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A Great Women Composer to Celebrate
by
Gail Smith
CECILE CHAMINADE
Cecile Louise Stephanie Chaminade was born in Paris on August 8, 1857. Both her parents were musical: her father played the violin and her mother played piano and was a singer. Cecile's mother gave her piano lessons for several years. She later studied with Le Couppey who was on the faculty of the Conservatoire Besides the Paris home, the family owned a home in Le Vasinet. Their neighbor was the famous composer Georges Bizet. He admired her musical talent and remarked about some sacred music she composed at the age of eight.
Cecile studied with Le Couppey who was on the faculty of the Paris Conservatoire. Her father was against her enrolling in the Conservatoire but allowed her to study with several of the faculty privately. She also studied with Benjamin Godard.
In 1877 Cecile made her professional concert debut at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. On April 25, 1878, Cecile gave a concert comprised of her own works at the home of Le Couppey. Chaminade would continue composing and giving recitals the rest of her life. She composed two piano Trios, an Opera, hundreds of piano solos, Sonata Op.21 for piano, a ballet, concerto, numerous works for violin and a Suite D'Orchestra..
Chaminade is recognized as the most famous French lady composer. Ambroise Thomas made this remark after hearing one of her concerts, "This is not a woman who composes, but a composer who is a woman." Her most famous piano composition is Scarf Dance, which sold millions of copies in her lifetime. She was popular as a conductor and held a governmental appointment as Officer of Public Instruction.
Queen Victoria was a fan of Chaminade and invited her to Winsor Castle. She dedicated a song to Princess Beatrice, Victoria's daughter. She also attend the Diamond Jubilee, in 1897. At Victoria's funeral in 1901, Chaminade's organ Prelude, Op.78 was played.
On August 29, 1901 Cecile married the Marseille music publisher Louis-Mathieu Carbonel in Le Vesinet. He was twenty years older than Cecile. He would accompany her on her travels but they each would live in their separate homes. In 1903 he contracted a lung disease and he died in 1907. She wasn't able to compose during this time.
Chaminade made a concert tour to America in 1908 and was interviewed in October of that year by the New York Sun and made these interesting comments:
Marriage must adapt itself to one's career. With a man it is all arranged and expected. If a woman is the artist it upsets the standards, usually it ruins the woman's art. Tho' I have been married and am a widow now, I feel that it is difficult to reconcile the domestic life with the artistic. A woman should choose one or the other. An artist must have freedom, not restraint, she must receive aid, not selfish, jealous exactions and complaints. When a woman of talent marries a man who appreciates that side of her, such a marriage may be ideally happy for both.
During this concert tour in 1908 she was the guest at the French Embassy in Washington D.C. and then was taken to the White House to meet President and Mrs. Roosevelt.
Chaminade's mother died in 1912. The following two years she went to London to record a series of piano rolls for the Aeolian Company. She used these piano rolls in concerts and played duets with the rolls she recorded.
In 1926 Chaminade was diagnosed with decalcification of her left foot. This condition was thought to have been caused by her strict vegetarian diet. She was immobile for several years and then in 1936 moved to Monte Carlo. Chaminade suffered severe pain and eventually had to have the foot amputated. Chaminade refused to use a wheel chair and became an invalid. She died on April 13, 1944 in Monte Carlo. Chaminade's devoted niece, Lorel, wrote a biography of her Aunt in 1948 and organized a piano competition in 1957, in Monte Carlo, in honor of the Chaminade Centennial.
Chaminade left this quote during an interview many years ago that is most prophetic, she said, "There is no sex in art. Genius is an independent quality. The woman of the future, with her broader outlook, her greater opportunities, will go far, I believe, in creative work of every description."
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