Biography of Arthur Honegger
Born in Le Havre on March 10, 1892, and died in Paris on November 27, 1955.
The family moved from Switzerland to Le Havre, where his father worked as a coffee merchant. His mother, Julie Ulrich, played the piano as an amateur. He studied the violin with a teacher named Santreuil.
In 1909, he enrolled at the Zurich Conservatory, and in 1911, at the Paris Conservatory. He took violin lessons with Lucien Capet and studied counterpoint in André Gédalge’s class, where he met Darius Milhaud and Jacques Ibert.
In 1913, the Honegger family returned to Switzerland. In 1915, he was mobilized for a few months in Switzerland. He entered Widor’s composition class and studied orchestral conducting with Vincent d’Indy.
By 1918, when he left the conservatory with only a second prize in counterpoint as recognition, he had several compositions in his catalog: songs, his First Quartet, a symphonic poem titled “Le Chant de Nigamon.” He had also formed connections with Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Blaise Cendrars, Pablo Picasso, Erik Satie, and Jane Bathori.
Very dedicated to the renewal of the repertoire, Honegger was influenced by Igor Stravinsky, on whom he wrote an essay in 1939. As a prolific composer, he was eager to illustrate the transformation of society, especially through technology and sports. Honegger wrote for the theater, radio, and cinema, as well as for the concert hall, producing ballets, songs, concertos, chamber music, film scores, operas, oratorios, and symphonies.
In 1921, he achieved success with “Le Roi David,” a play by René Morax, which he later transformed into an oratorio in 1924. His most famous work, created in 1923, is “Pacific 231,” the first of three symphonic movements dedicated to the eponymous steam locomotive. The other two movements in the triptych are titled “Rugby” and “Symphonic Movement No. 3.”.
His first symphony dates back to the years 1929-1930. Later, during the Occupation, he composed his “Trois Poèmes” (based on a text by Claudel), his “Trois Psaumes,” and his Symphony No. 2 for strings and optional trumpet. Composed in 1941, the movements of the symphony evoke death, mourning, and then liberation. In parallel, he taught composition at the École normale de musique in Paris, where one of his students was Yves Ramette, a future composer of six symphonies.
His Symphony No. 3, titled “Liturgical,” his oratorio “Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher” (1938) — based on a text by Paul Claudel — and his dramatic work “Roi David” (1921) underline the religiosity of this Protestant composer.
In 1953, he was appointed a foreign member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and the following year, he was named a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour. He was also a music critic and a professor at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. He was a member of the group known as “Les Six,” along with Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, and Germaine Tailleferre. In addition to “Les Six,” he associated with figures like Paul Claudel, Jean Cocteau, Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Pierre Louÿs, Pablo Picasso, Erik Satie, Jean-Louis Barrault, and Paul Valéry, some of whom provided him with inspiration for his works.
