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Farrenc, Louise are able to tread, then we admire all the more the strict studies, objective principles and choice sagacity that ha- ve been able to lead her there." (Thérèse Wartel in: Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris, 31.3.1850, p. 108 (Reviews of the world premiere of the Nonet, Op. 38) (author's translation). Profile Louise Farrenc is notable for her versatility, on the one hand, and also for a high degree of independence. In al- most all of her various areas of activity, especially as a composer and researcher, she followed paths that were independent from the general current of Parisian musi- cal life in the context of which she worked. Cities an countries Louise Farrenc lived and worked in Paris, France. In 1832, she embarked on a concert tour to England; se- veral of her works were also published in England and Germany. Beyond these, no activities outside of Paris are known. Louise Farrenc. Portrait von Luigi Rubio (1835) Biography Louise Farrenc Jeanne-Louise Dumont was born on 31 May 1804 in Pa- Birth name: Jeanne-Louise Dumont ris. She received her first instruction in piano and solfège beginning in 1810; from 1819 she took lessons in harm- * 31 May 1804 in Paris, Frankreich ony from Anton Reicha, most likely privately. In 1821 she † 15 September 1875 in Paris, Frankreich married the flutist and music publisher Aristide Farrenc; after an interruption, Louise Farrenc resumed her stu- Composer, pianist, piano teacher, piano professor, dies with Reicha and extended her subjects to include researcher. harmony, counterpoint and fugue as well as orchestrati- on. The first numbered works of Louise Farrenc were "L’apparition d’une œuvre sérieuse excite certainement printed by her husband's publishing house in 1822 and toujours un intérêt puissant; mais lorsque son auteur se 1825. She occasionally took lessons from Hummel and trouve être une femme qui, dédaignant les succès faciles Moscheles. Victorine Farrenc was born in 1826; she recei- prodigués à des compositions frivoles, regarde comme ved musical instruction from her mother and became a une sainte mission de demeurer l’apôtre de la vraie pianist. In 1842 Louise Farrenc became professor of pia- croyance du bon goût, et marche le pied ferme et la tête no at the Paris Conservatoire; she held this position for haute dans le sentier difficile que peu d’hommes savent 30 years. In 1861 and 1869 she was awarded the "Prix Ch- parcourir aujourd’hui, nous admirons autant la sévérité artier", the chamber music prize awarded by the Acadé- d’études, l’austérité de principes que l’intelligence d’élite mie des Beaux-Arts. During the years 1861-1872 the editi- qui a pu la conduire jusque là." on "Trésor des pianistes" was published; this was a 23-vo- lume anthology containing piano music ranging from "A new serious work surely always attracts a great deal of Frescobaldi to Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. When Aris- attention; but when its author proves to be a woman who tide Farrenc died in 1865, Louise Farrenc continued wor- spurns the easy successes of superficial compositions king on the edition alone. She died on 15 August 1875 in and who regards it as a sacred mission to act as an apost- Paris. le of true faith and good taste, walking, with firm steps More on Biography and head held high, the difficult path that few men today – 1 – Farrenc, Louise Jeanne-Louise Dumont was born on 31 May 1804 as the "Trente Etudes dans tous les tons majeurs et mineurs" second of three children in Paris. Her parents were Ma- (Op. 26) is remarkable. Whereas contemporary women rie Louise Elisabeth Curton and Jacques-Edme Dumont, composers composed mostly songs with piano accompa- sculptor and winner of the Rome Prize. The family, niment, choral music and piano works suitable for the sa- which had brought forth prominent painters and sculp- lon, Louise Farrenc soon placed orchestral compositions tors for generations, lived in the artists' housing estate at and chamber works for larger ensembles (two quintets, the Sorbonne, where approximately 30 artists working a sextet, a nonet) at the central focus of her work. At the for the government lived with their families. Louise Du- age of 30, she composed her two concert overtures; se- mont grew up in a liberal environment there, enjoying al- ven years later, she composed the first of a total of three ready in her childhood a vital cultural life with wide-ran- symphonies. ging educational offerings and possibilities for develop- Having become better known through the growing num- ment. At the age of six she received lessons in piano and ber of public performances during the course of the solfège from the Clementi pupil Anne Elisabeth Cécile So- 1830s as pianist, composer and pedagogue, she became ria. At age fifteen she received instruction in harmony professor of piano at the Paris Conservatoire in 1842, tea- from Anton Reicha, professor of the subjects of counter- ching in this capacity for 30 years. A number of her fema- point and fugue at the Paris Conservatoire. Her marriage le pupils later made names for themselves as pianists to the flutist and music publisher Aristide Farrenc and piano teachers. During the 1840s there followed per- (1794-1865) in 1821 at the age of 17 in no way signified formances of her symphonies, for which she was depen- the end of her education. Following an interruption due dent on the cooperation of orchestras and conductors. to a journey undertaken by the couple within France toge- Twice, in 1861 and 1869, Louise Farrenc was awarded ther, she resumed her lessons with Reicha, extending the "Prix Chartier" by the Académie des Beaux-Arts for them to include the subjects of counterpoint, fugue and her chamber music oeuvre. She had ended her composi- instrumentation. It is not unequivocally clear from the tional activity towards the end of the 1850s, however, sources, but Louise Farrenc was apparently a private pu- possibly after the death of her daughter Victorine. From pil of Reicha: there is no proof that she studied at the 1861 until 1872, Louise Farrenc published (with her hus- Conservatoire and, according to the study regulations in band until his death) the "Trésor des pianistes", a 23-vo- the nineteenth century, women were only permitted to ta- lume comprehensive anthology of piano music of the kes courses in harmony ("harmonie et accompagnement 16th to 19th centuries that proved groundbreaking for pratique"), not the subjects belonging to an actual study the revival and performance practice of Early Music. programme in composition. Farrenc's education, howe- Louise Farrenc taught at the Conservatoire until 1872 ver, did correspond to the structure and level of require- and died on 15 September 1875 in Paris. ments of the institutional study programme in compositi- Appreciation on at the Conservatoire. Moreover, Louise Farrenc also took piano lessons from Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Louise Farrenc was compositionally productive and ver- Ignaz Moscheles, two virtuoso composers who were very satile, continuously nurtured her technique and style, popular in Paris. Nothing is known, however, of the preci- and had a decidedly professional self-conception as a se extent and period of this instruction. Hummel was composer. She is one of the few women composers who well acquainted with the Farrencs, and Aristide Farrenc composed chamber music for large ensembles and or- accepted several of his compositions in his publisher's ca- chestral works, and this not merely contrary to the fema- talogue from 1825 onwards. The Farrencs' only daughter, le understanding of one's role, but also against the domi- Victorine Farrenc, was born in 1826; instructed by her nating preferences of Parisian musical life. mother, she became an outstanding pianist and also com- More on Appreciation posed. She fell ill in 1849, however, and died already in 1859. Louise Farrenc was compositionally productive and ver- The pianist Louise Farrenc began her compositional de- satile, continuously nurtured her technique and style, velopment with works for her own instrument, the pia- and had - unlike other women musicians of her time - a no: primarily variation cycles, rondos and character pie- decidedly professional self-conception as a composer. As ces. Alongside these, four collections of etudes were writ- a contemporary of the Mendelssohn siblings and of Clara ten. The first of these, composed in 1838 and entitled and Robert Schumann, Chopin and Liszt, Louise Farrenc – 2 – Farrenc, Louise represented, together with few other composers in Fran- Reception ce (e.g. Félicien David, Henri Reber, Charles Dancla and Adolphe Blanc) a classical-romantic musical direction Louise Farrenc's printed works were not only issued in connected with the German compositional tradition; in France, but also in Germany and England in many cases. Paris, orientated as it was on opera and salon music, she Her symphonies and overtures remained unpublished. moved in a direction apart from that of the mainstream Nonetheless, in some cases, several contemporary perfor- of musical life with her instrumental works. Unlike in mances of the orchestral compositions can be verified, al- Germany, where instrumental music had earned consi- so in European countries outside France. In Paris, Loui- derably greater respect compared with vocal music since se Farrenc was highly esteemed by the critics both as a Viennese classicism and the symphonies of Beethoven, pianist and as a composer. In the Parisian specialist and had set new standards for the following generation press, one regularly finds several concert reviews per ye- of composers, in Paris it was still opera that was the sole ar during the 1840s and 1850s. medium in which a composer could achieve fame and in Louise Farrenc was almost completely forgotten for which a composer had to prove himself.

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