View source for Élie-Miriam Delaborde

{{Short description|French pianist and composer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Élie-Miriam Delaborde
| image              = Eraïm Miriam Delaborde pianiste.png
| caption            = between 1875 and 1895
| birth_name         = Eraïm-Miriam Delaborde
| birth_date         = 7 February 1839
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1913|12|9|1839|2|7|df=y}}
| burial_place       = Père Lachaise Cemetery
| occupation         = Pianist and composer
| mother             = Lina Eraïm Miriam
| father             = [[Charles-Valentin Alkan]]
}}
'''Élie-Miriam Delaborde''' (born '''Eraïm-Miriam Delaborde'''; 7 February 1839{{spaced ndash}}9 December 1913) was a French virtuoso pianist and composer. He was also renowned as a player of the [[pedal piano]].
==Early life==
His birth was registered under the name of his mother Lina Eraïm Miriam, aged 38, of [[Nantes]], and an unnamed father.<ref name="alksoc">{{cite web|url=http://alkansociety.org/Publications/Society-Bulletins/bulletin04.pdf|title=Société Alkan, Bulletin 4, March 1987|accessdate=26 October 2018}}</ref> Delaborde was generally believed to be the illegitimate son of the composer and pianist [[Charles-Valentin Alkan]] and one of his high-class married pupils.<ref name=alksociety>{{cite web|url=http://alkansociety.org/Publications/Society-Bulletins/Bulletin75.pdf|title=Alkan Society Bulletin No. 75, April 2007|accessdate=26 October 2018}}</ref> Delaborde was the maiden name of Antoinette, mother of [[George Sand]], the author and sometime lover of Alkan's friend [[Frédéric Chopin]]. Some writers have seen some significance in this. Alkan's withdrawal from public life had also coincided with the birth and upbringing of Delaborde. Alkan and Delaborde also shared several similarities such as their similar skill in playing the pedal piano and both of them being parrot enthusiasts.<ref name=eddie/> It was claimed that the pianist [[Isidor Philipp]] averred that Delaborde detested his father,<ref>Smith (2002), II, 28.</ref> but this seems doubtful as Delaborde played Alkan's music and edited his works.
==Career==
He was a pupil of Alkan, [[Franz Liszt]], [[Ignaz Moscheles]], and [[Adolf von Henselt]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pratt |first1=Waldo Selden |title=The New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians |date=1924 |publisher=Macmillan |location=University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |page=309 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cN5RAQAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref> He made successful tours of England, Germany and Russia, and travelled with [[Henri Vieuxtemps]] and [[Henryk Wieniawski]].<ref name=alksoc/> In Spring of 1871, during the [[Franco-Prussian War]], he escaped from France to London with his 121 [[parrot]]s and [[cockatoo]]s, as well as two pet [[monkeys]].<ref name=eddie/><ref name=CWeber2018/>{{rp|146}} One of these monkeys he named Isadora, in honor of Isidor Philipp.<ref name=alksoc/> In 1873 he was appointed professor at the [[Conservatoire de Paris]], where his pupils included [[Olga Samaroff]] (one-time wife of [[Leopold Stokowski]]),<ref name=eddie>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7o6ps01rGxYC&pg=PA7|title=Charles Valentin Alkan: His Life and His Music|first=William Alexander|last=Eddie|date=26 October 2018|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=9781840142600|page=7}}</ref> [[Aline van Barentzen]], and Marie Poitevin, the dedicatee of [[César Franck]]'s ''[[Prelude, Chorale and Fugue (Franck)|Prelude, Chorale and Fugue]]''.<ref>Timbrell, Charles. French pianism: a historical perspective. United States, Amadeus Press, 1999.</ref>
==Personal life==
Delaborde was a fencer, a passionate athlete, a bon vivant and a ladies' man. He also painted under the pseudonym "Miriam", and was a close friend of [[Édouard Manet]].<ref name=alksociety/> [[Camille Saint-Saëns]]' [[Piano Concerto No. 3 (Saint-Saëns)|Piano Concerto No. 3]] was dedicated to Delaborde.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ov6znsHlhboC&pg=PA38|title=The Pianist's Dictionary|first=Maurice|last=Hinson|date=26 October 2018|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0253216823}}</ref> He was in the circle of [[Pauline Viardot]], [[Ivan Turgenev]] and [[Ernest Guiraud]].
===Affairs===
Delaborde was also a close friend of [[Georges Bizet]] and his wife, [[Geneviève Halévy|Geneviève]]. Delaborde may have been indirectly responsible for Bizet's death, which followed a swimming competition between the two, as a result of which Bizet caught a chill.<ref>Minna Curtis, ''Bizet and his world'', 1958, p. 369-70, p. 418</ref> After Bizet's death, Delaborde formed an alliance with Geneviève. Scholars have speculated that Delaborde and Geneviève were having an affair even before Bizet's death.<ref name=CWeber2018>Weber, Caroline. Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siecle Paris. United States, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2018.</ref> The two had signed a marriage contract in August 1876, but they never got married.<ref name= Bizet>Macdonald, Hugh. Bizet. United Kingdom, Oxford University Press, 2014.</ref> In 1901 he became engaged to a much younger pupil, but it also failed to result in marriage.<ref name=alksoc/>
==Death==
Delaborde died on 9 December 1913, aged 74, and was buried at [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]] on 11 December.<ref name=alksoc/>
==Compositions==
His compositions included a youthful opera ''Maître Martin'',<ref name=alksoc/> the opéra-comique ''La Reine dort'', the overture ''Attila'', preludes, studies and fantasies for piano (including a ''Grande Fantaise'' on Bizet's ''[[Carmen]]''),<ref>[http://www.artfact.com/auction-lot/delaborde-eraim-miriam-grande-fantaisie-de-1-c-51eac75623 Artfact]</ref> a piano quintet, and songs. There is also a ''Scherzetto'' for chromatic harp.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WxrrQiB4U9cC&pg=PA161|title=Debussy and the Veil of Tonality: Essays on His Music|first=Mark|last=DeVoto|date=26 October 2018|publisher=Pendragon Press|isbn=9781576470909|page=161}}</ref> He also edited some of Alkan's music.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.free-scores.com/boutique/Alkan_sheet_music_Charles-Valentin-Alkan_scores.htm|title=Buy Sheet Music Alkan|website=free-scores.com|accessdate=26 October 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.masters-music.com/detail.php?r=11887|title=Ludwig Masters Publications|accessdate=26 October 2018}}</ref>
Delaborde's output is significant, but minimal attention has been given to his works. The first acoustic recording in history of one of Delaborde's compositions was ''Étude d'après une petite Valse de V. Dolmetsch'', recorded by [[Vincenzo Maltempo]] in 2014, as a part of the Rarities of Piano Music at the "Schloss vor Husum" Festival.
===Selected other works===
* Cadence pour le Finale du concerto pour clavecin en ré mineur de J. S. Bach (1872)
* Cadence sur l'Allegro du Concerto en sol, op. 58 de Beethoven. Piano (1878)
* Etudes La bémol majeur (1889)
* Etudes de concert. Piano. La bémol majeur. No 2 (1872)
* Exercices de lecture. Piano. Op. 14, no 4 (1887)
* Étude d'après une petite Valse de {{ill|V. Dolmetsch|nl|Victor Dolmetsch}} (1889)
* Fantaisies from 'Carmen' Op. 8 . [Bizet] (1879)
* Impromptu-valse Ré bémol majeur (1872)
* Ouverture d'Attila (4 mains) (1879)
* Paraphrase on Bundeslied Op. 122 [Beethoven] (1872)
* Petite marche villageoise (1872)
* Prélude. Harpe ou piano. Do majeur (1903)
* Préludes Op. 13
* Promenade de noctambules (1889)
* Scherzetto. Harpe ou piano. Fa majeur (1903)
* Transcriptions. Scherzetto. Symphonie. [Marmontel] (1879)
* Menuet from 'L'Arlésienne' [Bizet] (1873)
* Trois pièces pour harpe chromatique (système G. Lyon) ou piano (1903)
* Valse de concert. Harpe ou piano. Ré bémol majeur (1903)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://data.bnf.fr/14812958/eraim_miriam_delaborde/|title=Eraïm Miriam Delaborde (1839-1913) - Author - Resources from the BnF|website=data.bnf.fr|accessdate=26 October 2018}}</ref>
==Sources==
* Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed, 1954.
* Smith, Ronald (2000), ''Alkan, the Man, the Music'', 2 vols in 1, London: Averill and Kahn.
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* {{IMSLP|id=Delaborde, Elie Miriam|cname=Elie Miriam Delaborde}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delaborde, Elie-Miriam}}
[[Category:1839 births]]
[[Category:1913 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century French male classical pianists]]
[[Category:Pedal piano players]]
[[Category:19th-century French composers]]
[[Category:French male composers]]
[[Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery]]
[[Category:Musicians from Paris]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris]]
[[Category:Pupils of Franz Liszt]]