Mel Bonis (1858-1937) led a double and, most of the time, a troubled life. Much of this was brought on by her parents and by the societal limitations women of that era experienced. Mel is the name chosen by Mélanie Bonis to hide her gender as a composer. However, disguising her identity was a relatively minor issue. Even as a child she had to battle to study music.

Mélanie’s lower middle-class parents dismissed her keen desire to study the piano. The strong-willed youngster taught herself until the cornet teacher at the Paris Conservatory heard her play and brought her to the attention of the Conservatory’s Director, César Franck. Franck was so impressed by her talent, both as a pianist and a fledgling composer that he gave her private lessons and subsequently admitted her to the Conservatory. She thrived in the stimulating scholastic environment, winning prizes even among the company of fellow students like Gabriel Pierné, Vincent d’Indy, and Claude Debussy.

However, there was another student in one of Mélanie’s classes, a 22 year-old singer, poet, and music critic named Amédée Landély Hettich. Bonis began to set Hettich’s poems to music, and the two would perform their joint creations. Mélanie once again found herself battling her parents, who feared for her future amid the insecurities of an artistic existence. This battle she lost. She was forced to resign from the Conservatory in her final year, to the great regret of her supportive teachers, and to discontinue seeing Hettich.

Mélanie was a devout Catholic, nurtured from her earliest years, and she thought it her duty to obey her parents. They now arranged a marriage for her to a wealthy, twice-widowed business-man with five sons. Albert Domange was twenty-five years older than his reluctant bride – twice her age.

For the next ten years she tended to the five Domange boys and had three additional children with her husband, managed three houses, including a mansion in Paris and two vacation homes, and supervised a staff of twelve servants. Her husband had no interest in music, and she set aside her desire to compose. Then she once again ran into Hettich. He had since married and was experiencing a successful career as a writer. He encouraged Bonis to start composing again and brought her into contact with Alphonse Leduc, who operated one of the premiere music publishing firms in France.

Among her new compositions were more songs based on the poetry of Hettich. They worked together on many projects, and for a very long time, Mélanie resisted the attraction she felt toward Hettich and his persistent advances. At some point that changed. The liaison that ensued resulted in pregnancy. Mélanie arranged, for reasons of “health,” to have an extended stay in Switzerland where, in secret, she gave birth to a daughter, Madeleine. The little girl was placed with foster parents, and her real mother had no direct contact with her for many years. Although she was able to make some decisions on her child’s behalf regarding education, the inability to see her or write to her led to bouts of depression for Mélanie.

When daughter Madeleine was thirteen, she was given the name Hettich, because Hettich’s wife had died, and he could finally recognize his paternity. Shortly thereafter the foster mother died. With the Great War just underway, Madeleine came to live in the Domange household as an “orphan of the war.” Mother and daughter were reunited, but the child knew nothing of the relationship. Madeleine and the Domange children became fast friends. Mélanie’s oldest son, Édouard, went off to war and was captured by the Germans. In 1917, Albert Domange died. With the close of the war in 1918, Édouard was released and returned home.

Before long a romance began to bloom between the unsuspecting Édouard and his equally unaware step-sister. When this relationship began to turn serious, their mother had to confront her past and her youngest daughter. With a pledge of absolute confidentiality from her daughter, sworn on the bible, Mélanie revealed the true nature of their relationship to Madeleine and the necessity for Madeleine to break off with Édouard.

Madeleine was devastated and never completely recovered. A pervasive sadness persisted throughout her life. Even though she found another man to marry and had three children of her own, she was unable to shake the feelings associated with her strange upbringing and her aborted relationship with Édouard. She did continue to have a close relationship with her mother that deepened over time.

Against this incredible backdrop, Mel Bonis managed to write over 300 compositions. Many are works for piano or songs for voice and piano, but she also wrote a substantial number of chamber compositions. These include two piano quartets and many works involving flute. Among those with flute are a Septuor-Fantasie ou Concerto (Septet – Fantasy or Concerto) for two flutes, piano and strings, Scènes de la forêt (Scenes of the Forest), opus 123 for flute, horn, and piano, and the Suite dans le style ancien (in the old style) for flute and strings.

The Suite for Flute, Violin, and Piano apparently dates from not long after she had to give up her daughter. The work was published in 1903. The Edition Silvertrust reprint of the work says in the preface that the first of the three movements:

…is languid and sad. Its lovely melody moves effortlessly like lotus petals floating lazily on a river. The title of the second movement, Pastorale, best describes the mood which the music evokes. It almost seems a continuation of the first movement. More upbeat, it, too, has a languid quality about it. The finale, Scherzo, is a very different affair – energetic, playful and mischievous, it[s] mood is contagious.