Luise Barthelemy

[Mark Thomas]

I'm hoping that someone whose sleuthing skills are better than mine can shed more light than I've been able to on Luise (Louise) Barthelemy, who seems to be as unsung as they come.

In 1847 Raff transcribed her song Schlummerlied (Lullaby) for piano as his Op.37 No.3. Hofmeister XIX for July 1846 records the original song's publication. There's also a May 1855 listing for her Op.2: Sechs kleine Lieder. That's it in Hofmester. WorldCat lists only the Raff transcription, as do all the other library catalogues which make any mention of Barthelemy. Schlummerlied itself has been digitised and can be seen here, but it's a handwritten copy in a collection dated 1833-1865, and there's no clue to Barthelemy's identity. I can find no record of her in any of the standard musical dictionaries or lexicons and, although musicsack.com lists quite a few Bathelemys, it isn't any real help. I did wonder if "she" might be the French composer Louis Barthélemy Pradher (1781-1843), but his Op.2 is a pair of piano sonatas, so the Hofmeister listing discounts that theory. Other than that, I have drawn a blank.

I'd appreciate any help in putting some flesh on Barthelemy's bones.

[Alan Howe]

She's still a skeleton, unfortunately. I've tried all sorts of searches in various languages, but haven't found anything. Yet!

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, Alan. I suspect that she was an amateur composer whose published output was so slim that she was well below what passed for radar in the 19th century. Still, I'm not giving up yet, either.

[Alan Howe]

So she joins various politicians operating under the radar, then... 

[eschiss1]

According to Musicsack her full name may have been Louise Marguérite Cécile Mouzin Barthélémy, and if so, born 1854 (ah, ok, not likely the same person then, if her op.2 was published 1855... never mind!)

... (hope I haven't put in too many accents there. But searching without the é in Barthélémy may find you too few hits rather than too many. Mouzin was perhaps either her married or maiden name, or one or the other may have been an alias; not sure...)

[eschiss1]

Hrm. The Raff Op.34 piano arrangements have in any case been uploaded/digitized it seems by Goethe University... some enterprising IMSLP person should grab/mirror it (It can, it seems, be viewed here.)

[Mark Thomas]

She can't be the one I'm after, Eric, as the Raff setting of the Schlummerlied dates from 1847, which would be be pre- natal by seven years! The Frankfurt digitised score is only on book 2 of Op.34 by the way - No. 4-6.