![Ernestfanelli](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Ernestfanelli.jpg)
Ernest Fanelli (29 June 1860 – 24 November 1917) was a French composer of Italian descent who is known for his works which have been considered as precursing
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
. He gained renown when his
symphonic poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...
''Thèbes'' premiered in Paris, a work incorporating elements associated with music ahead of its time, such as unique
harmonies
In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...
,
extended chord
In music, extended chords are certain chords (built from thirds) or triads with notes ''extended'', or added, beyond the seventh. Ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords are extended chords. The thirteenth is the farthest extension diatonical ...
s, and
polytonality Polytonality (also polyharmony) is the musical use of more than one key simultaneously. Bitonality is the use of only two different keys at the same time. Polyvalence or polyvalency is the use of more than one harmonic function, from the same key ...
.
Fanelli was born in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
to Italian parents and started studying music at the age of 10. He earned a living playing
timpani
Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...
and
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
, eventually composing seriously when he was 22, although he abandoned the activity in 1894. Upon applying to work as a copyist for
Gabriel Pierné
Henri Constant Gabriel Pierné (16 August 1863 – 17 July 1937) was a French composer, conductor, pianist and organist.
Biography
Gabriel Pierné was born in Metz. His family moved to Paris, after Metz and part of Lorraine were annexed to Germ ...
in 1912, his music—a manuscript of ''Thèbes'', composed in 1883—astonished the latter, and a performance led to wide publicity and critical assessment of Fanelli's music and of the roots of the Impressionist style, especially that of
Claude Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
. Fanelli lived in poverty and struggled to support his family. He died in 1917 in Paris.
His ''oeuvre'' includes orchestral works, 32 orchestrally-accompanied songs, a few chamber works and a three-act
opera buffa
''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramm ...
. Most of his works are of long duration, which may have discouraged their performance, as may their
modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
.
Dark humor
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
is a common theme in some compositions, and he often used full orchestras with a large
brass section
The brass section of the orchestra, concert band, and jazz ensemble consist of brass instruments, and is one of the main sections in all three ensembles. The British-style brass band contains only brass and percussion instruments.
They contain ...
.
George Antheil
George Johann Carl Antheil (; July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author, and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the modern sounds – musical, industrial, and mechanical – of t ...
asserted that Fanelli was "one of the greatest inventors and musical
iconclasts of all time" but bemoaned that he "discovered the nuclei of a new movement, but he failed to discover that movement itself".
Life
Ernest Fanelli was born on 29 June 1860 in Paris to a family which emigrated from
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
, Italy; his father was a bank clerk. He began studying music aged 10, eventually enrolling at the
Paris Conservatoire
The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...
. After refusing to attend the classes of a teacher he disliked, Fanelli was expelled from the conservatoire, following which he earned his income by playing
timpani
Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...
for small orchestras. In 1876, he was re-admitted to the conservatoire and studied composition with the French composer
Léo Delibes
Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (; 21 February 1836 – 16 January 1891) was a French Romantic composer, best known for his ballets and operas. His works include the ballets ''Coppélia'' (1870) and '' Sylvia'' (1876) and the opera ''Lakm ...
. A balance between working and studying proved arduous, and Fanelli progressed slowly; he later quit due to financial issues. From then on, he made a living playing percussion and piano and studied musical scores to improve his technical proficiency. At the age of 22, Fanelli started composing seriously, producing various orchestral and chamber pieces. Unsuccessful in securing their performance, he worked as a copyist and
music engraver
Music engraving is the art of drawing music notation at high quality for the purpose of mechanical reproduction. The term ''music copying'' is almost equivalent—though ''music engraving'' implies a higher degree of skill and quality, usually f ...
and resigned from composition in 1894.
In 1912, Fanelli applied to work as a copyist for the composer and conductor
Gabriel Pierné
Henri Constant Gabriel Pierné (16 August 1863 – 17 July 1937) was a French composer, conductor, pianist and organist.
Biography
Gabriel Pierné was born in Metz. His family moved to Paris, after Metz and part of Lorraine were annexed to Germ ...
. The latter received a neatly written manuscript by Fanelli, of which the musical content greatly impressed him. It was the manuscript of Fanelli's
symphonic poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...
''Thèbes'', the first part of ''Tableaux Symphoniques'', which he said was composed 29 years prior. A stunned Pierné remarked that the piece is "astonishingly modern considering the time when he began to write". He quickly arranged a performance of ''Thèbes'' with the
Colonne Orchestra, which he conducted on 17 March 1912. It was a triumphant success, although it didn't convince Fanelli to return to composition. There were performances of ''Impressions pastorales'' on 23 February 1913 and ''Fête dans le palais du Pharaon'' (the second set of ''Tableaux Symphoniques'') on 30 May, conducted by Pierné respectively. After this, Fanelli fell into obscurity and was struggling to support his family.
Judith Gautier
Judith Gautier (25 August 1845, Paris – 26 December 1917) was a French poet, translator and historical novelist, the daughter of Théophile Gautier and Ernesta Grisi, sister of the noted singer and ballet dancer Carlotta Grisi.
She was mar ...
and her father
Théophile had supported him financially, convinced that he would be considered one of the great composers. He died in Paris on 24 November 1917.
Works
Fanelli stopped composing in 1894, and in the period between that and meeting Pierné in 1912, he was void of any musical ideas, presumably owing to his financial situation. Most of Fanelli's compositions are long in duration—the ''Impressions pastorales'', for example, requires 3 hours, and the orchestrally-accompanied songs being described as unusually long. The music critic
Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi
Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi (2 October 1877 – 1 February 1944) was a French-born music critic and musicologist of Greek descent who was an English citizen and resident from 1914 onwards. He often promoted Russian composers, particularly Modes ...
argues that this discouraged performances of his works, but that it highlights Fanelli's capability of "abundant invention" without redundancy. Judith Gautier believed that this was due to the modernism in Fanelli's works. He often displayed
dark humor
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
in his compositions. For instance, in the lyric work ''L'Effroi du soleil'' ("Fear of the sun"), the executioner runs after a severed head that bounced from the scaffold, only to confuse it with the setting sun.
Orchestral
The musicologist William Rosar notes that
wind band
A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion famil ...
timbres appealed to Fanelli, who in some orchestral compositions used
sarrusophone
The sarrusophones are a family of metal double reed conical bore woodwind instruments patented and first manufactured by Pierre-Louis Gautrot in 1856. Gautrot named the sarrusophone after French bandmaster Pierre-Auguste Sarrus (1813–1876), ...
s and
saxhorn
The saxhorn is a family of valved brass instruments that have conical bores and deep cup-shaped mouthpieces. The saxhorn family was developed by Adolphe Sax, who is also known for creating the saxophone family. The sound of the saxhorn has a ...
s. He also often used full orchestras with a large
brass section
The brass section of the orchestra, concert band, and jazz ensemble consist of brass instruments, and is one of the main sections in all three ensembles. The British-style brass band contains only brass and percussion instruments.
They contain ...
. In an article about Fanelli works,
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
wrote that the modernism in Fanelli's orchestral compositions such as ''L'Effroi du Soleil'' and ''Suite rabelaisienne'' would have "made
Berlioz turn pale". ''Suite rabelaisienne'' is based on three chapters from
François Rabelais
François Rabelais ( , , ; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553) was a French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He is primarily known as a writer of satire, of the grotesque, and of bawdy jokes and ...
's ''
Gargantua and Pantagruel
''The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel'' (french: La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel) is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais, telling the adventures of two giants, Gargantua ( , ) and his son Pantagruel ...
''.
''Impressions pastorales'' is a symphonic suite of 22 short movements, written in 1890, which premiered on 30 May 1913 with Pierné as conductor. Calvocoressi characterized the work's content as being in "flagrant contradiction" to Impressionism but that it "reveals in M. Fanelli a touch of romantic spirit". He further commented that Fanelli wanted publicity through a later, more modern work and not ''Thèbes'', surmising that ''Impressions pastorales'' was a possible candidate.
''Tableaux Symphoniques''
One of Fanelli's earliest works is also his only published work, ''Thèbes'' (1883), from the first set of ''Tableaux Symphoniques'' ("Symphonic pictures"). ''Tableaux Symphoniques'' (1882–1886) contains two sets of symphonic poems—''Thèbes'' and ''Fête dans le palais du Pharaon''—based on
Théophile Gautier
Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic.
While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rem ...
's 1858 novel ''Le Roman de La Momie'' (''Romance of the Mummy''), a story set in
ancient Egypt. Fanelli quotes the novel in his manuscript and dedicated the work to Gautier's daughter Judith. Calvocoressi compares the
oriental
The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the ...
style of ''Thèbes'' to that of
Alexander Borodin
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin ( rus, link=no, Александр Порфирьевич Бородин, Aleksandr Porfir’yevich Borodin , p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr pɐrˈfʲi rʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bərɐˈdʲin, a=RU-Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin.ogg, ...
.
''Thèbes'' is the piece that raised interest in the composer in the Parisian press following its 1912 performance. It utilizes harmonic and technical features which are characteristic of
Impressionist music
Impressionism in music was a movement among various composers in Western classical music (mainly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries) whose music focuses on mood and atmosphere, "conveying the moods and emotions aroused by the subject ...
, including unique
harmonies
In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...
and
extended chord
In music, extended chords are certain chords (built from thirds) or triads with notes ''extended'', or added, beyond the seventh. Ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords are extended chords. The thirteenth is the farthest extension diatonical ...
s,
polytonality Polytonality (also polyharmony) is the musical use of more than one key simultaneously. Bitonality is the use of only two different keys at the same time. Polyvalence or polyvalency is the use of more than one harmonic function, from the same key ...
,
complex time signatures, and
whole-tone scale
In music, a whole-tone scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole tone. In twelve-tone equal temperament, there are only two complementary whole-tone scales, both six-note or ''hexatonic'' s ...
s; Adriano acclaimed "perhaps the first example in French music history in which sound and instrumental colour become principal means of musical expression", adding that Fanelli departed from
absolute music
Absolute music (sometimes abstract music) is music that is not explicitly 'about' anything; in contrast to program music, it is non- representational.M. C. Horowitz (ed.), ''New Dictionary of the History of Ideas'', , vol.1, p. 5 The idea of abs ...
and "tone-painting" characteristic of
Romantic music
Romantic music is a stylistic movement in Western Classical music associated with the period of the 19th century commonly referred to as the Romantic era (or Romantic period). It is closely related to the broader concept of Romanticism—the ...
. In a review of the 1912 performance,
Maurice Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
criticized ''Thèbes'', perceiving it as having overloaded textures and effects that lasted too long. He remained unimpressed by Fanelli's novelties which some saw as a precursor to
Claude Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
's Impressionism, maintaining that these novelties were already utilized by past composers, including
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
,
Alexander Dargomyzhsky
Alexander Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky ( rus, link=no, Александр Сергеевич Даргомыжский, Aleksandr Sergeyevich Dargomyzhskiy., ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪdʑ dərɡɐˈmɨʂskʲɪj, Ru-Aleksandr-Sergeevich- ...
, and
Félicien David
Félicien-César David (13 April 1810 – 29 August 1876) was a French composer.
Biography
Félicien David was born in Cadenet, and began to study music at the age of five under his father, whose death when the boy was six left him an impoverish ...
. Ravel was impressed with "the most picturesque orchestration" that Fanelli created but decried the Colonne Orchestra's performance, feeling that they did not do it justice. Ravel opined that Fanelli's Impressionism differed from newer composers, stating that it stemmed from Berlioz rather than Liszt or Russian composers. The musicologist Jean d'Udine did not consider ''Tableaux Symphoniques'' a masterwork, but praised it as being highly modern, harmonically and
formally, emphasizing Fanelli's genius with regards to him composing the piece at such a young age. Calvocoressi lauded Fanelli's ingenuity, but had reservations about how innovative ''Thèbes'' truly was, writing "In this respect M. Fanelli has shown himself a real precursor, even if his music does not resemble actual Impressionism any more than it resembles the French music of the early 'eighties".
Chamber
''L'ane'' ("The donkey") is a
string quintet
A string quintet is a musical composition for five string players. As an extension to the string quartet (two violins, a viola, and a cello), a string quintet includes a fifth string instrument, usually a second viola (a so-called "viola quintet" ...
composed in 1894 and is Fanelli's last work. Its sorrow reflects his hardships. According to Calvocoressi, he also composed a
piano quintet
In classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly a string quartet (i.e., two violins, viola, and cello). The term also refers to the group of musicians that plays a pian ...
which was privately performed in 1892.
Reputation
The American composer
George Antheil
George Johann Carl Antheil (; July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author, and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the modern sounds – musical, industrial, and mechanical – of t ...
asserted that Fanelli was "one of the greatest inventors and musical
iconclasts of all time" but bemoaned that he "discovered the nuclei of a new movement, but he failed to discover that movement itself". He had visited Fanelli's widowed wife and tricked her into believing that he was a music critic willing to write about her deceased husband. Antheil gained permission to analyze his scores and wrote:
I soon discovered that Constantine von Sternberg had been right, at least in one regard: the works of Fanelli ''were'' pure " Afternoon of a faun" or " Daphnis and Chloë," at least in technique, and they predated the Debussy-Ravel-Satie
Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conse ...
works by many years. ''But,'' as I also soon discovered, they were not as talented as the works of the two slightly younger men, although they had had the advantage of being "firsts."
A 1918 issue of ''The Monthly Musical Record'' contained an obituary of Fanelli, writing that "exaggerated reports were circulated about a neglected genius, etc., but the music was simply sincere and expressive, and was soon forgotten". Debussy called him "a composer with an acute sense of musical
ornamentation
An ornament is something used for decoration.
Ornament may also refer to:
Decoration
*Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts
*Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals that appear to serve on ...
, dragged towards such an extreme need of minute description, making him lose his sense of direction". The musicologists
Jacques-Gabriel Prod'homme and Marguerite Barton compare the distance between Fanelli's influence on French music and Debussy's as the distance between
Heinrich Marschner
Heinrich August Marschner (16 August 1795 – 14 December 1861) was the most important composer of German opera between Weber and Wagner. 's influence on opera and
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's.
Notes
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fanelli, Ernest
1860 births
1917 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century French composers
19th-century French male musicians
20th-century French musicians
20th-century French male musicians
Conservatoire de Paris alumni
French percussionists
French male classical composers
French people of Italian descent
French Romantic composers
Impressionist composers
Music copyists
Musicians from Paris
Pupils of Léo Delibes
Timpanists