From the salon to the front: Fernand Halphen (1872-1917), composer, patron and director of military music

A collective work published in April 2017 under the direction of Laure Schnapper, with the collaboration of Pierre-André Meyer – Preface by Hervé Roten, published under the auspices of EHESS, EIJM and Yuval organization, by Hermann Editions, for the centennial of the death of Fernand Halphen (1872-1917), composer and patron, who died for France.

100 years ago, Fernand Halphen died of an illness that he caught at the military front. No one could have guessed that this son of a rich Parisian Jewish family would create and lead for two and one-half years the official orchestra of the North armies. The melodies and the chamber music that he wrote reflect the refined atmosphere of the salons of the 3rd Republic, the golden age of the French melody.
The rich archive holdings that he gathered help us to know with precision the path of a French composer in a time in which Wagner and the Dreyfus Affair prevailed. Close to G. Fauré and a student in the conservatory, where he knew R. Hahn, H. Büsser, A. Cortot, Ch. Koechlin and E. Risler, Halphen before being awarded the 2nd place in the Rome Prize, financially helped musicians throughout his life and even more, provided an important legacy for the students of the Conservatory, one that was supported by his widow Alice.

Buy the book online on EIJM’s shop

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Table of contents

Preface by Hervé Roten
Introduction and acknowledgments by Laure Schnapper

1st part: A family of the Parisian Jewish elite
Pierre-André Meyer, L’ascension d’une famille israélite : autour de Georges Halphen et Henriette Stern, les parents
Basile Baudez, Les résidences de Fernand Halphen

2nd part: The years of learning and relations with the musicians
Laure Schnapper, La classe de composition du Conservatoire et l’amitié avec Fauré
Jean-Christophe Branger et Philippe Blay, Autour de Massenet : Fernand Halphen, Reynaldo Hahn et Edouard Risler

3rd part: The work
François Le Roux, Les mélodies : le point de vue d’un interprète
Alexis Galpérine, Halphen ou un hypothétique violon juif français
Stéphanie Moraly, La musique de chambre

4th part: The Great War
Laure Schnapper, Le chef de musique au 13è Régiment d’infanterie territoriale

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Pressbook (in french):

Un musicien dans la grande Guerre, article de Stéphane Leteuré

Article de Victor Eskenasy sur Radio Europa Libera du 20 février 2018

F. Halphen clôt l’année de l’IEMJ – Actualité Juive N°1461 – 4 janvier 2018 – article de Monique Feldstein

Article paru dans le cadre de l’exposition virtuelle Paris-Manchester 1918 proposée par le Conservatoire de Paris et le Royal College de Manchester.

Recension GénéaloJ n° 131

Article de Frédéric Gaussin, La lettre du Musicien n°493

Compte rendu Fernand Halphen par Joël-Marie Fauquet – Revue de Musicologie Tome 105 – 2019 n°1