Arthur Honegger

"Honegger" redirects here. For other uses, see Honegger (surname).

Arthur Honegger in 1928

Arthur Honegger (French: [aʁtyʁ ɔnɛɡɛːʁ]; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably Pacific 231, which was inspired by the sound of a steam locomotive.

Biography

Plaque at the Honegger home in Le Havre

Born Oscar-Arthur Honegger (the first name was never used) to Swiss parents in Le Havre, France, he initially studied harmony with Robert-Charles Martin (to whom he dedicated his first published work) and violin in Le Havre. He then moved to Switzerland, where he spent two years (September 1909-June 1911) at the Zurich Conservatory being taught by Lothar Kempter and Friedrich Hegar. In 1911, he enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire from 1911 to 1918 (except for a brief period during the winter of 1914-1915, when he was mobilised in Switzerland), studying with Charles-Marie Widor, Caplet, André Gedalge and Vincent d'Indy. Gedalge encouraged him to compose and Honegger announced his decision to become a composer in a letter to his parents dated 28 April 1915. He then praised his teacher Gedalge and his Traité de la fugue (1904), "the most complete work ever written on the subject". Gedalge taught his pupils the craft while respecting their ideas and personalities, he went on, and added that while some teachers trained their pupils well to succeed in competitions, "the most advanced musicians in terms of modern spirit were Gédalge's pupils".

Among his notable early works are his Six Poèmes d'Apollinaire (poems from ‘’Alcools‘’), premiered in 1916 and 1918 ; his very Debussian Prélude pour Aglavaine et Sélysette (inspired by Maurice Maeterlinck's play : the prelude was premiered at the orchestral class in 1917, with a public premiere in 1920); Le Dit des Jeux du monde, commissioned in April 1918 by the Belgian poet Paul Méral, premiered in December 1918, composed of thirteen short pieces that at times evoke Schönberg; Le Chant de Nigamon (1918, public premiere by the Orchestre Pasdeloup in 1920: his first symphonic piece, inspired by Gustave Aimard‘s adventure novel Le Souriquet with Native American themes (thanks to Julien Tiersot's Notes d'ethnographie musicale); his first String Quartet, “the composer's first fully accomplished masterpiece” (Halbreich 1992, p. 311) premiered in 1919 by the Quatuor Capelle; and in 1920-1921 ‘’Pastorale d'été‘’ premiered by Vladimir Golschmann.

Between 1916 and 1918, Honegger became associated with a group of young composers who would later be known as "Les Six" who wanted to create a fresh, French style of composition. He was far from blending in with the group as his style was somewhat more serious ("I don't have a cult for street fairs or the music-hall", he wrote in a letter to Paul Landormy) and complex. Nevertheless, this association was important in establishing his reputation in the Parisian music scene. Honegger collaborated with the other members of Les Six only in 1920 (with a short 'Sarabande' for L'Album des Six), and 1921 (withe a 'Marche funèbre' for Les mariés de la tour Eiffel, and finally in 1952 (with a 'Toccata' for La Guirlande de Campra).

In 1921 Ernest Ansermet conducted the avant-garde music of the ballet-pantomime ‘’Horace victorieux‘’ in Lausanne (in a concert version). It evokes the fight of the Horatii and Curiatii and concludes with Camilla's death. Also in 1921, René Morax commissioned Honegger to write Le Roi David: he completed his score in two months, and on 11th June the ‘dramatic psalm’ (written as incidental music) was triumphantly received. On 13th March 1924, Honegger shot to fame when the French version re-orchestrated for large orchestra of Le Roi David was performed in Paris under the baton of Robert Siohan. It is still in the choral repertoire.

In 1922, Honegger became one of the first major composers (after Camille Saint-Saëns) to write music specifically for films. His score (of which only the ‘Ouverture’ remains) for the silent film "La Roue" (1923) by Abel Gance marked the beginning of his long involvement with film music. He worked for Gance again in 1927 for Napoleon and in 1943 for Captain Fracasse.

In 1923, Honegger composed a short piece which was to become one of this most often recorded works : Pacific 2.3.1, for the Concerts Koussevitzky at the Opéra de Paris in May 1924- although Serge Koussevitzky was already music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The music captures the interest of the casual music lover as it mimics the sounds and motion of a steam locomotive - Honegger said "I have always loved locomotives passionately. For me they are living creatures…" but for the composer, the main point was to "giv[e] the impression of a mathematical acceleration of rhythm, while the movement itself slows down.""

Another significant work was "Judith" for René Morax's play, which continued his interest in religious themes. It was premiered as a biblical drama in December 1924 or January 1925 at the Théâtre du Jorat, then reworked as an "opéra sérieux" (1926, Monte-Carlo), and finally became an oratorio (1927, Rotterdam). It is dedicated to Claire Croiza (the mother of his son Jean-Claude, 1926–2003) who sang the part of Judith in the first version. Halbreich (p. 550) says that "Judith is full of marvellous, inspired music although the whole piece is imperfect."

In 1922, Honegger had written a very brief piece of incidental music for Jean Cocteau's Antigone based on the tragedy by Sophocles. The composer then developed it between 1924 and 1927 for the opera Antigone which premiered on 28 December 1927 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie with sets designed by Pablo Picasso and costumes by Coco Chanel. It is dedicated to "Vaura" : Andrée Vaurabourg.

In 1926, he married Andrée Vaurabourg, a pianist and fellow student at the Paris Conservatoire, on the condition that they live in separate apartments because he required solitude for composing. Andrée lived with her mother, and Honegger visited them for lunch every day. They lived apart for the duration of their marriage, with the exception of one year from 1935 to 1936 following Vaurabourg's injury in a car accident, and the last year of Honegger's life, when he was not well enough to live alone. They had one daughter, Pascale, born in 1932.

In 1928 Honegger composed a new symphonic movement called "Rugby," inspired by the sport. The music reflects "the attacks and counter-attacks of the game, the rhythm and colour of a match at the Colombe stadium", according to the composer himself.

Between World War I and World War II, Honegger was very prolific. He composed the music for Abel Gance's epic 1927 film, Napoléon, which was preceded by J'accuse (1919) and La Roue (The Wheel) (1923). He composed nine ballets and three vocal stage works, amongst other works. One of those stage works, Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher (1935), a "dramatic oratorio" (to words by Paul Claudel), is thought of as one of his finest works. In addition to his pieces written alone, he collaborated with Jacques Ibert on both an opera, L'Aiglon (1937), and an operetta. During this time period, he also wrote Danse de la chèvre (1921), which has become a staple in the flute repertoire. The work dedicated to René Le Roy and written for solo flute.

Arthur Honegger, as portrayed by Serge Ivanoff, Paris, 1944

Honegger always remained in touch with Switzerland, his parents' country of origin, until the outbreak of the war and the invasion of the Nazis made it impossible for him to leave Paris. He joined the French Resistance and was generally unaffected by the Nazis themselves, who allowed him to continue his work without too much interference. He also taught composition at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, where his students included Yves Ramette. However, he was greatly depressed by the war. Between its outbreak and his death, he wrote his last four symphonies (numbers two to five), which are among the most powerful symphonic works of the 20th century. Of these, the second, for strings, featuring a solo trumpet that plays a chorale tune in the style of Bach in the final movement, and the third, subtitled Symphonie Liturgique with three movements that evoke the Requiem Mass (Dies irae, De profundis clamavi and Dona nobis pacem), is probably the best known. Written in 1946, just after the end of the war, it has parallels with Benjamin Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem of 1940. In contrast with this work is the lyrical, nostalgic Symphony No. 4, subtitled "Deliciae Basilienses" ("The Delights of Basel"), written as a tribute to days of relaxation spent in that Swiss city during the war.

Honegger was widely known as a train enthusiast and once notably said: "I have always loved locomotives passionately. For me they are living creatures and I love them as others love women or horses." His "mouvement symphonique" Pacific 231 (a depiction of a steam locomotive) gained him early notoriety in 1923.

Many of Honegger's works were championed by his longtime friend Georges Tzipine, who conducted the premiere recordings of some of them (Cris du Monde oratorio, Nicolas de Flüe).

In 1953 he wrote his last composition, A Christmas Cantata. After a protracted illness, he died at home in Paris of a heart attack on 27 November 1955 and was interred in the Saint-Vincent Cemetery in the Montmartre Quarter. He was given a state funeral by the French government, although he remained a Swiss national and never took French citizenship.

The principal elements of Honegger's style are Bachian counterpoint, driving rhythms, melodic amplitude, highly coloristic harmonies, an impressionistic use of orchestral sonorities, and a concern for formal architecture. His style is weightier and more solemn than that of his colleagues in Les Six. Far from reacting against German romanticism as the other members of Les Six did, Honegger's mature works show evidence of a distinct influence by it. Despite the differences in their styles, he and fellow Les Six member Darius Milhaud were close friends, having studied together at the Paris Conservatoire. Milhaud dedicated his fourth string quintet to Honegger's memory, while Francis Poulenc similarly dedicated his Clarinet Sonata.

The diversity of Honegger's music in reality reflects an artistic journey whose coherence comes from the deep conviction that music is a true means of communication with the public. Halbreich notes that after Antigone, "The need to communicate took precedence over all others, and in his freely chosen mission as "musician in the city of men" Honegger considered the maintenance of an esoteric and avant-garde language as a narcissistic luxury contrary to his humanist demands, even if the aesthetes of art for art's sake suffered and disapproved of his choice. His only subsequent attempt at opera, L'Aiglon, was aimed at the immediate (and, it was accepted, perhaps ephemeral) approval of a vast popular audience, not that of a hypothetical and elitist posterity". It is for this reason that Honegger often aspired to a music free from too much formalism, too much seduction, and above all, in general, from musical habits. All his life he feared the danger of cultural habits, of different forms of collective consciousness (Cris du monde, 1931, the subject of which is "the revolt of the individual against the crowd that crushes him" according to Honegger, Plans, December 1931). This fear was justified by his ideology of authentic and above all meaningful music, capable of carrying a message, sometimes even a philosophical one as in his Symphony No. 3, 1945, which, according to the composer, "musically depicts the struggle in the heart of man between abandonment to the blind forces that enslave him and the instinct for happiness, the love of peace, the feeling of divine refuge".

The diversity of his works is therefore easy to understand: what each of them had to say in a new way required, in his eyes, a new language. He thus explored different genres and techniques, taking an equal interest in Claude Debussy's or Gabriel Fauré's harmony, Igor Stravinsky's rhythm, Beethovenian form, Arnold Schoenberg's genius – excluding serialism – in Le Dit des Jeux du Monde. He also made use of new instruments, or instruments used in new ways: the saw in Antigone (1927), tam-tam (Pacific 231 and many other pieces), three saxophones in Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, a bouteillophone (bottles filled with varying amounts of water) for No. 7 of Dit des Jeux du Monde, a piece for solo percussion ; and even electronic instruments such as the ondes Martenot (in Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, played by Maurice Martenot himself at the premiere in 1938, but already used in films such as Berthold Bartosch's L'Idée, 1934).

The apparent simplicity of some passages of his music masks the work he did on each passage of his major works in the sense of objectivity, i.e. the strictly musical coherence of the piece: everything depends on it, including the complexity of the techniques, which, according to him, should only be pushed if necessary, as in Horace Victorieux (1921, "his most radical and daring masterpiece", or in his symphonies. The complexity and, above all, the interest of his main compositions lies in the work of relative objectivity. He often played on the scope of the subjects he dealt with. He sought to reach a profound and universal dimension of humanity. This is why his religious works (he was a Protestant) go beyond the strict framework of religion to reach a more universal and human dimension. This explains the success of Joan of Arc at the stake, for example. This did not stop him from sometimes being more concerned with reacting to the culture of his time, as in Pacific 231 (1923), for example, where Honegger was nevertheless careful not to fall into the anecdote of noise music.

Legacy

Honegger was pictured on the Swiss twenty franc banknote (eighth series), issued October 1996 and replaced in 2017.

Honegger's symphonic movement Rugby was recorded with him conducting the Paris Symphony Orchestra in a 1929 electrical recording. Many of Honegger's recordings as conductor of his music have been reissued on CD by Pearl and Dutton.

For Honegger's notable students, see List of music students by teacher: G to J § Arthur Honegger.

The ice hockey player Doug Honegger is his grandnephew.

Notable compositions

Opus numbers originate from the complete catalogue by Harry Halbreich. For a longer list of compositions, see List of compositions by Arthur Honegger. For a list of select recordings, see Arthur Honegger discography.

• Orchestral music:

Symphonies:

1930: H 75 First Symphony

1941: H 153 Second Symphony for strings and trumpet in D

1946: H 186 Third Symphony (Symphonie Liturgique)

1946: H 191 Fourth Symphony in A (Deliciae basilienses)

1950: H 202 Fifth Symphony in D (Di tre re)

Symphonic movements:

1923: H 53 Pacific 231 (Symphonic Movement No. 1)

1928: H 67 Rugby (Symphonic Movement No. 2)

1933: H 83 Symphonic Movement No. 3

Concerti:

1924: H 55 Concertino for piano and orchestra in E major

1929: H 72 Concerto for cello and orchestra in C major

1948: H 196 Concerto da camera, for flute, English horn and strings

Others:

1917: H 16 Le chant de Nigamon

1920: H 31 Pastorale d'été

1923: H 47 Chant de joie (Song of Joy)

1951: H 204 Monopartita

• Oratorios:

1921: H 37 Le roi David (King David) libretto by René Morax, version for orchestra in 1923

1935: H 99 Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, libretto by Paul Claudel, version with prologue in 1941

1938: H 131 La danse des morts, (The Dance of the Dead) libretto by Paul Claudel

1953: H 212 Une cantate de Noël (A Christmas Cantata)

• Operas:

1903: Philippa, not orchestrated, performed, or published

1904: Sigismond, lost

1907: La Esmeralda, after Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, unfinished and unpublished

1918: La mort de sainte Alméenne, libretto by M. Jacob, unpublished and only Interlude orchestrated

1925: Judith, libretto by René Morax, premiered at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 13 February 1925

1927: H 65 Antigone, libretto by Jean Cocteau based on Sophocles, premiered at La Monnaie on 28 December 1927

• Operettas:

1925: H 108 L'Aiglon, co-written with Jacques Ibert; libretto for acts 2–4 by H. Cain, after E. Rostand, libretto for acts 1 and 5 by Ibert, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, 10 March 1937

1930: Les aventures du roi Pausole, libretto by A. Willemetz, after P. Louÿs, premiered 12 December 1930, Paris, Bouffes-Parisiens

1931: La belle de Moudon, libretto by René Morax, Mézières, Jorat, Switzerland, 30 May 1931, unpublished

1937: Les petites cardinal, libretto by Willemetz and P. Brach, after L. Halévy, Paris, Bouffes-Parisiens, 13 February 1938

• Ballets:

1918: H 19 Le dit des jeux du monde

1921: H 38 Horace victorieux, symphonie mimée

• Chamber music:

1917: H 15 String Quartet No. 1 in C minor

1929: H 28 Sonata for Viola and Piano

1935: H 103 String Quartet No. 2 in D

1937: H 114 String Quartet No. 3 in E

1945: H 181 Paduana for cello solo

1947: H 193 Intrada for C trumpet and piano

• Piano solo works 1910: Three Pieces (Scherzo, Humoresque, Adagio)

1916: Toccata and Variation

1915–9: Three Pieces (Prelude, Homage to Ravel, Danse)

1919–20: Seven Short Pieces

1920: Sarabande (for Album de Six)

1923–4: Le Cahier Romand

1928–9 Hommage to Albert Roussel

1932: Prelude, Arioso and Fughetta on the name BACH

1941: Petits Airs sue une basse celebre

1943–4: Two Sketches

Further reading

• Honegger's biographer was Marcel Landowski, the French composer and arts administrator, who was greatly influenced by Honegger. His biography appeared in 1978 (ISBN 2-02-000227-2) although it has yet to be translated into English.
• Harry Halbreich. Arthur Honegger, translated into English by Roger Nichols. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1992. Considers both Honegger's life and works. With the cooperation of Honegger's daughter Pascale; Halbreich has fully documented Honegger's life since childhood. All works are treated, more significant ones analyzed in detail. ISBN 1-57467-041-7 (1999).
• Geoffrey Spratt. The Music of Arthur Honegger. Cork University Press, 1987. Spratt also wrote the entry in Grove Music Online (2001).
• Willy Tappet. Arthur Honegger. Zurich: Atlantis Verlag, 1954.
• Arthur Honegger, Incantation aux fossiles (Incantation to fossils), Editions d'Ouchy (Lausanne), 1948 (Some of his articles in Comœdia promoting French contemporary music). Gallica: [1] (in French).

External links

• Publications by and about Arthur Honegger in the catalogue Helveticat of the Swiss National Library
• Free scores by Arthur Honegger at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Site Arthur Honegger – The official site on the composer; bilingual (French and English)
• Unlocking the Mystery of Honegger
• Holocaust Music – discusses the controversy of Honegger's role in the Resistance
• Cello Concerto Review
• Drama lírico Bíblico, Judith (audio online y descarga).
• Arthur Honegger Archived 20 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine – biography of the composer
• František Sláma Archive Archived 14 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine. More on the history of the Czech Philharmonic between the 1940s and the 1980s: Conductors