Gabriel Pierné

Henri Constant Gabriel Pierné (16 August 1863–17 July 1937) was a French composer, conductor, and organist.

Biography

Gabriel Pierné was born in Metz in 1863. His family moved to Paris to escape the Franco-Prussian War. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, gaining first prizes for solfège, piano, organ, counterpoint and fugue. He won the French Prix de Rome in 1882, with his cantata Edith. His teachers included Antoine François Marmontel, Albert Lavignac, Émile Durand, César Franck (for the organ) and Jules Massenet (for composition).

He succeeded César Franck as organist at Saint Clotilde Basilica in Paris from 1890 to 1898. He himself was succeeded by another distinguished Franck pupil, Charles Tournemire. Associated for many years with Édouard Colonne's concert series, the Concerts Colonne, from 1903, Pierné became chief conductor of this series in 1910.

His most notable early performance was the world premiere of Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, at the Ballets Russes, Paris, on 25 June 1910. He remained in the post until 1933 (when Paul Paray took over his duties).

He died in Ploujean, Finistère, in 1937.

Music

Pierné wrote several operas and choral and symphonic pieces, as well as a good deal of chamber music. His most famous composition is probably the oratorio La Croisade des Enfants. Also notable are such shorter works as his March of the Little Lead Soldiers, which once enjoyed substantial popularity (not only in France) as an encore; the comparably popular Marche des petits Faunes is from his ballet Cydalise et le Chèvre-pied. His chamber work, Introduction et variations sur une ronde populaire, for saxophone quartet is a standard in saxophone quartet repertoire.

His discovery and promotion of the work of Ernest Fanelli in 1912 led to a controversy over the origins of impressionist music.

Honours

He received the French Légion d'honneur in 1900. He became member of the Academie des Beaux Arts in 1924. The Square Gabriel Pierné in Paris is named for him.

Selected compositions

Orchestral works

Serenade for Strings
Trois pièces formant suite de concert, 1883
Suite No. 1, 1883
Envois de Rome (Suite – Ouverture – Les Elfes), ca. 1885
Fantaisie-ballet, for piano and orchestra, 1885
Piano concerto, Op. 12, 1886
Scherzo-caprice, for piano and orchestra, 1890
Ballet de cour, 1901
Concertstück, for harp and orchestra, 1903
Poème symphonique, for piano and orchestra, 1903
Two suites from the incidental music for Ramuntcho, 1910
Paysages franciscains, Op. 43, 1920
Fantasie basques, for harp and orchestra, 1927
Divertissement sur un thème pastoral, Op. 49, 1932
Gulliver au pays de Lilliput, 1935
Viennoise, suite, Op. 49bis, 1935

Works for band

Marche des petits soldats de plomb (March of the Little Lead Soldiers)
Marche solennelle (1899) (dedicated to Gustave Wettge)
Petit Gavotte et Farandole
Ramuntcho

Operas

La coupe enchantée, 1895
Vendée (Drame lyrique), 1897
La fille de Tabarin (opéra comique), 1901
On ne badine pas avec l'amour (opéra comique), 1910
Sophie Arnould (opéra comique), 1927
Fragonard, 1934

Ballets

Le Collier de Saphir, 1891
Les joyeuses commères de Paris, 1892
Bouton-d'or, 1895
Salome, 1895 (premier starring Loie Fuller at the Comedie-Parisienne, Paris March 4 1895 closed 27 April.
Cydalise et le chèvre-pied, 1923
Impressions de music-hall, 1927
Giration, 1934
Images, 1935