Charlotte Sohy

Charlotte Sohy was born Charlotte Durey in Paris in 1887 into a wealthy family of the industrial bourgeoisie who practised the arts. Aware of the difficulties faced by female composers, she used a pseudonym, the name of her maternal grandfather, Charles Sohy. Initially a student of the conductor and composer Georges Marty for piano and harmony, she then studied at the Schola Cantorum: organ with Alexandre Guilmant and then Louis Vierne, and composition with Vincent d'Indy. It was at the Schola that she met her future husband, Marcel Labey, conductor and composer. They married in 1909 and had seven children. Their financial situation allowed them, until the Great Depression of the 1930s, to devote themselves entirely to music, each composing in their own studio and appreciating the other's works—a very rare occurrence in the history of music. Marcel conducted works by his wife, and she herself, also gifted in literature, wrote the libretto for her husband's lyric drama, Bérengère. Charlotte Sohy left behind a small but substantial body of work comprising thirty-five pieces, thirteen of which were premiered at the Société Nationale de Musique, and which demonstrate her commitment to the French post-Romantic style. Among her notable works are a Piano Sonata (1909-1910), the melodies Three Nostalgic Songs (1910) with orchestra, her musical legend The Four Encounters with Buddha (1912-1913), a Symphony (1914-1917), her lyric drama The Crowned Slave (1917-1921) on her own libretto inspired by the Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf, a Theme and Variations for violin and orchestra (1921), Mystical Dance (1922) for orchestra, a Trio for violin, cello and piano (1931) and two string quartets (1934 and 1949). While her lyric drama *L'Esclave couronnee* was finally premiered in 1947 at the Mulhouse Opera, her Symphony had to wait over a century to be performed, in 2019 in Besançon, by the Victor-Hugo Franche-Comté Orchestra under the direction of Debora Waldman.

Biography by Florence Launay
Photo from Bru Zane Mediabase