Louise Farrenc facts for kids
Louise Farrenc (born Jeanne-Louise Dumont; May 31, 1804 – September 15, 1875) was a French composer, amazing pianist, and teacher. She lived during the Romantic period of music. She wrote many different kinds of music, including three symphonies, some songs for choirs, lots of chamber music, and many pieces for the piano.
Contents
Life and Music Career
Louise Farrenc was born in Paris, France. Her father, Jacques-Edme Dumont, was a famous sculptor, and her brother, Auguste Dumont, was also a sculptor. Louise started playing the piano when she was very young. Her first teacher was Cecile Soria.
When it was clear she was a very talented pianist, she took lessons from famous teachers like Ignaz Moscheles and Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Because she was also good at composing, her parents let her study with Anton Reicha in 1819. He was a composition teacher at the Conservatoire de Paris. However, she had to take private lessons because women were not allowed in the regular composition classes back then.
In 1821, she married Aristide Farrenc, a flute student who was ten years older. He played in concerts near where Louise's family lived. After they married, Louise stopped her studies for a short time to perform concerts with her husband all over France. But Aristide soon got tired of performing. With Louise's help, he opened a music publishing company in Paris. This company, called Éditions Farrenc, became one of France's top music publishers for almost 40 years.
Louise Farrenc later went back to studying with Reicha in Paris. After that, she started her concert career again. This was briefly paused in 1826 when her daughter, Victorine, was born. Victorine also became a concert pianist but sadly passed away at age 33 in 1859.
In the 1830s, Farrenc became very famous as a performer. Her reputation was so strong that in 1842, she was given a permanent job as a Professor of Piano at the Paris Conservatory. This was a very important position in Europe, and she held it for thirty years. In fact, Louise Farrenc was the only woman to hold such a high-ranking position at the Paris Conservatory during the entire 1800s. People at the time said she was an excellent teacher. Many of her students won top prizes and became professional musicians.
Despite her success, Farrenc was paid less than the male professors for almost ten years. Only after her nonet (a piece for nine instruments) was performed very successfully, with the famous violinist Joseph Joachim taking part, did she demand and receive equal pay. Besides teaching and performing, she also wrote and edited an important book called Le Trésor des pianistes. This book was about how to perform early music. She also won the Prix Chartier award twice, in 1861 and 1869, from the Académie des Beaux-Arts.
Louise Farrenc passed away in Paris.
Her Music
At first, during the 1820s and 1830s, Louise Farrenc wrote only for the piano. Many of these pieces were highly praised by music critics, including Robert Schumann. In the 1830s, she started writing larger pieces for both chamber groups and orchestras. Most of her chamber music was written in the 1840s. While she wrote many pieces for solo piano, her chamber music is often thought to be her best work.
Throughout her life, chamber music remained very important to her. She wrote pieces for different combinations of wind and string instruments, often with piano. These include two piano quintets (for piano and four other instruments), a sextet (for piano and five wind instruments), and two piano trios (for piano, violin, and cello). She also wrote a nonet (for nine instruments) and several instrumental sonatas.
Besides chamber music and piano pieces, she wrote two overtures and three symphonies. Her third symphony, Op. 36, was performed at the Société des concerts du Conservatoire in 1849. One type of music she did not write was opera. Opera was a very important musical form in France at the time. Some sources say she wanted to write an opera but was never given a story (a libretto) to set to music by the main opera houses in Paris. The reasons for this are still unknown.
Her Legacy
For many years after Louise Farrenc's death, her reputation as a performer continued. Her name appeared in books about famous pianists. Her nonet, two piano quintets, and trios were quite popular around 1850. But even though some of her chamber music was re-published after she died, her works were mostly forgotten.
Then, in the late 1900s, people became interested in women composers again. This led to the rediscovery of many of Farrenc's works. Her music began to be performed and recorded once more. In December 2013, Farrenc was featured on the BBC Radio 3 program Composer of the Week, which helped more people learn about her music.
Types of Compositions
Louise Farrenc wrote only for the piano from 1820 to 1830. She started writing for orchestras in 1834. She completed 49 compositions that have opus numbers.
Orchestral Works
- Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 32 (1842)
- Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 35 (1845)
- Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 36 (1847)
- Overture in E minor, Op. 23 (1834)
- Overture in E♭, Op. 24 (1834)
- Grand variations on the song "Le premier pas", for piano and orchestra, Op. 4
Vocal Works
- Andréa la censurado, ballade
- Je me taisais, romance
- La tourterelle, romance
Choral Works
- O père qu'adore mon père (hymn by Lamartine), (unaccompanied choir)
- O salutaris hostia, (soprano, alto and tenor)
Chamber Music
- Nonet in E♭, Op. 38 (1849; for string quartet and wind quintet)
- Sextet in C minor, Op. 40 (1852; for piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn)
- Piano Quintet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 30 (1839)
- Piano Quintet No. 2 in E, Op. 31 (1840)
- Trio in E♭, Op. 33 (1841–44; for piano, violin and cello)
- Trio in D, Op. 34 (1844; for piano, violin and cello)
- Trio in E♭, Op. 44 (1854–56; for piano, clarinet and cello)
- Sonata for violin and piano in C minor, Op. 37 (1848)
Piano Works
- Variations, Op. 2
- Grandes variations Le premier pas, Op. 4 (piano solo)
- Variations brillantes on a theme from La Cenerentola by Rossini, Op. 5
- Trente études in all the major and minor keys, Op. 26 (1838)
- Douze études brillantes, Op. 41 (1853)
- Vingt études de moyenne difficulté, Op. 42 (1854)
See also
In Spanish: Louise Farrenc para niños
