CHABRIER, Emmanuel
b Amhert, France, 18 January 1841
d Paris, 13 September 1894, aged fifty-three

His father, a successful barrister, determined that Emmanuel should study law, with music as a hobby. He learnt piano from the age of six; two of his early teachers were Spanish, exciting his interest in Spanish music. He studied law in Paris and entered the Ministry of the Interior. He remained a civil servant for eighteen years, but found the leisure to pursue his musical studies. He was over thirty when his first work was published, and nearly forty before he resigned from the Civil Service to devote himself to music and to dabble in painting. He was a great friend of musicians and writers and a patron of artists, including Manet. After ten years of composing he fell into a state of melancholia, and died on the verge of insanity.

1860 (19)

Impromptu in C for piano

1877 (36)

L'Etoile, opera

1879 (38)

Une Education manquée, operetta

1880 (39)

Dix Pieces pittoresques, for piano

1883 (42)

fp España, orchestral rhapsody

Trois valses romantiques, for piano duo

1885 (44)

Habanera, for piano

1886 (45)

Gwendoline, opera

1887 (46)

Le Roi malgré lui, opera

1888 (47)

Marche joyeuse, for orchestra