Emmanuel Chabrier was born on January 18, 1841 in Ambert, a
town in the Auvergne region of central France. He began taking music lessons at
a young age and his earliest surviving compositions date from 1849. Despite
these early attempts at music and composition, Chabrier followed in the footsteps
of his father's profession, and when his family moved to Clermont-Ferrand in
1852, he began preparing for a legal career. Yet, he did not abandon his music
lessons, but continued to study with Alexander Tarnowski, a Polish-born
composer and violinist.
In 1856, Chabrier's family moved to Paris where he continued
his studies in both fields. In 1861, he graduated from law school and took a
position as a civil servant at the Ministry of the Interior. Music, however,
remained Chabrier's true love. He continued to compose during the 1860s and he
became increasing fascinated with the music of Richard Wagner, a composer that
would remain a persistent influence on him. Throughout the following years, he
became acquainted with the French capital's avant-garde artists, including Paul
Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé (both of whom would be important influences on
Claude Debussy), Gabriel Fauré, Vincent d'Indy, and Édouard Manet, to name a
few.
A trip to Munich in 1879 with Henri Duparc, however, changed
Chabrier's life. There he discovered Wagner's revolutionary opera Tristan und Isolde which rekindled
brighter than before his passion for composition. The following year, he left
his position at the Ministry of the Interior and devoted himself wholeheartedly
to composition. He also became a committed disciple of Wagner and worked with
Charles Lamoureux in arranging concert performances of Wagner's music in Paris.
With his renewed dedication to music, Chabrier tackled two
operatic projects during the succeeding years—Gwendoline and Le roi malgré
lui (The King in Spite of Himself).
Though both were favorably received at their premieres, luck, as it happened,
was against Chabrier. Gwendoline was
canceled after only two performances when the impresario went bankrupt; Le roi malgré lui after its third
performance when the Opéra-Comique burned. With the help of Chabrier's
friendship with the Belgian tenor Ernest van Dyck, both operas were taken up by
theaters in Leipzig and Munich.
Chabrier's final years, however, were plagued by financial
and health problems. Fighting depression from the neglect of his stage works in
France, he nonetheless worked furiously on another opera, Briséïs, which was left incomplete at his
death. He eventually succumbed to general paralysis and on September 13, 1894,
Chabrier passed away in Paris at the age of fifty-three. He left a small, but
important, body of work which influenced the succeeding generation of French
composers, particularly Maurice Ravel.
Emmanuel Chabrier
Biography
Emmanuel Chabrier was born on January 18, 1841 in Ambert, a town in the Auvergne region of central France. He began taking music lessons at a young age and his earliest surviving compositions date from 1849. Despite these early attempts at music and composition, Chabrier followed in the footsteps of his father's profession, and when his family moved to Clermont-Ferrand in 1852, he began preparing for a legal career. Yet, he did not abandon his music lessons, but continued to study with Alexander Tarnowski, a Polish-born composer and violinist.
In 1856, Chabrier's family moved to Paris where he continued his studies in both fields. In 1861, he graduated from law school and took a position as a civil servant at the Ministry of the Interior. Music, however, remained Chabrier's true love. He continued to compose during the 1860s and he became increasing fascinated with the music of Richard Wagner, a composer that would remain a persistent influence on him. Throughout the following years, he became acquainted with the French capital's avant-garde artists, including Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé (both of whom would be important influences on Claude Debussy), Gabriel Fauré, Vincent d'Indy, and Édouard Manet, to name a few.
A trip to Munich in 1879 with Henri Duparc, however, changed Chabrier's life. There he discovered Wagner's revolutionary opera Tristan und Isolde which rekindled brighter than before his passion for composition. The following year, he left his position at the Ministry of the Interior and devoted himself wholeheartedly to composition. He also became a committed disciple of Wagner and worked with Charles Lamoureux in arranging concert performances of Wagner's music in Paris.
With his renewed dedication to music, Chabrier tackled two operatic projects during the succeeding years—Gwendoline and Le roi malgré lui (The King in Spite of Himself). Though both were favorably received at their premieres, luck, as it happened, was against Chabrier. Gwendoline was canceled after only two performances when the impresario went bankrupt; Le roi malgré lui after its third performance when the Opéra-Comique burned. With the help of Chabrier's friendship with the Belgian tenor Ernest van Dyck, both operas were taken up by theaters in Leipzig and Munich.
Chabrier's final years, however, were plagued by financial and health problems. Fighting depression from the neglect of his stage works in France, he nonetheless worked furiously on another opera, Briséïs, which was left incomplete at his death. He eventually succumbed to general paralysis and on September 13, 1894, Chabrier passed away in Paris at the age of fifty-three. He left a small, but important, body of work which influenced the succeeding generation of French composers, particularly Maurice Ravel.