Marguerite Monnot
Encyclopedia
Marguerite Monnot was a French songwriter and composer best known for having written many of the songs performed by Édith Piaf
("Milord
", "Hymne à l'amour
") and for the music in the stage musical Irma La Douce
.
, Vincent d’Indy, and Alfred Cortot
), Monnot made the unusual switch to composing popular music after poor health ended her career as a concert pianist when she was eighteen. Soon after writing her first commercially successful song, "L'Étranger", in 1935, she met Édith Piaf
, and in 1940 they became the first female songwriting team in France, remaining friends and collaborators throughout most of their lives.
Monnot worked with some of the best lyricists of her day, including Raymond Asso
, Henri Contet, and Georges Moustaki
, and she also knew and collaborated with musicians and writers like Charles Aznavour
, Yves Montand
, Boris Vian
, and Marlene Dietrich
, who gathered in Piaf's living room on a regular basis to play and sing. In 1955, she achieved major success with her setting of Alexandre Breffort's book Irma la Douce
, which was translated into English and had long runs in London and on Broadway under the direction of Peter Brook
. The original French version continues to enjoy revivals in France and a number of other countries today. She also wrote the music for several films and an operetta.
, Nièvre, a small city on the Loire River. Her father, Gabriel Monnot, who had lost his sight at the age of three, was a musician and composer of religious music. He was the organist at the Saint-Aré church in Decize
and gave piano and harmonium lessons. Monnot's mother, Marie, also gave music lessons and was a teacher of French literature and a writer. Every evening, pupils and friends gathered in their home to play and sing, and the Monnots sometimes invited well-known musicians to join them. Marguerite thus grew up in an atmosphere of music. She rarely attended school: her mother taught her at home, she was tutored in music by her father, and she practiced piano several hours a day.
At the age of three, she composed her first little song, "Bluette". At three and a half, she accompanied a singer at a Paris performance of a Mozart berceuse, receiving a toy stuffed cat as compensation. In 1911, at the Salle des Agriculteurs in Paris, she played Liszt
, Chopin, and Mozart and received her first press reviews. From twelve to fifteen years of age, she performed in a number of different cities, including Paris, where Camille Saint-Saëns
is said to have remarked of her, "I have just heard the best pianist in the world." At age fifteen, she was sent to study in Paris. She had lessons from Vincent d’Indy in harmony and fugue, studied piano with Alfred Cortot
, and learned harmony from Nadia Boulanger
. The latter helped her to prepare for the Prix de Rome
, although it is unclear whether she actually entered the competition formally, and taught her some composition techniques. She toured the capitals of Europe when she was sixteen, and accompanied the dancer Vincente Escuderro in Madrid
. It was there that she became keenly interested in Spanish folklore. She was offered the opportunity to become an official musician at the Spanish royal court, but her parents sent her back to Paris instead for further study.
Her concert career was interrupted in 1921, on the eve of a United States tour, by a bout of ill health and what the French call "le trac", or an attack of nerves. Her diffidence and stage fright were to follow her throughout her career as a composer. She became desperately shy when she had to show Piaf a new song, even after years of collaboration. Almost every person who knew Monnot and who later wrote about her has drawn attention to her shyness and absent-mindedness.
Her second vocation, songwriting, was just a pastime at first. A fan of popular music on the radio in the early 1920s, including jazz and dance music, she began writing songs because a family friend encouraged her to write a waltz for a film based on a play by Tristan Bernard
. This song, written with Bernard in 1931, was entitled "Ah! les mots d’amour!" and sung by Jane Marny. The lyricist Marc Hély then asked her to compose the music for "Viens dans mes bras", sung by Lucienne Boyer
and published by Salabert. Her talent was quickly recognized, and she was encouraged to continue. She persevered, and in 1935, the song "L’Étranger" was born out of her collaboration with the journalist-lyricist Robert Malleron and the accordionist-composer Robert Juel, who co-authored the music. The song was awarded the Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros
that year.
in 1936. Annette Lajon had sung the song originally, and Piaf wanted to acquire the rights to perform it. The publisher, Maurice Decruck, denied her request, however, because a singer had exclusive rights to a song for a six-month period. So Piaf learned it by heart and sang it at Gerny's, the nightclub where she was performing at the time. When Annette Lajon appeared in the audience at Gerny's one night, Piaf is said to have apologized to her for "stealing" her song. Lajon apparently accepted the apology graciously and introduced Piaf to its composer, Marguerite Monnot, who had accompanied her to the nightclub.
The same year, Monnot met the lyricist Raymond Asso, with whom she was to collaborate for many years. He was a former Foreign Legionnaire
, and he cut a romantic and exotic figure with his cape and boots. The first of Asso's songs for which Monnot wrote the music was "Mon légionnaire
", which was to become an international standard, published in seven languages. This song, together with another inspired by the same colonial theme, "Le fanion de la Légion", written in 1938, established Monnot and Asso as a successful songwriting team. This was the era of such songs as "Morocco coeurs brulées" and the films of Jean Gabin
featuring soldiers in North Africa. Some years later, during a trip to Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria, Monnot and Asso were awarded decorations by the Foreign Legion.
Monnot and Piaf became close friends and began collaborating on songs in the early 1940s. Many of these would become part of Piaf's repertoire for years to come. The two women were certainly the first successful female songwriting team of the era. Their songs were performed not only by Piaf, but by many of the most famous female singers of the day, including Damia
, Mona Goya, and Line Viala. These include the songs from the film Montmartre
-sur-Seine ("Tu es partout", "Un coin tout bleu", "Y’en a un de trop", "Où sont-ils mes petits copains?"), "Mon amour vient de finir" (Damia
), and "C’était un jour de fête." Monnot devoted the next twenty-five years almost exclusively to writing extraordinarily successful songs for Piaf.
Monnot's friendship was extremely important in Piaf's life. In her biography, Piaf calls Monnot her best friend and the woman she most admired in the whole world. She also refers to her pride in having collaborated with Monnot. Piaf pays tribute to Monnot for encouraging her interest in classical music and in learning to play the piano.
During the war years, from 1939 to 1945, Monnot collaborated with Henri Contet, writing such songs as "Y’a pas de printemps", "Histoire de coeur", "Le ciel est fermé", and "Le brun et le blond". They also worked together on the songs for the film Etoile sans lumière, for Piaf, and "Ma môme, ma p’tite môme [or gosse]" for Yves Montand
.
In those years, Piaf rehearsed a few songs by Monnot that were never recorded, including "Le chant du monde" (lyric by Asso), "Mon amour vient de finir", "Les rues du monde" and "Le diable est près de moi" (lyrics by Piaf), and "L’hôtel d’en face" (lyric by Gine Money). This was also the period when Piaf recorded a number of songs, as mentioned above, which were never released, such as the one with the intriguing title, "Je ne veux plus faire la vaisselle" ("I Don’t Want To Wash Dishes Any More).
During Piaf's tour of the stalags in Germany during the war, one of the famous Monnot-Asso songs, "Le fanion de la Légion", was banned because it had created such patriotic fervor in Parisian audiences. Meanwhile, Monnot remained in Paris, making occasional trips home to Decize
to see her mother (her father had died in 1939) and bring provisions from the countryside back to Paris.
On 11 July 1950, Monnot married the singer Étienne Giannesini, whose stage name was Paul Péri. The couple had no children. They reportedly made many trips to Decize
to visit Monnot's parents, and Monnot wrote songs for Péri, including the music for a detective film, "Les Pépées font la loi", in which Péri starred in 1954.
In the 1950s, Monnot also collaborated with a few new lyricists, including Michel Emer, Luiguy, Norbert Glanzberg, Philippe-Gérard, Florence Véran, and Hubert Giraud, and with the orchestra of Robert Chauvigny. She continued to write for Piaf with another songwriter, René Rouzaud, who had already composed for Damia, Georges Guétary, and Lys Gauty. They wrote the popular "La goualante du pauvre Jean" ("Poor John's Song/Complaint"), which, translated as "The Poor People of Paris" because of a confusion between "pauvre Jean" and "pauvre gens", became the first French song to hit number one on the American and British record charts. This song was sung not only by Piaf but by Yves Montand
, Patachou, Line Renaud, and Maurice Chevalier
, in addition to becoming a hit instrumental played by the Les Baxter Orchestra. Other songs of this era were "Les amants de Venise", written with Jacques Plante, and a few songs composed in collaboration with Piaf ("Dany", "La p’tite Marie", and "Un grand amour qui s’achève").
In 1951, Monnot composed the music for the operetta "La p’tite Lili", a comedy in two acts directed by Marcel Achard
, which had a successful seven-month run at the ABC music hall in Paris. She wrote ten songs with Achard for the show, including "Si si si" and "Demain il fera jour." These were sung in the film by Piaf, Robert Lamoureux, and Eddie Constantine
. It was far from a big hit, but it was a sort of rehearsal for the much bigger hit, "Irma la Douce
", which Monnot would later write, based on a book by Alexandre Breffort.
was the first French musical since Offenbach's operettas to enjoy success all over the world. It opened on 12 November 1956, at the Théâtre Gramont in Paris, where it ran for four years. The book and lyrics were by Alexandre Breffort; it was directed by Rene Dupuy and starred Colette Renard
and Michel Roux. A year and a half into the Paris run, the show opened in London. It was directed by Peter Brook
and starred Elizabeth Seal and Keith Michell. Eventually the English-language Irma went on to become even more popular than the original French one. The musical opened on 17 July 1958, at the Lyric Theatre
in London's West End, where it ran for 1,512 performances. The show opened in New York on Broadway at the Plymouth Theater on 29 September 1960, and ran for 524 performances. It had the unprecedented distinction of playing simultaneously in France, the UK, the US, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Brazil and Argentina. It was recorded under the Sony label and starred Elizabeth Seal and Keith Michell, who had both been part of the London cast. In 1963, Billy Wilder
directed the movie version
(with some of Monnot's music as background), starring Shirley MacLaine
and Jack Lemmon
. The film definitely suffered from the failure to include the original songs.
Shortly after the success of Irma, Disney Studios reportedly asked Monnot to come to Hollywood and compose for American films, but she refused to leave her settled life in France. From then on, her career in film music was relatively limited. She collaborated regularly with Marcel Blistène, including writing some songs for the film Les amants de demain in 1959. (She had already worked with him on the film Etoile sans lumière in 1946.) She composed other songs for Péri, a singer of "realistic" songs, such as "Encore un verre" and "Ma rue et moi", which have been all but forgotten. She also composed the music for Méphisto and Le sentier de la guerre, written by Claude Nougaro
.
Generally speaking, Monnot had difficulty separating herself from Piaf's world and composing for others. Although her songs were also sung by such well-known singers as Damia
, Josephine Baker
, Suzy Solidor, and Yves Montand
, the successful ones were few and far between. "Ma môme, ma p’tite môme [or gosse]" (sung by Damia and Yves Montand
) and the songs from "Irma" were the exception. She did write two fairly successful songs during the 1950s with women lyricists, however. She collaborated with Claude Délècluse and Michelle Senlis on "C’est à Hamburg" (1955), an even better song called "Les amants d’un jour" (1956), and then "Comme moi" (1957). These songs were a synthesis between the first years of the Monnot-Piaf collaboration and the post-war song, between the time of the legionnaires and the end of the dream of colonialism. In 1957, Monnot met the lyricist Michel Rivgauche, with whom she was to write "Salle d’attente", "Fais comme si", "Tant qu’il y aura des jours" and "Les blouses blanches", at Piaf's apartment .
Almost all of her friends and acquaintances during her adult life describe Monnot as absent-minded, with an enigmatic smile and a dreamy expression. She was quite a scatter-brain, as reported by many of her associates. Monnot attached little value to money, although she was quite unhappy if she felt she did not have enough. She remained relatively poor until the success of "Irma la Douce
". She never argued over her contracts, and she often forgot to make her declarations to the Société des Auteurs, an omission that deprived her of a considerable amount in royalties. She did not seem to be a strong woman, yet she was able to make her way in the jungle of the popular music business. She made the choice of popular music over classical, and was even referred to as "the aristocrat of popular song".
As many of Piaf's biographers tell it, the friendship between the singer and Monnot suffered a serious setback, if not a death blow, after Piaf met the composer Charles Dumont in the late 1950s. Dumont composed what was to be one of Piaf's greatest signature tunes, "Je ne regrette rien", whereupon Piaf took 11 of Monnot's songs out of her repertoire for her upcoming performance at the Olympia to make room for more Dumont songs.
Monnot became ill with symptoms of appendicitis during her last year of life, 1961. She seems to have had a premonition that her illness was life-threatening, yet she failed to follow medical advice and have the operation she needed. Her deep sadness in the last months of her life reveals itself in the following excerpt from a letter to her friend, Madame Niaudet: "It means nothing to get old, if you are always surrounded by your loved ones. But how horrible it is to be alone most of the time. I have a tremendous need for rest, especially mentally and emotionally. How terrible it is to have been born too sensitive! Will I soon find the calm I so badly need? There are times when I just despair. Alone in my room, the radio! All those notes! All those minutes, at the end of which lies death and, before the final end, the death of the heart, the love life. It's dreadful, this emptiness inside me."
On 12 October 1961, at the age of 58, Marguerite Monnot died in a Paris hospital from a ruptured appendix and the resulting peritonitis. She was buried with her father and mother in the cemetery of her hometown. Her death devastated Piaf -who used to call her "La Guite"- as well as Monnot's many friends and colleagues, who paid glowing tribute to her and her music. In 1963, the city of Decize renamed the street where she had lived (rue des Écoles) "rue Marguerite Monnot". It also unveiled a commemorative plaque on the façade of the house where she was born. In 1989, the nursery school in the center of town was also named after her. In 1991, on the thirtieth anniversary of her death, a Mass, concert, and exhibition were held in Decize
in her memory. But her true memorial is to be found in her œuvre: the beautiful songs she wrote.
Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...
("Milord
Milord (song)
"Milord" or "Ombre de la Rue" is a 1959 song , famously sung by Édith Piaf. It is a chanson that recounts the feelings of a lower-class "girl of the port" who develops a crush on an elegantly attired apparent upper-class British traveller , whom she has seen walking the streets of the...
", "Hymne à l'amour
Hymne à l'amour
"Hymne à l'amour" is a popular French song originally performed by Édith Piaf. The lyrics were written by Piaf and the music by Marguerite Monnot. She first sang this song at the cabaret Versailles in New York on September 14, 1949. It was written to her lover and the love of her life, the French...
") and for the music in the stage musical Irma La Douce
Irma La Douce (musical)
Irma La Douce is a musical with music by Marguerite Monnot and French lyrics and book by Alexandre Breffort. The English lyrics and book are by Julian More, David Heneker and Monty Norman. It was first produced in Paris in 1956.-Productions:...
.
A successful female composer
As a female composer of popular music in the first half of the twentieth century, Monnot was a pioneer in her field. Classically trained by her father and at the Paris Conservatory (her teachers included Nadia BoulangerNadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
, Vincent d’Indy, and Alfred Cortot
Alfred Cortot
Alfred Denis Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor. He is one of the most renowned 20th-century classical musicians, especially valued for his poetic insight in Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann.-Early life and education:Born in Nyon, Vaud, in the...
), Monnot made the unusual switch to composing popular music after poor health ended her career as a concert pianist when she was eighteen. Soon after writing her first commercially successful song, "L'Étranger", in 1935, she met Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...
, and in 1940 they became the first female songwriting team in France, remaining friends and collaborators throughout most of their lives.
Monnot worked with some of the best lyricists of her day, including Raymond Asso
Raymond Asso
Raymond Asso was a French lyricist.Born in Nice, France, his parents separation saw him leave for Morocco at the age of 15. After his arrival he tried numerous professions, including: shepherd, factory worker, chauffeur and nightclub manager. Between 1916 and 1919 he worked as a Spahi, a type of...
, Henri Contet, and Georges Moustaki
Georges Moustaki
Giuseppe Mustacchi, known as Georges Moustaki , is a French singer and songwriter of Italo-Greek Jewish origin, best known for his poetic rhythm, eloquent simplicity and his hundreds of romantic songs...
, and she also knew and collaborated with musicians and writers like Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour, OC is an Armenian-French singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world...
, Yves Montand
Yves Montand
-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...
, Boris Vian
Boris Vian
Boris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their...
, and Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
, who gathered in Piaf's living room on a regular basis to play and sing. In 1955, she achieved major success with her setting of Alexandre Breffort's book Irma la Douce
Irma la Douce
Irma la Douce/Irma la Dolce is a 1963 romantic comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, directed by Billy Wilder.It is based on the 1956 French musical Irma La Douce by Marguerite Monnot and Alexandre Breffort.-Plot:...
, which was translated into English and had long runs in London and on Broadway under the direction of Peter Brook
Peter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
. The original French version continues to enjoy revivals in France and a number of other countries today. She also wrote the music for several films and an operetta.
Her early years
Marguerite Monnot was born in DecizeDecize
Decize is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France.-Site:The town is situated on a former island in the Loire at the confluent of the Aron river. The right channel of the Loire was dammed up to reclaim land and now remains as an arm stretching upstream to the centre of town...
, Nièvre, a small city on the Loire River. Her father, Gabriel Monnot, who had lost his sight at the age of three, was a musician and composer of religious music. He was the organist at the Saint-Aré church in Decize
Decize
Decize is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France.-Site:The town is situated on a former island in the Loire at the confluent of the Aron river. The right channel of the Loire was dammed up to reclaim land and now remains as an arm stretching upstream to the centre of town...
and gave piano and harmonium lessons. Monnot's mother, Marie, also gave music lessons and was a teacher of French literature and a writer. Every evening, pupils and friends gathered in their home to play and sing, and the Monnots sometimes invited well-known musicians to join them. Marguerite thus grew up in an atmosphere of music. She rarely attended school: her mother taught her at home, she was tutored in music by her father, and she practiced piano several hours a day.
At the age of three, she composed her first little song, "Bluette". At three and a half, she accompanied a singer at a Paris performance of a Mozart berceuse, receiving a toy stuffed cat as compensation. In 1911, at the Salle des Agriculteurs in Paris, she played Liszt
Liszt
Liszt is a Hungarian surname. Notable persons with that surname include:* Franz Liszt , Hungarian composer and pianist* Adam Liszt , father of Franz Liszt* Anna Liszt , mother of Franz Liszt...
, Chopin, and Mozart and received her first press reviews. From twelve to fifteen years of age, she performed in a number of different cities, including Paris, where Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
is said to have remarked of her, "I have just heard the best pianist in the world." At age fifteen, she was sent to study in Paris. She had lessons from Vincent d’Indy in harmony and fugue, studied piano with Alfred Cortot
Alfred Cortot
Alfred Denis Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor. He is one of the most renowned 20th-century classical musicians, especially valued for his poetic insight in Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann.-Early life and education:Born in Nyon, Vaud, in the...
, and learned harmony from Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
. The latter helped her to prepare for the Prix de Rome
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
, although it is unclear whether she actually entered the competition formally, and taught her some composition techniques. She toured the capitals of Europe when she was sixteen, and accompanied the dancer Vincente Escuderro in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. It was there that she became keenly interested in Spanish folklore. She was offered the opportunity to become an official musician at the Spanish royal court, but her parents sent her back to Paris instead for further study.
Her concert career was interrupted in 1921, on the eve of a United States tour, by a bout of ill health and what the French call "le trac", or an attack of nerves. Her diffidence and stage fright were to follow her throughout her career as a composer. She became desperately shy when she had to show Piaf a new song, even after years of collaboration. Almost every person who knew Monnot and who later wrote about her has drawn attention to her shyness and absent-mindedness.
Her second vocation, songwriting, was just a pastime at first. A fan of popular music on the radio in the early 1920s, including jazz and dance music, she began writing songs because a family friend encouraged her to write a waltz for a film based on a play by Tristan Bernard
Tristan Bernard
Tristan Bernard was a French playwright, novelist, journalist and lawyer.-Life:Born Paul Bernard into a Jewish family in Besançon, Doubs, Franche-Comté, France, he was the son of an architect...
. This song, written with Bernard in 1931, was entitled "Ah! les mots d’amour!" and sung by Jane Marny. The lyricist Marc Hély then asked her to compose the music for "Viens dans mes bras", sung by Lucienne Boyer
Lucienne Boyer
Lucienne Boyer was a French diseuse and singer, best known for her song "Parlez-moi d'amour". Her impresario was Bruno Coquatrix.-Early career:...
and published by Salabert. Her talent was quickly recognized, and she was encouraged to continue. She persevered, and in 1935, the song "L’Étranger" was born out of her collaboration with the journalist-lyricist Robert Malleron and the accordionist-composer Robert Juel, who co-authored the music. The song was awarded the Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros
L'Académie Charles Cros
The Académie Charles-Cros, is an organization in France that acts as an intermediary between government cultural policy makers and professionals in music and the recording industry....
that year.
The Piaf years
"L’Étranger" played a key role in Monnot's first encounter with Édith PiafÉdith Piaf
Édith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...
in 1936. Annette Lajon had sung the song originally, and Piaf wanted to acquire the rights to perform it. The publisher, Maurice Decruck, denied her request, however, because a singer had exclusive rights to a song for a six-month period. So Piaf learned it by heart and sang it at Gerny's, the nightclub where she was performing at the time. When Annette Lajon appeared in the audience at Gerny's one night, Piaf is said to have apologized to her for "stealing" her song. Lajon apparently accepted the apology graciously and introduced Piaf to its composer, Marguerite Monnot, who had accompanied her to the nightclub.
The same year, Monnot met the lyricist Raymond Asso, with whom she was to collaborate for many years. He was a former Foreign Legionnaire
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
, and he cut a romantic and exotic figure with his cape and boots. The first of Asso's songs for which Monnot wrote the music was "Mon légionnaire
Mon légionnaire
Mon légionnaire is a French song created in 1936 by Marie Dubas, with lyrics by Raymond Asso and music by Marguerite Monnot. Marie Dubas toured the United States with this song in 1939....
", which was to become an international standard, published in seven languages. This song, together with another inspired by the same colonial theme, "Le fanion de la Légion", written in 1938, established Monnot and Asso as a successful songwriting team. This was the era of such songs as "Morocco coeurs brulées" and the films of Jean Gabin
Jean Gabin
-Biography:Born Jean-Alexis Moncorgé in Paris, he grew up in the village of Mériel in the Seine-et-Oise département, about 22 mi north of Paris. The son of cabaret entertainers, he attended the Lycée Janson de Sailly...
featuring soldiers in North Africa. Some years later, during a trip to Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria, Monnot and Asso were awarded decorations by the Foreign Legion.
Monnot and Piaf became close friends and began collaborating on songs in the early 1940s. Many of these would become part of Piaf's repertoire for years to come. The two women were certainly the first successful female songwriting team of the era. Their songs were performed not only by Piaf, but by many of the most famous female singers of the day, including Damia
Marie-Louise Damien
Marie-Louise Damien was a French singer and actress better known by the stage name Damia.-Robert Hollard:...
, Mona Goya, and Line Viala. These include the songs from the film Montmartre
Montmartre
Montmartre is a hill which is 130 metres high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district...
-sur-Seine ("Tu es partout", "Un coin tout bleu", "Y’en a un de trop", "Où sont-ils mes petits copains?"), "Mon amour vient de finir" (Damia
Damia
Damia may refer to:* Damia, a place in Jordan; see City of Adam and Damia Bridge*Damia , a Greek deity similar to Demeter and the Roman Bona Dea...
), and "C’était un jour de fête." Monnot devoted the next twenty-five years almost exclusively to writing extraordinarily successful songs for Piaf.
Monnot's friendship was extremely important in Piaf's life. In her biography, Piaf calls Monnot her best friend and the woman she most admired in the whole world. She also refers to her pride in having collaborated with Monnot. Piaf pays tribute to Monnot for encouraging her interest in classical music and in learning to play the piano.
During the war years, from 1939 to 1945, Monnot collaborated with Henri Contet, writing such songs as "Y’a pas de printemps", "Histoire de coeur", "Le ciel est fermé", and "Le brun et le blond". They also worked together on the songs for the film Etoile sans lumière, for Piaf, and "Ma môme, ma p’tite môme [or gosse]" for Yves Montand
Yves Montand
-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...
.
In those years, Piaf rehearsed a few songs by Monnot that were never recorded, including "Le chant du monde" (lyric by Asso), "Mon amour vient de finir", "Les rues du monde" and "Le diable est près de moi" (lyrics by Piaf), and "L’hôtel d’en face" (lyric by Gine Money). This was also the period when Piaf recorded a number of songs, as mentioned above, which were never released, such as the one with the intriguing title, "Je ne veux plus faire la vaisselle" ("I Don’t Want To Wash Dishes Any More).
During Piaf's tour of the stalags in Germany during the war, one of the famous Monnot-Asso songs, "Le fanion de la Légion", was banned because it had created such patriotic fervor in Parisian audiences. Meanwhile, Monnot remained in Paris, making occasional trips home to Decize
Decize
Decize is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France.-Site:The town is situated on a former island in the Loire at the confluent of the Aron river. The right channel of the Loire was dammed up to reclaim land and now remains as an arm stretching upstream to the centre of town...
to see her mother (her father had died in 1939) and bring provisions from the countryside back to Paris.
On 11 July 1950, Monnot married the singer Étienne Giannesini, whose stage name was Paul Péri. The couple had no children. They reportedly made many trips to Decize
Decize
Decize is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France.-Site:The town is situated on a former island in the Loire at the confluent of the Aron river. The right channel of the Loire was dammed up to reclaim land and now remains as an arm stretching upstream to the centre of town...
to visit Monnot's parents, and Monnot wrote songs for Péri, including the music for a detective film, "Les Pépées font la loi", in which Péri starred in 1954.
In the 1950s, Monnot also collaborated with a few new lyricists, including Michel Emer, Luiguy, Norbert Glanzberg, Philippe-Gérard, Florence Véran, and Hubert Giraud, and with the orchestra of Robert Chauvigny. She continued to write for Piaf with another songwriter, René Rouzaud, who had already composed for Damia, Georges Guétary, and Lys Gauty. They wrote the popular "La goualante du pauvre Jean" ("Poor John's Song/Complaint"), which, translated as "The Poor People of Paris" because of a confusion between "pauvre Jean" and "pauvre gens", became the first French song to hit number one on the American and British record charts. This song was sung not only by Piaf but by Yves Montand
Yves Montand
-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...
, Patachou, Line Renaud, and Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...
, in addition to becoming a hit instrumental played by the Les Baxter Orchestra. Other songs of this era were "Les amants de Venise", written with Jacques Plante, and a few songs composed in collaboration with Piaf ("Dany", "La p’tite Marie", and "Un grand amour qui s’achève").
In 1951, Monnot composed the music for the operetta "La p’tite Lili", a comedy in two acts directed by Marcel Achard
Marcel Achard
Marcel Achard was a French playwright and screenwriter whose popular sentimental comedies maintained his position as a highly-recognizable name in his country's theatrical and literary circles for five decades...
, which had a successful seven-month run at the ABC music hall in Paris. She wrote ten songs with Achard for the show, including "Si si si" and "Demain il fera jour." These were sung in the film by Piaf, Robert Lamoureux, and Eddie Constantine
Eddie Constantine
Eddie Constantine was an American-born French actor and singer who spent his career working in Europe....
. It was far from a big hit, but it was a sort of rehearsal for the much bigger hit, "Irma la Douce
Irma la Douce
Irma la Douce/Irma la Dolce is a 1963 romantic comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, directed by Billy Wilder.It is based on the 1956 French musical Irma La Douce by Marguerite Monnot and Alexandre Breffort.-Plot:...
", which Monnot would later write, based on a book by Alexandre Breffort.
Irma La douce and beyond
Irma La DouceIrma La Douce (musical)
Irma La Douce is a musical with music by Marguerite Monnot and French lyrics and book by Alexandre Breffort. The English lyrics and book are by Julian More, David Heneker and Monty Norman. It was first produced in Paris in 1956.-Productions:...
was the first French musical since Offenbach's operettas to enjoy success all over the world. It opened on 12 November 1956, at the Théâtre Gramont in Paris, where it ran for four years. The book and lyrics were by Alexandre Breffort; it was directed by Rene Dupuy and starred Colette Renard
Colette Renard
Colette Renard born Colette Raget, was a French actress and singer. Renard is closely associated with the titular character from the musical Irma La Douce, a role she played for over a decade...
and Michel Roux. A year and a half into the Paris run, the show opened in London. It was directed by Peter Brook
Peter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
and starred Elizabeth Seal and Keith Michell. Eventually the English-language Irma went on to become even more popular than the original French one. The musical opened on 17 July 1958, at the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
in London's West End, where it ran for 1,512 performances. The show opened in New York on Broadway at the Plymouth Theater on 29 September 1960, and ran for 524 performances. It had the unprecedented distinction of playing simultaneously in France, the UK, the US, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Brazil and Argentina. It was recorded under the Sony label and starred Elizabeth Seal and Keith Michell, who had both been part of the London cast. In 1963, Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
directed the movie version
Irma la Douce
Irma la Douce/Irma la Dolce is a 1963 romantic comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, directed by Billy Wilder.It is based on the 1956 French musical Irma La Douce by Marguerite Monnot and Alexandre Breffort.-Plot:...
(with some of Monnot's music as background), starring Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
and Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
. The film definitely suffered from the failure to include the original songs.
Shortly after the success of Irma, Disney Studios reportedly asked Monnot to come to Hollywood and compose for American films, but she refused to leave her settled life in France. From then on, her career in film music was relatively limited. She collaborated regularly with Marcel Blistène, including writing some songs for the film Les amants de demain in 1959. (She had already worked with him on the film Etoile sans lumière in 1946.) She composed other songs for Péri, a singer of "realistic" songs, such as "Encore un verre" and "Ma rue et moi", which have been all but forgotten. She also composed the music for Méphisto and Le sentier de la guerre, written by Claude Nougaro
Claude Nougaro
Claude Nougaro was a French songwriter and singer.Claude Nougaro was born in Toulouse to a respected French opera singer, Pierre Nougaro, and an Italian piano teacher, Liette Tellini. He was raised by his grandparents in Toulouse where he heard Glenn Miller, Édith Piaf and Louis Armstrong on the...
.
Generally speaking, Monnot had difficulty separating herself from Piaf's world and composing for others. Although her songs were also sung by such well-known singers as Damia
Damia
Damia may refer to:* Damia, a place in Jordan; see City of Adam and Damia Bridge*Damia , a Greek deity similar to Demeter and the Roman Bona Dea...
, Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess"....
, Suzy Solidor, and Yves Montand
Yves Montand
-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...
, the successful ones were few and far between. "Ma môme, ma p’tite môme [or gosse]" (sung by Damia and Yves Montand
Yves Montand
-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...
) and the songs from "Irma" were the exception. She did write two fairly successful songs during the 1950s with women lyricists, however. She collaborated with Claude Délècluse and Michelle Senlis on "C’est à Hamburg" (1955), an even better song called "Les amants d’un jour" (1956), and then "Comme moi" (1957). These songs were a synthesis between the first years of the Monnot-Piaf collaboration and the post-war song, between the time of the legionnaires and the end of the dream of colonialism. In 1957, Monnot met the lyricist Michel Rivgauche, with whom she was to write "Salle d’attente", "Fais comme si", "Tant qu’il y aura des jours" and "Les blouses blanches", at Piaf's apartment .
Almost all of her friends and acquaintances during her adult life describe Monnot as absent-minded, with an enigmatic smile and a dreamy expression. She was quite a scatter-brain, as reported by many of her associates. Monnot attached little value to money, although she was quite unhappy if she felt she did not have enough. She remained relatively poor until the success of "Irma la Douce
Irma la Douce
Irma la Douce/Irma la Dolce is a 1963 romantic comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, directed by Billy Wilder.It is based on the 1956 French musical Irma La Douce by Marguerite Monnot and Alexandre Breffort.-Plot:...
". She never argued over her contracts, and she often forgot to make her declarations to the Société des Auteurs, an omission that deprived her of a considerable amount in royalties. She did not seem to be a strong woman, yet she was able to make her way in the jungle of the popular music business. She made the choice of popular music over classical, and was even referred to as "the aristocrat of popular song".
As many of Piaf's biographers tell it, the friendship between the singer and Monnot suffered a serious setback, if not a death blow, after Piaf met the composer Charles Dumont in the late 1950s. Dumont composed what was to be one of Piaf's greatest signature tunes, "Je ne regrette rien", whereupon Piaf took 11 of Monnot's songs out of her repertoire for her upcoming performance at the Olympia to make room for more Dumont songs.
Monnot became ill with symptoms of appendicitis during her last year of life, 1961. She seems to have had a premonition that her illness was life-threatening, yet she failed to follow medical advice and have the operation she needed. Her deep sadness in the last months of her life reveals itself in the following excerpt from a letter to her friend, Madame Niaudet: "It means nothing to get old, if you are always surrounded by your loved ones. But how horrible it is to be alone most of the time. I have a tremendous need for rest, especially mentally and emotionally. How terrible it is to have been born too sensitive! Will I soon find the calm I so badly need? There are times when I just despair. Alone in my room, the radio! All those notes! All those minutes, at the end of which lies death and, before the final end, the death of the heart, the love life. It's dreadful, this emptiness inside me."
On 12 October 1961, at the age of 58, Marguerite Monnot died in a Paris hospital from a ruptured appendix and the resulting peritonitis. She was buried with her father and mother in the cemetery of her hometown. Her death devastated Piaf -who used to call her "La Guite"- as well as Monnot's many friends and colleagues, who paid glowing tribute to her and her music. In 1963, the city of Decize renamed the street where she had lived (rue des Écoles) "rue Marguerite Monnot". It also unveiled a commemorative plaque on the façade of the house where she was born. In 1989, the nursery school in the center of town was also named after her. In 1991, on the thirtieth anniversary of her death, a Mass, concert, and exhibition were held in Decize
Decize
Decize is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France.-Site:The town is situated on a former island in the Loire at the confluent of the Aron river. The right channel of the Loire was dammed up to reclaim land and now remains as an arm stretching upstream to the centre of town...
in her memory. But her true memorial is to be found in her œuvre: the beautiful songs she wrote.
External links
- [ The 'allmusic' Biography of Marguerite Monnot]