Henri Rabaud
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Henri Benjamin Rabaud (10 November 187311 September 1949) was a French conductor, composer and teacher, who held important posts in the French musical establishment and upheld mainly conservative trends in French music in the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Paris into a musical family, Rabaud was a successful composer, conductor and academic, composer of several well-received works for the opera house and concert hall, conductor of the
Paris Opéra The Paris Opera ( ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be kn ...
and the
Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five (orchestras), Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in ...
, and, for more than twenty years, director of the
Paris Conservatoire 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 ...
.


Life and career


Early years

Rabaud was born in the
8th arrondissement of Paris The 8th arrondissement of Paris (''VIIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, the arrondissement is colloquially referred to as ''le huitième'' (). The ar ...
on 10 November 1873, the son of Hippolyte François Rabaud and his wife Juliette, van Steenkiste. Hippolyte was a leading
cellist The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...
, a professor at the
Paris Conservatoire 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 ...
; his wife was a professional singer. She used her family's stage name, Dorus, familiar from the previous generation which included her father Louis Dorus, a celebrated
flautist The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
, and her aunt, Julie Dorus-Gras, a singer who starred at the
Paris Opéra The Paris Opera ( ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be kn ...
and
Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...
, creating roles in operas by
Berlioz Louis-Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer and conductor. His output includes orchestral works such as the ''Symphonie fantastique'' and ''Harold en Italie, Harold in Italy'' ...
, Meyerbeer, Auber and Halévy.Girardot, Anne and Richard Langham Smith
"Rabaud, Henri"
''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press. Retrieved 12 February 2025
After schooling at the
Lycée Condorcet The Lycée Condorcet () is a secondary school in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. Founded in 1803, it is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inc ...
, Rabaud entered the Conservatoire in 1893, studying with Antonin Taudon (harmony) and André Gedalge and
Jules Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are ''Manon'' (1884 ...
(composition). In 1894 his cantata ''Daphne'' won him the
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 ...
, which gave him a well-subsidised three-year period of study, two-thirds of which were spent at the
French Academy in Rome The French Academy in Rome (, ) is an academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio (Pincian Hill) in Rome, Italy. History The Academy was founded at the Palazzo Capranica in 1666 by Louis XIV under the dire ...
, based at the
Villa Medici The Villa Medici () is a sixteenth-century Italian Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with 7-hectare Italian garden, contiguous with the more extensive Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in the historic ...
. There he came to admire the operas of
Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma, to a family of moderate means, recei ...
, Mascagni and
Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long line of composers, s ...
. In 1899, when he was twenty-six, he came to wider public attention with his
tone poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement (music), movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. T ...
, depicting a well-known episode from Lenau's ''Faust'', a composition that combined the fantastical and the religious. It became the most popular of his works. In July 1901 Rabaud married Marguerite Mathilde Mascart."Henri Benjamin Rabaud"
Ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 12 February 2025
Rabaud's mystical oratorio ''Job'' (1900) enjoyed considerable success, and among his operas ("Marouf, the Cobbler of Cairo") (1914), based on the '' Thousand and One Nights'', was particularly popular. According to ''
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''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 th ...
'', Rabaud here welded together
Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...
ian form and oriental pastiche. From 1914 to 1918 Rabaud was chief conductor at the Paris Opéra. ''Mârouf'' was staged by the
Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...
in New York in 1917, and at the suggestion of its conductor there,
Pierre Monteux Pierre Benjamin Monteux (; 4 April 18751 July 1964) was a French (later American) conductor. After violin and viola studies, and a decade as an orchestral player and occasional conductor, he began to receive regular conducting engagements in 1 ...
, Rabaud wrote a new aria for the star soprano, but the work met with limited success and was dropped from the company's repertoire after a couple of seasons. In 1918, in which year he was elected to the
Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
, Rabaud was appointed musical director of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five (orchestras), Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in ...
. He left after a single season, declining a further year's appointment, as he wished to devote more time to composition. He was succeeded in Boston by Monteux, and returned to Paris.


Paris Conservatoire

Following the retirement of
Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. ...
as director of the Conservatoire in 1920, Rabaud was appointed as his successor. Although he revered Fauré and admired his music – he made the standard orchestral arrangement of Fauré's '' Dolly Suite'' in 1906 – he differed greatly from his predecessor in his musical outlook. Fauré, on being appointed in 1905, had radically changed the administration and curriculum, introducing compositions by the most modern composers, taboo under his predecessors. Rabaud did not share Fauré's progressive views, declaring "modernism is the enemy". Despite that dictum, Rabaud was not invariably hostile to innovative compositions by the younger generation. He was a mentor to the Conservatoire student
Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...
, and – an exceptional honour at the time – conducted the student orchestra in a performance of Messaien's ''Le Banquet céleste''. After Messaien graduated, Rabaud frequently invited him to set exams and serve as juror for Conservatoire competitions. Other students during Rabaud's tenure included Jehan Alain, Jean Casadesus, Annie d'Arco, Maurice Duruflé,
Henri Dutilleux Henri Paul Julien Dutilleux (; 22 January 1916 – 22 May 2013) was a French composer of late 20th-century classical music. Among the leading French composers of his time, his work was rooted in the Impressionistic style of Debussy and R ...
, Maurice Gendron, Monique Haas, André Navarra and Paul Tortelier."Paris Conservatoire"
''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press. Retrieved 12 February 2025
Rabaud's staff included
Paul Dukas Paul Abraham Dukas ( 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best-k ...
, Henri Büsser and Jean Roger-Ducasse (composition), Henri Dallier (harmony),
Marcel Dupré Marcel Jean-Jules Dupré (; 3 May 1886 – 30 May 1971) was a French organist, composer, and pedagogue. Early life and education Born in Rouen into a wealthy musical family, Marcel Dupré was a child prodigy. His father Aimable Albert Dupré ...
(organ), Marguerite Long (piano), Marcel Moyse (flute), Claire Croiza (singing) and Louis Laloy (music history). After the outbreak of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and the German invasion of France, Rabaud sought to protect Jewish members of the faculty, including Lazare Lévy and André Bloch, but fearful that the
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
s would close the Conservatoire if he did not comply, he collaborated with the occupying authorities to the extent of supplying details of staff, and later of students, who were Jews or of Jewish family. Among the faculty members dismissed by the
Vichy government Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...
on racial grounds was Bloch, whom Messaien succeeded as professor of harmony.Murray, pp. 32–33 Rabaud retired from the Conservatoire in 1941 and retired to
Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; 'Neuilly-on-Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is an urban Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department just west of Paris in France. Immediately adjacent to the city, north of the ...
, where he died on 11 September 1949, at the age of 75.


Compositions

Rabaud's
cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian language, Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal music, vocal Musical composition, composition with an musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, ty ...
''Daphné'' won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome in 1894. His
opéra comique ''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular ''opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Théâtre de la foire, Fair Theatres of St Germain and S ...
'' Mârouf, savetier du Caire'' combines the
Wagnerian Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most ...
and the exotic. He wrote other operas, including ''L'appel de la mer'' based on
J. M. Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909), popularly known as J. M. Synge, was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, essayist, and collector of folklores. As an important driving force behind the Irish Literary Renaissanc ...
's '' Riders to the Sea'', as well as
incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as th ...
and film scores, such as the 1925 score for ''Joueur d'échecs'' (''Chess Player''). Orchestral music by Rabaud includes a ''Divertissement'' on Russian songs, an ''Eglogue'', a Virgilian poem for orchestra, as well as the
symphonic poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ( ...
''La procession nocturne'', his best known orchestral work, still occasionally revived and recorded. He also wrote music for chorus and orchestra and two symphonies. His
chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...
includes several works for cello and piano as well as a ''Solo de concours'' for
clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...
and piano — a competition piece written in 1901 for Conservatoire contests.


Partial list of works

:Source: ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. Stage *''La Fille de Roland''. Opera (1904) *'' Mârouf, savetier du Caire'' Op. 14. Opera (1914) *''L'Appel de la mer''. Opera, 1924 (based on '' Riders to the Sea'' by
John Millington Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909), popularly known as J. M. Synge, was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, essayist, and collector of folklores. As an important driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, Ir ...
) *''Rolande et le mauvais garçon''. Opéra en 5 actes (1934) Voice with orchestra *''Job'' Op. 9. Oratorio (1900) Orchestra *''Divertissement sur des chansons russes'' Op. 2 (1899) *''Procession nocturne''. "Symphonic poem after Nicolas Lenau" Op. 6 (1899) *''Eglogue''. Poème virgilien Op. 7 (1899) *Orchestration of Fauré's ''Dolly Suite'' (1906) *''Prélude et Toccata'' for piano and orchestra *Symphony No. 1 in D minor Op. 1 (1893) *Symphony No. 2 in E minor Op. 5 (1899) Chamber music *String Quartet Op. 3 (1898) *Andante et Scherzo for flute, violin and piano Op. 8 (1899) *''Solo de Concours pour Clarinet et Piano'' Op. 10 (1901) Other *Incidental music for 'The Merchant of Venice', 1917 based on works by
William Byrd William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continental Europe, Continent. He i ...
, Giles Farnaby and others


Notes, references and sources


Notes


References


Sources

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External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rabaud, Henri 1873 births 1949 deaths Musicians from Paris Lycée Condorcet alumni French classical composers French male conductors (music) French conductors (music) French opera composers French male opera composers French film score composers French male film score composers Prix de Rome for composition Conservatoire de Paris alumni Members of the Académie des beaux-arts Knights of the Legion of Honour Directors of the Conservatoire de Paris Music directors of the Boston Symphony Orchestra