"Elgar and Saint-Saëns cello concertos. In 1898 the French composer Gabriel Fauré dedicated his cello piece ""Sicilienne"" to Squire. Squire's own compositions were written mainly for the cello; these included several solo pieces of light character and a cello concerto; he also wrote the music for a number of songs. One of Squire's legacies is a collection of student-level works for cello and piano which appear in string teaching syllabuses all over the world including those of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, the Internet Cello Society and the Suzuki method of string instrument teaching. William Henry"
"operas - ""Trop de femmes"" (1867), ""L'ogre"" (1868), and ""Le dernier sorcier"" (1869), all to libretti by Ivan Turgenev - and over fifty ""Lieder"". Her remaining two salon operas - ""Le conte de fées"" (1879), and ""Cendrillon"" (1904; when she was 83) - were to her own libretti. The operas may be small in scale; however, they were written for advanced singers and some of the music is difficult. Opera Choral Songs Instrumental Source: Rachel M. Harris, ""The Music Salon of Pauline Viardot"" Pauline Viardot Pauline Viardot (;18 July 1821 – 18 May 1910) was a leading nineteenth-century French mezzo-soprano,"
"organist and piano teacher. As soon as the working year was over, in the last days of July, he would leave Paris and spend the two months until early October in a hotel, usually by one of the Swiss lakes, to concentrate on composition. His works from this period include his lyric opera, ""Pénélope"" (1913), and some of his most characteristic later songs (e.g., the cycle ""La chanson d'Ève"", Op. 95, completed in 1910) and piano pieces (Nocturnes Nos. 9–11; Barcarolles Nos. 7–11, written between 1906 and 1914). Fauré was elected to the Institut de France in 1909, after his"
"Piano music of Gabriel Fauré The French composer Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) wrote in many genres, including songs, chamber music, orchestral pieces, and choral works. His compositions for piano, written between the 1860s and the 1920s, include some of his best known works. Fauré's major sets of piano works are thirteen nocturnes, thirteen barcarolles, six impromptus, and four valses-caprices. These sets were composed during several decades in his long career, and display the change in his style from uncomplicated youthful charm to a final enigmatic, but sometimes fiery introspection, by way of a turbulent period in his middle years. His other"
"French opera French opera is one of Europe's most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Gounod, Bizet, Massenet, Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc and Messiaen. Many foreign-born composers have played a part in the French tradition as well, including Lully, Gluck, Salieri, Cherubini, Spontini, Meyerbeer, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi and Offenbach. French opera began at the court of Louis XIV of France with Jean-Baptiste Lully's ""Cadmus et Hermione"" (1673), although there had been various experiments with the form before that, most notably ""Pomone"" by Robert Cambert. Lully and his librettist Quinault created ""tragédie en musique"", a"
"service, his coffin was accompanied to Montmartre Cemetery by the band of the French National Guard. Louis Clapisson Antoine-Louis Clapisson (15 September 1808 – 19 March 1866) was a French composer and violinist. He composed numerous art songs as well as 22 operas, largely in the opéra comique genre. In his later years he was a professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatory and the curator of the conservatory's museum of musical instruments, many of which had come from his own large collection. Clapisson's family was originally from Lyon where his grandfather had been a maker of wind instruments. Clapisson"
"Robert Planquette Jean Robert Planquette (31 July 1848 – 28 January 1903) was a French composer of songs and operettas. Several of Planquette's operettas were extraordinarily successful in Britain, especially ""Les cloches de Corneville"" (1878), the length of whose initial London run broke all records for any piece of musical theatre up to that time. ""Rip Van Winkle"" (1882) also earned international fame. The son of a singer, Planquette was born in Paris and educated at the Paris Conservatoire. He did not finish his studies, lacking the funds to do so, and worked as a café pianist and composer and"
"Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his ""Pavane"", Requiem, ""Sicilienne"", nocturnes for piano and the songs ""Après un rêve"" and ""Clair de lune"". Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style. Fauré was born into a"
"many genres, but quickly became best known for his operas. Between 1867 and his death forty-five years later he wrote more than forty stage works in a wide variety of styles, from opéra-comique to grand-scale depictions of classical myths, romantic comedies, lyric dramas, as well as oratorios, cantatas and ballets. Massenet had a good sense of the theatre and of what would succeed with the Parisian public. Despite some miscalculations, he produced a series of successes that made him the leading composer of opera in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like many prominent French composers of"
"the Paris Opera, and from 1817 he conducted there too. He died in Geneva and is buried in Paris at the Père Lachaise Cemetery. He was well known for his style of bowing, his splendid tone, and the clearness of his execution. His compositions include nineteen violin concertos and forty operas. His best-known works, however, are the ""42 études ou caprices"" (42 ""études"" or ""capricci"", 1796) which are fundamental pedagogic studies. Rodolphe Kreutzer Rodolphe Kreutzer (15 November 1766 – 6 January 1831) was a French violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer of forty French operas, including ""La mort d'Abel"" (1810). He"
"George Onslow (composer) André George(s) Louis Onslow (27 July 1784 – 3 October 1853) was a French composer of English descent. His wealth, position and personal tastes allowed him to pursue a path unfamiliar to most of his French contemporaries, more similar to that of his contemporary German romantic composers; his music also had a strong following in Germany and in England. His principal output was chamber music, but he also wrote four symphonies and four operas. Esteemed by many of the critics of his time, his reputation declined swiftly after his death and has only been revived in recent"
"Solage Solage (or Soulage), possibly Jean So(u)lage (fl. late 14th century) was a French composer, and probably also a poet. He composed the most pieces in the Chantilly Codex, the principal source of music of the ""ars subtilior"", the manneristic compositional school centered on Avignon at the end of the century. Nothing is known about Solage's life, beyond what can be inferred from the texts to his music. Even his name is a puzzle. One possibility is that the single name ""Solage"" is a nickname or pseudonym, similar to others known from the period, such as Grimace or Hasprois ."
"Georges Delerue Georges Delerue (12 March 1925 – 20 March 1992) was a French composer who composed over 350 scores for cinema and television. Delerue won numerous important film music awards, including an Academy Award for ""A Little Romance"" (1980), three César Awards (1979, 1980, 1981), two ASCAP Awards (1988, 1990), and one Gemini Award for ""Sword of Gideon"" (1987). He was also nominated for four additional Academy Awards for ""Anne of the Thousand Days"" (1969), ""The Day of the Dolphin"" (1973), ""Julia"" (1977), and ""Agnes of God"" (1985), four additional César Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and one Genie"
"Adolphe Adam Adolphe Charles Adam (; 24 July 1803 – 3 May 1856) was a French composer and music critic. A prolific composer of operas and ballets, he is best known today for his ballets ""Giselle"" (1841) and ""Le corsaire"" (1856, his last work), his operas ""Le postillon de Lonjumeau"" (1836), ""Le toréador"" (1849) and ""Si j'étais roi"" (1852) Adolphe Adam was born in Paris, to Jean-Louis Adam (1758–1848), who was a prominent Alsatian composer, as well a professor at the Paris Conservatoire. His mother was the daughter of a physician. As a child, Adolphe Adam preferred to improvise music"
"Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard (1 February 1789 – 12 February 1861) was a French composer, violist, and conductor of the Classical era. He was born in Paris and studied composition with Gossec and viola with Rodolphe Kreutzer. Chélard won the 1811 Prix de Rome for his cantata ""Ariane"". He earned his living for much of his career as a violist at the Paris Opera. His 1827 opera ""Macbeth"" was a flop in Paris, but a great success in Munich. From that time on, he composed for the German market, his most popular work being"
"several major contemporary painters and sculptors such as Antonio de La Gandara and Jean Carriès. ""Antar"", with music by Gabriel Dupont can be heard on YouTube. Henri Caïn Henri Cain (11 October 1857 – 21 November 1937) was a French dramatist, opera and ballet librettist. He wrote over forty librettos from 1893 to his death, for many of the most prominent composers of the Parisian Belle Epoque. Cain was born in Paris, the son of the sculptor Auguste Cain and brother of the painter Georges Cain. He studied painting in the studios of Jean-Paul Laurens and Édouard Detaille. He was"
"Ambroise Thomas Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas (; 5 August 1811 – 12 February 1896) was a French composer and teacher, best known for his operas ""Mignon"" (1866) and ""Hamlet"" (1868). Born into a musical family, Thomas was a student at the Conservatoire de Paris, winning France's top music prize, the Prix de Rome. He pursued a career as a composer of operas, completing his first opera, ""La double échelle"", in 1837. He wrote twenty further operas over the next decades, mostly comic, but he also treated more serious subjects, finding considerable success with audiences in France and abroad. Thomas was"
"(1862-1918) was born at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, and entered the Conservatory in 1872. He became part of the Parisian literary circle of the symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé, and an admirer of Richard Wagner, then went on to experiment with impressionism in music, atonal music and chromaticism. His most famous works included ""Clair de Lune"" (1890), ""La Mer"" (1905) and the opera ""Pelléas et Mélisande"" (1903-1905). He lived at 23 ""square de l'Avenue-Foch"" in the 16th arrondissement from 1905 until his death in 1918. Other influential composers in Paris during the period included Jules Massenet (1842-1912), author of the operas ""Manon"""
"Jules Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 184213 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are ""Manon"" (1884) and ""Werther"" (1892). He also composed oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, incidental music, piano pieces, songs and other music. While still a schoolboy, Massenet was admitted to France's principal music college, the Paris Conservatoire. There he studied under Ambroise Thomas, whom he greatly admired. After winning the country's top musical prize, the Prix de Rome, in 1863, he composed prolifically in"
"Legouvé. He formed a friendship with the elderly Charles Gounod. He wrote a number of compositions for the stage, a symphony, over a hundred mélodies, piano works, and a wide range of sacred music, including cantatas, motets, masses, chorales, and a noted oratorio, ""Les Saintes-Marie de la mer"". His opera ""Patrie!"" of 1886 was his greatest success, and was one of the last grand operas to premiere at the Paris Opéra. It was a piece d'occasion, created for a gala in honour of the French colony in Monaco, but had a Flemish-nationalist theme. The librettists were Victorien Sardou and Louis"
"Francis Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include ""mélodies"", solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-known are the piano suite ""Trois mouvements perpétuels"" (1919), the ballet ""Les biches"" (1923), the ""Concert champêtre"" (1928) for harpsichord and orchestra, the Organ Concerto (1938), the opera ""Dialogues des Carmélites"" (1957), and the ""Gloria"" (1959) for soprano, choir and orchestra. As the only son of a prosperous manufacturer Poulenc was expected to follow his father into the family firm, and he was"
"a prolific composer, writing over 200 pieces in a wide variety of styles. Since he was a virtuoso pianist, many of his works feature the piano, particularly his numerous chamber works which he wrote for nearly every orchestral instrument and standard ensemble. He was a skilled orchestrator, which was reflected in his use of tone colors. Françaix wrote the majority of his earlier works for saxophone between the mid 1930s and the early 1960s. Françaix wrote pieces in many of the major large musical forms, including concerti, symphonies, opera, theatre, ballet, and works drawing on traditions falling out of favor"
"Pascal Collasse Pascal Collasse (or Colasse) (22 January 1649 (baptised) – 17 July 1709) was a French composer of the Baroque era. Born in Rheims, Collasse became a disciple of Jean-Baptiste Lully during the latter's domination of the French operatic stage. When Lully died in 1687 leaving his tragédie en musique ""Achille et Polyxène"" unfinished, Collasse completed the last four acts of the score. He went on to produce around a dozen operas and ballets, as well as sacred music, including settings of the ""Cantiques spirituels"" of Jean Racine. His plan to establish his own opera house in Lille ended"
"wrote a number of pieces for large chamber ensemble with piano, including quintets, a sextet (Op. 77b) and a septet (Op. 79); he also wrote a nonet (op. 77a) for strings and woodwind. Onslow died unexpectedly (although after a period of declining health) in Clermont-Ferrand in 1853, after taking a morning walk. Onslow was a prolific composer of chamber music (including 36 string quartets and 34 string quintets). He also wrote 10 piano trios, three performed operas (an early opera, ""Les deux oncles"", remains in manuscript) and four symphonies, apart from various works for solo piano, piano duet, and sonatas"
"Philippe Verdelot Philippe Verdelot (1480 to 1485–c. 1530 to 1532?) was a French composer of the Renaissance, who spent most of his life in Italy. He is commonly considered to be the father of the Italian madrigal, and certainly was one of its earliest and most prolific composers; in addition he was prominent in the musical life of Florence during the period after the recapture of the city by the Medici from the followers of Girolamo Savonarola. Verdelot was born in Les Loges, Seine-et-Marne, France. Details of his early life are obscure. He probably came to Italy at an early"
"François Berton was also a composer, and several of his works were performed at the Opéra-Comique. Henri-Montan Berton Henri-Montan Berton (17 September 1767 – 22 April 1844) was a French composer, teacher, and writer, mostly known as a composer of operas for the Opéra-Comique. Henri-Montan Berton was born the son of Pierre Montan Berton. He is principally remembered as a composer of operas, most of which were first performed at the Opéra-Comique. Riding a wave of anti-clericalism which arose at the time of the French Revolution, his first real success was with ""Les rigueurs du cloître"" (23 August 1790), ""in"
"approach to composition. In addition to the works listed below, d'Ollone produced a number of song cycles (including ""Les Chants d'Ailleurs""; "" Les Chants d'Exil""; ""Impressions d'Automne""), which demonstrate a considerable mastery of the French mélodie. There are several works for orchestra, solo instrument and orchestra, and piano works. His works include: ""Chamber Music"": ""Concerted Works"": ""Vocal and Dramatic Music"": Max d'Ollone Maximilien-Paul-Marie-Félix d'Ollone (13 June 1875 – 15 May 1959) was a 20th-century French composer. Born in Besançon, d'Ollone started composing very early, entering the Paris Conservatoire at 6, winning many prizes, receiving the encouragement of Gounod, Saint-Saëns, Massenet,"
"famous work of this type, ""La Réunion du six août"". Moline died in Paris, leaving no known heirs. Julian Rushton, writing in ""The New Grove Dictionary of Opera"", says of Moline: ""With deplorable fecundity, he contributed to every fashionable stage genre, including tragedy, comedy of manners, bourgeois drama and Revolutionary ""sans-culottide""."" Notes Sources Pierre-Louis Moline Pierre-Louis Moline ( – 20 March 1820) was a prolific French dramatist, poet and librettist. His play ""La Réunion du six août"" was one of the longest-running patriotic pieces during the time of the French Revolution with 52 performances at the Paris Opéra. He also"
"he also composed a number of instrumental, orchestral and chamber works and some secular song settings. Langlais' music is written in a free tonal style, representative of mid-twentieth-century French music, with rich and complex harmonies and overlapping modes, more tonal than his contemporary, friend and countryman Olivier Messiaen, but related to his two predecessors at Sainte-Clotilde, Franck and Tournemire. His best-known works include his four-part masses, ""Messe solennelle"" and ""Missa Salve Regina"", his ""Missa in simplicitate"" for unison voice and organ, and his many organ compositions, including: Jean Langlais Jean Langlais (15 February 1907 – 8 May 1991) was a"
"body, although he remained mentally alert to the last. He died at his home in Paris on 12 March 1937 at the age of 93, and his remains were interred in the crypt of Saint-Sulpice four days later. Widor wrote music for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles (some of his songs for voice and piano are especially notable) and composed four operas and a ballet, but only his works for organ are played with any regularity today. These include: ten Organ Symphonies, three Symphonies for orchestra with organ, ""Suite Latine"", ""Trois Nouvelles Pièces"", and six arrangements of works"
"was a prolific composer of chamber music: his list includes a violin sonata, 2 cello sonatas (Op. 21 and Op. 44), 3 piano trios, 2 piano quartets (Op. 5 and Op. 26), a piano quintet (Op. 18), 4 string quartets (Op. 16, Op. 17, Op. 39, Op. 46) and a string octet. For orchestra he wrote a suite, a sinfonietta and a symphony. There are also two concertos by him, one for piano, another for violin. Concerning vocal music, he composed three operas (""La Croce d’oro"", ""Il Neo"" and ""Le Fate""), a mass and a requiem. By the time of"
"quartets, four sonatas for violin and piano, a sonata for cello and piano, two piano trios, and various other orchestral works. Among his piano pieces may be mentioned Mazurka No. 2, Valse No. 2, ""Au Matin"", ""Postillon"", ""En Courant"", ""En Train"", and ""Les Hirondelles"". ""Florian's Song"" is also very popular and has been arranged for many instruments. One of Godard's sonatas for violin and piano contains a scherzo written in the unusual time signature of . He wrote more than 100 songs. According to the ""Encyclopædia Britannica"" Eleventh Edition, ""Godard's compositions are unequal, if only because his productivity was enormous."
"and lasts four hours. St. François in turn was one of the inspirations for Kaija Saariaho's ""L'amour de loin"" (2000). Denisov's ""L'écume des jours"" (1981) is an adaptation of the novel by Boris Vian. Philippe Boesmans' ""Julie"" (2005, after Strindberg's ""Miss Julie"") was commissioned by the Théâtre de la Monnaie of Brussels, an important center for French opera even in Lully's day. French opera French opera is one of Europe's most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Gounod, Bizet, Massenet, Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc and Messiaen. Many foreign-born composers have played a part in"