1846–1927 · France · 20th century
A French composer, pianist and painter who lived from 1846 to 1927. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Ambroise Thomas and wrote operas, an oratorio and chamber music for unusual wind ensembles. Few remember his name today, but his song «Le cor», set to a poem by Alfred de Vigny, was once recorded by Fyodor Chaliapin.
Ange Flégier was born on 25 February 1846 in Marseille. Besides composing, he also worked as a pianist and practised painting.
In 1866 he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire, into the composition class of Ambroise Thomas. At the time, the crowning point of a composition education at the Conservatoire was the Prix de Rome of the Institut de France, and in 1869 Flégier entered that competition, reaching the six finalists. He was not named a laureate, but with that he completed his studies at the Conservatoire.
In 1884 Flégier received the academic palms with the rank of officier d'académie. In 1902 the Académie des beaux-arts awarded him the Prix Chartier for his work in chamber music, and in 1903 he was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
Flégier left a large body of work — more than three hundred numbered compositions. Among them is piano music, including a concerto from 1900, and songs, some of them set to poems written by his sister Blanche Sari-Flégier. In 1875 his opéra-comique «Fatma» was staged at the Grand Théâtre de Marseille, and in 1885 his oratorio «Ossian» was performed in Marseille.
Chamber music for unusual wind formations holds a special place in his output: a trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (1896), a quartet for two oboes and two bassoons, and a piece for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn and string quintet, premiered in 1898 at the «Concerts-Rouge». For this ten-instrument ensemble Flégier himself coined the word «dixtuor» — the Larousse dictionary of the time noted the piece as the first of its kind.
Despite his extensive list of compositions, Flégier's name is almost entirely forgotten today — remembered only through one melody, the song «Le cor» («The Horn»), set to the well-known poem by Alfred de Vigny and subtitled on the score «a picturesque poem». Its opening line is still known — «I love the sound of the horn in the evening deep in the woods» — and the song came to be called «Flégier's horn». Among those who recorded it was Fyodor Chaliapin.
Flégier died in October 1927: he was hit by a tram. He was buried in the Saint-Pierre cemetery. His death mask was made by his nephew — sculptor and doctor Maurice Mangepan-Flégier — who, without knowing it, thereby went against his uncle's last wishes.
His last wishes had already been published in 1917, in the magazine «La semaine artistique». He asked for a civil, as simple as possible funeral — with the plainest hearse, the kind used for the poor — with no flowers or wreaths: only his honours were to lie in front of the hearse, on a black cushion. He also wanted no mourning clothes, no mass marking the end of mourning, no anniversary observance and no other religious ceremony.
If he died in his bed, he asked not to be dressed but simply wrapped in a shroud or draped in the antique manner; if death found him in everyday clothes, he was to be left as he was. At his deathbed he forbade a cross, a lit candle, holy water, a boxwood branch and any other religious object, and he absolutely forbade his body to be shown to anyone at all. In his own words, this was the difference between a true cult of the dead and what he called the «cult of cemeteries», that is, of decay. He asked that all these instructions be made public.
The site currently has one Flégier piece published — the song «Le cor» («The Horn»), set to a poem by Alfred de Vigny, for voice and piano, at the «Advanced» level. In his lifetime the composer wrote far more widely: an opera, an oratorio, piano music and chamber ensembles for unusual wind formations. But of that whole legacy, this is the melody that has lasted — its opening line is still known, and the song was once recorded by Fyodor Chaliapin.
Getting to know Flégier on the site has to start with this same piece — nothing else has been added yet. It is a demanding task at the «Advanced» level: the voice part calls for confident playing alongside the piano accompaniment, so it is best to approach «Le cor» once simpler repertoire for voice and piano has already been mastered.