Emmanuel Chabrier

Emmanuel Chabrier's career as a composer lasted a few years less than his career as a civil servant, but it left us brilliant works such as the orchestral rhapsody España and the comic opera Le roi malgré lui. He privately studied piano, harmony, and composition as a youth, but eventually took a law degree. When Chabrier was 39, friends introduced him to the music of Wagner, which convinced him to return to music full-time. His relatively small output of stage, orchestral, vocal, and piano works is marked by attractive melodies, clear and concise construction, and sparkling harmonic colors.