Henri Collet (; 5 November 1885 – 23 November 1951) was a French

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

music critic ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mus ...

who lived in Paris.

Biography

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 ...

, Collet first studied at the Conservatory of Music at

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

before going to

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

to study Spanish literature with

Ramón Menéndez Pidal Ramón Menéndez Pidal (; 13 March 1869 – 14 November 1968) was a Spanish philologist and historian."Ramon Menendez Pidal", ''Almanac of Famous People'' (2011) ''Biography in Context'', Gale, Detroit He worked extensively on the history of t ...

and composition with

Felipe Pedrell Felip Pedrell Sabaté (Spanish: Felipe) (19 February 1841 – 19 August 1922) was a Catalan composer, guitarist and musicologist. Life Pedrell was born in Tortosa (Catalonia), and sang as a boy soprano at Tortosa Cathedral from age 9, where he ...

and Federico Olmeda. Later, teachers in Paris included

Déodat de Séverac Marie-Joseph Alexandre Déodat de Séverac (; 20 July 1872 – 24 March 1921) was a French composer. Life Séverac was born in Saint-Félix-de-Caraman, Haute-Garonne. He descended from a noble family, profoundly influenced by the musical trad ...

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers ...

and

Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first hal ...

. In 1907, he gave his first public recitals as a pianist in

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of t ...

and Madrid. In 1913, he earned his doctorate at the university of Bordeaux with a study about musical mysticism in sixteenth-century Spain. Besides composing and writing, Collet taught at the Institut d'études hispaniques and later at the

Collège Chaptal In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...

. He received a number of awards including a silver medal from the ''Faculté de lettres'' of the university of Bordeaux (1908), the Prix Pierre Aubry (1913), and the composition prize of the city of Paris for his stage work ''La Chèvre d'or'' (1936).

Works

His music is marked by his admiration for Spanish culture – a result of his studies and travels over many years on Spain. In France, he contributed to the reputation of Spanish composers including Albéniz, Granados, Mompou, Nin and Turina. Today his music is seldom performed. Collet is best remembered for his two 1920 articles in ''Comoedia''"La Musique chez soi (XII): Un livre de Rimsky et un livre de Cocteau – Les Cinq russes, les Six français et Erik Satie", ''Comoedia'', 16 January 1920, p. 2; "La Musique chez soi (XIII): Les 'Six' français: Darius Milhaud, Louis Durey, Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc et Germaine Tailleferre", ''Comoedia'', 23 January 1920, p. 2. in which he coined the term

Les Six "Les Six" () is a name given to a group of six composers, five of them French and one Swiss, who lived and worked in Montparnasse. The name, inspired by Mily Balakirev's '' The Five'', originates in two 1920 articles by critic Henri Collet in '' ...

to designate a group of young composers at the

Conservatoire de Paris 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 ...

Selected works

Stage * ''Le Cabaret espagnol'', ballet (1918) * ''Godefroy'', "bouffonnerie musicale" in 1 act, Op. 81 * ''Clavelitos'' (Danses gitanes), ballet, Op. 87 (1928) * ''Cervantes à Alger'', opera (1930) * ''Los toreros'', ballet-pantomime in 1 act, 7 scenes (1932) * ''La Chèvre d'or'', lyrical comedy (opera) (1936) * ''El alcalde de Zalamea'', opera (1946) Orchestral * ''Burgos'', "poème" for violin and orchestra, Op. 30 (1912) * ''Rapsodie Castillane'' for viola and orchestra (1923) * ''Symphonie de l'Alhambra'' (1947) * ''Concerto flamenco No. 1'' for piano and orchestra (1946) * ''Concerto flamenco No. 2'' for violin and orchestra (1947) Chamber * ''Musique espagnole'' for violin and piano * ''Primavera'', berceuse for violin and piano (1921) * ''Sonate Castillane'' for violin and piano (1921) * ''Trio Castillan'' for violin, cello and piano (1925) * ''Castellanas'', "suite espaganole" for string quartet and piano, Op. 32 * ''Briviesca'', poem for guitar, Op. 67 Piano * ''El escorial'', Poème symphonique, Op. 22 * ''Chants de Castille'', Series I (1920) * ''Chants de Castille'', Series II, Op. 42 (1922) * ''Danzas castellanas'', Op.75 (1925) * ''Alma española'', Dance Music from Spain, Opp. 111–185 Vocal * ''Cinq poèmes de Francis Jammes'', Opp. 17–21 (1920) * ''Quatre paysages'' for voice and piano, Opp. 56–59 * ''Siete canciones populares de Burgos'', Op. 80

Bibliography

* Chr. Le Bordays: "Henri Collet (1883–1951): Le Compositeur", in: ''Revue internationale de musique française'', 26 June 1988, p. 99–110. * Jacinthe Harbec, Nicole Paiement: ''Catalogue des oeuvres de Henri Collet'' (Montréal: Éditions St-Martin, 1998). .

External links

References