Mélanie Bonis

Mélanie Hélène "Mel" Bonis (21 January 1858 – 18 March 1937) was a prolific French late-Romantic composer. She wrote more than 300 pieces, including works for piano solo and four hands, organ pieces, chamber music, mélodies, choral music, a mass, and works for orchestra. She attended the Paris Conservatoire, where her teachers included César Franck, Ernest Guiraud, and Auguste Bazille.

Life Mel Bonis at age 19, painting by Charles-Auguste Corbineau (1877).

Bonis was born to a Parisian lower-middle-class family and was educated according to the strict norms of Catholic morality. Endowed with great talent and musical sensitivity, she taught herself to play the piano. Initially, her parents did not encourage her music, but when she was twelve they were persuaded by a professor at the Conservatoire to allow her to receive formal music lessons. In 1874, at the age of sixteen, she began her studies at the Conservatoire, and attended classes in accompaniment, harmony, and composition, where she shared the benches with Claude Debussy and Gabriel Pierné and received tuition from César Franck.

At the Conservatoire, she met and fell in love with Amédée Landély Hettich (5 February 1856 – 5 April 1937), a student, poet, and singer, setting some of his poems to music. Her parents disapproved of the match and withdrew her from the Conservatoire. In 1883, when she was twenty-five, they arranged for her to marry the businessman Albert Domange (4 April 1836 – 31 March 1918). Domange was twenty-two years her senior, and twice a widower with five children from his previous marriages. After marriage, Bonis immersed herself in domesticity, bearing three children with Domange: Pierre (1884–1969), Jeanne (1888–1987) and Édouard (1893–1932).

In the 1890s, Bonis re-encountered Hettich, who was by then a respected vocal teacher and writer on music, married to a Polish harpist. Madeleine was put into the care of a former chambermaid; she inherited musical talent from her parents. Recordings of her orchestral works were released by both CPO and Chandos in 2026.

Compositions

Chamber music

Suite en trio, for flute, violin and piano, Op. 59 (1903) Fantaisie en septuor, for 2 flutes, 2 violins, viola, cello, and piano, Op. 72 (1906) Scènes de la forêt, for flute, horn and piano, Op. 123 (1928) Suite dans le style ancien, for flute, violin and piano, Op. 127 No. 1 (1928) Suite orientale, Op. 48, for violin, cello and piano (1900) Soir, matin, Op. 76, for violin, cello and piano (1907) Nocturne, for violin, viola, cello and harp or piano (1892) Quatuor pour piano et cordes en si bémol, Op. 69 (1905) Quatuor pour piano et cordes en ré, Op. 124 (1927) Flute Sonata in C-sharp minor, Op. 64 (1904) Cello Sonata in F major, Op. 67 (1905) Violin Sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 112 (1914) Many more pieces for violin and piano, flute and piano, cello and piano

Music for piano Modern edition in eleven volumes published by Furore:

Volume 1: Femmes de légende (Legendary Women) Volumes 2, 3 and 7: Pièces pittoresques et poétiques (Picturesque and Poetic Pieces), A, B and C (1895-1905) Volume 4: Concert pieces Volumes 5, 10 and 11: Danses A, B and C Volumes 6 and 8: Piano à quatre mains A and B A Volume 9: Deux pianos à quatre main, Scherzo Op. 40 and Variations Op. 85

Children's music Children's Scenes, Op. 92 (1912) Miocheries, Op. 126 (1928) Neuf Pièces faciles, Op. 148 (1936) 17 Pièces enfantines, Op. 116 (1926) Album pour les tout petits, Op. 103 (1913)

Organ music L'Œuvre pour orgue, 27 pieces, with Toccata, Cantabile, Choral, etc. (modern edition: Éditions Fortin-Armiane)

Vocal music

Melodies 35 melodies. Modern edition: Éditions Fortin-Armiane (France). For instance, , :fr:Chanson d'amour, , , , La mer, Noël pastoral, , , , , , , , Viola, Sauvez-moi de l'amour, Vers le pur amour, Bolero, Épithalame, Le Ruisseau, L'oiseau bleu, Madrigal, etc.

Volume 1: low and middle voices Volume 2: high and middle voices Volume 3: 2 or more voices

See also:

Vocal religious music Regina Cœli, Op. 45; Cantique de Jean Racine, Messe à la Sérénité, and many motets such as Adoro te, Inviolata etc. (modern edition: Éditions Fortin-Armiane)(1901)

Orchestra Les Gitanos, Op. 15 No. 3 (orchestration by Ad. Gauwin)(1891) Suite en forme de valses (1895) Suite Orientale, Op. 48 (1900), includes Prélude, Op. 48 No. 1 Bourrée, Pavane, Sarabande (1909) Trois Femmes de légende: Salome, Op. 100 No. 2 (1909); Ophelia, Op. 165 No. 2 (1909); The Dream of Cleopatra, Op. 180 No. 2 (modern edition: Furore)

Wind and percussions for youth Burlesque Symphony, Op. 185, posthumous: ballad (published by Fortin)