Joseph Canteloube

Marie-Joseph Canteloube de Malaret (French pronunciation:

In 1907, he wrote a suite in four movements for piano and violin entitled Dans la montagne, which was played at the Société Nationale. Other significant works followed, including Colloque sentimental for voice and string quartet (1908), Eglogue d'Automne for orchestra (1910), Vers la Princesse lointaine, a symphonic poem (1912), Aù printemps for voice and orchestra, and L'Arada (The Earth), a song cycle of six mélodies (1922).

Canteloube composed his first opera, Le mas ("The Farmstead" in

In 1925, along with several young Auvergnats in Paris, Canteloube founded a group called La Bourrée, who were eager to publicize the folklore and the beauty of their home region. Canteloube himself believed that "peasant songs often rise to the level of purest art in terms of feeling and expression, if not in form" (les chants paysans s’élèvent bien souvent au niveau de l'art le plus pur, par le sentiment et l'expression, sinon par la forme). He composed several song collections, which include Chants de Haute-Auvergne, albums of songs of Rouergue, Limousin, and Quercy, regional religious songs (Chants religieux d'Auvergne), and L'Hymne des Gaules based on a poem by Philius Lebesque. He also participated in the creation of the Bardic College of Gaul.

In 1941, he became associated with the government in Vichy France during the Nazi occupation,^[1] and wrote in the monarchist newspaper Action Française. With the tenor Christian Selva, he participated in numerous radio broadcasts of French folklore with his "Songs of France". Radio was an ideal vehicle for disseminating regional popular music.

Alongside his career as a composer, Canteloube worked as a musicologist, collecting traditional French folksongs, which were published by Didier and Heugel. He also wrote biographies of Vincent d'Indy (1949) and of his friend Déodat de Séverac (1950).

Canteloube took more than thirty years (1924 to 1955) to complete the compilation of his most admired and famous collection of songs, Chants d'Auvergne. The passionate songs reflect the landscapes of the Auvergne in lush orchestral colors, and have enabled French folklore and rustic melodies to become better known.

He died in Grigny, Essonne, in 1957, aged 78.

Discography

• Chants d'Auvergne, Vol. 1, with Frederica von Stade and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Antonio de Almeida, Columbia, 1982
• Chants d'Auvergne, Vol. 2 & Triptyque, with Frederica von Stade and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Antonio de Almeida, Columbia, 1986
• Chants d'Auvergne, with Arleen Auger and the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier, Virgin 1988
• Chants d'Auvergne, with Kiri Te Kanawa and the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Jeffery Tate, Decca, 1995
• Canteloube: Chants d'Auvergne – Complete, with Dawn Upshaw and the Lyon National Opera Orchestra, conducted by Kent Nagano, Erato 44656, 2002
• Chants d'Auvergne (selection), with Carolyn Sampson and the Tapiola Sinfonietta, conducted by Pascal Rophé, BIS-2513 (SACD), 2021

References

Bibliography

• Sadie, Stanley (Ed.) [1992] (1994). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. 1, A-D, chpt: "Canteloube (de Malaret), (Marie) Joseph" by Richard Langham Smith, New York: MacMillan.
  ISBN 0-935859-92-6
  .
• L.G. Boursiac, Canteloube (Toulouse, 1941)
• Françoise Cougniaud-Raginel, Joseph Canteloube : chantre de la terre 1879–1957 (Béziers, 1988)
• Cahours d'Aspry, Jean-Bernard. Joseph Canteloube (1879–1957): chantre d'Auvergne et d'ailleurs. (Biarritz: Séguier, 2000)

• Free scores by Joseph Canteloube at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)