Tailleferre, Germaine (19th April 1892-7th November 1983)

She was a composer born Marcelle Germain Taillefesse in Saint-Maur-des-Fosses, Val-de-Mame, France who started her interest in music while young and composed small works of her own as well as studying piano with her mother. Her father did not support her musical studies so, in spite, she changed her name to Taillefairre. She went on to study at the Paris Conservatoire in 1904 and wrote 18 short works in the Petit livre de harpe de Madame Tardieu for the Conservatoire’s Assistant Professor of Harp Caroline Luigini. She was a prize-winner in several categories whilst there.

While a student at the Conservatoire she met up with the composers Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud and Francois Poulenc and together they associated themselves with the many artists in Paris. One of these artists had the idea of Germaine, along with these composers, becoming known as Les Six. She as the only female member. They became instantly famous after Jean Cocteau had published his manifesto Le coq et l’Arlequin which led to the music critic and composer Henri Collet writing articles for the media. She also started spending a large amount of time with the composer Maurice Ravel in 1923 and he encouraged her to take part in the Grand Prix de Rome competition.

In 1926 she married the American caricaturist Ralph Barton and left France to settle with him in Manhattan, New York. The following year she returned to France but before long they decided to divorce.

During the 1920s she wrote many works, which are possibly deemed her most important, including pioneering film scores, the ballets Le marchand d’oiseaux, La nouvelle Cythere ad Sout les ramparts d’Athenes, Harp Concertino and First Piano Concerto.

In the 1930s she wrote La cantate de Narcisse, the operas Le marin de Bolivan and Zoulaina and the opera cycle Du style galant au style mechant. She became romantically involved with the lawyer Jean Lageat and in 1931 their daughter, Francoise, was born. They married in 1932 but divorced in 1955.

When WWII happened she left her home in Grasse and had to leave much of her work behind. She fled through Spain and Portugal and eventually made her way to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Luckily she did manage to somehow save her Three Etudes for Piano and Orchestra. She returned to France in 1946 and wrote further ballets and operas, chamber and orchestral pieces and scores for film and television.

She suffered increasing problems with arthritic hands during her later years but became accompanist at the Ecole alsacienne for a children’s music and movement class. It did not deter her from continuing to compose, however, with pieces that include Chorale and Variations for Two Pianos or Orchestra, Sonata for Two Pianos, pieces for young pianists and a series of children’s songs. Her Concerto de la fidelite for coloratura soprano and orchestra, performed in 1982, was her final major work.

Although still composing small pieces during 1983 she died in Paris in November of that year when she was 91 years old.

Judy Loman recordings
Sonata for Harp
Marquis Classics
ERAD 165 (CD: 20th Century Masterworks for Harp)

Sources:

Tailleferre, Germaine (19th April 1892-7th November 1983)

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