Name Augusta Holmes Role Composer | Partner Catulle Mendes Education Conservatoire de Paris | |
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Died January 28, 1903, Paris, France | ||
Augusta holm s androm de symphonic poem 1883
Augusta (Mary Anne) Holmès (18 December 1847 – 28 January 1903) was a French composer of Irish descent (her father was from Youghal, Co. Cork). At first she published under the pseudonym Hermann Zenta. In 1871, Holmès became a French citizen and added the accent to her last name. She herself wrote the lyrics to almost all her songs and oratorios, as well as the libretto of the opera La Montagne Noire.
Contents
- Augusta holm s androm de symphonic poem 1883
- Augusta holm s la nuit et l amour 1888
- Biography
- Personal life
- Operas
- Cantatas
- Orchestral works
- Piano music
- Songs Song Collections
- References
Augusta holm s la nuit et l amour 1888
Biography
Holmès was born in Paris. Despite showing talent at the piano, she was not allowed to study at the Paris Conservatoire, but took lessons privately. She developed her piano playing under the tutelage of local pianist Mademoiselle Peyronnet, Versailles' cathedral organist Henri Lambert, and Hyacinthe Klosé. Also, she showed some of her earlier compositions to Franz Liszt. Around 1876, she became a pupil of César Franck, whom she considered her real master. (She led the group of Franck's students who in 1891 commissioned for Franck's tomb a bronze medallion from Auguste Rodin.)
Camille Saint-Saëns wrote of Holmès in the journal Harmonie et Mélodie: "Like children, women have no idea of obstacles, and their willpower breaks all barriers. Mademoiselle Holmès is a woman, an extremist."
For the 1889 celebration of the centennial of the French Revolution, Holmès was commissioned to write the Ode triomphale for the Exposition Universelle, a work requiring about 1,200 musicians. She gained a reputation of being a composer of programme music with political meaning, such as her symphonic poems Irlande and Pologne.
Personal life
Holmès never married, but she cohabited with the poet Catulle Mendès; the couple had five children, including:
Holmès bequeathed most of her musical manuscripts to the Paris Conservatoire.
Operas
Cantatas
Orchestral works
Piano music
Songs, Song Collections
(selective list)