HTIEKFR wrote:I found this very short score by Henry Février
From Grove:
Février, Henry
(b Paris, 2 Oct 1875; d Paris, 8 July 1957). French composer. He studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire with Massenet and Fauré and privately with Messager, of whom he later wrote a biography (André Messager: mon maître, mon ami, 1948). His early compositions were small-scale, but he later turned almost exclusively to opera composition. Many of the operas (e.g. Le roi aveugle, 1906; L’île désenchantée, 1925) are set in remote, other-worldly locations, and the redemption of mankind through love is a constant theme, manifest most noticeably in La damnation de Blanchefleur (1920). He is probably best known for Monna Vanna (1909), a setting of a play by Maeterlinck, for whose work he had a particular affection. Lucien Fugère played a leading role in Carmosine (1913), and Gismonda (1919, Chicago) opened with Mary Garden in the title role.
In his musical dramas, Février favoured a continuous dramatic flow, uninterrupted by clearly defined arias and choruses. The love duet between the main characters is, however, an exception and in works such as Le roi aveugle takes up what appears to be a disproportionate amount of music. His use of such ‘set pieces’, plus a limited use of leitmotif, and the nature of his plots exhibit the influence of Wagner to a high degree, although his contemporaries saw in Monna Vanna the influence of Massenet and Italian verismo. Besides opera, he also left sonatas for violin and piano and cello and piano which attracted some attention in their time. His songs reflect his development as a composer: from the conventional early pieces, they gradually absorb the various musical languages of the 20th century, including a surface orientalism. He had considerable success with patriotic songs written during and just after World War I. During the late 1920s he was active as a composer of music for silent films, mostly scored for orchestra or theatre orchestra with piano-conductor. The later music, such as the Estampes japonaises for piano, is skilfully written, with a melodic strength and simplicity and an occasional leaning towards pastiche.
Chbr and solo inst: Sonata, vn, pf (1901); Pièces mélodiques, vc, pf (1904); Int, hp, 1905, arr. pf (1907); Petite suite d’Antan, pf (1905), orchd 1909; Pf Trio (1907); Allemande, pf (1908); Cortège nuptiale, pf/org (1909); Légende, vn, pf (1909); 3 esquisses, pf (1910); Guirlandes, pf (1913); Stella (Prélude), pf (1913); L’heure sentimentale, pf (1914); La bonne journée, pf (1920); La fée des songes, solo vn, str, perc, pf (c1924); Bourée, pf, 1926; Un bruit de rames, pf (1926); La fleur merveilleuse, pf (1926); Frivolités, pf (1926); Remember, pf (1926); Sur le lac sacré, pf (1926);
Impromptu, pf (1927); Sonata, vc, pf (1928); Estampes japonaises (ballet), pf (1938)
Regards
Fred
