Obscure Music Monday: Bonis' Suite en Trio

Mélanie Hélène Bonis, known as Mel Bonis, (Jan. 21, 1858 - March 18, 1937) was a French late Romantic composer. Bonis wrote an incredible amount of music for many genres.

Bonis grew up in a strict Catholic household, and her parents did not encourage her musical interests, though she did teach herself the piano. When she was twelve, a professor at the Paris Conservatory persuaded her parents to let her study music, and finally at 16 she entered the Conservatory. César Franck was one of her main teachers, and she was in the same class as Claude Debussy. While in school, she fell in love with a man her parents disapproved of, and she was taken out of school, and married off to a man 20 years older than her with five children. She ended up having three children of her own as well. She disappeared for a while, and returned to composing much later in life, using the more androgynous name "Mel." She composed over 300 pieces, from orchestral and religious music to piano works and chamber compositions, including her Suite en Trio, for flute, violin, and piano.

This three-movement work is a delight, and accessible to advanced students, amateurs, and professionals. The first movement, Sérénade, has a sad, almost frail feel to it as the flute floats the melody from the start, which the violin then picks up. The piano infuses life into the work with a heartbeat of sorts underneath. In the second movement, Pastorale, the feel is similar. Slow, deliberate, but not as sad. If anything, there's a more hopeful mood, which can be heard from the very beginning in the flute. The last movement, Scherzo, is wonderfully cheerful and playful. The lines that Bonis' wrote for all three parts are bright and infused with life, providing a lovely contrast to the previous movement.

Sadly, we can't find any recordings of this marvelous work. Let's hope that changes soon!