Cécile Chaminade
Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade (8 August 1857 – 13 April 1944) was a French composer and pianist. In 1913, she was awarded the Légion d'Honneur, a first for a female composer. Ambroise Thomas said, "This is not a woman who composes, but a composer who is a woman." Biography. Born in Paris, Chaminade was raised in a musical family. She received her first piano lessons from her mother, and at the age of about ten, was assessed by Félix Le Couppey from the Conservatoire de Paris, who recommended that she attend the Conservatoire for studies in music. Despite this  her father forbade such attendance, since it went against his views on propriety for a young woman of Chaminade's class. Her father did, however, allow Chaminade to study privately with teachers from the Conservatoire - Félix Le Couppey on piano, Marie Gabriel Augustin Savard, Martin Pierre Marsick on violin, and Benjamin Godard in music composition. Her first experiments in composition took place in very early days, and in her eighth year she played some of her music to Georges Bizet, who was much impressed with her talents. She gave her first concert when she was eighteen, and from that time  on her work as a composer gained steadily in favor. She wrote mostly character pieces for piano, and salon songs, almost all of which were published; however, her Concertino, Op. 107, is an important part of the flute repertoire. She toured France several times in those earlier days, and in 1892 made her debut in England where her work was extremely popular. Isidor Philipp, head of the piano department of the Paris Conservatory championed her works. She repeatedly returned to England during the 1890s and made premieres there with singers such as Blanche Marchesi and Pol Plançon, though this activity  decreased after 1899 due to bad critical reviews. Chaminade married a music publisher from Marseilles, Louis-Mathieu Carbonel, in 1901, and on account of his advanced age, the marriage was rumored to be one of convenience. He died in 1907, and Chaminade did not remarry. In 1908 she visited the United States, where she was accorded a hearty welcome. Her compositions were tremendous favorites with the American public, and such pieces as the "Scarf Dance" or the "Ballet No. 1" were to be found in the music libraries of many lovers of piano music of the time. She composed a  Konzertstück for piano and orchestra, the ballet music to "Callirhoé" and other orchestral works. Her songs, such as "The Silver Ring" and "Ritournelle", were also great favorites. Ambroise Thomas once said of Chaminade: "This is not a woman who composes, but a composer who is a woman." In 1913, she was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, a first for a female composer. In London in November 1901, she made gramophone recordings of seven of her compositions for the Gramophone and Typewriter Company; these are among the most sought-after piano recordings by collectors, though they have been reissued  on compact disk. Before and after World War I, Chaminade recorded many piano rolls, but as she grew older, she composed less and less, dying in Monte Carlo on 13 April 1944, where she was first buried. Chaminade is now buried in Passy Cemetery in Paris. Chaminade was relegated to obscurity for the second half of the 20th century, her piano pieces and songs mostly forgotten, with the Flute Concertino in D major, Op. 107, composed for the 1902 Paris Conservatoire Concours, her most popular piece today. Chaminade's sister married Moritz Moszkowski, also a well-known composer and pianist  like Cécile. Critical reception. Many of Chaminade's piano compositions received good reviews from critics, but some of her other endeavors and more serious works were less favourably evaluated, perhaps on account of gender prejudices. Most of her compositions were published during her lifetime and were financially successful. Compositional style. Chaminade affiliated herself with nationalist composers such as Camille Saint-Saëns and Charles Gounod. Her musical style was rooted in both Romantic and French tradition throughout her career and her music has been described as tuneful, highly accessible and mildly chromatic. In describing her own style, Chaminade wrote, "I am  essentially of the Romantic school, as all my work shows."