Hedwige Chrétien
Born: 15 July 1859
Died: 1944
BIOGRAPHY MUSIC RECORDINGS SOURCES
Hedwige (Gennaro) Chrétien studied composition at a young age with Ernest Guiraud, piano with Louise-Aglaé Massart, and organ with César Franck at the Paris Conservatory. She won first prizes in harmony, fugue and piano. Later, Chrétien was appointed a professor at the Conservatory when she was just 30-years-old. She married Paolo Gennaro, a flutist, and two of their children, Marcel and Cécile, became professional musicians.
With over 150 works to her credit, including 50 songs, 50 piano pieces, a ballet, two one-act comic operas, and several orchestral and chamber works, Chrétien’s notability reached far and wide: from France to England to the US. Her vocal music, primarily through-composed, often expressed love and patriotism with the compositional choices of 9th and 11th chords, and sudden meter and key changes into remote keys.