A private pupil of César Franck, he was above all the man who brought others together: his salon saw Mallarmé, Debussy, Fauré, Monet and Ysaÿe pass through. On 10 June 1899, at Limay, he rode down a hill on his bicycle, fell and fractured his skull. He was forty-four.
The story
Born in Paris on 20 January 1855 into a well-off family, Ernest Chausson left the law for music and became the private pupil of César Franck, introduced by Vincent d'Indy.
Secretary of the Société nationale de musique from 1886 until his death, he made it the home of living French music — the society that played what the institutions still refused.
His salon counted for more than his offices: Mallarmé, Debussy, Fauré, Monet, Ysaÿe all crossed paths there. Chausson was the man who made other people meet.
He left the Poème de l'amour et de la mer, the Poème for violin (op. 25) and the opera Le Roi Arthus: a short body of work, in which his generation's Wagnerism passes through a French filter.
On 10 June 1899, at Limay, he rode down a slope on a bicycle, fell and fractured his skull. He rests in Division 67, on Chemin Hautoy, in the family chapel — joined since 1978 by the mathematician Gaston Julia, who had married his daughter Marianne.
The grave
A sober chapel, topped by an angel by an unknown artist, beneath the inscription “Famille CHAUSSON – LEVRAUX”. The composer's own consists of three elements: “Ernest CHAUSSON, 1855-1899”. The tomb holds a second celebrity, of a wholly different order: “Gaston Maurice JULIA, 3.2.1893-19.3.1978” — the mathematician of the Julia sets, who had married the composer's daughter Marianne.
On site, do not miss
The angel on the pediment, and the three names on the chapel: Chausson, Levraux — and Gaston Julia, the mathematician of fractal sets, who died in 1978 and is buried there.
Visitors' questions
Where is Ernest Chausson's grave?
In Division 67, chemin Hautoy, first row: a chapel topped by an angel, bearing the inscription “Famille CHAUSSON – LEVRAUX”. The mathematician Gaston Julia, who had married his daughter Marianne, also rests there, having died in 1978.
Édouard LaloHow did Ernest Chausson die?
In a fall from a bicycle, on 10 June 1899, on his estate at Limay: he was riding down a slope and fractured his skull. He was forty-four, and had just finished his opera Le Roi Arthus, which he would never see staged.
Paul SignacWho rests with Ernest Chausson?
The mathematician Gaston Julia (1893-1978), who had married his daughter Marianne — the man whose work on the iteration of functions gave their name to “Julia sets”, rediscovered by Mandelbrot fifty years later.
Gabriel PiernéWho came to Chausson's salon?
Mallarmé, Debussy, Fauré, the painter Monet, the violinist Ysaÿe. A private pupil of César Franck and secretary of the Société nationale de musique, Chausson was the man through whom French music of the 1890s met itself.
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