Florent Schmitt, photographed in the early 1920s. (Photo: Lipnitzki/Roger-Viollet)
For many decades, anyone who might have been interested in exploring the artistry of French composer Florent Schmitt was confronted by a scarcity of resources.
It started with recordings; until the early 1970s, the number of commercial recordings of Schmitt’s music totaled fewer than 25 — and some of those dated back to the 78-rpm era.
Circumstances would begin to change in the decades to follow. Thanks to steady progress, we are now blessed to have three-fourths of Florent Schmitt’s extensive catalogue of compositions available for us to hear, whether in physical media or in download/streaming form.
A sampling of Florent Schmitt recordings released on CD.
As for access to Schmitt’s music scores, thanks to the composer’s long and fruitful relationship with Durand, his main publisher, his music has remained in the catalogue more or less continuously throughout the six decades following his death. Thus, musicians interested in exploring Schmitt’s works have found this to be a relatively easy mission.
A French postage stamp commemorating Florent Schmitt, issued at the composer’s birthplace in Lorraine in 1992.
Not so with biographies or other books devoted to the composer. Considering his universally acknowledged importance during what was arguably France’s “Golden Age” of classical music (the period from 1890 to 1950), the paucity of written material on Florent Schmitt is as surprising as it is disappointing.
Moreover, most books about Schmitt have been published in French only, making scholarly research on the part of non-native speakers even more of a challenge.
Three great composers from France’s “Golden Age” of classical music (Bleu Nuit biography series).
[The lack of information about Florent Schmitt that existed in the English language was one of the key motivations behind the launch of the Florent Schmitt Website + Blog in 2012, and the positive reception the site has received in the years since is undoubtedly due — at least in part — to providing informational resources about the composer in English.]
Despite these challenges, a number of significant books devoted in whole or in part to the artistry Florent Schmitt have been published. Most date back many decades and are long out-of-print. But in the era of the Internet and “e-commerce everywhere,” I’ve found that many of them are easy to track down and purchase from online antiquarian booksellers. Moreover, some of the volumes have been digitally scanned and are available to download (free or at a nominal charge).
For those who are interested in delving further into the composer’s life and artistry, I recommend exploring the resources below (listed in chronological order by their original date of publication):
Musiciens français d’Aujourd’hui
Author: Octave Séré (Jean Poueigh)
Mercure de France, Paris
1912
In French
La Musique française moderne: Quinze musiciens français
Author: André Coeuroy
Librairie Delagrave, Paris
1922
In French
Cinquante ans de musique française de 1874 à 1925
Vol. 1 Authors: Louis Laloy; Henry Malherbe, Jacques Brindejont-Offenbach; Émile Vuillermoz
Vol. 2 Authors: Raymond Charpentier; George Chepfer; André Coeuroy; René Dumesnil; Pierre Hermant; Charles Koechlin; Henry Prunières
Editions musicales de la Librairie de France, Paris
1925
In French
L
‘Autour de Florent Schmitt
Author: Pierre-Octave Ferroud
Durand & Cie., Paris
1927
In French
La Musique française de piano, Vol. 2
Author: Alfred Cortot
Les Éditeurs Rieder, Paris
1932
In French
L’Initiation a la musique
Authors: Georges Chepfer; Maurice Emmanuel; Reynaldo Hahn; Paul Landormy; Hugues Panassié; Dominique Sordet; Émile Vuillermoz; Maurice Yvain
Éditions du Tambourinaire, Paris
1935
In French
Florent Schmitt
Authors: Louis Aubert; Henry Barraud; Hélène Pignari-Salles
L’Art Musical, Paris
1937
In French
Dix-sept ans de musique à Paris — 1922-1939
Author: Piero Coppola
Librairie F.Rouge et cie., S.A., Lausanne
1943
In French
La Musique en France entre les deux guerres — 1919-1939
Author: René Dumesnil
Éditions du Milieu du Monde, Genève – Paris – Montréal
1946
In French
Musiciens de mon temps: Chroniques et souvenirs
Author: Gustave Samazeuilh
Editions Marcel Daubin, Paris
1947
In French
La Musique française après Debussy
Author: Paul Landormy
Éditions Gallimard, Paris
1948
In French
Les Français sont-ils musiciens ?
Author: Bernard Gavoty
Éditions des Conquistador, Paris
1950
In French
Florent Schmitt: L’Homme et l’artiste … son epoque et son oeuvre
Author: Yves Hucher
Éditions le Bon Plaiser, Paris
1953
In French
Mes Amis musiciens
Author: Hélène Jourdan-Morhange
Les Éditeurs Français Réunis, Paris
1955
In French
Pour ou contre la Musique moderne ?
Authors: Bernard Gavoty; Daniel Lesur
Flammarion, Paris
1957
In French
Florent Schmitt
Author: Madeleine Marceron
Éditions Vantadour, Paris
1959
In French
La Musique adoucit les mœurs ? (L’Art du temps)
Author: Bernard Gavoty (“Clarendon”)
Éditions Gallimard, Paris
1959
In French
Notice sur la vie et les travaux de Florent Schmitt
Author: M. Emmanuel Bondeville
Académie des Beaux-Arts, Institute de France, Paris
1959
In French
L’Oeuvre de Florent Schmitt
Author: Yves Hucher
Durand & Cie., Paris
1960
In French with partial English translation by Raymond Berthier
Florent Schmitt: Précurseur et contestataire
Author: M. Emmanuel Bondeville
Académie des Beaux-Arts, Institute de France, Paris
1970
In French
Les musiciens et les Hauts-de-Seine
Author: Bertrand Pouradier Duteil
Sogemo, Boulogne-Billancourt, France
1991
In French
Villa-Lobos: Collected Studies by L. M. Peppercorn
Author: Lisa M. Peppercorn
Scolar Press, Aldershot, Hants, UK; Ashgate Publishing Company, Brookfield, VT
1992
In English, French, Italian, Portuguese
Rowley Rediscovered: The Life and Music of Alex Rowley
Author: Beryl Kington
Thames Publishing, London
1993
In English
L’avant-garde musicale à Paris de 1871 à 1939
Author: Michel Duchesneau
Pierre Mardaga, Sprimont, Belgium
1997
In French
Frederick Delius: Music, Art and Literature
Authors: Lionel Carley [Ed.]; David Eccott
Ashgate Publishing, Farnham, UK
1998
In English
Pierre Dervaux, ou le paradoxe du chef d’orchestre
Author: Gérard Streletski
L’Archipel, Montréal
2002
In French
The Composer as Intellectual: Music and Ideology in France, 1914-1940
Author: Jane F. Fulcher
Oxford University Press, Oxford UK – New York, NY
2005
In English
Maurice Duruflé: The Man and His Music
Author: James E. Frazier
University of Rochester Press, Rochester, NY
2007
In English
Musique et chorégraphie en France de Léo Delibes à Florent Schmitt
Authors: Jean-Christophe Branger; Alban Ramaut [Eds.]
Publications de l’Université de Saint-Etienne, France
2010
In French
Florent Schmitt
Author: Catherine Lorent
Bleu Nuit Éditeur, Paris
2012
In French
A Fragile Consensus: Music and Ultra-Modernism in France, 1913-1939
Author: Barbara L. Kelly
Boydell Press, Woodbridge, Suffolk UK – Rochester, NY
2013
In English
Perspectives on the Performance of French Piano Music
Authors: Lesley A. Wright; Scott McCarrey
Routledge, London
2014
In English
Felix Aprahamian: Diaries and Selected Writings on Music
Authors: Lewis Foreman; Susan Foremen [Eds.]
Boydell Press, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK
2015
In English
A French Touch: Rediscovering a Uniquely French Symphonic Repertoire
Author: Nicolas Southon
Éditions Durand-Salabert-Eschig (Universal Music Publishing Classical), Paris
2016
In English and French
Music Criticism in France, 1918-1939: Authority, Advocacy, Legacy
Authors: Barbara L. Kelly; Christopher Moore [Eds.]
Boydell Press, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK
2018
In English
From Berlioz to Boulez
Author: Roger Nichols
Kahn & Averill, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, UK
2022
In English
_________________
In addition to the volumes listed above, we are seeing an increasing number of PhD and Masters dissertations and research papers being published that focus on particular compositions of Florent Schmitt or other aspects of his artistry. Below is a partial listing of such documents listed alphabetically by author, along with links to view or download them:
Bennet, Christophe: French Musical Broadcasting from 1925 to 1939 (2015)
Bogert, Nathan Bancroft: Le Saxophone: La Voix de la musique moderne (2008)
Cole, Megan Varvir: Composing Symbolism’s Musicality of Language in fin-de-siècle France (2016)
Collins, Christopher Guy: Manuel de Falla and his European Contemporaries: Encounters, Relationships and Influences (2002)
Copping, Roxanne C.: Composers and the Ballets Russes — Convention, Innovation and Evolution as Seen Through the Lesser-Known Works (2016)
Deane, Jesse G.: A Comparative Study of Selected Saxophone Quartet Repertoire from the Mule, Rascher and Apollo Saxophone Quartets Between 1928 and 1995 (2011)
Fléchet, Anaïs: Un Brésilien à Paris (2004)
Forward, David William: The Keyboard Repertory as a Reflector of Art Nouveau in Music (1993)
Gustar, Andrew James: The Closest Thing to Crazy: The Shocking Scarcity of Septuple Time in Western Music (2012)
Hamer, Laura Ann: Musiciennes: Women Musicians in France during the Interwar Years, 1919-1939 (2009)
Harrison, Jane Ellen: Fashionable Innovation: Debussysme in Early Twentieth Century France (2011)
Hayes, Susan Nanette: Chamber Music in France Featuring Flute and Soprano (1850-1950) and a Study of the Interactions Among the Leading Flutists, Sopranos, Composers, Artists and Literary Figures of the Time (2006)
Janda, Diane: Dionysiaques, Op. 62: An Original Composition for Band by Florent Schmitt (1993)
Keck, Thomas B.: A Critical Edition Full Score of Florent Schmitt’s Hymne funèbre for Contemporary Wind Band, Four-Part Mixed Ensemble and Tenor Solo (2011)
Keith, C. David: The Sacred Choral Music of Gian Francesco Malipiero and Florent Schmitt (1992)
Laine, Eric: Storytelling in a Post-Tonal World: Narrative Trajectory via Motivic Development in ‘La citerne des mille colonnes’ from Florent Schmitt’s Trois Chants, Op. 98 (2020)
Leal, Cesar A.: Re-Thinking Paris at the fin-de-siècle: A New Vision of Parisian Musical Culture from the Perspective of Gabriel Astruc (1854-1938) (2014)
Maes, Lloyd Rodney: The Choral Style of Florent Schmitt (1983)
McCarrey, Scott: Florent Schmitt and Maurice Ravel: Measured Time from the Turn of the Century (2014)
Paré-Morin, Tristan: Sounding Nostalgia in Post-World War I Paris (2019)
Rao, Arun: Pierrots fâchés avec la lune: Debussy, Fauré and Ravel during World War I (2013)
Rife, Jerry Edwin: A Study of the Early Twentieth Century Compositional Style of Florent Schmitt Based on an Examination of Psaume XLVII and La Tragédie de Salomé (1986)
Rogers, Jillian Corinne: Grieving Through Music in Interwar France: Maurice Ravel and His Circle, 1914-1934 (2014)
de Savage, Heather: The American Reception of Gabriel Fauré, from Francophile Boston (1892-1945) to the Broader Postwar Mainstream (2015)
Seto, Mark: Symphonic Culture in Paris, 1880-1900: The Bande à Franck and Beyond (2012)
Shannon, Eric Christopher: Florent Schmitt and the Lied et scherzo (2015)
Sharp, Chris: A Study of Orchestration Techniques for the Wind Ensemble/Wind Band as Demonstrated in Seminal Works (2011)
Smith, Virginia Gayle: Impressionism in French Piano Music (1948)
Szulakowska-Kulawik, Jolanta: Interferences of the Waves of Exoticism in French Music: Exotic Post-Impressionism in Selected Works by Charles Koechlin and Florent Schmitt (2016)
Tyrväinen, Helena: ‘Excellent pupil, much future’: The Paris Conservatoire Teachers’ Remarks on their Pupils, End of the 19th Century (2017)
Wiggins, Timothy D.: Analytical Research of Wind Band Core Repertoire (1985)
Note: Additions or corrections to the information resources listed above are welcomed.