Very Normal Thoughts about Germaine Tailleferre

11 Dec 2023

Just some thoughts about a composer I like a lot.

I discovered Germaine Tailleferre while looking for solo piano works to add to my playlist of solo piano works. Spotify’s recommendation engine suggested it to me in that little five-track section below the playlist, and I listened to “Impromptu.” Pretty good, playful, fun, though a little odd, let’s add it to the playlist. Another song was suggested to me - Valse Lente. This one was different - devastatingly nostalgic, romantic, wistful, forceful. I felt immediately transported to some emotion - an old woman remembering an all-consuming love from her youth? A tender, painful moment of memory that nevertheless brings some joy with it? The dense chords swirled around, building upon each other in quartal harmonies. A decidedly early 20th century piece, but still infused with the emotionality of the Impressionistic composers. I fell in love with that piece and it became one of my most listened to.

Despite my interest in these two tracks of hers in 2019, I didn’t bother trying to listen to more tracks of hers. When a song is on my playlist, I only listen to it in the context of the playlist, which is a good thing for getting to know individual tracks and bad for learning about artists in context. I only listened to more Tailleferre tracks when I began my “year of women in music,” and discovered she was no one-trick pony. She had a large collection of works, many of which are unfortunately lost or uncatalogued. She was self-deprecating about her music, calling it trifles. She had an abusive father and an abusive husband, the latter of whom sabotaged her manuscripts and violently attacked her. Some of her works were destroyed during world war II. She took to composing film and TV scores later in her life to make ends meet. She died unrecognized, as most composers do. Her life was suffering after suffering. The men closest to her attacked her. The press condescendingly focused on her status as a female composer. It is nothing short of a miracle that she continued to compose and that her works survived so we may play and listen to them today.

She is most famous for her involvement with “Les Six.” Ravel took a special liking to her, declaring her his protege. In her time, she was often derided for being too Impressionistic, this an insult in the era of the Futurist Manifesto, where artists strove to decisively break with the past and embrace the novel. To me, this is no weakness, as she continues threads left by the Impressionists while still incorporating 20th century musical tools such as bitonality (Pastorale) and quartal harmony (Valse Lente). Her music never loses its sense of melody, emotion, and direction, which it is far too easy to do when using the challenging new idioms. Tailleferre’s self-deprecation of her works as trifles may have had an ironic benefit - her pieces rarely overstay their welcome or wallow in self-indulgence. They get to the point quickly, develop their themes, and then politely bow out. I am never bored listening to her, or tapping my fingers waiting for “the good part.”

She has worked in a variety of genres. She has many solo piano pieces, some solo harp pieces (though she herself was not a harpist), and a concertino for harp, piano, and orchestra. I have not yet finished listening to all her works, as even compiling a list of them is challenging (and many have not been recorded, or are not available on Spotify/YouTube).

Playing her works is challenging and I am certainly not at the caliber yet needed to play them well. I need to improve my pianistic skills before tackling the Pastorale or even a reduction of Valse Lente.

Listening to her works, I can’t help but think of her story. So many people in her life discouraged her from making music. Her father, her husband, music reviewers. Yes, she had Ravel in her corner, but human psychology overemphasizes the negative to the detriment of the positive - I am certain she carried all those negative words with her when she worked. She viewed her music as a self-indulgence she allowed herself. She diminished her works - too risky to come off as conceited. I wish I could tell her how amazing she was, how discovering each new work of hers feels like finding a new gem. She is, unfortunately, dead. The most I can do is spread the gospel of Germaine Tailleferre at this point.

Tags: music