Cantabile en mi majeur op. 95 (1931)

The Cantabile in E major, Op. 95 (1931), is my second upload of organ music by Mélanie Bonis (1858–1937).

From the outset, this composer had to struggle for her musical inclinations: at twelve, she secured permission to study piano only because her parents hoped it would improve her marriage prospects. Even when César Franck noticed her talent in 1876, accepted her as a private piano student, and facilitated her admission to the Conservatoire, her parents remained hesitant. Bonis soon received awards for her achievements and could hope for the coveted Rome Prize scholarship. She was also invited by Franck to participate as a guest in his organ class, where she seems to have excelled in accompanying Gregorian chant.

However, when she entered into a love affair with the young singing student Amédée Hettich, her parents intervened: they removed her from the Conservatoire and forced her to marry the twice-widowed industrialist Albert Domange, twenty years her senior and father of five. Like many women of her time, Bonis could develop her musical abilities only in private. She led a materially comfortable life, bore three children, and devoted herself largely to running the upper-middle-class household.

A few years later, she met Hettich again, who encouraged her to compose. She usually published under the gender-neutral name Mel Bonis. Their secret love affair produced an illegitimate daughter, whom Bonis gave birth to in Switzerland and later raised in her household as an alleged orphan, until the truth came to light when her son unexpectedly fell in love with his half-sister.

Bonis’ final decade offered little happiness: her deep religiosity, guilt over her secret daughter, and various health issues weighed heavily. After the premature death of her youngest son in 1932, her depressive suffering intensified. She composed only a few more works and died in 1937 in Sarcelles, surrounded by her family.