Lucien Cailliet
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Lucien Cailliet (May 22, 1891 – January 3, 1985) was a French-American composer, conductor, arranger and clarinetist.


Biography

Cailliet was born in 1891 at Dampierre-sur-Moivre, in northern France. He studied at several French music conservatories, most notably the Conservatory in Dijon, where he graduated at age 22. He also received a degree from the National Conservatory in Paris. He became a bandmaster in the French Army and, in 1915, toured the United States with the French Army Band, including performances at the
Panama–Pacific International Exposition The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely s ...
. In 1919 or 1920, Cailliet emigrated to the US and joined the Philadelphia Orchestra, as a clarinetist, saxophonist, and staff arranger, where he worked closely with
Leopold Stokowski Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and his appear ...
. Around this time he also founded the Cherry Hill Wind Symphony, which would later become the Wind Symphony of Southern New Jersey. In 1923, at age 32, he became an American citizen, and attended graduate school at the Philadelphia Musical Academy. Cailliet served as Associate Conductor of The Allentown Band (Pennsylvania) beginning in 1934, during which time he conducted many of his own arrangements. After receiving his Doctor of Music Degree in 1937, he moved to California to teach at the
University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...
. After seven years there, he decided to devote his time to guest conducting and composing film scores. In the 1950s, he lived in
Kenosha, Wisconsin Kenosha () is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the seat of Kenosha County. Per the 2020 census, the population was 99,986 which made it the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, Kenos ...
where he worked for the musical instrument producer G. Leblanc Company and conducted the Kenosha Symphony Orchestra.Biography of Lucien Cailliet at IMDb
/ref> Lucien Cailliet died at Woodland Hills in 1985, at age 93.


Compositions and Arrangements

Cailliet became known for his many faithful arrangements of orchestral music for wind ensemble. His arrangements of ''Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral'' (from
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 opera
Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wolf ...
) and ''
Finlandia ''Finlandia'', Op. 26, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in 1899 and revised in 1900. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian ...
'' (a symphonic poem by
Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...
) have become staples of the
wind ensemble 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 ...
repertory. In 1933, Cailliet performed
Reynaldo Hahn Reynaldo Hahn (; 9 August 1874 – 28 January 1947) was a Venezuelan-born French composer, conductor, music critic, and singer. He is best known for his songs – '' mélodies'' – of which he wrote more than 100. Hahn was born in Caracas ...
's ''Sarabande et Theme'' on bass clarinet with Stokowski's Orchestra. In 1937 he made a new arrangement of
Modest Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky ( rus, link=no, Модест Петрович Мусоргский, Modest Petrovich Musorgsky , mɐˈdɛst pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈmusərkskʲɪj, Ru-Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky version.ogg; – ) was a Russian compo ...
's piano suite ''
Pictures at an Exhibition ''Pictures at an Exhibition'', french: Tableaux d'une exposition, link=no is a suite of ten piano pieces, plus a recurring, varied Promenade theme, composed by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in 1874. The piece is Mussorgsky's most famous pia ...
'' for full orchestra. In 1938, he wrote "Variations on the Theme Pop! Goes the Weasel", an arrangement that has remained a favorite of bands and orchestras. He also orchestrated three piano pieces of Sergei Rachmaninoff: the Serenade No. 5 from '' Morceaux de fantaisie'' Opus 3, the Prelude No. 5 in G minor from the 10 preludes of Opus 23, and the Prelude No. 5 in G major from the 13 preludes of Opus 32. He also made several arrangements for clarinet choir that have become staples of the repertoire. Cailliet also enjoyed a prolific career creating music for films. He contributed to nearly fifty films as either composer or arranger. Among the best known of these films are ''
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon ''She Wore a Yellow Ribbon'' is a 1949 American Technicolor Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. It is the second film in Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy", along with '' Fort Apache'' (1948) and '' Rio Grande'' (1950). With a b ...
'', ''
The Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments ( Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...
'' (for which Elmer Bernstein wrote the score), and ''
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral The gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a thirty-second shootout between law enforcement officer, lawmen led by Virgil Earp and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cochise County Cowboys, Cowboys that occurred at about 3: ...
.'' His most famous orchestration is the virtuoso piece for piano and orchestra ''Midnight on the Cliffs'' by the pianist and composer
Leonard Pennario Leonard Pennario (July 9, 1924 – June 27, 2008) was an American classical pianist and composer. He was born in Buffalo, New York, and grew up in Los Angeles, attending Los Angeles High School remaining in L.A. for his entire career. He firs ...
, for the Andrew L. Stone film ''Julie'' (1956).


See also

* Cailliet Method - A method for playing the
saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...
.


References


External links

* French Wikipedia article on Lucien Cailliet, with list of compositions, arrangements, and film scores.
n French N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cailliet, Lucien 1891 births 1985 deaths Musicians from Dijon American male composers Bass clarinetists American clarinetists American music arrangers French emigrants to the United States University of Southern California faculty Distinguished Service to Music Medal recipients 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians