Eugene Chassaignac

{{Short description|French-American composer}} {{Infobox musical artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Eugene Chassaignac | honorific_suffix = | image = Édouard Chassaignac.png | image_upright = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = <!-- leave empty if the same "name" --> | alias = | birth_date = 1820 | birth_place = Nantes, France | origin = | death_date = {{Death date and age|1878|01|25|1820}} | death_place = New Orleans, Louisiana, United States | genre = Early American Music | occupation = {{hlist|Composer|Musician|University professor}} | instrument = Piano | years_active = 1840–1878 | label = | associated_acts = | spouse = Elvire Porche | website = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} or {{Official URL}} --> | module2 = {{Infobox classical composer|embed=yes | family = | relatives = Edouard Chassaignac | children = Charles Louis Chassaignac | parents = | notable works = War to the Yankees<br>Confederate Land }} }} '''Eugène Chassaignac''' (1820 – January 25, 1878) was a French-American musician, professor, composer, and music critic. Eugene was a prominent member of the New Orleans community and is known for desegregating Scottish Rite Freemasonic lodges in New Orleans in 1867, for which he won a gold medal. Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi personally sent Eugene a letter of praise for his courageous act of kindness towards people of color.<ref name="garibaldi">{{Cite news|url=https://demetrimusic.com/archive/dimitry/ferrata/1.pdf|title=Colored Masons - Letter from Garibaldi|publisher=Lowell Daily Citizen|at=p. 2, col. 1 |work=Lowell Daily Citizen and News, Volume 17, No. 3453 |date=August 10, 1867|access-date=September 15, 2024|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915215338/https://demetrimusic.com/archive/dimitry/ferrata/1.pdf|archive-date=September 15, 2024|location=Lowell, Mass|quote=}}</ref>{{sfn| Barthé, Jr.|2021|pp=82-83}}{{sfn|Hirsch |Logsdon|1992|p=235}} His son Charles Louis Chassaignac became a prominent doctor in New Orleans and worked for Charity Hospital and was a humanitarian.{{sfn|Moulton|1906|pp=51-52}} His daughter Marie Chassaignac married Baron Randolph Natili. Natili's parents were involved in an interracial marriage and he was a member of the prominent Creole Dimitry Family.{{sfn|Pecquet du Bellet|1907a|p=188}} Natili became closely associated with Italian American composer Giuseppe Ferrata because of the marriage of his first cousin's daughter Alice. Natili's relationship with his father-in-law Eugene, benefited Ferrata because of Natili's knowledge and appreciation for musical composition.{{sfn|Eanes|1995|p=103}}<ref name="64parishes">{{cite web|last1=Lemmon|first1=Alfred E.|title=Eugene Chassaignac|publisher=64 Parishes Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities |date=October 3, 2012|location=New Orleans, LA|url=https://64parishes.org/entry/eugene-chassaignac|access-date= September 11, 2024|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240227061553/https://64parishes.org/entry/eugene-chassaignac|archive-date= February 27, 2024}}</ref>

Eugène was born in Nantes, France, in 1820. He studied music with French author and playwright Ludovic Halévy in Paris, France. Eugène eventually settled in New Orleans, Louisiana where he wrote about theater and music for the French-language newspapers ''Le Moniteur du Sud'', ''La Chronique'', ''Le Meschacébé'', and ''Le Louisianais''. He taught music in New Orleans and created a significant number of musical compositions, including a comic opera entitled ''La Nuit aux echelles'', which was performed in 1850 at the Théâtre de St. Martinville. Most of his music manuscripts were destroyed in a fire in Morgan City at his wife's home after his death. Some of his compositions survived and are part of the collection of Duke University and the Library of Congress.<ref name="dictionary">{{cite web|author=Staff Writers|title=CHASSAIGNAC, Eugène, composer, music critic|publisher=Louisiana Historical Association |year=2024|location=Baton Rouge, LA|url=https://www.lahistory.org/resources/dictionary-louisiana-biography/dictionary-louisiana-biography-c/|access-date= September 11, 2024|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240301101307/https://www.lahistory.org/resources/dictionary-louisiana-biography/dictionary-louisiana-biography-c/|archive-date= March 1, 2024}}</ref><ref name="64parishes" />

==History== Eugene was born in Nantes, France. His brother was famous French physician Edouard Chassaignac.{{sfn|Fortier|McGloin|Perrin|Favrot|1892|p=346}} Eugene decided to study music with composer Ludovic Halévy in Paris. Eugene migrated to New Orleans in the 1840s, where he wrote theatre and music columns for ''Le Meschacébé'', ''Le Moniteur du Sud'', ''La Chronique'', and ''Le Louisianais''. He married Elvire Porche in 1842, she was from a family of well-to-do planters. Her parents were Severin Porche (1798–1840) and Helene Porche (1800–1842), they were first cousins, and their aunt was a Creole woman named Marie Louise Porche (1736–1802). Marie was the child of an unknown slave woman with rights within the wealthy Porche family.{{sfn|Hebert|2021|pp=76-78}} The family was from Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana where Eugene and Elvire lived during the 1850s, he taught music at the Collège de la Mobile while also presenting a comic opera, ''La Nuit aux echelles'' at the Théatre de St. Martinville.{{sfn|Bentley|2017|p=171}} By 1857, he taught music history in New Orleans and two years later along with his friend Adolphe Elie he opened a music store called ''Elie et Chassaignac''. The two men eventually had a disagreement which almost led to a duel which was stopped by local police.{{sfn|Ostendorf|2011|p=134}} Eugéne was a captain during the American Civil War for the Confederacy.[[File:Marianne Celeste Dragon 1795.png|thumb|200 px|right| Randolph Natili's grandmother Marianne Céleste Dragon]] In 1861, he was a partner in the New Orleans music publishing company Sourdes and Chassaignac. Eugene partnered with Lieutenant H.H. Strawbridge to produce ''Confederate Land'' and Lieutenant Col. A Garard to create ''War to the Yankees'' both were southern patriotic songs published in three languages.{{sfn|Curtis|2024|p=158}} By 1864, Eugene collaborated in creating a song in New Orleans entitled ''Bride du Sud'' the text was by Louis Placide Canonge, and the music was by Eugène.{{sfn|Hallman|Leal|2022|p=158}}<ref name="64parishes" /><ref name="dictionary" />

Eugene was the Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of Louisiana of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in Louisiana,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Joseph A. Walkes Site |url=https://thephylaxis.org/walkes/french.php |access-date=2026-05-29 |website=thephylaxis.org}}</ref> and on May 2, 1867, he ordered that white lodges under his jurisdiction welcome all without distinction as to race or color. Eugene wanted masonry to march in the forefront of the struggle against prejudice.{{sfn|DeCuir|2009|pp=49-50}} Around this period, Louisiana was emersed in racial violence and segregation. Louisiana rejoined the Union on July 9, 1868, and the Opelousas massacre occurred two months later. By late 1868, Eugene was given a gold Medal for desegregating the lodges.{{sfn|Thompson|2009|p=245}}{{sfn|Hirsch |Logsdon|1992|p=235}} Three years later his daughter Maria married Alexander Dimitry's nephew Randolph Natili. Natili was a part of the Dimitry family and Marianne Celeste Dragon's grandson. Eugene's son, Charles Louis Chassaignac, was an important doctor in New Orleans. He was the medical examiner for the New York Life Insurance Company and district surgeon for the Illinois Central Railroad Company in New Orleans.{{sfn|Fortier|McGloin|Perrin|Favrot|1892|p=346}} Most of Eugene's compositions that were in the possession of his wife after his death were lost in a fire. Some of his works can be found in the collection of Duke University and the Library of Congress.<ref name="64parishes" /><ref name="dictionary" />

==Compositions == {| class="wikitable" |+Music authored by Eugene Chassaignac !Date !Title |- |1850 |[https://www.loc.gov/item/2023803207/ ''Tell me! Dis-moi''] |- |1850 |La Nuit Aux Echelles |- |1861 |[https://repository.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:62087 ''Confederate Land''] |- |1864 |War to the Yankees |- |1864 |[https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p16003coll4/id/8827 ''Bride du Sud''] |- |1864 |Egg-Nog Song |- |1865 |Lu-Lu Polka |- |1871 |[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015097804135&seq=1 ''Home Again Polka Mazurka de Salon : Op. 9 ''] |- |}

==See also== *Victor-Eugene McCarty *Edmond Dédé

== References == {{Reflist}}

==Bibliography== *{{cite book|last=Thompson|first=Shirley Elizabeth|date=2009|title=Exiles at Home The Struggle to Become American in Creole New Orleans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kcBhY1zdOxUC&q=Eugene%20Chassaignac%20|location=Cambridge, MA|publisher=Harvard University Press|page=|isbn=9780674023512 }} *{{cite book|last1=Pecquet du Bellet|first1=Louise|title=Some Prominent Virginia Families|publisher=J. P. Bell Company (Incorporated)|volume=4|year=1907a|location= Lynchburg, VA|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3iQSAAAAYAAJ&q=Chassaignac}} *{{cite book|editor1-last= Hirsch |editor1-first= Arnold R.|editor2-last= Logsdon|editor2-first= Joseph |title=Creole New Orleans ''Race and Americanization''|publisher=LSU Press|date=September 1992|location=Baton Rouge, LA|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GixUlq7j8VkC&dq=Eugene+Chassaignac+gold&pg=PA235|isbn=9780807117743}} *{{cite book|last1=Hebert|first1=Paulette Fenderson|title=Shake Your Tree Memoirs of Marie Claire, Always Creole and Always a Proud Colored Former Slave Owner|publisher=iUniverse|year=2021|location= Bloomington, IN|isbn=978-1-6632-2488-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l5dUEAAAQBAJ&dq=Elvire+Porche&pg=PT78}} *{{cite book|last1=Curtis|first1=Robert I.|title=Sheet Music of the Confederacy A History|publisher=McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers|year=2024|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yiT-EAAAQBAJ&dq=Captain+Eugene+Chassaignac&pg=PA158|isbn=9781476650760}} *{{cite book|editor1-last= Hallman |editor1-first= Diana R. |editor2-last= Leal |editor2-first=César A.|title=America in the French Imaginary, 1789 -1914 Music, Revolution and Race|publisher=Boydell Press|year=2022|location=Rochester, New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZD52EAAAQBAJ&dq=Eugene+Chassaignac+creole&pg=PA158|isbn=9781783277001}} *{{cite book|last1= Barthé, Jr.|first1= Darryl |title=Becoming American in Creole New Orleans, 1896–1949|publisher=LSU Press|date=July 14, 2021|location=Baton Rouge, LA|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T4kEEAAAQBAJ&dq=Eugene+Chassaignac+creole&pg=PA82|isbn=9780807175521}} *{{cite book|last1=Ostendorf|first1=Ann|title=Sounds American National Identity and the Music Cultures of the Lower Mississippi River Valley, 1800-1860|publisher=University of Georgia Press|location=Athens, Georgia|date=September 15, 2011|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=raE0HBiR9qQC&dq=Eugene+Chassaignac+music+new+orleans&pg=PA134|isbn=9780820341361}} *{{cite book|editor1-last=Moulton|editor1-first= Charles Wells|title=The Doctor's Who's Who|publisher=University of Georgia Press|location=New York, NY|year=1906|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GFlJAAAAYAAJ&dq=eugene+chassaignac&pg=PA51|isbn=}} *{{cite book|last1= Fortier |first1=Alceé|last2=McGloin|first2=Frank|last3=Perrin|first3=W.H.|last4=Favrot|first4=H.L.|last5=Owen|first5=W. Miller|last6=Cross|first6=K.A|last7=Peytavin|first7=John L.|last8=Gusman|first8=Anthony L.|last9=Salomen|first9=Lucien F.|title=Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana of Louisiana Vol. 1|publisher=The Goodspeed Publishing Company|location=Chicago, Il|year= 1892|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sOcxAQAAMAAJ&q=charles+louis+chassaignac}} *{{cite thesis |last1=DeCuir|first1=Sharlene Sinegal|title=Attacking Jim Crow: Black Activism in New Orleans 1925-1941 |publisher=Louisiana State University|year=2009|location=Baton Rouge, LA|url=https://repository.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2868&context=gradschool_dissertations|access-date= September 11, 2024|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240808094854/https://repository.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2868&context=gradschool_dissertations|archive-date= August 8, 2024}} *{{cite thesis |last1=Bentley|first1=Charlotte Alice|title=Resituating Transatlantic Opera: The Case of the Théâtre d'Orléans, New Orleans, 1819–1859|publisher=Emmanuel College|date=October 2017|location=Boston, Massachusetts|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/153444489.pdf|access-date= September 11, 2024|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240911133759/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/153444489.pdf|archive-date= September 11, 2024}} *{{cite web|url=https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6094/|title= Giuseppe Ferrata: Emigre Pianist and Composer.|last1=Eanes|first1=Edward|date=1995|publisher= Louisiana State University|location=Baton Rouge, Louisiana|doi= 10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.6094|access-date=August 30, 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240817233716/https://repository.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7093&context=gradschool_disstheses|archive-date= August 17, 2024}}

==External links== *[https://catalogue.bnf.fr/affiner.do?motRecherche=Eugene+Chassaignac&listeAffinages=FacNatDoc_c&afficheRegroup=false&trouveDansFiltre=NoticePUB&nbResultParPage=10&triResultParPage=0&critereRecherche=0 List of Music in French] {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chassaignac, Eugene}} Category:1820 births Category:1878 deaths Category:19th-century French composers Category:19th-century French male composers Category:19th-century American composers Category:19th-century American male composers Category:American classical composers Category:Musicians from New Orleans Category:American opera composers Category:People of Louisiana in the American Civil War Category:Dimitry family Category:American Freemasons Category:Composers from Louisiana