Intended by his parents for a more conventional career than that
of a musician, the French composer Emmanuel Chabrier was from
1861 employed in the Ministry of the Interior in Paris, only devoting
himself fully to music from 1880. His compositions include some...
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Intended by his parents for a more conventional career than that
of a musician, the French composer Emmanuel Chabrier was from
1861 employed in the Ministry of the Interior in Paris, only devoting
himself fully to music from 1880. His compositions include some
colourful orchestral compositions and piano music that had a marked
influence on his immediate successors.
Orchestral Music
Chabrier's most popular composition is his Spanish rhapsody España. To this one may add the occasional Joyeuse marche and his Suite pastorale, an arrangement of some of his own piano pieces.
Piano Music
The ten Pièces pittoresques, some of which were orchestrated by Chabrier in his Suite pastorale, are inventive in harmony and melody and attractive in form. They range from a simple landscape, Paysage, to a Menuet pompeux and a final Scherzo-valse.