Louise Farrenc: 1804-1875 Ryan Jacobsen Research Lecture March
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! Louise Farrenc: 1804-1875 Ryan Jacobsen Research Lecture March 23, 2020 This thesis entitled: Louise Farrenc: 1804-1875 written by Ryan Jacobsen has been approved for the masters ● doctoral degree program in: Violin Performance Charles Wetherbee Committee Chair Name Carlo Caballero Committee Member Name The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. tdent nmer 105767649 protocol # protocol ! Introduction and Biographical Context Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) was an influential nineteenth-century French pianist, composer, and pedagogue. Though famous in her day, her compositional and scholarly contributions to the music world have since fallen into obscurity. With the increased interest in the subject of women composers in the last fifty years, musicologists have begun to rediscover, publish, and perform the works of women composers. This holds true for Farrenc; however, the slight notoriety she claims in the twenty-first century pales in comparison to her nineteenth- century popularity. The existing published research on Farrenc’s life and music remains woefully insufficient. After an overview of Farrenc’s life and accomplishments, it is necessary to put her chamber music, specifically her third piano quintet, into historical context. This will include a discussion of the development of the piano quintet and the state of chamber music in France during the first part of the nineteenth century, as well as a note about how perceptions of early nineteenth-century French chamber music have suffered in the last century. Next, it is important to discuss her quintet, incorporating both a brief historical background and an analysis of the first movement. Finally, an evaluation of the current state of research on Farrenc will help indicate which future projects might help bring her music out of obscurity and into the public sphere. Born in 1804 into a family with a rich artistic tradition, Louise Farrenc was immediately thrust into the cultural and artistic center of nineteenth-century Paris. Residing in the Sorbonne annex specifically for artists, Farrenc’s childhood was spent living in an artistic community ! amongst sculptors, painters, engravers, and many other well-known artists.1 During her early years, Farrenc considered the possibility of becoming a visual artist. However, after developing a close relationship with her music teacher and godmother, Anne-Elisabeth Cecile Soria, Farrenc’s innate musical talents flourished. Soria noted that her pupil’s musical abilities were not confined to piano, as she also demonstrated an acumen for solfege and composition. Instead of turning to vocal performance, a more typical route for nineteenth-century female musicians, or limiting herself to the composition of vocal genres (romances or operetta), Farrenc continued her study of piano and composition (Friedland 1974, 11). By age 15, Farrenc was taking counterpoint lessons with Antonin Reicha at the Paris Conservatory (Friedland 1974, 10). It was during these formative years that Louise met a close friend and future husband, Aristide Farrenc. A flautist and composer himself, the two immediately became close collaborators, performing many of their compositions together. They eventually married in 1821, and the union brought each of them numerous benefits. Friedland observes, “A stable and mutually supportive relationship, the Farrenc union seems to have achieved a blend of communality and independence rarely seen in the nineteenth century” (Friedland 1974, 12). One of these strengths included Aristide’s publishing house. As Aristide’s compositional and performance career lacked the popularity and prestige quickly surrounding the young Louise, he turned to the profession of editor and publisher. He later helped Louise publish much of her music, while simultaneously bringing many talented and highly-regarded composers in Paris closer to the Farrencs. Particularly significant to Louise was the acquisition of publishing rights !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Bea Friedland, Louise Farrenc, 1804-1875: Composer, Performer, Scholar (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1975), 9. All further references to Friedland’s book will be parenthetical. ! for the music of Johann Hummel. This lucrative business relationship between Hummel and the Farrencs ultimately became a longstanding friendship and mentorship. “Expertly trained as she was, she still sought Hummel’s comments on her keyboard technique; she also studied his chamber music with special interest, using aspects of his style as models for her own subsequent works in that medium” (Friedland 1974, 13). Farrenc’s immense popularity was an anomaly amongst her female contemporaries. Katharine Ellis speaks to the misogynistic disparity in her 1997 article about nineteenth-century female pianists. “Until the mid-1840s, the most conspicuous kind of pianist in Paris was the male composer-virtuoso, whose reputation was built largely around performances of his own virtuoso pieces.”2 In many instances, women were barred from entry into the more prestigious performance societies and competitions. However, Farrenc was able to gain prestige and popularity within her particular niche. Friedland writes, “What place was there for women in such a system? At first sight, the answer appears stark: few women were able to conform to the virtuoso-composer paradigm because few composed… Farrenc, who worked almost exclusively in large-scale forms, was unique in carving out a reputation as a fine, if conservative, symphonist and chamber music composer” (Friedland 1974, 357-358) While most of her early works (both published and unpublished) were written exclusively for piano, Farrenc began experimenting with these larger and less typical mediums of composition in the 1830s and 40s. In 1834, she composed her first orchestral works, both overtures. Although neither was published, both were performed within the decade. Despite this moderate success, Farrenc was still known primarily for her abilities composing for and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 Katharine Ellis, “Female Pianists and Their Male Critics in Nineteenth-Century Paris” Journal of the American Musicological Society vol. 50, issue 2 (1997): 356 ! performing on piano. She was thoroughly praised both within and outside of France, garnering positive reviews in publications such as Robert Schumann’s Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik (Friedland 1974, 19). With her popularity growing and her performances drawing larger and more prominent audiences, Farrenc saw a great number of her works published. A particularly successful series of concerts brought Farrenc into contact with the French royal family, after which she was appointed to teach music to the household of the Duke of Orleans for several years. This was shortly followed by a professorship at the Paris Conservatory (Friedland 1974, 29). Unfortunately, this position came with a markedly smaller salary when compared with her male counterparts. Her years at the conservatory were filled with private teaching, composition (she finished several trios and her third symphony during this time), and concertizing, and only came to an unexpected halt after the illness and death of her daughter, Victorine (Friedland 1974, 40) Despite the grief and sadness within the Farrenc household, Louise’s achievements and accolades continued in the 1850s and 60s. In 1861, Farrenc became the second composer awarded the prestigious Prix Chartier (Friedland 1974, 53). This was one of several annual prizes awarded by the Beaux-Arts Academy of the Institut de France (another being the highly coveted Prix de Rome), and was funded through chamber music enthusiast Charles-Jean Chartier’s private endowment. Notable winners of the Chartier prize have included Edouard Lalo, César Franck, and Gabriel Faure. The purpose of the award was to acknowledge “long and consistent excellence in a particular art” (Friedland 1974, 52). While the composers’ section of the Academie recommended that the award be divided amongst the three finalists, (Louise Farrenc, Adolphe Blanc, and Eugene Sauzay), the vote of the entire academy awarded the full sum (700 francs) to Farrenc (Friedland 1974, 53). Awarding the prestigious Prix Chartier to a ! woman was exceptional in the nineteenth century, and indicative of both her longstanding excellence in composition and her popularity amongst her male peers. From the formation of the five academies of the Institut in 1832, women had been categorically denied entry. It is only in the twentieth century that women have gradually gained admittance (Friedland 1974, 53-54). For such an exclusionary society to vote to award a prize to a woman over her two male competitors was remarkable and unprecedented. Farrenc would go on to win the Prix Chartier once more in 1869 (Friedland 1974, 55). Farrenc composed very little after the death of her daughter, Victorine, in 1859. “It is even likely that her last five numbered works after the op. 46 cello sonata (composed 1858, published 1861) were earlier pieces retrieved for publication” (Friedland 1974, 57). After a period of mourning, her career turned away from composition and towards the completion of Le Trésor des pianistes. A joint project with her husband, Aristide, this multi-volume anthology compiled centuries of notable keyboard literature. Aristide had since developed a fine