Cécile Chaminade
Cécile Chaminade was born in Paris on August 8, 1857. Music study took place in Paris with Marsick and Godard among others. In 1875 she launched her career as concert pianist by touring Europe in programs that often included her own compositions. At her American debut, on November 7, 1908, she appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra in a performance of her own Concerstueck. She wrote many other ambitious works including a symphony, two orchestral suites, and ballets. She died in Monte Carlo on April 18, 1944.
Though Chaminade staked her future as composer on her larger, serious works for orchestra and the ballet stage, she is today remembered almost exclusively for her slight morsels of the salon variety. Most of these originated as compositions for the piano; her piano music numbers about two hundred works including arabesques, etudes, impromptus, valse-caprices, and so forth. Automne, a sentimental melody, and Sérénade espagnole, in a pseudo-Spanish style, come from her piano music: Automne from the Concert Etudes, op. 35. It has been transcribed for popular orchestra by Melachrino. Sérénade espagnole has been adapted for violin and piano by Fritz Kreisler. Chaminade’s most popular piece, Scarf Dance, comes from a ballet, Callirhoë, produced in Marseilles in 1888. It is often heard in its original orchestral version and in various transcriptions for solo piano, and solo instrument and piano.