FRANCE
Famous among women composers of all nations is Cécile-Louise-Stephanie Chaminade. She was born at Paris in 1861, of a family that was well endowed with musical taste. In childhood, she made the piano her favourite companion, and while other girls were devoted to their dolls, she would try to express in tones the simple emotions that moved her. There are some gifted mortals who can think in music, whose joys and sorrows translate themselves naturally into melody. Cécile Chaminade was one of these.
CÉCILE-LOUISE-STEPHANIE CHAMINADE
So earnestly did she devote her childish days to music that before the age of eight she was already able to show some attempts of her own at composition. These juvenile works, which consisted of sacred pieces, were of such interest to the composer Bizet that when he heard them he advised her parents to give her a complete musical training, and predicted a brilliant future for her. In spite of their fondness for the art, the parents had no inclination to see their child upon the thorny and toilsome path of a musical career. Meanwhile the young girl devoted herself to the piano with utmost ardour, and continued her efforts at composing. When at last some of her pieces were judged worthy of performance in the church at Vesinet, her parents were persuaded to let her follow her inclinations. Her father insisted, however, that her general education should not be sacrificed, and the result was several years of hard work.
Her teachers were LeCouppey in piano, Savard in harmony, counterpoint, and fugue, Marsick in violin, and Benjamin Godard in composition. Under these she made rapid progress, and, in fact, the latter part of her education consisted in playing chamber music with Marsick and Delsarte. Her own début as pianist took place when she was eighteen, and gave a chance for the performance of a few of her compositions. These were so effective that they occasioned the often-quoted remark of Ambroise Thomas,—"This is not a woman who composes, but a composer who happens to be a woman."
Her career has been one of constant progress and constant triumph. Her talents as a pianist have won public hearings for her in London, Berlin, Leipsic, and many other cities besides her native Paris. She has been especially in demand for the performance of her own concerto, which has been given in the Gewandhaus and London Philharmonic concerts, as well as those of Lamoureux and Colonne in Paris. Her works have become widely known, and her name is now a familiar one, not only in France, but in England, Continental Europe, and America.
Her most ambitious compositions are "Les Amazones," a lyric symphony with choruses; a one-act ballet, "La Sevillane," still in manuscript; and the grand ballet and symphonic scena entitled "Callirrhoe," successfully given at Marseilles and Lyons, and now published in many different arrangements. Her concerto for piano and orchestra has received high praise from the critics, who seem always ready to laud its refined melodic charm and graceful delicacy of sentiment. The one defect seems to be an excess of vigour and virility in certain of the later movements. Her other orchestral works consist of two suites, one of them being arranged from "Callirrhoe."
Of lesser instrumental music, she has written two successful trios. Her piano pieces are many in number, and excellent in quality. Among them is a group of four and eight-hand works for two pianos, as well as duets for a single instrument. Among her most important solo works are a sonata, an Étude Symphonique, a Valse Caprice, a Guitarre, an Arabesque, six Études de Concert, five Airs de Ballet, containing the well-known Scarf Dance, six Romances Sans Paroles, and six humourous pieces. She has also written a few selections for violin and piano.