Tailleferre (real name, Taillefesse), (Marcelle) Germaine

Tailleferre (real name, Taillefesse), (Marcelle) Germaine, fine French composer; b. Parc-St.-Maur, near Paris, April 19, 1892; d. Paris, Nov. 7, 1983. She studied harmony and solfège with H. Dallier (premier prix, 1913), counterpoint with G. Caussade (premier prix, 1914), and accompaniment with Estyle at the Paris Cons., and also had some informal lessons with Ravel. She received recognition as the only female member of the group of French composers known as Les Six (the other members were Honegger, Milhaud, Poulenc, Auric, and Durey). Her style of composition was pleasingly, teasingly modernistic and feministic (Jean Cocteau invoked a comparison with a young French woman painter, Marie Laurencin, saying that Tailleferre’s music was to the ear what the painter’s pastels were to the eye). Indeed, most of her works possess a fragile charm of unaffected joie de jouer la musique. She was married to an American author, Ralph Barton, in 1926, but soon divorced him and married a French lawyer, Jean Lageat. She visited the U.S. in 1927 and again in 1942. In 1974 she publ, an autobiographical book, Mémoires de l’emporte piece.

Works

dramatic: Le Marchand d’oiseaux, ballet (Paris, May 25, 1923); Paris-Magie, ballet (Paris, June 3, 1949); Dolores, operetta (1950); II était un petit navire, lyric satire (Paris, March 1951); Parfums, musical comedy (1951); Parisiana, opéra-comique (1955); Monsieur Petit Pois achète un château, opéra bouffe (1955); Le Bel ambitieux, opéra bouffe (1955); La Pauvre Eugénie, opéra bouffe (1955); La Fille d’opéra, opéra bouffe (1955); La Petite Sirène, chamber opera (1957); Mémoires d’une bergère, opéra bouffe (1959); Le Maître, chamber opera (1959). ORCH.: Piano Concerto (1919); Harp Concertino (1926; Cambridge, Mass., March 3, 1927); Overture (Paris, Dec. 25, 1932); Concertino for Flute, Piano, and Orch. (1952); La Guirlande de Campra (1952). CHAMBER: Image for Piano, Flute, Clarinet, String Quartet, and Celesta (1918); Jeux de plein air for 2 Pianos (1918); String Quartet (1918); 2 violin sonatas (1921, 1951); Pastorale for Violin and Piano (1921); Pastorale for Flute and Piano (1939); Harp Sonata (1954); Partita for 2 Pianos and Percussion (1964); 4 Pièces for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Trumpet, and Piano (1973). VOCAL: Chansons françaises for Voice and Instruments (Liège, Sept. 2, 1930); Concerto for 2 Pianos, Voice, and Orch. (Paris, May 3, 1934); Cantate du Narcisse for Voice and Orch. (1937); Concertino for Soprano and Orch. (1953); Concerto des vaines paroles for Baritone and Orch. (1956).

Bibliography

J. Roy, Le groupe des six: Poulenc, Milhaud, Honegger, Auric, T., Durey (Paris, 1994); R. Shapiro, G. T.: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, Conn., 1994); G. Hacquard, G. T.: La dame des six (Paris, 1999).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire