Marie Jall

Vocation

Notable

French pianist, composer, and pedagogue. Marie Jaëll composed pieces for piano, concertos, quartets, and others. She dedicated her cello concerto to Jules Delsart and was the first pianist to perform all the piano sonatas of Beethoven in Paris. She did scientific studies of hand techniques in piano playing and attempted to replace traditional drilling with systematic piano methods. Her students included Albert Schweitzer, who studied with her while also studying organ with Charles-Marie Widor in 1898-99. On 9 August 1866, at twenty years of age, Marie married the concert pianist, Alfred Jaëll who was fifteen years older than Marie and a former student of Chopin. The husband and wife team performed popular pieces, duos, solos, and even compositions of their own throughout Europe and Russia. As a pianist, Marie specialized in the music of Schumann, Liszt, and Beethoven. In fact, the dynamic duo tackled the task of transcribing Beethoven's "Marcia alla Turca Athens Ruins" for piano; the score was successfully published in 1872. With the death of her husband in 1881, Marie had to opportunity to study with Franz Liszt in Weimar, Germany and with Camille Saint-Saëns and César Franck in Paris, France. Liszt took Marie on as a mentor. Liszt introduced her to Johannes Brahms and Anton Rubinstein. Jaëll's teaching method was known as the 'Jaëll Method'. Her method was created through a process of trial and error with herself and her students. Jaëll's goal was for her students to feel a deep connection to the piano. An eleven book series on piano technique resulted from her research and experience. Piano pedagogues have since drawn insight into teaching techniques of the hand from her method and books. In fact, her method is still in use today. She died in Paris on 4 February 1925. Link to Wikipedia biography