Marie Jaëll facts for kids
Marie Jaëll (born Trautmann) was a talented French musician. She was a brilliant pianist, a creative composer, and a dedicated music teacher. Marie Jaëll wrote many pieces, including music for piano, concertos (music for a solo instrument with an orchestra), and quartets (music for four instruments). She was the first pianist in Paris to play all of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas. She also studied how hands work when playing the piano. She wanted to create new, organized ways to teach piano instead of just repeating exercises. Famous people like Albert Schweitzer studied with her. Marie Jaëll passed away in Paris in 1925.
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Early Life and Music Education
Marie Jaëll was born on August 17, 1846. Her father was the mayor of a town called Steinseltz in France. Her mother loved art and music. Marie started playing the piano when she was just six years old. By age seven, she was already taking lessons from famous piano teachers like F.B. Hamma and Ignaz Moscheles in Germany.
Marie's mother helped her a lot with her music career. A year after starting lessons, Marie was already giving concerts in Germany and Switzerland.
In 1856, when Marie was ten, she met the piano teacher Henri Herz at the Paris Conservatory. This was a very important music school. After only four months as a student there, she won the top prize for piano! People and newspapers noticed her amazing performances. One newspaper wrote in 1862 that her playing was "beautiful" and "filled the audience with wonder."
Marriage and Musical Career
On August 9, 1866, Marie married Alfred Jaëll, an Austrian concert pianist. She was 20 years old. Alfred was 15 years older and had even studied with the famous composer Chopin. Marie and Alfred often performed together. They played popular songs, duets, solos, and their own music all over Europe and Russia.
As a pianist, Marie was especially good at playing music by Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, and Ludwig van Beethoven. They even worked together to arrange Beethoven's "Marcia alla Turca Athens Ruins" for piano. This music was published successfully in 1872.
Alfred's fame helped Marie meet many important composers and performers during their travels. In 1868, Marie met the composer and pianist Franz Liszt. Liszt was very impressed with her. He once said that Marie Jaëll "has the brains of a philosopher and the fingers of an artist." Liszt introduced Marie to other great musicians like Johannes Brahms and Anton Rubinstein. By 1871, Marie's own musical pieces began to be published.
After her husband passed away in 1881, Marie had the chance to study even more. She studied with Liszt in Germany and with Camille Saint-Saëns and César Franck in Paris. Saint-Saëns even dedicated some of his music to her. He respected Marie so much that he helped her join the Society of Music Composers. This was a big honor for women at that time.
Researching Piano Technique
Marie Jaëll faced a challenge with her playing: she developed tendonitis, which is pain in the tendons. This made her think deeply about how the body works when playing music. She started to study neuroscience, which is the study of the brain and nervous system. She wanted to understand how music connects the mind and body. She also explored how this knowledge could help teach music with more feeling and intelligence.
Dr. Charles Féré helped Marie with her research. She was very inspired by Liszt's music and wanted to understand his playing methods. All this research led Marie Jaëll to create her own special way of teaching piano, which became known as the 'Jaëll Method'.
The Jaëll Method
The 'Jaëll Method' was developed through a lot of testing with herself and her students. Marie's main goal was for her students to feel a deep connection to the piano. Her research and experience led to a series of eleven books about piano technique. Piano teachers still use her method and books today to learn about hand positions and playing techniques.
One of her important books was called L'intelligence et le rythme dans les mouvements artistiques. This book is still used by pianists and teachers as a guide for hand position and playing techniques.
List of Compositions
Marie Jaëll wrote many different kinds of music, including:
- Am Grabe eines Kindes - for three choirs.
- Ce qu'on entend dans l'Enfer, le Purgatoire
- Le Paradis - a large piece for piano.
- Concerto in F - for cello and orchestra.
- Concerto in D minor - for piano and orchestra, dedicated to Saint-Saëns (1877).
- Concerto in C minor - for piano and orchestra, dedicated to Eugen d'Albert (1844).
- Harmonies d'Alsace - for orchestra.
- Impromptu, 2 Meditations, 6 Petits morceaux, 10 Bagatelles - easier pieces for piano.
- La Légende des Ours - for soprano (a high female voice) and piano.
- Les Orientales - for voice.
- Ossiane - for voice and orchestra.
- Psalm LXV - for choir in four parts, dedicated to Alfred Jaëll (not published).
- Runea - an opera.
- Sonate for violin.
- Sphinx - for piano, dedicated to Saint-Saëns, published in 1885.
- Sur la tombe d'un enfant - for chorus and orchestra.
- Valses for piano four-hands, Op. 8 - for two people playing one piano.
- Valses Mélancoliques and Valses Mignonnes - solo pieces for intermediate piano.
- Voix du Printemps - for piano four-hands.
Writings
Marie Jaëll also wrote several books about her research and teaching methods:
- Le toucher, enseignement du piano … basé sur la physiologie (Paris, 1895)
- La musique et la psychophysiologie (Paris, 1896)
- Le mécanisme du toucher (Paris, 1897)
- Les rythmes du regard et la dissociation des doigts (Paris, 1901)
- L’intelligence et le rythme dans les mouvements artistiques (Paris, 1904)
- Un nouvel état de conscience: la coloration des sensations tactiles (Paris, 1910)
- La résonance du toucher et la topographie des pulpes (Paris, 1912)
- Nouvel enseignement musical et manuel basé sur la découverte des boussoles tonales (Paris, 1922)
- Le toucher musical par l’éducation de la main (Paris, 1927)
- La main et la pensée musicale (Paris, 1927)
See also
In Spanish: Marie Jaëll para niños
