Gabriel Pierné

Henri Constant Gabriel Pierné (16 August 1863 – 17 July 1937) was a French composer, conductor, and organist.

Biography

Gabriel Pierné was born in Metz in 1863. His family moved to Paris after Metz and the rest of Lorraine were annexed to Germany in 1871 following the Franco-Prussian War. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, gaining first prizes for solfège, piano, organ, counterpoint and fugue. He won the French Prix de Rome in 1882, with his cantata Edith. His teachers included Antoine François Marmontel, Albert Lavignac, Émile Durand, César Franck (for the organ) and Jules Massenet (for composition).

He succeeded César Franck as organist at Sainte-Clotilde Basilica in Paris from 1890 to 1898. He himself was succeeded by another distinguished Franck pupil, Charles Tournemire. Associated for many years with Édouard Colonne's concert series, the Concerts Colonne, from 1903, Pierné became chief conductor of this series in 1910.

His most notable early performance was the world premiere of Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, at the Ballets Russes, Paris, on 25 June 1910. He remained in the post until 1933 (when Paul Paray took over his duties).

Gabriel

In the Abrahamic religions, Gabriel (Hebrew: גַּבְרִיאֵל, Modern Gavri'el, Tiberian Gaḇrîʼēl "God is my strength"; Biblical Greek: Γαβριήλ, Gabriēl) is an angel who typically serves as a messenger sent from God to certain people.

Gabriel is mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In the Old Testament, he appears to the prophet Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions (Daniel 8:15–26, 9:21–27). In the Gospel of Luke, Gabriel appeared to Zechariah and the Virgin Mary, foretelling the births of John the Baptist and Jesus, respectively (Luke 1:11–38). In the Book of Daniel, he is referred to as "the man Gabriel", while in the Gospel of Luke, Gabriel is referred to as "an angel of the Lord" (Luke 1:11). Gabriel is not called an archangel in the Bible, but is so called in Intertestamental period sources like the Book of Enoch. In the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, the archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel are also referred to as saints. In Islam, Gabriel is considered an archangel whom God is believed to have sent with revelation to various prophets, including Muhammad. The 96th chapter of the Quran, al-Alaq, is believed by Muslims to have been the first chapter (surah) revealed by Gabriel to Muhammad.

Violin sonata

A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin accompanied by a keyboard instrument and in earlier periods with a bass instrument doubling the keyboard bass line. The violin sonata developed from a simple baroque form with no fixed format to a standardised and complex classical form. Since the romantic age some composers have pushed the boundaries of both the classical format as well as the use of the instruments.

The early violin sonata

In the earliest violin sonatas a bass instrument and the harpsichord played a simple bass line (continuo) with the harpsichord doubling the bass line and fixed chords while the violin played independently. The music was contrapuntal with no fixed format. Telemann wrote many such sonatas as did Bach. Bach later wrote sonatas with the harpsichord obbligato, which freed the keyboard instrument from playing only a bass line accompaniment.

Haydn wrote over one hundred trio sonatas (which are essentially obbligato violin sonatas) with the use of the piano instead of the harpsichord and a baryton (a deeper cello like instrument) which mostly copied the piano's bass line. These works were mostly simple two movement sonatas of which the later ones used the sonata form.

Cydalise et le Chèvre-pied

Cydalise et le chèvre-pied ("Cydalise and the goat-foot" or "Cydalise and the satyr") is a two-act ballet originally choreographed by Léo Staats to a score by Gabriel Pierné. The libretto was written by Gaston Arman de Caillavet and Robert de Flers, based on Remy de Gourmont's Lettre d'un satyre. Though it was composed between 1914 and 14 February 1915, its Paris Opera premiere was delayed due to the conditions of World War I until 15 January 1923. The use of the French term "chèvre-pied" (goat foot) to refer to the satyr is distinct to this composition.

The ballet remains one of the Pierné's most popular compositions. The music is of the impressionist era, though it contains elements of Romanticism, Neoclassicism, and Neo-Baroque music. Three years after the premiere Pierné extracted two suites from the work, the first of which includes sections from the first two Tableau while the second comprises the entire third Tableau. One of the most recognizable pieces in the ballet, "L'École des Ægipans," also known as "The Entry of the Little Fauns" or "The March of the Fauns," is occasionally excerpted and performed separately.

Claude Debussy

Claude-Achille Debussy (French: [klod aʃil dəbysi]; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music, though he himself disliked the term when applied to his compositions. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in his native France in 1903. Debussy was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his use of non-traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed.

Debussy's music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of nontraditional tonalities. The prominent French literary style of his period was known as Symbolism, and this movement directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant.

Early life