Marthe BRACQUEMOND

Married to Alfred-Michel Angot between 1920 and 1924, then to Albert-Maurice Henriot from 1932 onwards, Marthe Bracquemond is referred to by several different surnames in the rare sources that mention her. However, it seems more appropriate to employ her birth name, which she herself preferred to use in concerts. That surname also guaranteed her a certain prestige, since it evoked a distinguished line of Parisian painters. Her grandparents – Félix (1833-1914) and Marie (1840-1916) – and her father Pierre (1870-1926) were associates of the Impressionist movement. Journalists and music writers attribute various teachers to her, namely Charles-Marie Widor, Henri Busser, Marcel Dupré and Nadia Boulanger. This information is difficult to verify. It is certain, however, that she had private lessons with Louis Vierne from an early age. A reputable organist and harpsichordist – soloist with the Concerts Pasdeloup and titular organist of the Reformed Church in the rue Cortambert in Paris (1937-62) – Marthe Bracquemond seems a priori to have composed at two distinct periods. During the 1920s, she published a cycle of Trois Mélodies and a number of chamber works; after that, new compositions appear only after 1950, in the shape of church music (for organ or chorus) and a Sonatine for flute (1954). Her final works were scores for the films Patatras (1960), Le Coq et nous (1965) and La Petite Fleur d’or (1966).