Louise Farrenc: Nonet for Winds and Strings

As well as being a virtuoso pianist, Louise Farrenc became the first woman to hold a permanent position as Professor at the Paris Conservatoire while continuing to compose symphonic and chamber music. This handbook introduces readers to Farrenc and her contemporaries with a focus on professional women musicians in nineteenth-century Paris. Farrenc's music was much admired by her contemporaries including Robert Schumann and Hector Berlioz, The acclaimed Nonet (1849) incorporated playful dialogue within the ensemble, virtuosic display, and an artful balance of newer and older compositional methods, garnering critical and artistic success and official recognition for the composer. Its performance history shows how musicians managed the logistics of professional life: forming and sustaining relationships, organizing concerts and tours, and promoting their work in the musical press. The book's nuanced analytical approach and historical insights will allow students, performers and listeners a fresh appreciation of Farrenc's work.

List of contents

List of figures; List of tables; List of musical examples; Introduction to the life and career of Louise Farrenc; 1. Cultivating an audience for chamber music in 1840s Paris; 2. Dialogue and play in the Nonet; 3. Reception and legacy of Farrenc's Nonet.

About the author

Marie Sumner Lott is Associate Professor in the School of Music at Georgia State University. She is the author The Social Worlds of Nineteenth-Century Chamber Music (2015), which was awarded the AMS 75 PAYS publication subvention from the American Musicological Society, and over a dozen articles and book chapters on nineteenth-century chamber music.

Product details

• Authors: Sumner Lott Marie
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 31.10.2025
• EAN: 9781009415477
• ISBN: 978-1-009-41547-7
• Illustrations: Worked examples or Exercises
• Series: New Cambridge Music Handbooks
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > Music history; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, Music, History: specific events & topics, France, Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups, MUSIC / History & Criticism, Social & cultural history, c 1800 to c 1900, History of Music, Social and cultural history, Paris (City), Theory of music & musicology, Romanticism, Gay & Lesbian studies, Gender studies: women, Gender studies: women and girls, Composers and songwriters, Romantic Music (C 1830 To C 1900), Wind Instruments, Art music, orchestral and formal music, c 1870 to c 1879, c 1860 to c 1869, Theory of music and musicology, c 1840 to c 1849, String instruments, c 1850 to c 1859, LGBTQ+ Studies / topics