René Herbin (1911 – 1 September 1953) was a French composer and pianist. He was killed in the Mount Cimet air disaster in the French
Alps
The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia.
...
.
Life
Born in
Vitry-le-François
Vitry-le-François () is a Communes of France, commune in the Marne (department), Marne Departments of France, department in northeastern France. It is located on the river Marne (river), Marne and is the western terminus of the Marne–Rhine Ca ...
, Herbin entered the
Conservatoire de Paris
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 ...
at the age of 14. There he studied piano with Isidore Philipp and
composition
Composition or Compositions may refer to:
Arts and literature
*Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography
* Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...
with
Noël Gallon
Noël Jean-Charles André Gallon (; 11 September 1891 – 26 December 1966) was a French composer and music educator. His compositional output includes several choral works and vocal art songs, 10 preludes, a ''Toccata'' for piano, a ''Sona ...
Maurice Maréchal
Maurice Maréchal (3 October 1892 – 19 April 1964) was a French classical cellist.
Maurice Maréchal was born in Dijon at the home of his parents, Jules Jacques Maréchal, an employee for Posts and Telegraphs, and Martha Justine Morier. Afte ...
on a tour of the Middle East. After the Second World War broke out, Herbin was mobilized in 1939. He was taken prisoner in Germany where he remained in captivity for nearly five years in several forced labour camps. Interned in very precarious conditions, he nevertheless managed to write many works: a ''Sonata for violin and piano'', ''Deïrdre des Douleurs'' for
chamber orchestra
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 ...
, ''Sonata for piano'', ''Album d'images'', ''Preludes baroques'', for piano. Returning to Paris in 1945, he resumed his activities as a pianist and composer, and premiered his first piano quartet in 1949 with the Trio Pasquier. In the early 1950s, he received commissions for work from the State and Radio . It was on this occasion that he composed ''Trois Songes pour orchestre'' (1951) and the ''Concerto pour piano'' (1952) whose posthumous premiere was ensured in 1956 by
Vlado Perlemuter
Vladislas "Vlado" Perlemuter (26 May 1904 – 4 September 2002) was a Lithuanian-born French pianist and teacher.
Biography
Vladislas (Vlado) Perlemuter was born to a Polish Jewish family, the third of four sons, in Kovno, Russia (now Kaunas in L ...
.
Death
On September 1, 1953, René Herbin, accompanied by the violinist
Jacques Thibaud
Jacques Thibaud (; 27 September 18801 September 1953) was a French violinist.
Biography
Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won th ...
, boarded the Paris–
Saigon
Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025.
The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...
flight, the city where the musicians were expected to perform in concert. As they approached the planned stopover at
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionMount Cimet in the French Alps. There were no survivors among the 42 people on board.
''Société Musicale René Herbin''
In 1992, Elizabeth Herbin, pianist and daughter of the composer, founded the ''Société Musicale René Herbin'', which was then presided over by Vlado Perlemuter and
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 ...
. Its purpose is to make the man and his work known, and to disseminate his music, which is still not widely known and not very well recorded. It thus repairs what the untimely death of a 42-year-old musician recognized by his peers took away from the French musical life of the first half of the 20th century.
Compositions
List of works by Herbin
* 1929: ''Toccata''
* 1929–1930: ''12 Préludes'', for piano
* 1930: ''Fantaisie'', for piano
* 1934: ''Ballade'', for piano
* 1934–1935: ''6 Études de haute virtuosité'', for piano
* 1936: ''6 pièces en forme de suite'', for violin and piano
* 1936: ''Poème'', for piano and cello
* 1940: ''Album d'images'', for piano
* 1940–1941: ''2 divertissements'', for piano (Max Eschig)
* 1940–1941: ''Préludes baroques'', for piano
* 1941: ''Préambule pour le "Chapeau chinois" de Franc Nohain'', for piano, string quintet, flute, clarinet in Bb
* 1941: ''Préambule pour le "Chapeau chinois" de Franc Nohain'', for piano, violin and cello
* 1942: ''Sonata for piano''
* 1942: ''Sonata for violin and piano''
* 1943: ''3 Préludes baroques'', for 2 pianos (author's transcription)
* 1943: ''Miniatures'', for violin and piano ost piano part
* 1943: ''Suite fantasque'', for piano
* 1944: ''Deïrdre des douleurs'', for flute and piano (transcription by the author)
* 1944: ''Deïrdre des douleurs'', version for
chamber orchestra
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 ...
* 1944: ''La mort et le pendu'', for grand orchestre
* 1945: ''Burlesque'', for clarinet in B flat and String Quartet
* 1945: ''Burlesque'' for piano and clarinet in B flat (transcription by the author)
* 1945: ''Mirages'', for oboe and piano
* 1946: ''Thème et variation'', for piano
* 1948: ''La mort et le pendu'', for 2 pianos (author's transcription)
* 1948: ''La mort et le pendu'', for 4-handed piano
* 1948: ''Poulenc-adagietto'', for 2 pianos (transcription)
* 1948: ''Prière'', for piano
* 1948: ''Prières'', for string quartet
* 1949: 1st Piano Quartet
* 1949: ''Baptême'', for flute and piano (transcription by the author)
* 1949: ''Baptême'', for piano, flute, oboe, violin, cello and harp (premiere with
Lily Laskine Lily Laskine (31 August 1893 – 4 January 1988) was one of the most prominent harpists of the twentieth century who was born and died in Paris. Born Lily Aimée Laskine to Jewish parents in Paris, she studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Alp ...
)
* 1949: ''Sonata for piano and cello''
* 1950: ''Petite suite Radio française'', for piano
* 1950: ''Petites pièces'', for piano
* 1950: ''Petite suite Radio-française "dans l'esprit" des vieux contes français'', for grand orchestre (commande de Radio-France) (premiered by
Manuel Rosenthal
Manuel Rosenthal (18 June 1904 – 5 June 2003) was a French composer and conductor who held leading positions with musical organizations in France and the United States. He was friends with many contemporary composers, and despite a considerab ...
)
* 1951: ''Divertissement'', for chamber orchestra (commission from Radio-France)
* 1951: ''Divertissement'', for piano, 2 violins, cello, double bass and drums
* 1951: ''Divertissement'', for violin and piano (author's transcription)
* 1951: ''Dona Rosita ou le langage des fleurs'', for piano, 2 violins and cello (transcription by the author)
* 1951: ''Dona Rosita ou le langage des fleurs'', for voice and piano
* 1951: ''Trois songes'', for large orchestra (commissioned by the State)
* 1951: ''4 impromptus'', for piano
* 1952: ''Concerto pour piano et orchestre'' (commissioned by the State) (premiered by Vlado Perlemuter)
* 1952: ''Polka'', for 4-handed piano (transcription by the author). Dona Rosita)
* 1953: ''Dance for piano and saxophone in Eb'' (Billaudot) premiered by Vlado Perlemuter)
* 1953: ''Rossini-boutique-fantasque'', for 2 pianos (transcription)
* 1953: ''Une fausse gavotte'', for piano and clarinet in B flat(Billaudot)
Recordings
* René Herbin: 1st Quartet for piano and string trio, Élisabeth Herbin, piano;
Alexis Galpérine
Alexis Galpérine (born 1955) is a French classical violinist.
Career
Born in Paris, Galpérine studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and the Juilliard School in New York. His principal masters were Roland Charmy, Ivan Galamian and Henryk Szery ...
, violin;
Bruno Pasquier
Bruno Pasquier (born 10 December 1943 in Neuilly-sur-Seine), is a French violist, the son of Pierre Pasquier, also a violist.
Biography
After a First Prize at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1961, Pasquier won the ARD International Music Comp ...
Florent Schmitt
Florent Schmitt (; 28 September 187017 August 1958) was a French composer. He was part of the group known as Les Apaches. His most famous pieces are ''La tragédie de Salome'' and ''Psaume XLVII'' ( Psalm 47). He has been described as "one of t ...
Discogs
Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...
Dedicated website * Presentation leaflet of the above-mentioned CD, texts by Pierrette Germain and
Alexis Galpérine
Alexis Galpérine (born 1955) is a French classical violinist.
Career
Born in Paris, Galpérine studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and the Juilliard School in New York. His principal masters were Roland Charmy, Ivan Galamian and Henryk Szery ...