Étienne Méhul

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Etienne Henri (or Nicolas) Méhul (June 24, 1763 - October 18, 1817), was a French composer.

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Life and Work

He was born at Givet in Ardennes. His father being too poor to give him a regular musical education, his first lessons came from a poor blind organist of Givet; yet such was his aptitude that, when ten years old, he was appointed organist of the convent of the Récollets. In 1775 a German musician and organist, Wilhelm Hauser, was engaged for the monastery of Lavaldieu, a few miles from Givet, and Méhul became his occasional pupil.

In 1778 he was taken to Paris by a military officer, and placed himself under Edelmann, a harpsichord player. His first attempts at instrumental composition in 1781 did not succeed, and he therefore turned his attention to sacred and dramatic music. Christoph Willibald Gluck gave him advice in his studies.

After various disappointments during his efforts for six years to obtain, at the Grand Opéra, a production of his Cora et Alonzo, he offered to the Opéra Comique his Euphrosine et Coradin, which, being accepted and performed in 1790, at once fixed his reputation. His opera, Stratonice, was also received with enthusiasm in 1792 (years later, Berlioz was an admirer of that piece, especially praising the overture). After several less successful productions, his Adrien appeared, and his fame was further increased by his three best works, La jeunesse d'Henri IV, Uthal and Joseph, the finest of the series. Uthal was written for an orchestra without violins.

He was known to take on various students, however he preferred his fifth years as they were the ones he could get closest to and influence them and himself through his work.

Méhul held a post as one of the four inspectors of the Conservatoire de Paris, though this office made him feel continually the insufficiency of his early studies. Timoléon, Ariodant (1799) and Bion followed. Ariodant was praised by E.T.A. Hoffmann when it was staged in Berlin in 1816. Another opera Epicure was composed by Méhul, and Cherubini jointly. Méhul's next opera, dedicated to the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, L'irato, ou l'emporté (1801), failed.

Besides forty-two operas, Méhul composed a number of songs for the festivals of the republic (often commissioned by the emperor Napoleon), cantatas, and five symphonies in the years 1797 and 1808 to 1810.The First Symphony was revived in one of Felix Mendelssohn's concerts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1838 and 1846 to an audience including Robert Schumann, who was impressed by the piece. In all four movements there are some stylistic similarities with Beethoven's Symphony No.5 (including the dissonant, furious mood of the first movement and the string pizzicatos in the third), which were also noted by Schumann. Actually at this date only Beethoven's Symphonies No.1 and 2 (1799/1800 and 1802) had been performed in France and both Beethoven's Fifth and Mehul's First were composed in the same year, 1808, were published in the following, 1809. In his mature symphonies, Mehul continued the path Haydn (the Paris Symphonies, 1785-86, for example), Mozart (Symphony No. 40, K.550, 1788) had taken, two composers who enjoyed great popularity in France in the early 19th century. A fifth symphony was never completed - "as disillusionment and tuberculosis took their toll", as David Charlton pointed out. The Symphony No.3 and 4 was only rediscovered by Charlton in 1979.

Méhul's health gave way from an affection of the chest, and he died in Paris in 1817. His grave is at the cemetery of Père Lachaise, near the grave of another French composer, his contemporary François-Joseph Gossec. His music influenced numerous composers, among them Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner.

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Works

  • For Piano
    • 3 Sonates for Piano, op. 1 (1783)
    • 3 Sonates for Piano, op. 2 (1788)
  • Orchestral Music
    • Ouverture burlesque (1794)
    • Ouverture pour instruments à vent (1794)
    • Ouverture, La Chasse du Jeune Henri (1797)
    • Symphony in C (1797, only parts are surviving)
    • Symphony No.1 in G minor (1808/09)
    • Symphony No.2 in D major (1808/09)
    • Symphony No.3 in C major (1809)
    • Symphony No.4 in E major (1810)
    • Symphony No.5 (1810, only a first movement survives)
  • Vocal Music
    • Chant du départ (1794)
    • Chant des Victoires (1794)
    • Messe Solennelle pour soli, chœurs et orgue (1804)
    • Chant du retour pour la Grande Armée (1808)
    • Chant lyrique pour l'inauguration de la statue de Napoléon (1811)
  • Ballets
    • Le Jugement de Pâris (1793)
    • La Dansomanie (1800)
    • Les Amazones ou la Fondation de Thèbes.
  • Operas
    • Euphrosine et Corradin ou le Tyran corrigé (1790)
    • Alonzo et Cora (1791)
    • Stratonice (1792)
    • Le jeune Henri (1797)
    • Ariodant (1799)
    • Adrien (1799)
    • L'Irato ou l'Emporté (1801)
    • Une Folie (1802)
    • Le trésor supposé ou Le danger d'écouter aux portes (1802)
    • Joanna (1802)
    • Héléna (1803)
    • Les deux Aveugles de Tolède (1806)
    • Uthal (1806)
    • Joseph (1807)
    • Gabrielle d'Estrées ou Les Amours d'Henri IV (1806)
    • La Journée aux aventures (1816)
    • Valentine de Milan (1822)
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Discography

  • The Complete Symphonies (Symphonies No.1-No.4). Lisbon Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra, Michel Swierczewski (including the Ouvertures La Chasse du jeune Henri and Le Trésor supposé), Nimbus Records, 1992
  • Symphonies Nos 1 and 2. Les Musicien du Louvre, Marc Minkowski, Erato/Apex, 2003
  • Overtures. Orchestre de Bretagne/ Steafn Sanderling, Asv, 2003
  • Stratonice. Petibon/Beuron/Lescoart/Daymond, Corona Coloniensis, Cappella Coloniensis, William Christie, Erato 1996
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Reference

  • This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition{{#if:{{{article|}}}| article {{#if:{{{url|}}}|[{{{url|}}}}} "{{{article}}}"{{#if:{{{url|}}}|]}}{{#if:{{{author|}}}| by {{{author}}}}}}}, a publication now in the public domain.
  • Booklet notes by David Charlton to the recording "The Complete Symphonies" (Nimbus, 1989)
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External links

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See also

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Contemporary composers

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