Pauline Duchambgeaus classic

Pauline Duchambge (* 7 October 1776 in Strasbourg; † 23 April 1858 in Paris) was a French pianist, singer, and composer.

Life

Pauline Duchambge was born around 7 October 1776, the day of her baptism in the Catholic parish church of Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune in Strasbourg. Her parents Charles François de Montet, Chevalier de Montet, Brigadier General and Marie Françoise du Buc du Ferret may have lived in Martinique for some time, but there is no certain evidence that she spent her early childhood there, as some sources claim.

In any case, as a young girl in Paris, she received musical training from the piano teacher Léopold-Bastien Desormery in a convent.

On 9 August 1796, she married Baron Auguste (Philibert Désiré) Duchambge d’Elbhecq, her first cousin, son of the general and deputy Pierre Joseph du Chambge d’Elbhecq, in Ollainville, but soon divorced, keeping her name. She had two children, a son, who died at the age of five, and a daughter.

When her financial situation worsened, she decided to devote herself entirely to the study of music and worked on harmony with Cherubini, Dussek and Auber, with whom she fell in love.

In 1814, her pension was withdrawn and she decided to give music lessons. In 1815, she met Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, who from then on became a steadfast friend and with whom she maintained a lively correspondence. She socialised with the great authors of her time, Hugo, Chateaubriand, Alphonse de Lamartine and Alfred de Vigny, whose texts she embellished with her music. This was the high point of her career, before the hype surrounding the romance died down and her personal decline was heralded.

The ruined and forgotten Pauline Duchambge died in Paris on 23 April 1858. Auber, who was her partner, deposited over three hundred of her romances in the library of the Conservatoire.

Some of Duchambge’s songs were published in the twentieth century in Les Greniers et la guitare de Marceline (1931) and in an anthology of songs (1988). Duchambge’s romances were very popular in the early years of the Restoration. She was admired by many poets of her time and set poems by the leading Romantics such as François-René Chateaubriand and Victor Hugo as well as the playwrights Casimir Delavigne, Alfred de Vigny and Eugène Scribe. She also set texts by women such as Mme Amable Tastu and Mme Émile de Girardin to music.

Duchambge chose texts that are often pastoral and express feelings of love typical of the early nineteenth century. The music is strophic and mostly without a refrain. The simple diatonic melodies have a range of a ninth. Their melodies are often embellished with ornaments and some accents, and there are a few dynamic markings. Duchambge was sensitive to the text and reflects different moods within a verse. According to Fétis, the lyrical melodies are characterised by ‘a sweet sensibility and elegance of form’.

The harmony features an interesting variety of chords containing modulations and secondary dominants. Duchambge uses major and minor keys in the same song to reflect changing moods. Ostinati, arpeggios and fixed chords are used in the piano accompaniment. The singing can begin in the first bar, or an introduction can set the mood of the song and establish the tonality. The last four bars of the accompaniment often serve as an interlude for the next verse and as a coda for the last verse.

Source Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Duchambge