(b Paris, 10 Nov 1873; d Paris, 11 Sept 1949). French composer and conductor. He was born into a musical family: his grandfather Louis Dorus was a celebrated flautist, his great-aunt was the soprano Julie Dorus-Gras, who created several roles in the operas of Meyerbeer and Halévy, and his father Hippolyte Rabaud was a leading cellist. Rabaud showed prodigious talent and a conservative spirit: ‘modernism is the enemy’ was his watchword. At the Paris Conservatoire (1893–4) he studied harmony with Taudon and composition with Massenet and Gédalge. Finding Massenet's teaching superficial, he gained more from his studies of the Viennese Classics. Although he claimed that the music of Wagner, Franck and Debussy left him indifferent, his music was categorized as displaying ‘an evolved Wagnerism’ while being ‘indubitably French’. In 1894 his cantata Daphne won him the Prix de Rome, and his sojourn at the Villa Medici opened his mind to newer music; he came to admire Verdi, Mascagni and Puccini. His mystical oratorio Job (1900) enjoyed immense success. Among his operas Mârouf, savetier du Caire (1914) was particularly popular. Here, Rabaud welded together Wagnerian form and oriental pastiche. L'appel de la mer (1924), after Riders to the Sea by the Irish writer John Millington Synge, is a realistic tale set in Galway. During this period Rabaud was a frequent conductor at the Opéra-Comique and at the Opéra, directing the latter house from 1914 to 1918, in which year he was admitted to the Institut de France. He was also interested in film music. Rabaud succeeded Fauré as director of the Conservatoire in 1922, retiring in 1941.
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La fille de Roland (4, P. Ferrari, after H. de Bornier), Paris, OC (Favart), 16 March 1904 |
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Mârouf, savetier du Caire (5, L. Népoty, after The Thousand and One Nights), Paris, OC (Favart), 15 May 1914 |
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L'appel de la mer (1, Rabaud, after J.M. Synge), Paris, OC (Favart), 10 April 1924 |
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Rolande et le mauvais garçon (5, Népoty), Paris, Opéra, 28 May 1934 |
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Martine (5 scenes, after J.-J. Bernard), Strasbourg, 26 April 1947 |
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Le jeu de l'amour et du hasard, 1948 (3, after P. C. de Chamblain de Marivaux), Monte Carlo, 19 Nov 1954 |
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Vocal: Daphne (cant.), 1894; L'été (V. Hugo), S, A, SATB, orch, 1894–5 (1898); 6 mélodies (A. de Lamartine, T. Gautier, G. Vicaire, A. Silvestre), solo v, orch (1897); Job (C. Raffalli and H. de Gorsse), op.9, solo vv, chorus, orch, 1900, F-Pc; Psaume IV, op.4, solo vv, chorus, orch, 1901; 2ème poème lyrique sur le livre de Job, op.11, solo vv, chorus, orch, 1905; 2 chansons (A. Spire), female vv (1909); 3 mélodies (F. Gregh, A. Rivoire, H. Bataille), solo v, orch (1909); Ave verum, 4vv, org (1938) |
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Orch: Sym. no.1, d, op.1, 1893, Pc; Le premier glaive (incid music, L. Népoty), 1898; 2 divertissements sur des chansons russes, orch, 1899, Pc; Eglogue, poème virgilien (1899); Sym. no.2, e, op.5, 1899 (1900); La procession nocturne, poème symphonique (1910); 3 suites anglaises du XVIe siècle (incid music for Antony and Cleopatra and The Merchant of Venice, Népoty, after W. Shakespeare) (1924); Lamento, 1930; Prologue, Epilogue, 1944, Pc; Prelude and Toccata, pf, orch, 1945, Pc; various pieces for orch with pf conductor |
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Chbr: Romances sans paroles, vc, pf (1890); Str qt, g, op.3, 1898; Andante, Scherzetto, fl, vn, pf (1899); Solo de concours, cl, pf (1901); Trio, ob, cl, bn, 1949; Fantaisie sur Mârouf, tbn, pf [arr. from opera]; Oeuvres posthumes, vc, pf |
H. Rabaud, ed.: A.-L. Danhauser: théorie de la musique, appendix (Paris, 1929)
P. Landormy: ‘Henri Rabaud, Max d'Ollone, Roger Ducasse’, Le théâtre lyrique en France (Paris, 1937–9) [pubn of Poste National/Radio-Paris], iii, 149–54
C. Samazeuilh: Musiciens de mon temps (Paris, 1947)
M. d'Ollone: Henri Rabaud: sa vie et son oeuvre (Paris, 1958)
F. Claudon, ed.: Dictionnaire de l'opéra-comique français (Paris, 1995)
ANNE GIRARDOT/RICHARD LANGHAM SMITH