Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini ( ; ; 8 or 14 September 1760 – 15 March 1842) was an Italian Classical and Romantic composer. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest living composer of his era. Cherubini's operas were heavily praised and interpreted by Rossini.

Early years

He was born Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini in Florence in 1760. There is uncertainty about his date of birth. Although 14 September is sometimes stated, evidence from baptismal records and Cherubini himself suggests 8 September is correct. Perhaps the strongest evidence is his first name, Maria, which is traditional for a child born on 8 September, the feast-day of the Nativity of the Virgin.

From opera to church music

thumb|right|[[Luigi Cherubini and the Muse of Lyric Poetry|Portrait by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. The crowning Muse displeased Cherubini and is blacked out in some copies.]]

After Les deux journées, Parisian audiences began to favour younger composers such as Boieldieu. Cherubini's opera-ballet Anacréon was an outright failure and most stage works after it did not achieve success. Faniska, produced in 1806, was an exception, receiving an enthusiastic response, in particular by Haydn and Beethoven. Les Abencérages (1813), an heroic drama set in Spain during the last days of the Moorish kingdom of Granada, was Cherubini's attempt to compete with Spontini's La vestale; it received critical praise but few performances.

Disappointed with his lack of acclaim in the theatre, Cherubini turned increasingly to church music, writing seven masses, two requiems, and many shorter pieces. During this period (under the restored monarchy), he was appointed Surintendant de la Musique du Roi, a position he would hold until the fall of Charles X (1830). In 1815, London's Royal Philharmonic Society commissioned him to write a symphony, an overture, and a composition for chorus and orchestra, the performances of which he went especially to London to conduct, increasing his fame.

Cherubini's Requiem in C minor (1816), commemorating the anniversary of the execution of King Louis XVI, was a huge success. The work was greatly admired by Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms. In 1836, Cherubini wrote a Requiem in D minor to be performed at his own funeral. It is for a male choir only, as the religious authorities had criticised his use of female voices in the earlier work.

Later years and legacy

thumb|left|upright|Luigi Cherubini in old age wearing a [[Légion d'Honneur medal, lithograph by Marie Alexandre Alophe]]

In 1822, Cherubini became director of the Conservatoire de Paris and completed his textbook, Cours de contrepoint et de fugue, in 1835. His role at the Conservatoire brought him into conflict with the young Hector Berlioz, who portrayed the old composer in his memoirs as a crotchety pedant. Some critics, such as Basil Deane, maintain that Berlioz's depiction has distorted Cherubini's image in posterity. There are many allusions to Cherubini's personal irritability among his contemporaries; Adolphe Adam wrote, "some maintain his temper was very even, because he was always angry". Nevertheless, Cherubini had many friends, including Szymanowska, Rossini, Chopin and, above all, the artist Ingres. The two had mutual interests: Cherubini was a keen amateur painter, and Ingres enjoyed practising the violin. In 1841, Ingres produced the most celebrated portrait of the old composer.

Although chamber music does not make up a large portion of his output, what he did write was important. Wilhelm Altmann, writing in his Handbuch für Streichquartettspieler ("Handbook for String Quartet Players") about Cherubini's six string quartets, stated that they are first-rate and regarded Nos. 1 and 3 as masterworks. His String Quintet for two violins, viola and two cellos is also considered a first-rate work.

thumb|upright|The grave of Cherubini, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, with sculpture by [[Augustin-Alexandre Dumont|Augustin Dumont]]

During his lifetime, Cherubini received France's highest and most prestigious honours. These included the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (1814) and Membre de l'Académie des Beaux-Arts (1815). In 1841, he was made Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur, the first musician to receive that title.

Cherubini died in Paris in 1842 at age 81 and is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery, just four metres from his friend Chopin. His tomb was designed by the architect Achille Leclère and includes a figure by the sculptor Augustin-Alexandre Dumont representing "Music" crowning a bust of the composer with a wreath.

Works

Orchestral music

  • Overture in G (1815)
  • Symphony in D major (1815)
  • Marche funèbre (1820)

Chamber music

  • String Quartet No. 1 in E-flat (1814)
  • String Quartet No. 2 in C (1829) - transcription of Symphony in D major with new second movement
  • String Quartet No. 3 in D minor (1834)
  • String Quartet No. 4 in E (1835)
  • String Quartet No. 5 in F (1835)
  • String Quartet No. 6 in A minor (1837)
  • String Quintet (2 violins, viola, 2 cellos) in E minor (1837)

Masses and sections of the Mass

  • Five masses (written 1773–1776, lost)
  • Messe solennelle brève in B-flat (1805, dubious)
  • Credo a capella for eight voices and organ (1806)
  • Mass in A for three voices (1809, dubious)
  • Messe de Chimay in F (1809)
  • in D minor (1811) per il Principe Esterházy
  • Mass (4th messe solennelle) in C (1816)
  • Credo in D (1816)
  • Requiem in C minor for mixed chorus (1816) in memory of Louis XVI
  • Missa solemnis in E (1818)
  • Mass in G (1819) for the Coronation of Louis XVIII
  • Mass in B-flat (1821, dubious)
  • Messe solennelle in A for the Coronation of Charles X of France (1825)
  • Requiem in D minor for male chorus (1836) written for his own funeral

Motets and other choral works

  • Cantata Amphion (1786)
  • Cantata Circé (premiered 1789)
  • Trois chœrs: Incidental music for the play La Mort de Mirabeau by Jean-Baptiste Pujoulx (1791)
  • Cantata Clytemnestra (1794)
  • Cantata Hymne au printemps ("Hymn to Spring") (1815)
  • Hymne du Panthéon (1794)
  • 38 motets

Operas

  • See List of operas by Luigi Cherubini

Teaching manuals

  • A treatise on counterpoint and fugue (1841)

References

Citations

Sources

  • Altmann, Wilhelm, Handbuch für Streichquartettspielers, Amsterdam: Hinrichtshofen, 1972
  • Cherubini, Luigi (with Fromental Halévy, Cours de contrepoint et de fugue, Paris: M. Schlesinger, 1835 OCLC 11909698
  • Deane, Basil, Cherubini (Oxford Studies of Composers, 1965)
  • Cobbett, W.W. (Ed.), Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, Oxford University Press, 1963.
  • Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001. .
  • Willis, Stephen C., "Cherubini, (Maria) Luigi (Carlo Zanobi Salvadore)" in Sadie, Stanley (Ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. 1, A-D, New York: MacMillan, 1994. .
  • Entry for Luigi Cherubini in The Catholic Encyclopedia
  • Luigi Cherubini String Quartet Nos.1 & 3, and String Quintet--sound-bites and discussion of works