French Piano Music

[didi]

Here is Opus 4 by Chaminade Caprice-Etude.

Chaminade C. Caprice Op.4.pdf

Brillantissimo

Thanks for these early works!

Didi

[Jean-Séb]

Hm! Chaminade's Op. 01 - Two Mazurkas was posted in the Women Composers thread. Are there two Op.1's? Lots of thanks for all of these early works!

First of all, huge thanks for this rare early Chaminade.
The numbers of first opuses (opera?) are not clear.
In IMSLP, the list is :
Op.1 - Etude in A flat major for Piano
Op.1 - 2 Mazurkas for Piano
Op.2 - Presto for Piano
Op.3 - Scherzo-Etude for Piano
Op.4 - Six Etudes artistiques for Piano
Op.5 - Menuet for Piano or Orchestra
Op.6 - Berceuse for Piano
Op.7 - Barcarolle for Piano
Op.8 - Chaconne for Piano
It is to be observed that the two mazurkas seem to be the real first published works, at Marcel Colombier, in 1869, but do not bear yet any opus number.
Then Chaminade turned to Hamelle, and the gavotte op.8 at IMSLP has the front page with the first works published there. It coincides with the list of IMSLP as from op.5, but they mention first without any number a group of five études :
Première étude dedicated to Le Couppey
Presto dedicated to Savard
Troisième étude dedicated to Marsick
Caprice-Etude dédicated to Marmontel
Etude Symphonique dedicated to Paderewski.
The first four of these five etudes have been generously shared by Peter. The first one bears a printed op. 1, and the following ones have a manuscript op. 2, 3, 4. It may be that the whole collection share the same opus number, whatever it is.
The Etude symphonique must be the one listed under op.28 in IMSLP, published at Enoch and dedicated to Paderewski.
Both IMSLP and another site mention as opus 4 a collection of six etudes artistiques. They are listed as :
1.„Presto”
2.„Etude Printanière”
3.„Caprice-Etude”
4.„Scherzo-Etude”
5.„Chaconne”
6.„Etude Symphonique”
It seems that some of these may be the same as those of the first collection.
The second site also lists :
„2me Etude (Presto)”, op. 2, Paris: Hamelle, 1912.
Scherzo-Etude” op. 3, Paris: Enoch, 1912.
It seems from other pages that the Etude printanière of op.4 is the same as the étude op.1 and the presto is indeed the same as presto op. 2.
The chaconne might be the same as op.8.

My provisional conclusion is that :
The two mazurkas should be classified WoO.
The number op.4 for Six études artistiques is erroneous, although used by Hamelle. It is superimposed to the original op. 4 which should be the Caprice-Etude, which is indeed one of the six etudes.
Opus 1, 2, 3, 4 should be the ones given by Peter.

[Alex]

Thank you so much for the thorough analysis, Jean-Seb! I completely agree that the Two Mazurka's can probably be considered WoO. I'm thinking those two pieces may have been published prematurely as an Op.1 and then Miss C realized that they were not a worthwhile beginning for her worklist. It would also make sense that they were indeed written when she was 12, because that's how I felt when I played them . Thanks for sharing these again, Jim.

[musiclife217]

Thank you very, very much for the rare Chaminade !! I also should be able to plug more holes in her opus collection and as a sincere thanks I provide her Op. 66 - Studio, which I believe is also not available anywhere online currently. As an aside, I find it curious as an Italian that the "Etude" is not more often titled "Studio," and yet here we have a French composer adhering to the traditional Italian nomenclature. Rare indeed!

Chaminade, Cecile-Op. 66-Studio.pdf

[musiclife217]

00000165.jpg

Here is also what the Berlin catalogue lists as the pieces (with correct opus numbers) from the 6 Etudes Artistiques collection....

[musiclife217]

Does anyone know of the opera 14-17, which seem to be a gap in her oeuvre - same for op. 72? There are only a few piano pieces now missing ....

[Jim Faston]

Thanks for the kind words regarding the Debussy volume I recently posted. Here's a similar volume of Ravel:

Maurice Ravel Masterpieces.pdf

[parag]

Thanks Jim for these lovely collections.

Regards,
Parag

[Jean-Séb]

Thank you Jim and thank you Musiclife for these nice additions.

[Jim Faston]

Albert Alain's Nocturne. My B&W version of scans from Gallica.

Alain, Albert_Nocturne.pdf

Have a listen to Phillip Sears' recording on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzXP2pzwHS4
Thanks to PS for providing his recordings (1,720 as of this writing!) of rare treasures.