Blanche Selva

Blanche Selva
Marie Blanche Selva (Catalan Blanca Selva
i Henry, 29 January 1884 – 3 December
1942) was a French pianist, music
educator, writer and composer of Spanish
origin.

Biography
Blanche Selva was born in Brive-la-
Gaillarde in Corrèze. As a child she studied
piano with a number of teachers, took
preparatory classes with Sophie Chéné,
and was admitted to the Paris
Conservatory in 1893.[1] She studied with
S. Chéné and won a medal in competition,
but left the Conservatory without
graduating.

Her family moved to Geneva, and Selva

began giving concerts at the age of 13 in
Lausanne. She studied with Vincent d'Indy
in Valencia, and became a professor at the
Schola Cantorum de Paris in December
1901, later taking positions at the
Conservatoire de Strasbourg, the École
Normale de Musique in Paris, and the
Prague Conservatory. Blanche Selva was
the only French pianist of her time to
specialise in Czech music, and she was
consequently very popular in
Czechoslovakia.[2] She continued to tour
and work as a concert pianist in Europe.[3]
By the age of 20 she had performed all of
J.S. Bach's keyboard works in 17
recitals.[2] Between 1906 and 1909 she
premiered all four books of Isaac Albéniz's
piano suite Iberia.

In January 1925 Selva moved to

Barcelona, where she founded her own
music school and performed in a duo with
violinist Joan Massià. In 1930 she
developed a paralysis that ended her
performing career, but she continued
teaching, writing and composing.
In 1936 she left Barcelona because of the
Spanish Civil War and lived for a while in
Marseille, then Moulins, Allier, and Saint-
Saturnin, Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne.
Suffering from cancer, she entered a
hospital in Saint-Amant-Tallende, where
she died in December 1942 at age 59.[4]

Writings
Blanche Selva was active as a translator
and transcriptionist, and published several
texts on piano technique, including:
 Music Teaching of Piano Technique (7
volumes), Paris from 1916 to 1925

She also published professional articles in

magazines and journals including
Tablettes de la Schola, Le Monde Musical,
La Revue Musicale and Le Revista Musical
Catalana. Selected articles include:

"The Sonata, Study of its historical and

expressive for the interpretation and
hearing", Paris 1913
"Sonatas by Beethoven", Barcelona 1927
"Monograph on Déodat de Séverac",
Paris 1930
Works
Selected compositions include:

Music for piano/organ

Paysage au soleil couchant (1904)

Suite (Prélude, Allemande, Courante,
Burla, Chanson, Farandole) for piano
(1904)
Cloches dans la brume for piano (1905)
Cloches au soleil for piano (1905)
Pièces for piano (1908)
Petite pièce for organ (1908)
 La Vasque aux Colombes (1921)
Primers Jocs for piano (1931)
Le jeu du pentacorde qui vole, exercise
for piano (1940)
Transcriptions pour piano d'œuvres de
Vincent d'Indy et César Franck (1910–
1912)

Vocal and choral music

Les Ancêtres du Lys (1905)

Rosaire d'après Francis Jammes (1906)
Venez sous la tonnelle d'après Francis
Jammes (1908)
 Muntanya blava for voice and piano
(1928)
Mes de Maria for voice and piano (1929)
Dix mélodies sur des poèmes catalans
(1935)
La Farigola (1926)
El Tronc (1929)
Quicumque Enim Spiritu Dei Aguntur
(1929)
Pensament Matinal (1931)
O Fleurs des fleurs d'après Blanche Selva
(1939)

Chamber and orchestral music

 La Nit de la Purissima (1929)
Quatre pièces pour violon et piano (1934)
Poème de la Resureccio ou Oratorio
pascal (manuscript lost, 1938)

Recordings
Selva's works have been recorded and
issued on CD, including:

Blanche Selva, une promenade musicale

(Blanche Selva Association and the
Centre International Albert Roussel)
Malibran-Music (Association and
Blanche Selva 2002).
References
1. French pianism: a historical
perspective Charles Timbrell - 1999
"Instead, she left that school at age
eleven, after winning a first medal in
the preparatory class of Sophie Chene.
After studying harmony in Geneva, she
began her distinguished performing
career at age thirteen. She taught at
the Schola Cantorum.. "
2. Grove's Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, 5th ed., 1954, Vol. VII, p.
695
 3. Randel, Don Michael (1996). The
Harvard biographical dictionary of
music .
4. "Biographie" . Retrieved 7 November
2010.

External links
Free scores by Blanche Selva at the
International Music Score Library
Project (IMSLP)

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