The name of Mel Bonis is gradually becoming more familiar to lovers of classical music. And that’s nothing less than this little-known but gifted composer, whose rare talents were almost quashed by her grave personal and artistic struggles, deserves.
Who was Mel Bonis?
Mélanie Hélène Bonis (January 21, 1858-March 18, 1937) was a French composer active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She composed more than 300 works across a range of forms, including orchestral and chamber music, solo piano music, sacred and choral music and songs. Mel Bonis’s compositions have a lyrical, expressive style, that draws on both the Impressionistic idiom that inspired the likes of Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and the Romantic movement in music.
A child prodigy
Mélanie Bonis was born in Paris to a middle-class family. She showed a gift for music from very early on, but received no encouragement from her parents, who did not view a musical career as suitable for a woman. So the young Mélanie taught herself piano until the age of 12. It took an intervention from a family friend before Mélanie’s parents were persuaded that their daughter could realistically pursue formal musical education.
At 12, she began private music lessons, and at 16 got herself admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris, where her teachers included the composer César Franck. She also befriended composers including Debussy and Gabriel Pierné. Despite excelling at her studies, Mel Bonis faced challenges because of her gender in a conservative society where women composers were not taken seriously.
Hiding in plain sight
While studying at the Conservatoire, she also fell in love with a singing student, Amédée Landély Hettich, but unfortunately her parents opposed the match, and forced her to leave the Conservatoire. Soon after, the young Mélanie was forced into a marriage with a man some 20 years her senior.
As if the age gap weren’t disastrous enough, Mélanie’s husband, the wealthy industrialist Albert Domange, showed no interest in music or in his young wife’s musical ambitions. The young Mel Bonis was actively discouraged from pursuing a career in music.
Despite these challenges, Bonis continued to compose, although much of her output remained unknown during her lifetime. After the birth of her children, she returned to composing, especially piano works, chamber music, and songs.
Tellingly, she published her works under the gender-neutral name ‘Mel Bonis’ to avoid the inevitable prejudice against women composers. A career in music composition was still not viewed as a viable or respectable option for a woman in bourgeois 19th-century France, and Mel Bonis was obliged to nurture her talents in some form of secrecy.
A secret passion
A happier chapter in Mel Bonis’s life came when she was reunited with her youthful sweetheart, Amédée Hettich. He encouraged her to compose once more: and the two also had a secret affair. Mel gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Madeleine, by Hettich.
Madeleine was looked after by a former chambermaid and grew up with no knowledge of who her mother was. However, after the death of her foster mother, she began to spend more time with Bonis, who took her in as an orphan victim during World War I and introduced her as a goddaughter. Mel was forced to reveal their secret years later when, incredibly, her secret daughter fell in love with Amédée Hettich’s son – her own half-brother, although she was totally unaware of this!
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The music of Mel Bonis: Impressionism and rich melodies
So much for her turbulent personal life. But what does Mel Bonis’s music sound like?
Well, listen to her chamber music, piano music and more and you’ll hear finely crafted, beautiful melodies, and a blend of styles including Romanticism and early Impressionism. Listen to the music of Mel Bonis and you can probably hear echoes of her contemporaries and compatriots such as Fauré, Debussy, and Saint-Saëns. She definitely has, though, her own very distinct and beguiling musical voice.
A good place to start with Mel Bonis is probably her piano music. Several of her piano pieces are generally reckonedc among her finest works, including ‘Suite en forme de Valse’ (which exists in solo piano, piano four hands as you can hear below, and orchestral guises) and ‘Gavotte’ showcase her graceful touch and her ability to write lyrical yet technically challenging music.
Best of Mel Bonis: three works to try
You might want to try the following compositions by Mel Bonis:
Scènes de la Forêt. This chamber music work is scored for the not especially common combination of flute, horn and piano. As its name suggests, it evokes the sights and sounds of the forest.
Femmes de Légende: Three Pieces for Orchestra. Each of the movements in this three-piece suite is named after, and inspired by, a notable female figure from history: the Old Testament’s Salome, Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra.
Sonata for Violin and Piano. An emotional, romantic, wild rollercoaster of a violin sonata, memorably performed by American violinist Elena Urioste and her husband, pianist Tom Poster at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2023.
Mel Bonis displays a great sensitivity to timbre and colour in her works, much like the Impressionistic soundscapes of Debussy and Ravel. She also has a gift for a memorable, song-like melody.
Rediscovering Mel Bonis
You won’t be surprised, by now, to learn that Mel Bonis did not receive the recognition that she deserved (or that her male contemporaries were getting) during her own lifetime. Much of her output languished in obscurity while she was alive, and for many decades afterwards.
Since the end of the 20th century, however, we’ve seen a steady growth of interest in her music, as we have for the music of many other previously marginalised female composers such as Clara Schumann, Amy Beach, Rebecca Clarke and Ethel Smyth to name but four. Scholars and performers have begun to uncover and champion her extensive body of work, resulting in more frequent performances and recordings.
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Bonis’s music is now getting the appreciation that its lyrical beauty, emotional depth and timbral and harmonic adventurousness deserve for it. Now, Mel Bonis is widely recognised as one of the most significant female composers of her era.
Mel Bonis faced great challenges during her lifetime, both as a woman and as a composer. Her tenacity, and her continuing ability to craft beautiful, emotionally rewarding music throughout her struggles, are a a testament to both the challenges faced by women in music and to the enduring power of creative expression.