Jules Massenet
Jules Massenet was born in Montaud in the Loire region of France on May 12, 1842. He entered the Paris Conservatory when he was nine, subsequently winning prizes in fugue and piano playing and, in 1863, the Prix de Rome. Four years later his first opera, La Grand’ Tante, was produced in Paris. During the Franco-Prussian War he was a member of the National Guard. After the war, he achieved recognition as a composer with his incidental music to Les Érynnies, an oratorio Marie Magdaleine, and an opera Le Roi de Lahore. In 1878 he was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts, the youngest man ever to receive this honor, and was appointed professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory. He held the latter post until his death with outstanding distinction. His most significant operas appeared between 1880 and 1900, and included Hérodiade (1881), Manon (1884), Le Cid (1885), Werther (1892), Thaïs (1894) and Sapho (1897). He died in Paris on August 13, 1912.
A style that had lyrical charm, tender feelings, and poetic content placed Massenet with the foremost French composers for the lyric theater. The same qualities are found to a large degree in his instrumental compositions, and endow them with their immense audience appeal. He had a vein of tenderness that was his uniquely, often contrasting this with striking passion and intensity. A master of many different moods and emotions, he was able to convey them in music that is suave and polished in the best French tradition.
Alsatian Scenes (Scènes alsaciennes) is one of Massenet’s most popular orchestral compositions. It is the seventh of his suites for orchestra and was written in 1881. For each of its four movements the composer provided an explicit program. About the first movement, “Sunday Morning” (“Dimanche matin”) the composer writes: “I recall with particular delight the Alsatian village Sunday morning at the hour of divine service; the streets deserted, the houses empty except for the elderly ones who sun themselves before their doors. The church is full, and the sacred hymns are heard at intervals in passing.” “The Tavern” (“Au cabaret”) is described as the happy meeting place of his friends “with its little windows framed with lead, garlanded with hops and roses.... ‘Ho, Schmidt, some wine!’ And the songs of the forest rangers going to shooting matches. Oh, the joyous life and the gay companions!” “Under the Linden Trees” (“Sous les tilleuls”) depicts pictorially “the edge of the fields on a Sunday afternoon, the long avenue of linden trees, in the shadow of which, hand in hand, quietly talks a pair of lovers.” The suite ends with “Sunday Evening” (“Dimanche soir: Air alsacien, Retraite française”). “In the market place, what noise, what movement! Everyone at the doorsteps, groups of young gallants in the streets, and dances which embody in rhythm the songs of the country. Eight o’clock! The noise of the drums, the blare of the trumpets—’tis the retreat! The French retreat! And when in the distance the sound of the drum died down, the women called their children in the street, the old men relighted their big old pipes, and to the sounds of violins the dance is joyously recommenced in smaller circles, with couples closer.”
The ballet music for Le Cid is strikingly appealing for its exotic melodies and lambent orchestral colors. This opera, text by Louis Gallet and Edouard Blau, is based on Corneille’s tragedy; its première performance took place in Paris on November 30, 1885. The setting is 12th century Burgos, in Spain, where Rodrigo called Le Cid, or The Conqueror, kills Chimène’s father in a duel. She seeks vengeance but is unable to carry it out because she has fallen in love with him. The ballet music appears in the second scene of the second act. A public square is alive and colorful with dancing crowds, and six dances are performed in rapid succession, some with melodic and rhythmic material derived by Massenet from Spanish folk sources. These are the dances: “Castillane,” a highly rhythmic dance found in the Castille region of Spain; “Andalouse,” a sinuous, gypsy-like dance from Andalusia; “Aragonaise,” a dance popular in the Aragon district; “Aubade,” a gentle lyrical section; “Catalane,” a dance popular in Catalonia; “Madrilène,” a two-part dance from Madrid, the first quiet and introspective, the second dynamic; and “Navarraise,” a dance from Navarre.
The popular “Élégie,” a plangent melody muted in its grief, comes from the incidental music to Les Érynnies with which Massenet first won acclaim in 1873. The play, by Charles Marie Leconte based on Aeschylus, was produced with Massenet’s music at the Odéon in Paris. Here the “Élégie” appeared as “Invocation,” scored for string orchestra. Later on Massenet arranged this section for cello and piano, and it was upon this occasion that he renamed the piece Élégie. It was later on also transcribed for violin and piano, and adapted into a song with lyrics by E. Gallet.
Three other sections from Les Érynnies have almost as much emotional appeal as the Élégie, but in varied moods. The “Entr’acte” is a passionate song for unison violins over a disturbed accompaniment. “Grecian Dance” begins with a vivacious dance tune for two flutes in thirds. A slow dialogue ensues between oboes and clarinets, in which the main subject has an Oriental identity. A fast section brings this movement to a close. “Scène religieuse” is a graceful, at times solemn, minuet in which a solo cello provides the main melody.
The famous opera Manon (1884) has two delightful dance episodes that are particularly well known, a gavotte and a minuet. Manon was based on the famous tale of Abbé Prévost, L’Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut, adapted by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille. Its setting is France in the 18th century, and in the spirit of that place and time Massenet recreated two old-world dances, both of them appearing in the first scene of the third act, during a festival-day celebration in Paris. Before the curtain goes up, the graceful music of the minuet is heard in the orchestra as an entr’acte. After the rise of the curtain, and the appearance of Manon, she expresses her hedonistic philosophy of life in a gavotte (“Obéissons quand leur voix appelle”). This gavotte is often heard in an exclusively instrumental arrangement.
The Phèdre Overture (1876) is another of Massenet’s frequently performed orchestral compositions. The music closely follows the action of the Racine tragedy, in which Phedre—daughter of King Minos and wife of Theseus—falls in love with Theseus’ son, Hippolytus, who fails to respond to her passion. The overture begins in a gloomy mood, forecasting ominously the imminent tragedy awaiting Phedre and Hippolytus. Phedre’s grief over her unreciprocated love is suggested by a passionate subject for clarinet; a second equally passionate melody brings us the picture of Hippolytus sent to his doom by an irate father. Violins in unison now bring us a rapturous melody speaking of Phedre’s love, while a fiery dramatic section that follows tells of the doom awaiting Hippolytus at the hands of Neptune.
Picturesque Scenes (Scènes pittoresques) is the fourth of Massenet’s suites for orchestra, completed in 1873. There are four short, tuneful sections: “March” (“Marche”), “Air de Ballet,” “Angelus” and “Bohemian Festival” (“Fête bohème”). The religious music of the third movement, “Angelus,” with its solemn tolling of bells, is the most popular section of this suite, frequently performed separately from the other movements.
Second only to the “Élégie” in popularity among Massenet’s best-loved melodies is the “Meditation” which comes from the opera Thaïs. This excerpt is an orchestral entr’acte with violin obbligato heard just before the first scene of the second act. The opera, libretto by Louis Gallet based on the novel of Anatole France, describes the degradation of Athanaël, a Cenobite monk, because of his unholy passion for Thaïs, a courtesan. The radiant music of the “Meditation” describes Thaïs’ renunciation of a life of pleasure for one of the spirit.