Augusta Holmès was born in 1847, of Irish parents living in Paris. To English speakers, her name appears as “Augusta Holmes,” but her strong empathy for France led her to spell and pronounce her name with a French accent.
Holmès was composing by age 14. By 19 she had discovered the music of operatic radical Richard Wagner, remaining an ardent admirer to the end of her life, despite animosities between France and Germany. The circle of French Wagnerians included famed composers César Franck and Camille Saint-Saëns… who both became infatuated with young Augusta. But it was the symbolist poet Catulle Mendès who won her over, and despite his existing marriage, they maintained a twenty-year-long relationship, including five children (the three daughters appear in a famous painting by Renoir, standing by the family piano).
Holmès went against the prevailing attitude that women could only compose miniatures for the salon, writing many works in notably large orchestral genres: such as tone poems, cantatas, and symphonic odes, and favoring the full brass section of the post-Wagnerian orchestra.
An adept self-promoter, she played up her Irish roots and “French heart,” and championed causes of various nationalities. Holmès became so well-known that for the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris… think the Eiffel Tower… she, too, was commissioned to create a colossal work: the Ode triomphale en l'honneur du centenaire de 1789 for 900 singers and 300 instrumentalists.
Augusta Holmès … a Composing Woman.
Timeline
1847 – born Dec. 16 in Paris to an Irish officer, Charles William Scott Dalkeith Holmes, and his wife Tryphina Anna Constance Augusta (née Shearer) (her biological father is rumored to be the French romantic novelist Alfred de Vigny, who had had an affair with Mme. Holmes, and who was Augusta’s godfather)
1855 – the Holmes family moves to Versailles; Augusta begins to study piano, organ, clarinet, and voice
1858 – her mother dies in Versailles
1861-65 – first compositions: La chanson de chamelier, Le marche des Zouaves
1864 – rumors of a “passionate love affair with a young Polish man”
late 1860s – moves back to Paris and moves in artistic circles
1866 – she begins a 20-year-long non-marital relationship with the Wagnerian/ symbolist poet, Catulle Mendès (who is married to the poet Gautier’s daughter)- she becomes a life-long supporter of Wagner’s music, meets him in Switzerland
1868 – publication of her music under the pseudonym Hermann Zenta
1868-69 – begins a series of choral/orchestral cantatas: Danse d’almées, La fille de Jepthé -various other French artists propose to her, including Camille Saint-Saëns
1869 – death of Charles Holmes in Versailles
1870 – birth of her son (with Mendès), Raphaël early 1870s – composes two one-act operas, Astarté and Lancelot du lac, to her own libretti
1871 – she takes French citizenship and officially adopts the è spelling of her surname
1872 – composes a setting of Ave maris stella (S, T, piano) dedicated to César Franck -birth of her first daughter, Huguette
1875 – begins studying with Franck, who falls in love with her -composes a one-act opera, Héro et Léandre, to her own libretto
1876 – birth of her second daughter, Claudine; composes a symphony, Roland Furieux
1877 – composes another choral symphony, Lutèce
1878 – Mendès’s marriage to Judith Gautier breaks up; he moves in with Holmès
1879 – birth of her third daughter, Hélyonne; a fifth child, Marthian, dies young
1881 – composes another choral/symphonic cantata, Les Argonautes
1882 – composes the tone poem Irlande
1883 – composes the tone poems Andromède and Pologne
1884 – composes the 3-act opera La montagne noire, to her own libretto
1885 – Mendès becomes one of the founding editors of La revue wagnérienne
1886 – Mendès ends the relationship and leaves Holmès destitute
1888 – Auguste Renoir paints a group portrait, Les filles de Catulle Mendès
1889 – she is commissioned to compose Ode triomphale en l’honneur du centenaire de 1789
1890s – continues to compose songs, orchestral, and choral works
1895 – La montagne noire is premiered at the Opéra de Paris, receives 13 performances
1896 – death of her son Raphaël
1900 – she is baptised as a Catholic (after several years of composing liturgical music)
1902 – composes her final work for orchestra, Le jugement de Naïs
1903 – dies Jan. 28 in Paris; she bequeaths her collection of manuscripts to the Paris Conservatoire - all three daughters married writers: Gabriel Caillard-Belle, Mario de la Tour de St-Ygest, and Henri Barbusse; Huguette’s son Christian Caillard was a painter
Repertoire
Andromède
Roland furieux
Irlande
Pologne
Fantaisie for Clarinet and Piano
La nuit et l’amour from the ode Ludus pro patria
Supporting Materials
Images
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Augusta_Holm%C3%A8s.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Augusta_Holmes.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barillon-Bauch%C3%A9_-_Augusta_Holm%C3%A8s_et_la_femme_compositeur,_1912_(page_7_crop).jpg
Accessible websites relevant to the composer
https://www.rcm.ac.uk/research/archivedprojects/augustaholmes/
https://donne-uk.org/author/holmes-augusta/
