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Donald Macleod considers why the Great War was especially difficult for Mel Bonis and how she expressed her emotional state through her music.

Mel Bonis's name may not be a familiar one these days, but she produced somewhere in the region of three hundred compositions. There's no doubt that she was sensitive to gender discrimination. It's why she chose to publish her music under the name of Mel rather than her birth name Mélanie.

She was born in 1858 to parents of modest means. Her father worked for the watch company Breguet, still in business today, and her mother worked in the haberdashery trade. Neither of them held any particular interest in music, so it was down to young Mélanie to teach herself the play the family's piano. Her talent was recognised by a visiting friend who facilitated a meeting with one of the leading lights of the day, César Franck, an esteemed professor of organ at Paris's prestigious Conservatoire. Mélanie enrolled and showed great promise as a student, winning several end of year prizes. Her studies came to an abrupt end when her parents refused to give their consent to her marriage to a fellow student there, a poet, critic and singer, Amédée Hettich. Her life took a sharp turn two years later when, at the instigation of her parents, she married a twice widowed man of comfortable means. Thereafter her life as a composer had to take a back seat to the demands of raising five step-children and three of her own children with her husband, Albert Domange. Even so, she managed to continue to compose, producing music for her own instrument, the piano, and in almost every other genre as well.

During the war Mel Bonis was profoundly affected by news from the frontline. Two of her sons were in the army, and then the bombing of Paris cast a light on the circumstances surrounding Mel Bonis's illegitimate daughter.

Mazurka-ballet, Op 181
Laurent Martin, piano

Trois melodies, Op 91
Hélène Guilmette, soprano
Martin Dubé, piano

Soir et Matin, Op 76
Mozart Piano Quartet

Scènes de la Forêt
Diana Ambache, piano
Richard Dilley, horn
Anthony Robb, flute

La Cathédrale Blessée, Op 107
Myriam Barbaux-Cohen, piano

Sonate pour violon et piano, Opus 112 – IV. Finale
Francine Trachier, violin
Françoise Tillard, piano

Produced by Johanna Smith for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Audio Cardiff