Lucien Cailliet
Biography
Lucien Cailliet (22 May 1891, Dijon, France – 3 January 1985, Los Angeles, Calif.) was a French-American composer, conductor, arranger and clarinetist.
In 1920, Cailliet studied at the Conservatory in Dijon, after which he immigrated to the United States and joined the ranks of the Philadelphia Orchestra as a clarinetist, bass clarinetist, saxophonist, and orchestrator, playing under Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy. For many years, Cailliet was also Associate Conductor of the Allentown Band and would travel to Allentown frequently to try out his new compositions and arrangements with that group.
In 1938, Cailliet left Philadelphia to assume the position of Professor of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He taught orchestration, counterpoint, conducting, and directed the school’s band and orchestra. In Hollywood, he was a composer and conductor for Paramount Studios. He also did orchestrations for films, most notably for Elmer Bernstein’s score to The Ten Commandments.
Cailliet is well known among wind musicians for his faithful arrangements of orchestral music for wind ensemble. In particular, his arrangements of Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral (from Wagner's opera Lohengrin) and Finlandia (a symphonic poem by Jean Sibelius) have become staples of the wind ensemble repertory.
Works for Winds
- Andante and Allegro (as arranger) (1897/1969)
- Blue Horizons (1954)
- Die Fledermaus Overture (as arranger) (1874/1946)
- Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral from "Lohengrin" (as transcriber)
- España (as transcriber; rev. Rogers) (1883/1964/1998)
- Fantasy and Fugue (1946)
- Fervent is My Longing; Organ Fugue in G Minor (as transcriber) (c. 1710/1935)
- Festivity Overture (1955)
- Fête-Dieu à Seville (1909/1968) (as transcriber)
- Finlandia (as transcriber) (1900/1939)
- First Movement from "Symphony in B minor, no. 8" (as arranger) (1822/1938)
- Homage to the U.S. Navy (1971)
- Invocation of Alberich (as arranger) (1869/1940)
- Italian in Algiers (as arranger) (1913/1952)
- Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (as transcriber) (1723/1962)
- La Gazza Ladra (as transcriber) (1817/1954)
- Lady of Spain (as arranger) (1931/1939)
- Le Roi d'Ys Overture (as transcriber) (1888/1970)
- Little Train of the Brazilian Countryman (as arranger) (1930/1952)
- Nabucco Overture (as transcriber) (1842/1959)
- Overture for Band (as arranger) (1963)
- Overture from "Hansel and Gretel" (as arranger) (1893/1952)
- Overture to "Nabucco" (as transcriber) (1841/1959)
- Overture to "The Italian Girl in Algiers" (as arranger) (1813/1952)
- Overture to "The Pearl Fishers" (as arranger) (1863/1956)
- Phèdre Overture (as transcriber) (1873/1965)
- Strains from Erin (as arranger) (1936)
- Variations on the Theme "Pop! Goes the Weasel (1938)
- Waltzes from "Der Rosenkavalier" (as arranger) (1911/1946)
Resources
- Cailliet, Lucien. "In defense of the symphonic band." Music Journal vol. 21, no. 8, November 1963, p. 32.
- Cailliet, Lucien. "From Our Readers: Lucien Cailliet on Instrumentation." The Instrumentalist vol. 15, no. 8, April 1961, p. 8.
- Crane Concert Band concert program, 14 November 2018
- Fisher, Larry. "Lucien Cailliet: his contributions to the symphonic band, orchestra, and ensemble literature." Journal of Band Research vol. 18, no. 2, Spring 1983, pp. 48–56.
- Lucien Cailliet, Wikipedia Accessed 16 November 2018