Prince Edmond Melchior Jean Marie de Polignac (19 April 1834 - 8 August 1901) was a French composer. Events 1012 - Martyrdom of Alphege in Greenwich London. 1529 - At the Second Diet of Speyer Year 1834 ( MDCCCXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Events 1220 - Sweden is defeated by Estonian tribes in the Battle of Lihula. Year 1901 ( MCMI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. A composer (literally meaning 'one who puts together' is a person who creates Music, usually in the medium of notation, for Interpretation and Performance
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Heritage, prison sentence
Edmond was a descendant of one of the more illustrious families of France. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. His father Auguste Jules Armand Marie, Prince de Polignac (1780-1847) was the Minister of State in the Restoration government of King Charles X, and was the author of the Thirty Ordinances in 1830, which revoked the Constitution, suspended freedom of the press, and gave the king extraordinary powers, including absolute power in the name of "insuring the safety of the state". Jules Auguste Armand Marie Prince de Polignac ( Versailles, 14 May 1780 Paris, 2 March 1847 was a French Statesman. Charles X (9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836 ruled as King of France and Navarre from 20 May 1824 until the French Revolution of 1830, when he abdicated July Ordinances, also known as Ordinances of Saint-Cloud, were a series of decrees set forth by Charles X and Jules Armand de Polignac, the chief minister For the game see 1830 (board game. Year 1830 ( MDCCCXXX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display
The document resulted in the development of an insurgency and resulted in the "July Revolution" that ended the reign of the Bourbons. The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution, saw the overthrow of King Charles X, the French The House of Bourbon is an important European Royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty. The king fled the country, and his cabinet members tried to. Jules de Polignac was captured, tried, convicted and condemned in December 1830 to le mort civile: life imprisonment and a complete loss of civil rights. He was incarcerated in the fortress at Ham. Ham is the Thigh and Rump of Pork, cut from the Haunch of a Pig or Boar.
Marriages, Arts-Writing-Acting, and Homosexuality
Jules de Polignac, who by his first wife Barbara Campbell had had one daughter and one son, by his second wife Mary Charlotte Parkyns (1792-1864), had, in 1830, two sons, and a daughter was born as he began his sentence. Despite the harsh sentence, visitation was allowed, and two more sons were born to Jules while he was imprisoned. Edmond was his last child, born on 19 April 1834. Events 1012 - Martyrdom of Alphege in Greenwich London. 1529 - At the Second Diet of Speyer Year 1834 ( MDCCCXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common
As his father was legally non-existent, Edmond was listed on his acte de naissance (birth certificate) as the son of 'the Prince called Marquis de Chalançon, presently on a trip'. In 1836 King Louis-Philippe granted a petition for the release of the imprisoned cabinet members on the grounds of their declining physical condition. Jules was released from jail with the proviso that he leave Paris permanently. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city The family moved to Bavaria, near Landau, where Jules was granted a second Princely title by King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and built a chateau named "Wildthurn". Ludwig I (also rendered in English as Louis I) ( August 25 1786 in Strasbourg &ndash February 29, 1868 in Nice Edmond received a classical education there, including instruction in Greek, Latin, modern languages, dancing and horseback riding. English, French and German were all spoken regularly in the household. Early on Edmond demonstrated an inclination toward performance and the creative arts, writing plays and comedies for the children's theatre built by his father. His elder brothers mocked him for his frailness and his lack of athleticism; as a sort of recompense, his parents permitted him to take lessons in piano and music theory.
In November 1845 the family returned to France, moving to St.-Germain-en-Laye. For treaties with this name see Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (disambiguation Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a commune in the western Two years later, on 30 March 1847, Jules de Polignac died. Events 240 BC - 1st recorded Perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. Year 1847 ( MDCCCXLVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common The remaining family moved to Paris in the rue de Berri, and Edmond continued his education with a preceptor in the Faubourg St. -Germain. Edmond by now had determined that he would be a composer, though this dismayed his mother, who felt music was an acceptable hobby for an aristocrat, but not an acceptable profession.
Alphonse Thys was engaged to teach Edmond counterpoint, composition, and solfège. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris and studied harmony under Henri Reber. His pre-existing frailty, the rigors of the conservatory curriculum, his chronic gastrointestinal problems, and the internal pressures of his concealed and, perhaps, mistrusted homosexuality led to periods of great musical productivity alternating with stretches of illness and inactivity. In 1860 Alfred Beaumont, director of the Opéra-Comique asked Edmond to supply the music for a libretto by Roger de Beauvoir. Year 1860 ( MDCCLX) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year starting The théâtre national de l’Opéra-Comique ( National Opéra Comic Theatre) is an opera company and Opera house in Paris. Roger de Beauvoir ( November 8, 1806 - August 27, 1866) was the Pen name of French Romantic novelist and He composed an opéra bouffe, Un Baiser de Duchesse, but Beaumont left the Opéra-Comique before it could be produced. Depression, and family pressure to marry, ensued.
In 1861 Edmond and his brother Alphonse were founding members of the Cercle de l'Union Artistique, formed to promote performances of great music in venues other than theatres. Year 1861 ( MDCCCLXI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Besides the aristocrats, the club included Gounod, Berlioz, Auber, and Catulle Mendès. Biography Gounod was born in Paris, the son of a pianist mother and a draftsman father Daniel François Esprit Auber ( January 29, 1782 – May 13, 1871) was a French Composer. Catulle Mendès ( 22 May 1841 – 8 February 1909) was a French Poet and Man of letters. The Cercle supported Wagner after Tannhäuser's resounding failure in its 1861 Paris Opera debut. Tannhäuser ( Middle High German: Tanhûser; died after 1265 was a German Minnesänger and Poet. Opéra National de Paris is the leading Opera company of France.
Edmond began writing for the amateur male choruses (orphéons) which had begun to proliferate in France, revealing a gift for choral composition, and winning first prizes in competitions for orpheonic works in 1865 and 1867. He also began to write for chamber ensembles. Opera, though, was the path to fame, and when the Ministry of Fine Arts mounted a contest in conjunction with the World's Fair in August 1867 for a new opera on the libretto La Coupe du Roi de Thulé, Edmond, and forty-one other composers, entered. Expo (short for "exposition" and also known as World Fair and World's Fair) is the name given to various large public exhibitions held since the The winner, Eugène-Émile Diaz de la Péna, was a student of the chairman of the judging jury. The losers included Jules Massenet in second place and Georges Bizet in seventh place. Jules (Émile Frédéric Massenet ( May 12, 1842 – August 13, 1912) was a French composer best known for his Operas Georges Bizet (25 October 1838 – 3 June 1875 was a French Composer and Pianist of the Romantic era Edmond's score, ranked fifth, had been rated lowly because its orchestration - calling for two bass clarinets - was considered horribly complicated. The bass clarinet is a Musical instrument of the Clarinet family
Edmond joined other clubs for their social status: the Jockey Club, the most exclusive, and the Cercle de la rue Royale, a venue for idling, smoking cigars, discussing politics and the stock market. The indolence of the Cercle de la rue Royal, and of Edmond, was caught in James Tissot's 1868 painting Le Balcon du Cercle de la rue Royale. James Jacques Joseph Tissot ( October 15, 1836 &ndash August 8, 1902) was a French painter. He buried himself in mystic obsessions and enthusiasms.
In 1875 a new friend entered his life, Comte Robert de Montesquiou, a beautiful and intelligent man twenty-one years his junior. Marie Joseph Robert Anatole comte de Montesquiou-Fezensac ( March 7 1855, Paris - December 11 1921, Menton) was a French They shared many interests, and it is possible they began a sexual relationship at that time. In his later years, Montesquiou used his wit to shield himself from sincere emotional interaction. He is remembered as a model for Des Esseintes in Huysman's A Rebours, and the Baron de Charlus in Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (maʁsɛl pʁust (10 July 1871 &ndash 18 November 1922 was a French Novelist Essayist and Critic In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu is a semi-autobiographical Through Montesquiou's circle, Polignac made the acquaintance of the Elisabeth, comtesse Greffulhe and of Gabriel Fauré, and became a member of the Société Nationale de Musique, where his compositions were performed alongside those of Chausson, Debussy, and Fauré. Princess Marie Anatole Louise Elisabeth de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay ( 11 July 1860 &ndash 21 August 1952) best known by her married name Gabriel Urbain Fauré ( 12 May 1845 &ndash 4 November 1924) was a French Composer, Organist, Pianist Amédée-Ernest Chausson ( January 20, 1855 &ndash June 10, 1899) was a French romantic Composer who died just Achille-Claude Debussy (aʃil klod dəbysi (August 22 1862 &ndash March 25 1918 was a French Composer. Gabriel Urbain Fauré ( 12 May 1845 &ndash 4 November 1924) was a French Composer, Organist, Pianist
In 1879 Polignac independently "discovered" the octatonic scale (it had been used in Russian folk music for centuries). An octatonic scale is an eight-note musical scale Among the most famous of these is a scale in which the notes ascend in alternating intervals of a whole step and a half step He used it for his three-part Passion oratorio, Échos de l'Orient judaïque, and in his incidental music for Salammbô. This article describes the Christian Passion For other meanings see Passion. These works, though played, proved puzzling to audiences and critics.
Meeting and marriage with Winnaretta Singer
By 1892, Polignac, inept with money and impoverished through investments in a series of get-rich-quick schemes, was destitute; his nephews helped him with loans, but noted that desperate action was needed. The solution they suggested was marriage to a woman of appropriate means. Polignac discussed the matter with Montesquiou, and Montesquiou with his cousin Élisabeth Greffulhe, and out of these conversations the name of Winnaretta Eugenie Singer, daughter of Isaac Singer, the sewing machine tycoon, with her marriage to Prince Louis de Scey-Montbéliard lately annulled, arose. Winnaretta Singer Princess Edmond de Polignac ( 8 January 1865 - 26 November 1943) was an important musical Patron and heir to the Isaac Merritt Singer ( October 27, 1811 – July 23, 1875) was an Inventor, Actor, and Entrepreneur. A sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch Fabric or other material together with Thread. Singer's social status could be improved by marrying a prince, even a poor one. And the arrangement would have other benefits: Winnaretta was lesbian and not sexually interested in men at all. A lesbian is a Woman who is romantically or sexually attracted only to other women She was intimately interested in music, however, something the two did have in common. Polignac asked the Comtesse Greffulhe to sound out Madame Singer on the subject of a mariage blanc (unconsummated marriage), in which each partner would have their own bed but would share artistic interests. Montesquiou, who collaborated with Winnaretta on some artistic projects, asked her to speak with Madame Greffulhe, and there the arguments were reviewed; her social position, compromised by divorce, would be improved by an alliance with one of the oldest and most distinguished aristocratic families in France; with the thirty-one year age difference, and the predilections of the bride and groom, Winnaretta would be free to lead her personal life as she wished, with no sexual demands from Edmond.
The advantages clear, a friendship and affection grew. In November 1893, Edmond proposed marriage to Winnaretta, and she accepted, a year after the idea had first been broached. Events in November All Saints' Day (formerly All Hallows Day a Christian holy day is celebrated on November 1, the day after Halloween Year 1893 ( MDCCCXCIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common On 15 December 1893 the couple were married by the Abbé de Broglie in the Chapelle des Carmes. Events 533 - Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Year 1893 ( MDCCCXCIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The union received the blessings of Pope Leo XIII. Pope Leo XIII ( March 2, 1810 – July 20, 1903) born Count Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci, was the 256th Pope Montesquiou, who felt Edmond owed him a debt of gratitude for effecting this marriage of convenience, felt slighted when Edmond was not sufficiently effulgent, and the friendship was irrevocably broken.
The marriage freed Edmond to create, and Winnaretta was happy to promote his creations. The happier they became, the more scurrilous the stories Montesquieu would spread about them. Winnaretta became close with Edmond's niece, Armande de Polignac, who was also a composer and musician. Winnaretta became a patron in public musical circles. With her husband, she hosted a music salon in her renovated atelier. With a vaulted two story ceiling, 12 x 10 meters, and housing a Cavaillé-Coll organ and two grand pianos, the room became a haven for Paris's musical and artistic avant-garde. Aristide Cavaillé-Coll ( 4 February 1811 &ndash 13 October 1899) was a French Organ builder. The pipe organ is a Musical instrument that produces sound when pressurized air (wind is driven through a series of pipes, controlled by a keyboard The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers
On Tuesdays, her organ evenings were especially sought after, and featured the great performers of the day, including Widor, Gigout, Fauré, Vierne, and Guilmant. Charles-Marie Jean Albert Widor (February 21 1844 &ndash March 12 1937 was a French organist, Composer and teacher Eugène Gigout ( 23 March 1844 &ndash 9 December 1925) was a French Organist and a composer of European late-romantic music Gabriel Urbain Fauré ( 12 May 1845 &ndash 4 November 1924) was a French Composer, Organist, Pianist Louis Victor Jules Vierne was a renowned French organist and Composer. Félix-Alexandre Guilmant ( 12 March 1837 - 29 March 1911) was a French Organist and Composer. In 1894, Marcel Proust was introduced to the Polignacs through Montesquiou; as of 1895, he was a regular in the Polignac salon, often attending in the company of his current love interest and mutual friend of the Polignacs, composer Reynaldo Hahn. Much of Proust's musical "education" took place in the Polignac salon, and his letters to Edmond de Polignac reveal a profound admiration of the Prince's music.
In 1894, Winnaretta produced a performance of Edmond's octatonic compositions at a charity event for the benefit of an orphanage. In 1901, she mounted another "all-Polignac" concert at the Conservatoire.
Through his friendship with Vincent d'Indy, Edmond became involved with the founding of the Schola Cantorum Armande de Polignac was among the school's first students. Shortly before his death, Polignac also collaborated with dancer Isadora Duncan.
During the Dreyfus Affair in 1894, Edmond and his brother Camille were staunch Dreyfusards, while most of the rest of the Polignacs, and a remarkable number of musicians, were Anti-Dreyfus. The Dreyfus Affair a Political scandal which divided France from the 1890s to the early 1900s Year 1894 ( MDCCCXCIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common
The time remaining to the couples' marriage was spent in touring Europe, acquiring a palazzo in Venice, and promoting Edmond's compositions. Edmond died of a febrile illness, on 8 August 1901. Events 1220 - Sweden is defeated by Estonian tribes in the Battle of Lihula. Year 1901 ( MCMI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting He was interred in the Singer crypt in Torquay. His tomb is inscribed "Edmond-Melchior-Jean-Marie, Prince de Polignac, Born 1834, Died 1901, Composer of Music"
After Polignac's death, the Princesse de Polignac became an important musical patron in her own right. She established a prize in music in her husband's name, and commissioned Igor Stravinsky's Renard, Manuel de Falla's El retablo de maese Pedro,Erik Satie's Socrate, Francis Poulenc's Two-Piano and Organ Concertos and Germaine Tailleferre's Piano Concerto. Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский) ( &ndash 6 April 1971 was a Russian born Composer, considered by many to Manuel de Falla y Matheu ( November 23, 1876 &ndash November 14, 1946) was a Spanish Composer of classical music Alfred Éric Leslie Satie ( Honfleur, 17 May 1866 – Paris, 1 July 1925) was a French Composer and See also, Rhône-Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (fʀɑ̃sis ʒɑ̃ maʀsɛl pulɛ̃k January 7, 1899 – January 30, Germaine Tailleferre ( April 19, 1892 - November 7, 1983) was a French Composer and the only female member of the famous She also subsidized individuals and organizations, such as Nadia Boulanger, Clara Haskil, Rubinstein, Horowitz, Ethel Smyth, Adela Maddison, the Ballets Russes, l'Opéra de Paris, and l'Orchestre Symphonique de Paris. Nadia Boulanger (September 16 1887 &ndash October 22 1979 was an influential French Composer, conductor, and Music professor Clara Haskil ( January 7, 1895 - December 7, 1960) was a Jewish Swiss classical Pianist, born in Romania Arthur Rubinstein KBE ( January 28 1887 &ndash December 20 1982) was a Polish - American pianist who is widely Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz (ולדימיר הורוביץ Владимир Самойлович Горовиц Vladimir Samojlovič Gorovits; Володимир Самійлович Dame Ethel Mary Smyth, DBE ( 23 April 1858 &ndash 8 May 1944) was an English composer and a leader of the Women's See also Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, The Ballets Russes ( French for The Russian Ballets) was a Ballet company established Opéra National de Paris is the leading Opera company of France. Until 1939, the Polignac salon was the foremost gathering-place for the artistic elite in Paris and Venice, including Jean Cocteau, Monet, Diaghilev, and Colette. Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (5 July 1889 &ndash 11 October 1963 was a French Poet, Novelist, Dramatist, Designer, Boxing Claude Monet ( French klod mɔnɛ also known as Oscar-Claude Monet or Claude Oscar Monet (14 November 1840 &ndash 5 December 1926 was a founder Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев / Sergei Pavlovich Dyagilev) also referred to as Serge, ( March 31, Colette was the pen name of the French Novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette ( January 28 1873 &ndash August 3
References
- Kahan, Sylvia (2003). Music's Modern Muse: A Life of Winnaretta Singer, Princesse de Polignac. Rochester, N. Y. : University of Rochester Press. ISBN 1-58046-133-6.
- Kahan, Sylvia. “Quatre Lettres inédites de Proust au Prince de Polignac,” with Nathalie Mauriac-Dyer. Bulletin Marcel Proust 53 (December 2003), 9-21.
- Kahan, Sylvia. “‘Rien de la tonalité usuelle’: Edmond de Polignac and the Octatonic Scale in Nineteenth-Century France,” 19th-Century Music 29. 2 (Fall 2005), 97-120.
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