Oscar-Arthur Honegger (French: [aʁtyʁ ɔnɛɡɛʁ]; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. Honegger was a member of Les Six. For musicologist Halbreich, Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher is "more even than Le Roi David or Pacific 231, his most universally popular work".
Born Oscar-Arthur Honegger (the first name was never used) to Swiss parents in Le Havre, France, he initially studied harmony with Robert-Charles Martin (to whom he dedicated his first published work) and violin in Le Havre. He then moved to Switzerland, where he spent two years (September 1909 – June 1911) at the Zurich Conservatory being taught by Lothar Kempter and Friedrich Hegar. In 1911, he enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire from 1911 to 1918 (except for a brief period during the winter of 1914–1915, when he was mobilised in Switzerland), studying with Charles-Marie Widor, Lucien Capet, André Gédalge and Vincent d'Indy. Gédalge encouraged him to compose and Honegger announced his decision to become a composer in a letter to his parents dated 28 April 1915. He then praised his teacher Gédalge and his Traité de la fugue (1904), "the most complete work ever written on the subject". Gédalge taught his pupils the craft while respecting their ideas and personalities, he went on, and added that while some teachers trained their pupils well to succeed in competitions, "the most advanced musicians in terms of modern spirit were Gédalge's pupils".
Among his notable early works are his Six Poèmes d'Apollinaire (poems from Alcools), premiered in 1916 and 1918; 'Hommage à Ravel' from the Trois pièces pour piano (1915); Quatre Poèmes H. 7 (1914–1916); Trois Poèmes de Paul Fort (1916); his very Debussian Prélude pour Aglavaine et Sélysette (inspired by Maurice Maeterlinck's play: the prelude was premiered at the orchestral class in 1917, with a public premiere in 1920); Le Dit des Jeux du monde, commissioned in April 1918 by the Belgian poet Paul Méral, premiered by Walther Straram at Jane Bathori's Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, in December 1918 (Composed of thirteen short pieces that at times evoke Schönberg, this work dedicated to Fernand Ochsé, "caused a scandal comparable in every way to those of The Rite of Spring or of Parade"); Le Chant de Nigamon (1918, public premiere by the Orchestre Pasdeloup in 1920: his first symphonic piece, inspired by Gustave Aimard's adventure novel Le Souriquet with Native American themes (thanks to Julien Tiersot's Notes d'ethnographie musicale); his first String Quartet, "the composer's first fully accomplished masterpiece" (Halbreich 1992, p. 311) premiered in 1919 by the Quatuor Capelle; music for Vérité ? Mensonge ?, a ballet by André Hellé: four out of the ten tableaux were premiered at the Salon d'automne, on 25 November 1920, with Yvonne Daunt; and in 1920–1921 Pastorale d'été premiered by Vladimir Golschmann.
While at the conservatoire, Honegger befriended Jacques Ibert, then Milhaud, and then met Germaine Tailleferre and later Georges Auric as well as the pianist Andrée Vaurabourg. The first concert of the Nouveaux Jeunes took place at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier on 15 January 1918: Jane Bathori and Andrée Vaurabourg gave the Six Poèmes d'Apollinaire (now complete for the first time). Roland-Manuel was present, Halbreich notes that he might well have been one of the Six, as well as Jacques Ibert. Those who would later be known as "Les Six" wanted to create a fresh, French style of composition. Honegger was far from blending in with the group as his style was somewhat more serious ("I don't have a cult for street fairs or the music-hall", he wrote in a letter to Paul Landormy) and complex. Nevertheless, this association was important in establishing his reputation in the Parisian music scene. Honegger collaborated with the other members of Les Six only in 1920 (with a short 'Sarabande' for L'Album des Six), and 1921 (with a 'Marche funèbre' for Les mariés de la tour Eiffel, and finally in 1952 (with a 'Toccata' for La Guirlande de Campra).
Honegger's Sonata for cello and piano H. 32 composed in 1920 was premiered in 1921 by Diran Alexanian and Andrée Varabourg; Halbreich says that it "should be part of every cellist's repertoire" (Halbreich 1992, p. 330). He also wrote Danse de la chèvre (1921), which has become a staple in the flute repertoire. The work is dedicated to René Le Roy and written for solo flute.
Loie Fuller danced on three of the dances of Le Dit des Jeux du monde early in 1921. Also in 1921 Ernest Ansermet conducted the avant-garde music of the ballet-pantomime Horace victorieux in Lausanne (in a concert version). It evokes the fight of the Horatii and Curiatii and concludes with Camilla's death. Still in 1921, René Morax commissioned Honegger to write Le Roi David: he completed his score in two months, and on 11 June the 'dramatic psalm' (written as incidental music) was triumphantly received. On 13 March 1924, Honegger shot to fame when the French version re-orchestrated for large orchestra of Le Roi David was performed in Paris under the baton of Robert Siohan. It is still in the choral repertoire. "Making Le Roi David into an oratorio [or a 'psaume symphonique'] is one of the key events in the musical life of the first half of the 20th century," musicologist Mathieu Ferey wrote in the booklet for the recording of Le roi David by Daniel Reuss (Mirare). In this version, the spoken voices are replaced by a narrator, but the instrumentation remains the same: the work is written for the seventeen instruments available at the Théâtre du Jorat: no strings except for a double bass, winds, percussion, piano, harmonium and celesta. It was conducted by Georges Martin Witkowski in Lyon in January 1923 and is still played and recorded today.
Honegger's works were played in the US from 1921 when Rudolph Ganz directed Horace and Pastorale d'été.
In 1922, Honegger became one of the first major composers (after Camille Saint-Saëns) to write music specifically for films. His score (of which only the 'Ouverture' remains) for the silent film "La Roue" (1923) by Abel Gance marked the beginning of his long involvement with film music. 1922 He had met Gance through the French writer Ricciotto Canudo, an advocate of cinema as the "Seventh Art". He worked for Gance again in 1927 for Napoleon and in 1943 for Captain Fracasse.
1922 is also the year Honegger lost his mother (in February) and father (in September).
In 1923, Honegger composed a short piece which was to become one of his most often recorded works: Pacific 231, for the Concerts Koussevitzky at the Opéra de Paris in May 1924 – although Serge Koussevitzky was already music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The music captures the interest of the casual music lover as it mimics the sounds and motion of a steam locomotive – Honegger said "I have always loved locomotives passionately. For me they are living creatures…" but for the composer, the main point was to "giv[e] the impression of a mathematical acceleration of rhythm, while the movement itself slows down.""
Chanson de Ronsard H.54 (on Ronsard's 'Plus tu connais que je brûle pour toi', composed to mark the 450th anniversary of the poet's birth, exists in a version for voice and piano (premiered by Claire Croiza, 1924), and above all for voice, flute and string quartet (Régine de Lormoy, 1925).
Another significant work was "Judith" for René Morax's play, which continued his interest in religious themes. It was premiered as a biblical drama in December 1924 or January 1925 at the Théâtre du Jorat, then reworked as an "opéra sérieux" (1926, Monte-Carlo), and finally became an oratorio (1927, Rotterdam). It is dedicated to Claire Croiza (the mother of his son Jean-Claude, 1926–2003) who sang the part of Judith in the first version. Halbreich (p. 550) says that "Judith is full of marvellous, inspired music although the whole piece is imperfect."
In 1922, Honegger had written a very brief piece of incidental music for Jean Cocteau's Antigone based on the tragedy by Sophocles. The composer then developed it between 1924 and 1927 for the opera Antigone which premiered on 28 December 1927 at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie under Maurice Corneil de Thoran's baton, with sets designed by Pablo Picasso and costumes by Coco Chanel. It is dedicated to "Vaura" : Andrée Vaurabourg and is, according to Halbreich “the most arduous and least accessible of Honegger's works”, but according to Lacombe, “the most technically accomplished” and “Honegger's most important opera”.