Emmanuel Chabrier was born in Ambert, France, on January 18, 1841. He
was trained as a lawyer; from 1862 to 1880 he was employed at the
Ministry of the Interior in Paris. But he had also received a sound
musical training with private teachers. Composition began for him in
earnest in the 1870’s, with two of his operettas receiving performances
in Paris between 1877 and 1879. In 1879 he made a pilgrimage to Germany
to hear Wagner’s music dramas whose impact upon him proved so
overwhelming that he finally decided to give up his government work and
concentrate on music. Returning to Paris in 1880 he published the
_Pièces pittoresques_ for piano. Following a visit to Spain he produced
in 1883 his first major work for orchestra and realized with it his
first major success as a composer—the rhapsody _España_. He also wrote
two operas, _Gwendoline_ produced in 1886, and _Le Roi malgré lui_
introduced one year later. Some of his best writing was for the piano
and included such distinguished works as the _Habanera_, _Bourrée
fantasque_, and _Trois valses romantiques_. Chabrier became a victim of
paralysis in the last two years of his life, and just before his death
he began losing his sanity. He died in Paris on September 13, 1894.
While in his operas he revealed his profound indebtedness to the
Wagnerian idiom, Chabrier was at his best either in music that
interpreted Spain or to which he brought a natural bent for laughter,
gaiety, and the grotesque.
_España_, an orchestral rhapsody, is his most famous composition, as
popular in the semi-classical literature as it is in the symphonic
repertory. Chabrier wrote it in 1883 after a Spanish holiday, and its
première in Paris on November 4 of that year was a sensation. This
rhapsody is built from three principal subjects, two borrowed from
Spanish folk melodies, and one Chabrier’s own. A nervous rhythm in
plucked strings leads to a strongly accented malagueña, first heard in
the wind instrument. Different sections take it over before soaring
strings arrive with a lyrical jota melody. Chabrier’s own theme, a
stately subject for trombones, is then heard, set against the background
of the malagueña melody. The French waltz-king, Waldteufel, used
Chabrier’s themes from _España_ for one of his most famous waltzes, also
entitled _España_.
The _Joyeuse marche_ (1888) reveals the composer in one of his satirical
moods. Chabrier wrote it at first as a piano composition to be used for
a sight-reading class at the Bordeaux Conservatory. It proved too
difficult to fulfil this function, and Chabrier decided to orchestrate
it, calling it _Joyeuse marche_ and presenting it as one of his more
serious endeavors. The music is in a burlesque style, believed to be a
musical description of drunken musicians staggering home after a festive
evening. The work opens with an orchestral flourish, following which the
oboe offers a capricious subject. This gaiety is maintained in the
lively second theme for the violins.
The _Suite pastorale_ (1880) is an orchestral adaptation of four of the
ten piano pieces in _Pièces pittoresques_. In the first, “_Idylle_,” a
beautiful melody is accompanied by plucked strings. The second, “_Danse
villageoise_” is a country dance in which the lively dance tune is first
heard in clarinets. The third piece, “_Sous bois_” has a pastoral
character, while the concluding number, “_Scherzo-Valse_” is a
protracted piece of pulsating music.