Synopsis
French composer and concert pianist Cecile Chaminade was born in Paris on this date in 1857. She wrote symphonic works and even operas, but it was her piano pieces and songs that became enormously popular with amateur musicians around the turn of the century, especially in America.
In the decade before World War I, over a hundred Chaminade Clubs sprouted up in America, where her music was performed by and for her fans. So imagine the excitement when it was announced that Madame Chaminade would be giving a concert tour of Eastern and Midwest states in 1908. Her American tour opened and closed at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and over a two-month period she performed in Philadelphia, Louisville, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Boston and Washington, D.C.
In 1908, the majority of amateur musicians in America were women, but the majority of music critics were men — the latter gave Chaminade’s concerts mixed reviews at best, and downright sexist put-downs at worst. For her part, she was used to that sort of reception in Europe — and the limited role society allowed women artists in her day.
But in a Washington Post interview published during her American tour, she remained optimistic: “There is no sex in art,” she said. “Genius is an independent quality. The woman of the future, with her broader outlook, her greater opportunities, will go far, I believe, in creative work of every description.”
Music Played in Today's Program
Cecile Chaminade (1857-1944): L’Ondine and Scherzo in C; (Peter Jacobs, piano; Hyperion 66584
On This Day
Births
1857 - French composer Cécile Chaminade, in Paris
1905 - French composer André Jolivet, in Paris
1938 - Canadian composer Jacques Hétu, in Trois Rivières, Quebec
Deaths
1950 - Russian composer Nikolai Miaskovsky, 69, in Moscow
1967 - Czech-born composer Jaromir Weinberger, 71, dies by suicide at his home in St. Peterburg, Florida (where he settled in 1939). Weinberger had composed one very popular work, his 1927 opera Schwanda, the Bagpiper, but was reportedly despondent that he was unable to produce any other equally successful works.
Premieres
1882 - Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture, in Moscow (Gregorian date: Aug. 20)
1942 - Poulenc: ballet Les Animaux Modèles (The Model Animals), at the Paris Opéra
1943 - Piston: Prelude and Allegro for organ and strings, on a CBS radio broadcast by organist E. Power Biggs with Arthur Fiedler conducting
1976 - David Del Tredici: first version of An Alice Symphony (after Lewis Carroll) in San Francisco. See also Aug. 7, 1991.
1984 - Berio: opera Un Re in Ascolto (A King Listens), at the Salzburg Festival in Austria
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.