Joseph Canteloube

Marie -Joseph Canteloube de Malaret ( born October 21, 1879 in Annonay, Ardèche, † November 4, 1957 in Grigny ), named Joseph Canteloube, was a French composer and musicologist. The "de Malaret " he added his name to as a sign of pride in his home in the Südauvergne.

Life

Canteloube was born in central France in the department of Ardèche in Annonay. The Auvergne is known for its fertile soil, the Massif Central, its extinct volcanoes and their vast, dense forests.

All his life he worked on the original music and the folk songs of his native region. In 1900, he left his homeland and studied in Paris piano with Amelie Doetzer, a pupil of Chopin and composition with Vincent d' Indy - which he felt connected, since his family owned a country estate in the Ardèche - at the Schola Cantorum in Paris.

The first Canteloube composition ( Colloque Sentimental ) for voice and string quartet dates from 1903. Within a very short time he became a renowned composer. His works have been performed at established concert events by Édouard Colonne, Charles Lamoureux, Jules Pasdeloup and in the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. Between 1910 and 1913 he wrote his opera Le Mas as a testimony of his attachment to the Massif Central.

In 1925, Canteloube founded in Paris an organization called la bourree as a focal point for those interested in Auvergne and Auvergnians ( residents of the Auvergne ) in Paris, so as to present the culture and the nature of the Auvergne.

As an adult he returned, still fascinated by the music of the rural population, which he had learned as a child and he felt connected to, back in his home region of Auvergne to collect songs. He moved through the villages of his homeland, from farm to farm and over the pastures and settled songs, lyrics and music present. It is the music of farmers, shepherds and farm workers, which once dominated the region. However, he also collected music from other regions of France, the Alsace and the Languedoc, but also in Spain, such as Catalonia or the Basque Country. This material he edited the anthology as des chants populaires francais or the famous Chants d' Auvergne in various works and collections.

In 1941, the politically naive Canteloube met with the government Pétain in Vichy. He wrote in the nationalist newspaper L' Action Française and he and his works were heard during this period in various radio programs. The radio seemed to him the ideal medium for the dissemination of "his" beloved folk music to be and for that he was abusing politically for the ideology of the Vichy regime. He suggested publicly, " to clean low music " on the radio from his opinion.

In his later years he published as a musicologist in 1949 a biography of Vincent d' Indy and in 1950 a biography of his friend Déodat de Séverac.

However, the celebrity Canteloube, who was also known as the " Bard of the Auvergne " (le bard d' Auvergne ), is based almost entirely on arrangements which compiled in five volumes of the Chants d' Auvergne ( Songs of the Auvergne ) in a period from 1923 were published until 1955. He retained the charm and simple beauty of these folk songs in own piano and orchestral arrangements, which belong to the repertoire of many concert halls.

One of the most famous and arguably most beautiful songs of this collection, the Bailero, he wrote down when he overheard the singing of two shepherds who were zusangen over widely separated mountain pastures. The content of the songs deal with rural issues, such as herding sheep, harvesting and processing of agricultural products, but of course also with universal themes of human feelings, such as love. Canteloube wrote his songs reflected both in the ancient dialect of the region ( langue d' Oc, see also Piedmont) and in a modern French translation. In its own special way he breathed the old songs of life and gave them such a presence that the listener feels slightly set back centuries in the Auvergne.

Services

In his long work he created both musical as well as musicological works. His musical work includes self-composed works, as well as facility arranged songs. His compositions further comprises a number of chamber music pieces, orchestral works, concertos and two operas. Canteloube is considered one of the best connoisseurs of the French folk song, which he explored not only scientifically, but also by appropriate edits made ​​more widely accessible.

Works

Most important musical works

• Colloque sentimental (1903 ), chamber music (vo, 2Vln, vla, vc )
• Dans la montagne: suite (1904 ), chamber music ( vln, p)
• Chants populaires de Haute- Auvergne et Skin Querey (1907 ), folk song arrangements (vo, p)
• Eglogue d' automne (1909 ), song (vo, orch )
• Vers la Princesse Lointaine (1910-1911), for orchestra
• Le Mas (1910-1913), opera
• Au printemps (1913 ), song (vo, orch )
• Tryptique (1914), song (vo, orch )
• L' arada six pieces (1918-1922), Song (vo, p)
• As catalans (1923 ) Folk Song Arrangements ( 6vo )
• Chants d' Auvergne (1923-1930; according to some sources 1923-1955), folk song arrangements (vo, orch )
• Cinq chants paysans (1927 ), folk song arrangements (chorus )
• Chants religieux de Haute- Auvergne (1929 ), folk song arrangements (vo, p)
• Nouveaux chants paysans (1931 ), folk song arrangements (chorus )
• Trois esquisses symphoniques " Laurier " (1931 ), for orchestra
• Vercingetorix (1930-1932), opera
• Chansons du XVIII siècle Gallant (1933 ), Arrangement ( 4vo, p ( clvsn ) )
• Pièces françaises (1934-1935), concert (p, orch )
• Chansons gallant deuxième série (1935 ), Arrangement ( vo, p)
• Chants paysans troisième série (1935 ), folk song arrangements (chorus )
• Poèmes (1937 ), Concerto ( vln, orch )
• Chants des terroirs Français (1939 ), folk song arrangements (chorus )
• Chants de France, deuxième série (1939-1940), folk song arrangements (chorus, orch )
• Anthology of Chants Populaires Français (1939-1943), folk song arrangements
• Chansonier alsacien (1945 ), folk song arrangements (chorus )
• Rustiques (1946 ), chamber music (whether cl, BSSn )
• Chants de lcAngoumais (1947 ), folk song arrangements (vo, p)
• Chants du Languedoc (1947 ), folk song arrangements (vo, p)
• Noëls populaires français, Folk Song Arrangements (1948 ) (vo, p)

Important musicological work

• Biography of Vincent d' Indy in 1949
• Biography of Déodat de Séverac 1950