Let's say 'Jean Francaix'

Synopsis

Today’s we tackle a vexing P.C. issue — not “political correctness,” mind you, but “pronunciation correctness,” a passionate matter for classical radio announcers, of course. 

Now there was a French composer who lived from 1912 to 1997 whose first name was Jean and whose last name was spelled “F-R-A-N- C cedilla-A-I-X.”

Most people pronounce his name “Jean Frahn-SAY,” which has come to be the accepted pronunciation. The problem is that the composer’s family and close friends pronounced it “Frahn-SEX.”

Years ago, an announcer at a station in New York requested the definitive answer from the composer himself, and was told, yes, technically it was “Frahn-SEX,” but that he was used to being called “Frahn-SAY” and had given up correcting people, joking that perhaps “Frahn-SAY” sounded more French, or maybe people just didn’t want to say “sex” out loud.

This witty composer grew up in a musical family in Les Mans and claimed that by the age of twelve, knew all the piano music from Scarlatti to Ravel.

Both Jean Frahn-SEX and Jean Frahn-SAY were very prolific composers of works large and small, including a delightful Symphony in G Major, which premiered on today’s date in 1953 at the summer music festival in La Jolla, California.

Music Played in Today's Program

Jean Francaix (1912-1997): Symphony in G Major; Ulster Orchestra; Thierry Fischer, conductor; Hyperion CDA-67323

On This Day

Births

• 1781 - Austrian composer, violinist, and conductor Michael Umlauff, in Vienna. He conducted the orchestra, chorus, and soloists assembled for the premiere performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Vienna's Kärtnertor Theater on May 7, 1824. After the totally deaf Beethoven set the initial tempos for each movement, the performers were instructed to ignore Beethoven if he continued to beat time, and to follow Umlauf.

• 1874 - Venezuelan-born French composer, conductor and music critic Reynaldo Hahn, in Caracas.

• 1875 - English light music composer Albert William Ketèlbey, in Aston.

Deaths

• 1919 - Italian composer Ruggero Leoncavallo, 62, in Montecatini

• 1975 - Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich, 68, in Moscow

• 1988 - Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi, 83, in Rome

Premieres

• 1862 - Berlioz: opera Beatrice and Benedick, in Baden-Baden at the Neues Theater, with the composer conducting; The libretto (by Berlioz himself) is based on Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing

• 1949 - Orff: opera Antigone, in Salzburg at the Felsenreitschile

• 1972 - London premiere of Andrew Lloyd-Webber: musical Jesus Christ Superstar

• 1978 - Dave Brubeck: oratorio Beloved Son, at the American Lutheran Women’s Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with Richard Sieber conducting

• 1979 - Hanson: ballet Nymph and Satyr in Chautauqua, Tennessee

• 1988 - Peter Maxwell Davies: Symphony No. 5, during a BBC Proms Concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall, by the Philharmonia Orchestra, with the composer conducting

Others

• 1703 - J.S. Bach appointed organist at Neuekirche, Arnstadt (see also: Aug. 4 and 14)

• 1928 - Australian-born American composer Percy Grainger marries Swedish poet and painter Ella Viola Strom at the Hollywood Bowl in front of an audience of 22,000 concert-goers. Grainger conducted the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of his To a Nordic Princess, dedicated to his bride.