Jane Vieu
Born: 15 July 1871, Béziers, France
Died: 8 April 1955, Paris, France
BIOGRAPHY MUSIC SOURCES
Jane (Jeanne Elizabeth Marie) Vieu, born in Béziers, benefited from the musical encouragement of her father, Marie-Élodie Fabre, a pianist and teacher. She studied composition with Jules Massenet, counterpoint with André Gédalge, and had vocal training with Marie Caroline Miolan-Carvalho. Vieu wrote over 100 works including opera, chamber, orchestral, piano, and vocal music, often under the pseudonym Pierre Valette. Her operetta, Madame Tallien (1902), brought her some recognition and another, Arlette, was performed at the Théâtre Royal de Galeries St. Hubert in Brussels in 1904. Later, a severely altered British production of Arlette, which ran for 260 performances, was produced by Ivor Novello and Guy le Feuvre using only two of Vieu’s songs.
Vieu’s work was all published in Paris, perhaps because she and her presumed husband, Maurice Vieu had a publishing house together after 1906. Some of her music is in the valse chantée style, the 19th century style of waltz. The Trois mélodies sur des Tankas Japonais song set, with its exotic style, was written for singers of l’Opera-Comique.
Vieu also published the Dix Leçons de solfège manuscrites à changement Clès in 1913, which became a teaching tool in solfege classes at the Paris Conservatory, and was dedicated to Director Gabriel Faure. She died in Paris.