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Marguerite Monnot

Browse piano sheets by Marguerite Monnot on Zen Virtual Piano. Marguerite Monnot composed the music of "La goualante du pauvre Jean" ("The Ballad of Poor John"), with words by RenĂ© Rouzaud, the French song on which "The Poor People of Paris" is based. Gabriel Monnot, her father, was a musician and composer of religious music who had lost his sight at the age of three, and he was organist at the Saint-ArĂ© church in Decize. Monnot's teachers included Vincent d'Indy for harmony and fugue, Alfred Cortot and the American pianist Harold Henry for piano, and Nadia Boulanger for harmony. A father who composed religious music, beside lessons with several named teachers, may suggest a family link to music alongside her formal study. Poor health brought Monnot's concert-pianist career to an end at eighteen, and she made the unusual switch to composing popular music. In 1921, shortly before a United States tour, her concert career was interrupted by a bout of ill health and by "le trac", the French term for an attack of nerves. She kept going. The song "L'Étranger" dates from 1935 and came from working with the journalist-lyricist Robert Malleron and with Robert Juel, an accordionist-composer who co-authored the music. A concert career interrupted in 1921, beside a song written with two collaborators in 1935, may point to concert playing and popular songwriting as two phases of her work. Poor health ending her concert career at eighteen, beside a ruptured appendix at her death aged 58, may suggest ill health appearing at more than one point in her life. In her biography, Piaf calls Monnot her best friend, and says she admired no woman more. She also mentions being proud of having worked with Monnot. After Piaf met the composer Charles Dumont in the late 1950s, her friendship with Monnot hit a serious setback. Irma la Douce, a musical, premiered at the Théùtre Gramont in Paris on 12 November 1956. Its run there lasted four years. During a trip to Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria, Monnot and Asso were awarded decorations by the Foreign Legion. Piaf's praise in her biography, beside the setback after she met Charles Dumont, may hint at a friendship that changed over time. Decorations from the Foreign Legion, beside the switch from concert playing to popular music, may point to a life that took in more than one kind of setting. In part, the English-language title "The Poor People of Paris" comes from a misreading of the French title: "pauvre Jean" was mistaken for the same-sounding "pauvres gens", which translates as "poor people". Baxter's version featured strings, brass, a wordless chorus, tinkling percussion, finger snapping, and a group of whistlers. Marguerite Monnot was 58 when she died in a Paris hospital on 12 October 1961. The causes were a ruptured appendix and the peritonitis that followed. Might a French title misread as "pauvres gens", beside Baxter's strings and whistlers, mean an English version that differs from the French original in more than one way?

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The Poor People Of Paris

Marguerite Monnot

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Which song did Marguerite Monnot compose the music for?

Marguerite Monnot composed the music of "La goualante du pauvre Jean", with words by René Rouzaud, the French song on which "The Poor People of Paris" is based.

Who taught Marguerite Monnot?

Marguerite Monnot had harmony and fugue lessons from Vincent d'Indy, studied piano with Alfred Cortot and Harold Henry, and learned harmony from Nadia Boulanger.

Why did Marguerite Monnot switch to popular music?

Poor health ended Marguerite Monnot's career as a concert pianist when she was eighteen, and she then made the unusual switch to composing popular music.

What did Piaf say about Marguerite Monnot?

In her biography, Piaf calls Marguerite Monnot her best friend and the woman she most admired in the whole world.