Chaminade, Cécile 1857 - 1944
Author: Ueda, Yasushi
Last updated：March 12, 2018
Author: Ueda, Yasushi
A French female pianist and composer. In the 19th century, when women were not fully recognized for professional independence as composers, Chaminade was an artist whose talent as a pianist and composer was recognized early on by musicians around her.
1. Origin
Chaminade's background was socially privileged. Her mother, Marie-Stéphanie COURTIN, was of noble birth, and her father was a shrewd businessman who rose from inspector of the French branch of the British insurance company 'Le Gresham' to general inspector, and then to director. Due to her father's promotions, the Chaminade family had become quite affluent by the time Cécile was born. Both parents were music lovers; her father played the violin, and her mother enjoyed playing the piano and singing. Cécile, born as the third child in the Chaminade family, developed her musical inclinations in this comfortable environment, acquiring piano skills under her mother's guidance.
2. Period of Study
Incidentally, the opera composer Georges Bizet had close ties with the Chaminade family. Bizet had studied piano under Professor Marmontel at the Paris Conservatoire and was an excellent pianist and accompanist. He perceived outstanding talent in Cécile's piano playing and compositional attempts, strongly urging her parents to enroll her in the Paris Conservatoire. However, her conservative father, who had no intention of making his daughter a professional musician, allowed her to continue her musical education through private lessons. Cécile's education was entrusted to three experienced musicians. Her piano teacher was Félix Le COUPPEY (1811-1887), who had demonstrated excellent teaching skills as a professor in the girls' class at the Paris Conservatoire since 1843; her teacher for harmony, counterpoint, and fugue was Augustin SAVARD (1811-1887), who also taught solfège and later harmony at the Paris Conservatoire; and her composition teacher was the young composer Benjamin GODARD (1849-1895), a pianist and violinist who had studied under Henri Reber at the Paris Conservatoire.
3. Career as a Composer and Pianist
Under their tutelage, Chaminade's musical talent blossomed, and encouraged by Saint-Saëns, Chabrier, and Bizet, she was able to find her place in the male-dominated world of composition. Her debut stage was the Société Nationale de Musique (National Society of Music), founded in 1871. Founded by French composers including Franck, Guiraud, Saint-Saëns, and Massenet, this society initially held numerous concerts with the aim of creating performance opportunities for works by young French composers. In 1880 and 1881, Chaminade's Piano Trio, Op. 11, and Orchestral Suite were performed by the society. She also ventured into traditional genres, such as opéra comique; La Sévillane was premiered privately in 1884. Following the performance of her Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 39, by the same society in February 1887, her creative power reached its peak in 1888. In that year alone, she presented the symphonic ballet Callirhoë, Op. 37 (premiered in Marseille), based on Greek mythology; the ambitious Concertstück for orchestra and piano, Op. 40, with its oriental colors and rich use of wind and percussion instruments; and the dramatic symphony Les Amazones, Op. 26 (premiered in Antwerp). In her piano works, her early output included not only character pieces but also powerful works written in a strict style, such as the Piano Sonata, Op. 21 (composed in 1895), dedicated to Moszkowski (who later married Chaminade's sister), and the Concertino, Op. 107 (composed in 1902), commissioned by the Paris Conservatoire as a competition piece for the flute class. Her ambition as a composer from the 1880s to the early 20th century was far greater than what one might infer from her later miniatures and songs. The Étude Symphonique, Op. 28, dedicated to Ignacy Paderewski, is also an important achievement from this period.
However, what guaranteed Chaminade's fame and livelihood were over 200 salon piano pieces and more than 125 domestic songs known as mélodies. Particularly in England and America, she gained immense popularity among piano enthusiasts; in England, she became a guest of Queen Victoria from 1892, and in America, multiple 'Chaminade Clubs' were formed, enthusiastically supporting her. Her performance recordings from the early 20th century reveal a captivating precision and elegance, combined with dynamic power. However, since copyright was not legally protected in America until 1891, many of her works from the period when she shone as a composer were in the public domain. This would also affect her financial situation in her later years.
In 1908, in response to the expectations of her American fans, she undertook a tour of the United States, visiting 12 cities from Boston to St. Louis. This tour was a great success, but male critics' views on female composers were sometimes cold; her character pieces and songs were described as overly sweet and feminine, while serious works like the Concertstück, which she performed with an orchestra in Philadelphia, were criticized as too masculine. Such criticism was not uncommon at a time when intellectual composition was considered a professional domain for men.
The publication of Chaminade's works in France was initially handled by Maho & Cie and its successor companies, Hamelle, Grus, Durand, and Ricordi. However, from the 1890s, the publishing channel shifted to Enoch & Cie, which published many works for amateur musicians to enrich bourgeois homes, often with beautifully decorated covers. From 1917, Chaminade officially became an exclusive composer for Enoch & Cie, ensuring continuous publication. These salon pieces form Chaminade's general image today.
Figure: Cover of Pièces Romantiques, Op. 55, published by Enoch & Cie.
4. Mother or Musician?
The reconciliation of women's professional activities and family life is discussed as an important and universal issue in contemporary society. During her American tour in 1908, in an interview with The New York Herald, Chaminade stated, in response to the question of whether being a mother and a professional composer were compatible, that 'a woman must choose one or the other.'
Indeed, at a time when the social convention that a composer was a male profession was dominant, Chaminade's romantic relationships and marriage were fraught with difficulties. She received three marriage proposals from her composition teacher, Godard, but they did not marry. In her twenties, she was reportedly in a relationship with Dr. Paul Landowski, but her conservative father, who valued family status, strongly opposed the marriage due to Landowski's unreliable financial situation and the six adopted children he had taken on from his deceased brother. After her father's death in 1887, Chaminade lived with her mother and gradually withdrew from creative activities. During a concert tour in 1899, Louis-Mathieu Carbonel, a 59-year-old music publisher from Marseille, accompanied her as an escort and married Chaminade two years later. However, prioritizing her performing career, Chaminade entrusted a villa in the central region to her husband and lived alone in her home in Le Vésinet, a city northeast of Paris. They had no children, and her husband passed away in 1907, after which she remained single. In 1913, her pioneering path as a musician was rewarded with the Légion d'honneur, making her the first female composer to receive it. The following year, World War I broke out. Thereafter, her creative activities began to decline.
5. After 1920
After turning 60, Chaminade continued to compose to earn a living, but she did not significantly change her style. Her compositions were primarily domestic piano miniatures, but in the era of modernism, her piano pieces were considered outdated and no longer generated significant demand. Due to worsening financial conditions, she had to sell her home in Vésinet. The publication of her works with opus numbers ceased in the 1920s. She spent the rest of her life under the care of her niece and passed away on April 13, 1944, in Monte Carlo, Monaco, at the age of 86.
References
- Flaurence LAUNAY, Les compositrices en France au XIXe siècle, Paris, Fayard, 2006.
- Joël-Marie Fauquet, Dictionnaire de la musique en France au XIXe siècle, Paris, Fayard, 2003.
- Marcia J. Citron, "Chaminade, Cécile (Louise Stéphanie)" in New Grove Online.
Author : Miyamoto, Yumi
Last Updated: May 1, 2007
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Author : Miyamoto, Yumi
A French female pianist and composer. She studied under Le Couppey, Savard, Marsick, Godard. She composed church music at the age of 8 and gave her first concert at 18.
She performed her own compositions during numerous concert tours throughout France and various parts of Europe, particularly visiting England regularly from 1892.
Her extensive oeuvre includes sacred music, opéra comique, ballets, concertos, chamber music, piano pieces, and songs.
Works(115)
Piano Solo
pieces (6)
etude (6)
waltz (8)
romance (2)
serenade (2)
Various works (49)
Piano Ensemble
pieces (3)
Various works (5)
Chamber Music
Chamber music (3)
Lied
Various works (2)