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Bonis Mel
Akimenko, Theodore
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Bonis, Mel
Borne, François
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Sonate, Op. 64 for flute and piano
Sonate, Op. 64 for flute and piano
Mel Bonis: Sonata, Op. 64 for flute and piano was written and published by Demets in 1904 and dedicated to Louis Fleury, a family friend (he was a husband of Gabrielle Monchablon, the daughter of Bonis’s close friend Jeanne Monchablon, additionally Mel was the godmother to Fleury and
Gabrielle’s daughter Antoinette) and the flute professor at the Paris Conservatoire.
The Sonata was intended to fill the lack of Sonata repertoire from the Romantic period and sometimes referred as the French equivalent to the Reinecke's "Undine" Sonata.
The Sonata reflects both Classical elements and the Romantic stylistic tradition, consisting of four movements.
It's known that Louis Fleury performed the sonata repeatedly and often expressed about the lack of flute music by grand masters of Romantic period: "Except for a few orchestral pieces, there is
not a page of flute music by Mendelssohn, Schumann or Brahms — to take only those three; and so it will remain, as long as flautists turn themselves into mechanical birds and fill their melodies with meaningless ornament… After all, there are only two ways of writing for the flute, as for anything else — well and ill: and it is everything to choose the right way."
Hélène Couvert (piano), 2020, Alpha Classics / Outhere Music France / IDOL
1. Andantino con motto
Hélène Couvert (piano), 2020, Alpha Classics / Outhere Music France / IDOL
2. Scherzo (Vivace)
Hélène Couvert (piano), 2020, Alpha Classics / Outhere Music France / IDOL
3. Adagio
Hélène Couvert (piano), 2020, Alpha Classics / Outhere Music France / IDOL
4. Finale (Moderato)
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.