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Spanning the period from the French Revolution to the beginning of the First World War, Ambache reveals the breadth and diversity of women’s composing, placing their lives and works within a broad sweep of French political and social history.

The book discusses compelling women composers including Isabelle de Charrière who composed her Airs et Romances in 1789, the same year that the Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen recognised men (but not women), aristocrat Hélène de Montgeroult who survived the Reign of Terror by improvising variations on La Marseillaise and Augusta Holmès who was commissioned to write Ode Triomphale for the Revolution’s centennial and whose opera La Montagne Noire, staged in 1895 was one of few operas by a woman to be produced at the Paris Opéra that century.

Ambache reveals a wide range of little-known composers such as Louise Bertin, the only composer Victor Hugo collaborated with (on the opera La Esmeralda) and Julie Candeille (the composer of Catherine or la belle fermière). She also places more well-known women composers in their musical and historical context: Louise Farrenc, Pauline Viardot, Cécile Chaminade and Lili Boulanger.

In this entertaining and illuminating book Ambache argues that some thirty French women contributed substantially to French musical life in the 19th century.

Published: Jan 15, 2025