Bass Clarinet in Bb from Danse Villageoise (Suite Pastorale)

Emmanuel Chabrier was born in Ambert, a town in the Auvergne region of central France in 1841. He began his music lessons at age six. His family moved to Clermont-Ferrand in 1851 where he prepared for a legal career and studied music with Tarnowski, a noted violinist. Five years later, the family made Paris their home, and the young Chabrier continued serious studies in both of his chosen fields. He graduated from law school in 1861 and began a career at the French Ministry of the Interior. During the Franco-Prussian, Chabrier fought for France, after which, he returned to his desk job. In 1873, he married Marie Alice Dejean with whom he had two sons. In his final years, Chabrier was strained by financial issues, and suffered from failing health and depression about the small success his stage works had achieved in France. He became obsessed with the composition of his opera Briss, which was inspired by a tragedy of Goethe and melodic echos of Wagner, but completed only one act. The Paris premiere of Gwendoline, which finally arrived in 1893, provided little consolation. He succumbed to general paralysis in the last year of his life, dying in 1894 in Paris at age 53. Suite pastorale (composed in 1888, orchestrations by the composer of four pieces from the Pi�ces pittoresques for piano)