Cécile Chaminade
Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade (8 August 1857 – 13 April 1944) was a French composer and pianist. In 1913, she was awarded the Légion d'Honneur, a first for a female composer.
Quotes
[edit]- I do not believe that the few women who have achieved greatness in creative work are the exception, but I think that life has been hard on women. It has not given them opportunity, it has not made them convincing. A woman has not been considered a working force in the world, and the work that her sex and conditions impose upon her has not been so adjusted as to give her a little fuller scope for the development of her best self. She has been handicapped and only the few through force of circumstances or inherent strength have been able to get the better of that handicap. There is no sex and art. Genius is an independent quality. The woman of the future with her broader outlook, her greater opportunities will go far, I believe, in creative work of every description.
- Interview with the Washington Post. Quoted in "Cecile Chaminade: A Bio-Bibliography" (1988) by Marcia J. Citron. See The life and music of Cecile Chaminade: Genius has no gender, WETA (March 21, 2023)
- Marriage must adapt itself to one's career. With a man, it is all arranged and expected. If the woman is the artist, it upsets the standards, the conventions, the usual arrangements, and usually, it ruins the woman's art. I feel that it is difficult to reconcile the domestic life with the artistic. A woman should choose one or the other. She must have freedom, not restraint. She must receive aid, not selfish, jealous exactions and complaints. When a woman of talent marries a man who appreciates that side of her, such a marriage may be ideally happy for both.
- Quoted in The life and music of Cecile Chaminade: Genius has no gender, WETA (March 21, 2023)
Quotes about
[edit]- It is not a young girl who composes, this is a composer
- C'est n'est pas une jeune fille qui compose, c'est un compositeur
- Ambroise Thomas, 1878. Quoted in Tardif, Cécile (1993) (in fr). Portrait de Cécile Chaminade. L. Courteau. ISBN 978-2-89239-163-3.
- Also quoted as "This is not a woman who composes, but a composer who is a woman."
- "Ce n'est pas une femme compositeur, c'est un compositeur femme." (in fr)Actes du Congrès international des oeuvres et institutions féminines. 1890. p. 469.
- Her music has a certain feminine daintiness and grace, but it is amazingly superficial and wanting in variety. But on the whole, this concert confirmed that the conviction held by many, that while women may someday vote, they will never learn to compose anything worthwhile.
- New York Evening Post critic. Quoted in The life and music of Cecile Chaminade: Genius has no gender, WETA (March 21, 2023)
