Intended by his parents for a more conventional career than that of a musician, the French composer Emmanuel Chabrier was from 1861 employed in the Ministry of the Interior in Paris, only devoting himself fully to music from 1880. His compositions include some colourful orchestral works and piano music that had a marked influence on his immediate successors.

Orchestral Music

Chabrier’s most popular composition is his Spanish rhapsody España. To this may be added the Joyeuse marche and his Suite pastorale, an arrangement of some of his own piano pieces.

Piano Music

The ten Pièces pittoresques, some of which were orchestrated by Chabrier in his Suite pastorale, are inventive in harmony and melody, and attractive in form. They range from a simple landscape, ‘Paysage’, to a ‘Menuet pompeux’ and a final ‘Scherzo-valse’.