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Romantic

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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

Scherzo (Finale) for flute and piano Op 187

By Bonis Mel

M. Bonis: Scherzo (Finale) for flute and piano Op 187 was left in handwritten form (and thus published after her death) and is probably the last movement of a last work for flute and piano.

"Buried in the manuscripts preserved by the descendants of Mel Bonis are unpublished masterpieces - including this piece, marked only "Final" (Final of what?). The manuscript begins on page 25, with the first 24 pages lost to time. This piece, like many of Bonis' others, carries no indication of date and is possibly the last part of a set of smaller pieces as it does not carry the structural elements of a last Sonata movement.
Due to the nature of the piece, this work looks more to be the last movement of a suite, rather than a final movement of a sonata"
Christine Géliot, pianist, great-granddaughter, the President of l’Association Mel Bonis in France, and author of "Mel Bonis: femme et compositeur" biography.

"In its impressionistic style, the piece recalls Debussy, a fellow student of the composer at the Paris Conservatoire."
Gabrielle Oliveira Guyon

Vincent Lucas

Laurent Wagschal, piano, 2019, indeSENS

Scherzo (Finale)

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Bonis Mel

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.