Hélène-Gabrielle Fleury-Roy (21 June 1876 – 18 April 1957) was a French composer and the first woman to gain a prize at the prestigious

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

for composition.

Background

Fleury was born in Carlepont, Department Oise, France. She studied with Henri Dallier,

Charles-Marie Widor Charles-Marie-Jean-Albert Widor (21 February 1844 – 12 March 1937) was a French organist, composer and teacher of the late Romantic era. As a composer he is known for his ten organ symphonies, especially the toccata of his fifth organ sympho ...

, and

André Gedalge André Gedalge (27 December 1856 – 5 February 1926) was a French composer and teacher. Biography André Gedalge was born at 75 rue des Saints-Pères in Paris where he first worked as a bookseller and editor, specialising in ''livres de prix' ...

at the

Paris Conservatory The Conservatoire de Paris (), or 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 Jean Ja ...

. In the late 1890s, she lived in La Ferte-sous-Jouarre (Seine-et-Marne). She sent compositions to the Journal Musical Santa Cecilia

Reims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...

Composition Competition, and won in 1899 with ''Symphony Allegro'' for organ. Fleury-Roy was the first woman admitted in 1903 to the

competition. On her first attempt at the prize, she failed the

fugue In classical music, a fugue (, from Latin ''fuga'', meaning "flight" or "escape""Fugue, ''n''." ''The Concise Oxford English Dictionary'', eleventh edition, revised, ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson (Oxford and New York: Oxford Universit ...

test, but the next year she tried again and succeeded with the cantata ''Medora'' (libretto: Édouard Adenis) for two male and one female voice. She was awarded a third prize in the Grand Prix. Hélène Fleury-Roy became a piano teacher after marrying her husband Louis Roy, a professor of mechanics at the university of Toulouse, in about 1906, and resided in Paris. In 1928, she became a professor at the Conservatory of Toulouse, teaching harmony, composition and piano. Her notable students at the conservatory included the conductor Louis Auriacombe (the future founder of the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra), composer

Charles Chaynes Charles Augustin Chaynes (11 July 1925 – 24 June 2016) was a French composer. Biography Chaynes was born in Toulouse in 1925. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Darius Milhaud and Jean Rivier. In 1951 he won the Prix de Rome wi ...

, and violinist Pierre Dukan. She died in

Saint-Gaudens, Haute-Garonne Saint-Gaudens (; ) is a commune and a sub-prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. Saint-Gaudens lies at an altitude of on a ledge overlooking the valley of the Garonne. It faces the Pyrenees and is a natural crossr ...

aged 80.

Selected works

Fleury-Roy's works include songs, piano, violin, cello and organ pieces and a piano quartet. * ''Arabesque'' for piano * ''Bourree Gavotte'' for piano * ''Canzonetta for piano'' * ''Espérance'' piano * ''Fleur des champs'' for piano * ''La Nuit'' for piano * ''Minuetto'' for piano * ''Valse Caprice'' for piano * ''Coeur virginal'', song * ''Mattutina'', song * ''Brise du soir'' for violin * ''Trois pièces faciles'' for violin * ''Fantaisie'' for viola (or violin) and piano, Op. 18 * ''Rêverie'' for cello * ''Quatuor'' for piano and strings * ''Pastorale'' for organ * ''Grand Fantaise de concert''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fleury-Roy, Helene 1876 births 1957 deaths 19th-century French classical composers 20th-century French classical composers Composers for pipe organ French music educators French women classical composers Pupils of Charles-Marie Widor French women music educators