As a musician and music teacher, I am always trying to set new musical challenges for myself. Tonight, I am going to see if I am able to meet the latest challenge that I set for myself. I am conducting a piece for solo flute and band by Cecile Chaminade. Her biography is at the bottom of this post. Despite being a prolific composer, she met a tragic end in 1944 during World War 11, alone and forgotten. The solo flutist, Christopher Lee http://www.christopherlee.ca/bio.htmlwas a student at the school, Dr. Norman Bethune 20 years ago; the same time that I taught at the grade 7/8 school nearby. He volunteered to come and coach some of my students at a time that volunteer hours were not even mandated for students. This year, he noticed that I am teaching at his old high school and contacted me about playing the solo with the band. I thought that it was a wonderful idea since he has become an outstanding flutist. The piece of music is also a tour de force for flutists and a workout for the conductor. I must stay alert the whole time paying attention to the soloist and guiding the band through the piece. The Bethune band members are wonderful, attentive and musical. It is going to be fun.
Cécile Chaminade
Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade was born to an upper middle class Parisian family on August 8, 1857. During her lifetime she enjoyed world-wide popularity as the most productive, most successful woman composer and that record still holds. She was the first woman composer to be awarded the French Legion of Honor, and yet, apart from a few piano compositions, such as Scarf Dance, Autumn, the Flatterer, and the popular Concertino for Flute and Piano, this remarkably prolific composer of songs ("mélodies") is unknown.
Chaminade died at the age of 87 in a small apartment in Monte Carlo on April 13, 1944. She was an invalid, having had her left foot amputated and she had been forgotten by the world.
According to the New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, Chaminade's sharp decline in reputation was "partly attributable to modernism and a general disparagement of late-Romantic French music, but it is also due to the socio-aesthetic conditions affecting women and their music."
Chaminade had one very successful tour to America in the fall of 1908. Traveling with a soprano and a tenor, the company played 12 cities in eight weeks. The soprano also served as Chaminade's interpreter. The tour was the major musical AND social event of the Fall 1908 season.
Her signature song was The Little Silver Ring, (l'Anneau d'Argent) which enjoyed world-class success. John McCormack the famous Irish tenor, is said to have included it in every concert from about 1925 on. One particularly florid, coloratura piece, L'Été, was recorded and performed by some of the divas of the day, Emma Albani and Adelina Patti. Lillian Nordica sang "Le Noël des Oiseaux," Calvé sang "Sur la Plage," and Nellie Melba was known for her performance of "Viens, Mon Bien-Aimé."
La Chaminade's creative output of over 400 compositions includes 135 "mélodies" (songs), few of which have been recorded until now. Lyric soprano, Alaina Warren Zachary is the first American to record a CD of all-Chaminade songs. Entitled "Mon Coeur Chante! The Songs of Cécile Chaminade," the CD was released on November 7, 2001.
For more information about the life and works of Cécile Chaminade: Cécile Chaminade: a Bio-Bibliography by Marcia J. Citron, Portrait de Cécile Chaminade by Cécile Tardif, "The Songs of Cécile Chaminade," article by Candace A. Magner, Journal of Singing, Vol. 57, No.4, March/April 2001
Cécile Chaminade
Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade was born to an upper middle class Parisian family on August 8, 1857. During her lifetime she enjoyed world-wide popularity as the most productive, most successful woman composer and that record still holds. She was the first woman composer to be awarded the French Legion of Honor, and yet, apart from a few piano compositions, such as Scarf Dance, Autumn, the Flatterer, and the popular Concertino for Flute and Piano, this remarkably prolific composer of songs ("mélodies") is unknown.
Chaminade died at the age of 87 in a small apartment in Monte Carlo on April 13, 1944. She was an invalid, having had her left foot amputated and she had been forgotten by the world.
According to the New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, Chaminade's sharp decline in reputation was "partly attributable to modernism and a general disparagement of late-Romantic French music, but it is also due to the socio-aesthetic conditions affecting women and their music."
Chaminade had one very successful tour to America in the fall of 1908. Traveling with a soprano and a tenor, the company played 12 cities in eight weeks. The soprano also served as Chaminade's interpreter. The tour was the major musical AND social event of the Fall 1908 season.
Her signature song was The Little Silver Ring, (l'Anneau d'Argent) which enjoyed world-class success. John McCormack the famous Irish tenor, is said to have included it in every concert from about 1925 on. One particularly florid, coloratura piece, L'Été, was recorded and performed by some of the divas of the day, Emma Albani and Adelina Patti. Lillian Nordica sang "Le Noël des Oiseaux," Calvé sang "Sur la Plage," and Nellie Melba was known for her performance of "Viens, Mon Bien-Aimé."
La Chaminade's creative output of over 400 compositions includes 135 "mélodies" (songs), few of which have been recorded until now. Lyric soprano, Alaina Warren Zachary is the first American to record a CD of all-Chaminade songs. Entitled "Mon Coeur Chante! The Songs of Cécile Chaminade," the CD was released on November 7, 2001.
For more information about the life and works of Cécile Chaminade: Cécile Chaminade: a Bio-Bibliography by Marcia J. Citron, Portrait de Cécile Chaminade by Cécile Tardif, "The Songs of Cécile Chaminade," article by Candace A. Magner, Journal of Singing, Vol. 57, No.4, March/April 2001
1 comment:
Nora,
You were fabulous. Another accomplishment to check off your list!
Bravo,
andria
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