Claude Arrieu

Louise-Marie Simon (30 November 1903 – 7 March 1990), pen name Claude Arrieu, was a prolific French composer.

She became a piano student of Marguerite Long and took classes from Georges Caussade, Noël Gallon, Jean Roger-Ducasse and Paul Dukas.

She participated in the development of a wide range of programming, including Pierre Schaeffer's experimental radio series, La Coquille à planètes (1943–1944).

Her Sonatine for flute and piano made a big impression at its first radio performance in 1944 by Jean-Pierre Rampal and H. Moyens.

Although Arrieu's instrumental works strongly contributed to her legacy, it is vocal music that most markedly distinguish her career.

In 1960, La Princesse de Babylone, an opéra bouffe after the work of Voltaire adapted by Pierre Dominica, was praised for its lyrical originality and spectacle.

Noteworthy film scores include: Les Gueux au paradis (1946), Crèvecoeur (1955), Niok l'éléphant (1957), Marchands de rien (1958), Le Tombeur (1958), and Julie Charles (for television, 1974).

Pierre Schaeffer wrote: "Claude Arrieu is part of her time by virtue of a presence, an instinct of efficiency, a bold fidelity.

Whatever the means, concertos or songs, music for official events, concerts for the elite or for a crowd of spectators, she delivered emotion through an impeccable technique and a spiritual vigilance, finding the path to the heart."

Initially the Pastorale et Scherzo is tender and swaying; the 3-time continues, faster and cheekily, and includes its own ‘middle section’.

2 fl, ob, 2 cl, 2 bn, hn, tpt, tbn The humorous first movement has slightly grotesque leaps in the main theme.

The singing wind writing is taken up again in the Cantabile, and the whole is rounded off with an energetic finale, which ends in a characteristically French gesture - with surprising gentleness.