Ernest Fanelli is one of those poor, unsung prophets of music history who wrote works brimming with colorful ideas, expressed well ahead of their time, but were unappreciated, unnoticed, or fell short of their potential, only to have later masters capitalize, either wittingly or unwittingly, on their innovations.
In the case of Fanelli, there is a very good chance his unpublished manuscripts fueled the imagination of Claude Debussy, who in turn influenced the course of not only French music but of broader musical thinking. That’s not to say that Fanelli was of the same caliber of Debussy, but like Hans Rott, whose lone symphony clearly influenced Mahler, he is a forgotten, though essential footnote in the history of a new kind of music.
In particular, episodes from “The Romance of the Mummy” anticipate not only Debussy and Ravel, but also Paul Dukas and Florent Schmitt, Holst, Sibelius, Respighi, Richard Strauss and even Stravinsky, a figure Fanelli would not have known. That’s not to say all of these composers were familiar with Fanelli’s work – in many cases, it’s simply a matter of music history finally catching up – but Debussy most probably was. Once his music was finally given a public hearing, Debussy did his best to distance himself from Fanelli. Debussy was even known to have done an about-face if he happened to walk into a café and saw Fanelli sitting at the piano.
Fanelli lived from 1860 to 1917. A French composer of Italian descent, he studied at the Paris Conservatory for a stint – allegedly under Charles-Valentin Alkan (although it’s unlikely, since Alkan had already quit the Conservatory by the time he entered). Later, he returned to study under Léo Delibes. Fanelli was unable to complete either course, due to lack of funds. In the meantime, he eked out a career as a percussionist.
He was seeking employment as a copyist in 1912, when he showed Gabriel Pierné an example of his handwriting from one of his unpublished manuscripts, written some 30 years earlier. Pierné was so taken by the music itself that he arranged for its belated premiere.
“The Romance of the Mummy,” based on a novel by Théophile Gautier, tells the tale of an English archaeologist, who exhumes and falls in love with – well, a mummy. Papyrus roles in her mausoleum reveal her back-story and fate. She is Tahoser, who falls in love of Poeri, a handsome Hebrew. The Pharaoh (unnamed, though it would have been Ramses II) has his sights set on Tahoser himself. However, the lovely young woman falls ill when she finds Poeri is in love with Rachel. She is healed by the prophet Moses, who initiates her into the cult of Jehovah. Pharaoh becomes an enemy of the Jewish people. He abducts Tahoser. When he dies in the Red Sea, in circumstances described in the Book of Exodus, Tahoser is crowned Queen of Egypt. Hence, her presence in the pharaoh’s tomb.
The first set of tableaux is titled “Thebes,” and is made up of the subsections “Before Tehoser’s Palace,” “On the Nile,” and “Triumphal Return of the Pharaoh.”
It was the conductor Adriano who discovered a second set of tableaux in the music library of Radio France, titled “Festivities in the Pharaoh’s Palace.” The three subsections of the second set are called “In a Room in the Palace – The Naked Jugglers,” “Grotesque Dance of the Egyptian Jesters,” and “Triumphant Hymns – Orgy.” The music received its first performance in the recording we’ll hear tonight, on “The Lost Chord,” a 2002 release, on the Marco Polo label.
By the time the first set was performed publicly, the composer had already stopped writing music for 18 years. Poor Ernest Fanelli. He is a forgotten pioneer – though undoubtedly others took his innovations to greater heights.
I hope you’ll join me for “Mummy Dearest” – Ernest Fanelli’s “The Romance of the Mummy” – this Sunday night at 10 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.
