Marie Jaëll (née Trautmann) (17 August 1846 – 4 February 1925) was a French

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

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

pedagogue Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

. Marie Jaëll composed pieces for piano, concertos, quartets, and others, She dedicated her cello concerto to

Jules Delsart Jules Delsart (24 November 1844 – 3 July 1900)MacGregor, "Jules Delsart"Grove Music Online (Subscription Access)/ref> was a 19th-century French cellist and teacher. He is best known for his arrangement for cello and piano of César Franck's V ...

, and was the first pianist to perform all the piano sonatas of

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

in Paris. She did scientific studies of hand techniques in piano playing and attempted to replace traditional drilling with systematic piano methods. Her students included

Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian-German/French polymath. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran minister, Schwei ...

, who studied with her while also studying organ with

Charles-Marie Widor Charles-Marie-Jean-Albert Widor (21 February 1844 – 12 March 1937) was a French organist, composer and teacher of the mid-Romantic era, most notable for his ten organ symphonies. His Toccata from the fifth organ symphony has become one of the ...

in 1898-99. She died in Paris.

Early life and education

Her father was the mayor of

Steinseltz Steinseltz () is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. See also * Communes of the Bas-Rhin department The following is a list of the 514 communes of the Bas-Rhin department of France. The communes coopera ...

in Alsace, and her mother was a lover of the arts. She began piano studies at the age of sixSchmidt-Roger, Lea.
Condensed Introduction to The Life and Work of the French Composer Marie Jaëll
. Accessed Dec. 2014. and by seven, she was studying under piano pedagogues F.B. Hamma and

Ignaz Moscheles Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 179410 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later at Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano at the ...

in Stuttgart. Marie's mother served as her advocate and manager. A year after she began lessons with Hamma and Moscheles, she gave concerts in Germany and Switzerland.Marie Trautmann Jaëll
,
Encyclopedia of World Biography'', Vol. 24
Detroit: Gale, 2005. Accessed Sept. 2014. In 1856, the ten-year-old Marie was introduced to the piano teacher Heinrich Herz at the

Paris Conservatory 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 just four months as an official student at the Conservatory, she won the First Prize of Piano. Her performances were recognized by the public and local newspapers; the ''

Revue et gazette musicale The ' was a weekly musical review founded in 1827 by the Belgian musicologist, teacher and composer François-Joseph Fétis, then working as professor of counterpoint and fugue at the Conservatoire de Paris. It was the first French-language jo ...

'' printed a review on July 27, 1862 that reads: "She marked it he piecewith the seal of her individual nature. Her higher mechanism, her beautiful style, her play deliciously moderate, with an irreproachable purity, an exquisite taste, a lofty elegance, constantly filled the audience with wonder." On August 9, 1866, at twenty years of age, Marie married the Austrian concert pianist,

Alfred Jaëll Alfred Jaëll (5 March 183227 February 1882) was an Austrian pianist. His students included Benjamin Johnson Lang and Samuel Sanford (the eponym of the Sanford Medal). Life He was born in Trieste, then in the Austrian Empire. He studied under Car ...

. She was then known variously as Marie Trautmann, Marie Jaëll, Marie Jaëll Trautmann or Marie Trautmann Jaëll. Alfred was fifteen years older than Marie and had been a student of Chopin. The husband and wife team performed popular pieces, duos, solos, and compositions of their own throughout Europe and Russia. As a pianist, Marie specialized in the music of

Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

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 ...

, and

. They transcribed Beethoven's "Marcia alla Turca Athens Ruins" for piano; the score was successfully published in 1872. Alfred was able to use his success and fame to help Marie meet with various composers and performers throughout their travels. In 1868, Marie met the composer and pianist Franz Liszt. A record of Liszt's comments about Marie survives in an article published in the American Record Guide: " arie Jaëllhas the brains of a philosopher and the fingers of an artist." Liszt introduced Marie to other great composers and performers of the day—for example,

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

and

Anton Rubinstein Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein ( rus, Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн, r=Anton Grigor'evič Rubinštejn; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Sai ...

. By 1871, Marie's compositions began to be published. With the death of her husband in 1881, Marie had the opportunity to study with Liszt in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

, and with

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...

and

César Franck César-Auguste Jean-Guillaume Hubert Franck (; 10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a French Romantic composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher born in modern-day Belgium. He was born in Liège (which at the time of his birth was p ...

in Paris. She also had composition lessons with

and

, who dedicated his Piano Concerto No. 1 and the "Étude en forme de valse" to her. Saint-Saëns thought highly enough of Marie to introduce her to the Society of Music Composers—a great honor for women in those days.

Compositions and reviews

The

New Grove Dictionary of Music ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

states that Marie "composed piano pieces and songs which, though essentially Romantic, reveal an assimilation of the innovations of the time." The American Record Guide lists Marie's compositional approach as "romantic in style, with more flavor of the salon than the concert hall." Marie was well respected, both as a performer and a composer, by her contemporaries. Lea Schmidt-Roger states "Four-handed literature was as much a part of Jaëll's repertory as solo literature. She concertized with duo piano and four-handed pieces from the age of fourteen, and later she and husband Alfred transcribed and performed much of the contemporary four-handed literature." Marie drew inspiration for her piece "Harmonies d’Alsace" from her childhood memories. She wrote pieces for cello, piano, orchestra, quartets, etc. Marie's variety of compositions extended to a symphonic poem, "Ossiane," which was based on the poems of Jean Richepin and Victor Hugo. She wrote a number of vocal pieces and an opera, ''Runea''.

Physiology research and Jaëll Method

After struggling with

tendonitis Tendinopathy, a type of tendon disorder that results in pain, swelling, and impaired function. The pain is typically worse with movement. It most commonly occurs around the shoulder (rotator cuff tendinitis, biceps tendinitis), elbow (tennis elb ...

, Jaëll began to study neuroscience. The strain on her playing and performing led her to research physiology. Jaëll studied a wide variety of subjects pertaining to the functioning of the body, and also ventured into psychology: "She wanted to combine the emotional and spiritual act of creating beautiful music with the physiological aspects of tactile, additive, and visual sensory." Dr.

Charles Féré Charles Samson Féré (13 July 1852 in Auffay – 22 April 1907) was a French physician. He initially studied medicine in Rouen, where he subsequently served at the Hôtel-Dieu under surgeon Achille Flaubert (1813-1882), an older brother of w ...

assisted Jaëll in her research of physiology. Her studies included how music affects the connection between mind and body, as well as how to apply this knowledge to intelligence and sensitivity in teaching music. Liszt's music had such a tremendous influence on Jaëll that she sought to gain as much insight into his methods and techniques as possible. This research and study led to Jaëll creating her own teaching method based on her findings. Jaëll's teaching method was known as the 'Jaëll Method'. Her method was created through a process of trial and error with herself and her students. Jaëll's goal was for her students to feel a deep connection to the piano. An eleven book series on piano technique resulted from her research and experience. Piano pedagogues have since drawn insight into teaching techniques of the hand from her method and books. In fact, her method is still in use today. As a result of her studies, Jaëll was able to compile her extensive research into a technique book entitled ''L'intelligence et le rythme dans les mouvements artistiques.'' This text is used by pianists and piano pedagogues as a reference, specifically with hand position and playing techniques.

List of compositions

* ''Am Grabe eines Kindes'' - 3 choirs. * ''Ce qu'on entend dans l'Enfer, le Purgatoire'' * ''Le Paradis'' - large work for piano. * Concerto en fa - cello and orchestra, dedicated to Jules Delsart. * Concerto en r‚ mineur - piano and orchestra, dedicated to Saint-Saëns (1877) * Concerto en ut mineur - piano and orchestra, dedicated to

Eugen d'Albert Eugen (originally Eugène) Francis Charles d'Albert (10 April 1864 – 3 March 1932) was a Scottish-born pianist and composer. Educated in Britain, d'Albert showed early musical talent and, at the age of seventeen, he won a scholarship to stud ...

(1844) * ''Harmonies d'Alsace'' - orchestra. * Impromptu, 2 Meditations, 6 Petits morceaux, 10 Bagatelles - intermediate pieces for the piano. * ''La Légende des Ours'' - soprano and piano. * ''Les Orientales'' - voice. * ''Ossiane'' - voice and orchestra. * ''Psalm LXV'' - choir in four parts, dedicated to Monsieur Alfred Jaëll, unpublished. * ''Runea'' - opera. * Sonate pour violon. * ''Sphinx'' - for piano, dedicated to Saint-Saëns, published in 1885. * ''Sur la tombe d'un enfant'' - chorus and orchestra. * Valses pour piano á quatre mains, Op. 8 - piano four-hands. * Valses Mélancoliques and Valses Mignonnes - solo pieces for intermediate piano. * ''Voix du Printemps'' - piano four-hands.

Writings

* Le toucher, enseignement du piano … basé sur la physiologie (Paris, 1895) * La musique et la psychophysiologie (Paris, 1896) * Le mécanisme du toucher (Paris, 1897) * Les rythmes du regard et la dissociation des doigts (Paris, 1901) * L’intelligence et le rythme dans les mouvements artistiques (Paris, 1904) * Un nouvel état de conscience: la coloration des sensations tactiles (Paris, 1910) * La résonance du toucher et la topographie des pulpes (Paris, 1912) * Nouvel enseignement musical et manuel basé sur la découverte des boussoles tonales (Paris, 1922) * Le toucher musical par l’éducation de la main (Paris, 1927) * La main et la pensée musicale (Paris, 1927)

References

External links

*
Jaëll, Marie Trautmann
, ''Encyclopedia.com''. Accessed 13 October 2019.
mariejaell.org/wordpress/english/
Website : Association Internationale Marie Jaëll *
www.marie-jaell.info
A website about Marie partly in English *
www.mariejaell-alsace.net
Website : Association Marie Jaëll-Alsace (Strasbourg) *
Catalogues de la Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire (Strasbourg)
Marie Jaëll's archives are in the B.N.U.S. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jaell, Marie 1846 births 1925 deaths People from Bas-Rhin Conservatoire de Paris alumni 19th-century classical composers 20th-century classical composers 19th-century French women classical pianists French Romantic composers French women classical composers 19th-century French composers 20th-century French composers 20th-century women composers 19th-century women composers