# Maurice Emmanuel



## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

A pupil of Delibes at the Paris Conservatoire, _Maurice Emmanuel_ (1862-1938) also studied a wide range of subjects at the _Sorbonne_ and the _Ecole du Louvre_. The disapproval expressed by Delibes of an early composition led him to study with Bizet's friend Ernest Guiraud. Having specialised in a study of ancient Greek dance, he was eventually appointed to the Conservatoire as teacher of the history of music, a position he held for 25 years. His interest in earlier music is reflected in his modal musical language.

*Stage works.* Emmanuel's interest in Greek drama is apparent from his two operas based on Aeschylus, _Prométhée enchaîné_ and _Salamine_.

*Orchestral music.* There is a literary basis to Emmanuel's two symphonies, as there is to his _Le poème du Rhône_, derived from the poet Mistral.

*Chamber music.* Emmanuel's chamber music includes a trio for flute, clarinet and piano, a string quartet and the early cello sonata that earned such condemnation from Delibes.

*Piano music.* Piano music by Emmanuel consists chiefly of six sonatinas, the earlier with programmatic titles and the fourth based on Hindu modes.

―Naxos​
_A few more notes about Emmanuel:_

If you are new to this composer's works, I would strongly reccomend the aforementioned piano sonatinas, which are masterpieces in the genre and should be in the common repertoire. As YouTube's _Medtnaculus_ says about Emmanuel's first two sonatinas, "_It is barely believable that... [they] date from 1893 and 1897, so in advance are they of their day -more so in fact than what Debussy was producing -with regard to harmony, free polymodality, the emancipation of dissonance, boldness in the rhythmic and instrumental language, formal fantasy, with rigour being in no way excluded._"

Here are links to all six sonatinas in chronological order:
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_ (first three)
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After hearing his piano music, I was eager to look into Maurice Emmanuel's work in other genres, but found nothing much on IMSLP. Thankfully, I was able to locate these selections on YouTube (haven't given them a listen yet):

Sonata for Clarinet, Flute, and Piano, Op. 11 -_



_Symphony No.1, Op. 18 -_



_Symphony No. 2, "_Bretonne_," Op. 25 -_



__Le poème du Rhône_, Op. 30 -_



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He seems like an interesting composer whom I would like to dig into.

Regards,
Portamento


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Thank you very much for sharing this information.


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## Medtnaculus (May 13, 2015)

I adore those 6 sonatines. It is indeed hard to believe the first two were written in the 19th century!


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