-time composer

Chabrier's friends from the artistic avant-garde in Paris included Gabriel Fauré, Ernest Chausson, and Vincent d'Indy, as well as painters Henri Fantin-Latour, Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet whose 'Thursday' soirées Chabrier attended,[4] and writers such as Zola, Daudet, Jean Moréas, Jean Richepin and Villiers de l'Isle-Adam (as well as Daudet and Mallarmé).[5] On a trip to Munich with Henri Duparc in 1879, he discovered Wagner's masterpiece Tristan und Isolde. This event lead him to realize his true passion for composition and quit the Ministry of Interior in 1880. In 1880 he composed his piano cycle Pièces pittoresques; the Idylle from the Pièces pittoresques greatly influenced Francis Poulenc.[6]

Chabrier plunged himself into the scores of Wagner, and became an important assistant to Charles Lamoureux in preparing concert performances of the German master's works in Paris. He travelled to London (1882) and Brussels (1883) to hear the Ring cycle. However, the strength of Chabrier's musical personality and his essential 'Frenchness' of temperament and sensibility made it impossible for him to do more than experiment with Wagner's more superficial technical procedures, without getting involved in the aesthetic and philosophical theories.[7]

1882 saw the Chabriers' visit to Spain which resulted in his most famous work España of 1883, a mixture of popular airs he had heard and his own imagination. In the view of his friend Duparc, this composition for orchestra demonstrated an individual style that seemed to come from nowhere; other contemporary musicians were more condescending.[8]

His opera Gwendoline, set in England during the Anglo-Saxon period, was refused by the Paris Opera but was a success at its premiere at the La Monnaie in Brussels under Henry Verdhurdt in 1885. However, it closed after just two performances because the impresario went bankrupt. Despite this major disappointment, he soon found a new lyric project to tackle - Le roi malgré lui (The King, in Spite of Himself) and completed the score in six months. But bad luck intervened again when, having been well-received, its run at the Opéra-Comique in Paris ended when the theatre burned after the third performance.[9] D'Indy felt Chabrier lavished some of his most beautiful music on Le roi malgré lui but condemned the libretto, complaining "people continually come in when they ought to go out and vice versa". Fortunately (through Chabrier's friendship with the Belgian tenor Ernest van Dyck and subsequently the conductor Felix Mottl), theater directors in Leipzig and Munich expressed interest in both works and Chabrier made several happy trips to Germany as a result.

Decline and final years

In his final years, Chabrier was strained by financial problems caused by the collapse of his bankers, suffered from failing health brought on by the terminal stage of syphilis, and depression about the neglect of his stage works in France. The death of his beloved 'Nanine' in January 1891 greatly affected him. He became obsessed with the composition of his opera Briséïs, which was inspired by a tragedy of Goethe and melodic echos of Wagner, but he completed only one act. At the Paris premiere of Gwendoline, which finally took place in December 1893, the ailing composer in a box did not understand that the applause was for him.

He succumbed to general paralysis in the last year of his life, dying in Paris at the age of 53. Although he had asked to be buried near the tomb of Manet, he was laid to rest in the cemetery of Montparnasse.

Chabrier is remembered for his dazzling harmonic colors and his command of orchestral composition. The piano pieces he wrote show much originality and beauty. His many surviving letters give a vivid impression of his character, his ideas and his life.[10]

Chabrier's art collection and art featuring Chabrier

Of particular interest in discussing Chabrier is his contacts with contemporary artists, particularly painters of the Impressionism school. He was also a subject for several leading artists.

Chabrier left an astonishing collection of paintings by French painters. A sale of his collection at the Hôtel Drouot on 26 March 1896 included[11]:

  • Les Moissonneurs by Cézanne
  • Un bar aux Folies Bergère by Manet
  • Le Skating by Manet
  • Les bords de la Seine by Monet
  • Le parc Monceau by Monet
  • La fête nationale, rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis by Monet
  • Femme nue by Renoir
  • Canotier à Hampton Court by Sisley
  • La Seine au Point du Jour by Sisley

Chabrier himself features in L'orchestre by Degas (C in the stage box), Autour du piano by Fantin-Latour (C at the piano), and two portraits by Manet:

  • Portrait de Chabrier (pastel, 1880)
  • Portrait de Chabrier (oil on canvas, 1881)

as well as a crayon portrait (1861) by James Tissot,[12] a drawing (1887) by Édouard Detaille[13] and a bust (1886) by Constantin Meunier.

Works

Operas & operettas

  • Fisch-Ton-Kan, 1863-64 (opéra bouffe - incomplete, P. Verlaine), f.p. (as Peh-Li-Kan) 31 March 1875, ‘Cercle de l'Union artistique’ in Paris.
  • Vaucochard et fils Ier, 1864 (operetta - incomplete, Verlaine & L. Viotti), f.p. Salle de l'Ancien Conservatoire, 22 April 1941
  • Jean Hunyade, 1867 (opéra - incomplete, H. Fouquier)
  • L'étoile, 1877 (opéra bouffe, Eugène Leterrier & Albert Vanloo) f.p. Bouffes Parisiens, Paris, 28 November 1877.
  • Le Sabbat, 1877 (opéra comique - incomplete, A. Silvestre)
  • Une éducation manquée, 1879 (operetta, Leterrier & Vanloo) f.p. Cercle de la Presse, Paris, 1 May 1879.
  • Les muscadins, 1880 (opéra - incomplete, J. Claretie & Silvestre)
  • Gwendoline (opera), 1885 (opéra, Catulle Mendès) f.p. Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, 10 April 1886.
  • Le roi malgré lui, 1887 (opéra comique, E. de Najac & P. Burani, revised by J. Richepin, after Ancelot) Opéra Comique (Favart), 18 May 1887.
  • Briséïs, or Les amants de Corinthe, 1888-91 (drame lyrique - only one act complete, Mendès & E. Mikaël, after Goethe) f.p. Concerts Lamoureux, Paris, 13 January 1897.

Orchestral Works

Piano Works

Songs

  • Nine Songs (1862) (Couplets de Mariette, L'Enfant, Ronde gauloise, Le Sentier sombre, Lied, Chants d'oiseaux, Sérénade, Adieux à Suzon, Ah! petit démon!)
  • Les lèvres closes (1867)
  • L'invitation au voyage (1870, poem by Baudelaire)
  • Sérénade de Ruy Blas "À quoi bon entendre" (1873)
  • Sommation irrespectueuse (1880, poem by Hugo)
  • Tes yeux bleus (1883)
  • Credo d'amour (1883)
  • Chanson pour Jeanne (1886)
  • 6 mélodies (1890) (Ballade des gros dindons, Villanelle des petits canards, Les Cigales, Pastorale des cochons roses, L'Île heureuse, Toutes les fleurs)
  • Lied. Nez au Vent (postum)

Other vocal works

Pieces by others, after Chabrier

Verlaine's sonnet À Emmanuel Chabrier (published in Amour, 1888) written just after the initial run of Le roi malgré lui is a tribute to their friendship.
Waldteufel: España - Waltz after Chabrier op. 236 (quotes mainly from España but also a duo from Une éducation manquée).
Satie: San Bernardo and Españaña (1913) quote España (dedicated to Debussy's daughter, Chouchou [Emma-Claude]).
Ravel: A la manière de... Chabrier (1913); Siebel's air from Act 3 of Gounod's Faust in the style of Chabrier. [14]

The ballet Cotillon (Monte Carlo, 1932) with choreography by George Balanchine uses music by Chabrier: ‘La Toilette’ is the Menuet Pompeux orchestrated by Rieti, and ‘Danse des Chapeaux’, ‘Les mains du destin’ and ‘Grand rond’ are, respectively, the Scherzo-Valse, Idylle and Danse Villageoise in Chabrier’s own orchestrations. Suite Fantasque 'Divertissement in five tableaux' (Paris, 16 January 1948) with choreography by Jacques Etchevery, was produced at the Opéra-Comique (incorporating La Bourée Fantasque, premiered in 1946).[15]

References

  1. ^ Lecture on Chabrier and Dukas by d'Indy at a Pasdeloup concert on 8 April 1920.
  2. ^ from Renoir J. Renoir, my father, quoted in Myers R. Emmanuel Chabrier and his Circle. London, J M Dent & Sons, 1969.
  3. ^ Quoted in Myers R. Emmanuel Chabrier and his Circle.
  4. ^ Delage, R. Emmanuel Chabrier. Fayard, Paris, 1999. Chapter XI explores the close friendship between Manet and Chabrier.
  5. ^ Myers R. Emmanuel Chabrier and his Circle, p7.
  6. ^ Poulenc wrote in his book Emmanuel Chabrier: "Even today I tremble with emotion in thinking of the miracle that was produced: a harmonic universe suddenly opened in front of me, and my music has never forgotten this first loving kiss" (Ivry, 1996).
  7. ^ Myers R. Emmanuel Chabrier and his Circle. J M Dent & Sons, London, 1969.
  8. ^ Delage, R. Emmanuel Chabrier. Fayard, Paris, 1999.
  9. ^ Myers R. Emmanuel Chabrier and his Circle.
  10. ^ Desaymard J. Emmanuel Chabrier d'après ses lettres. L'homme et l'oeuvre. Paris, Fernand Roches, 1934.
  11. ^ Poulenc F. Emmanuel Chabrier. Geneva and Paris, La Palatine, 1961 (appendix)
  12. ^ Delage R. Chabrier, Iconographie musicale. Minkoff Lattès, 1982.
  13. ^ Originally the front cover of Revue Illustrée, 14 June 1887.
  14. ^ In his BBC radio series on Chabrier, Roger Nichols also detected in counter-melodies elements of Sous-bois and the third Valse Romantique.
  15. ^ Wolff S. Un demi-siècle d'Opéra-Comique (1900-1950). André Bonne, Paris, 1953.

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Habañera, for piano (or orchestra) (Classical Work)
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