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Bonis Mel
Akimenko, Theodore
Albeniz, Isaac
Andersen, Joachim
Barnett, John Francis
Bazzini, Antonio
Beach, Amy
Bellini, Vincenzo
Bizet, George
Blahetka, Leopoldine
Blodek, Wilhelm
Boehm, Theobald
Bonis, Mel
Borne, François
Brahms, Johannes
Briccialdi, Giulio
Bruch, Max
Caplet, André
Chaminade, Cécile
Chopin, Frédéric
Danzi, Franz Ignaz
Debussy, Claude
Demersseman, Jules-Auguste Edouard
Donizetti, Gaetano
Donjon, Johannes
Doppler, Albert Franz
Du Puy, Édouard
Dvořák, Antonin
Elgar, Edward
Fauré, Gabriel
Foote, Arthur
Franck, César
Frühling, Carl
Fürstenau, Anton Bernhard
Gade, Niels Wilhelm
Ganne, Louis
Génin, Paul Agricole
German, Edward
Glière, Reinhold
Godard, Benjamin
Gounod, Charles
Grandval, Clémence
Hahn, Reynaldo
Hüe, Georges Adolphe
Hummel, Johann Nepomuk
Jadassohn, Solomon
Kohler, Ernesto
Kreisler, Fritz
Kuhlau, Friedrich
Lefebvre, Charles Edouard
Liszt, Franz
Maier, Amanda
Massenet, Jules
Mendelssohn, Fanny
Mendelssohn, Felix
Mercadante, Saverio
Meyer-Olbersleben, Max
Molique, Wilhelm Bernhard
Morlacchi, Pietro
Mouquet, Jules
Nielsen, Carl
Paganini, Niccolo
Périlhou, Albert
Pierné, Gabriel
Popp, Wilhelm
Rabboni, Giuseppe
Reger, Max
Reichert, Matthieu Andre
Reinecke, Carl Heinrich Carsten
Ries, Ferdinand
Rietz, Julius
Rossini, Gioacchino
Saint-Saëns, Camille
Sarasate, Pablo de
Schubert, Franz
Schumann, Clara
Schumann, Robert
Sibelius, Jean
Silcher, Friedrich
Strauss, Richard
Taffanel, Claude Paul
Tulou, Jean-Louis
Vitali, Tomaso Antonio
Wagner, Siegfried
Widor, Charles Marie Jean Albert
Piece for flute and piano, Op. 189
Mel Bonis: Piece for flute and piano, Op. 189 was written in 1936, just one year before the composer's death.
Some older sheet music introductions broadly estimate its style as belonging "around 1900," but modern research and recording catalogs consistently date it to 1936.
The work was "rediscovered" and popularized for modern audiences in the late 20th century, with its first major modern publication appearing in 2000 by Éditions Kossack.
In 1936, Mel Bonis was 78 years old and in declining health. She was living in a state of relative isolation in Sarcelles, near Paris. Around that time, she was particularly interested in writing accessible but expressive pieces that bridged the gap between Romanticism and modern French styles.
Her late works are often interpreted as a refuge from a life of personal struggle: specifically, her forced marriage to Albert Domange and the social scandal of her illegitimate daughter, Madeleine. Pièce reflects a post-Romantic, nearly Impressionistic serenity, utilizing a beautiful melody over slow, atmospheric piano chords.
Bonis, Mel (1858 - 1937) was a French female composer (Mélanie Hélène Bonis).
Born in Paris into a middle-class working and religious family without any musical background Mélanie was strongly influenced by strict Catholic values and traditions throughout her life.
She self-taught piano at an early age and didn't have any formal musical education until the age of 18 when a family friend Henri Maury, a cornet professor at the Paris Conservatory presented her to César Franck who accepted her as a piano student. She gradually excelled as a pianist and even more as an accompanist and was praised over some other students like Claude Debussy but gained a reputation as too fearful and having severe stage fright problems.
In 1881 when she started establishing herself as a composer she realized that her gender might be a problem to succeed. Therefore from then on she signed her works as Mel Bonis. Later that year she was proposed by singer Amédée Landely Hettich but received harsh disapproval from her parents, forcing her to resigned from the Conservatory as well and take a job as a seamstress. Two years later she married a wealthy widower, pleasing her parents and freeing her time for composing again.
In 1899, Bonis joined the Société des Compositeurs de Musique, and eventually became secretary in 1910.
This important opportunity allowed her to be in contact with leading composers of the period and from 1900-1914 marked a period of most important works composed by Mel Bonis, including the Sonate pour flûte et piano of 1904.
During the World War I she significantly reduced her work as a composer, mostly writing for her grandchildren. From 1922 until her death in 1937 she resumed to compose more, creating predominantly spiritual works.
Overall Mel Bonis composed over 300 works from which six compositions was written for flute and piano: Sonate pour Flûte et Piano, Op. 64.; Air Vaudois pour Flûte et Piano, Op. 108; Andante et Allegro pour Flûte et Piano, Op. 133; Une Flûte Soupire pour Flûte et Piano, Op. 121; Pièce pour Flûte et Piano, Op. 189; and Scherzo (Final) pour Flûte et Piano, Op. Posth. 187.