Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) was a French pianist, composer, teacher, and scholar. By her mid teens she was performing professionally and began studying composition and orchestration at the Paris Conservatory. In 1842, she was appointed professor of piano at the Conservatory, where she taught until her retirement in 1873. She was the only woman musician in the 19th century to hold a permanent position of this rank. Many of her students won competitions and went on to successful professional careers as the result of Farrenc’s excellent teaching.
As a composer, Farrenc began publishing works for piano in 1825. Schumann was particularly pleased with her Air russe varié, which he reviewed favorably in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in 1836. Likewise, music critic Maurice Bourges wrote in 1840 that her 30 Etudes in all the major and minor keys would be a tool for pianists “not only to develop technique but also to mould taste.” The Paris Conservatory adopted this collection as required study for all piano classes beginning in 1845. In addition to piano music, Farrenc also composed two orchestral overtures (1834) and three symphonies in the 1840s, each of which was premiered in Paris and then subsequently performed in Copenhagen, Brussels, and Geneva. Farrenc was also a celebrated composer of chamber music, writing two piano quintets, two piano trios, two violin sonatas, a cello sonata, and various other works for unique combinations of instrumentalists. Her nonet for winds and strings was particularly popular in Paris, where it was premiered by the famous violinist Joachim in 1850. Farrenc was awarded the Chartier Prize for her contributions to chamber music by the Institut de France in 1861 and 1869.
Farrenc also collaborated with her husband Aristide with the compilation and editing of Le trésor des pianistes. She was an advocate for reviving keyboard music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and she hosted séances historiques in which she and her students performed historical works. Her research and performance of these pieces gave her tremendous insight into the nuances and challenges of historical performance practice, and her extended introduction to the first volume of Le trésor, ‘Des signes d’agrément’, was issued as a separate manual entitled Traité des abréviations (1895).
Sources
Friedland, Bea. “Farrenc family.” Grove Music Online. 2001
Works Featured on Expanding the Music Theory Canon
Finale Allegro from Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 39
Full Score
Page: Sonata Rondo
Andante-Allegro Moderato from Trio for Clarinet,
Cello, and Piano, Op. 44
Full Score
Page: Sonata
Adagio from Trio for Clarinet,
Cello, and Piano, Op. 44
Full Score
Page: Ternary
Andante from Trio for Flute, Cello, and Piano, Op. 45
Full Score
Page: Ternary
Andante con moto from Nonet in Eb Major, Op. 38
Full Score
Page: Theme and Variations
Etude 8, Op. 41
Full Score
Page: Binary