Blanche Selva was a French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 pianist, music educator, writer and composer of Catalan

Catalan people

The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...

 origin.

Biography

Blanche Selva was born in Brive-la-Gaillarde

Brive-la-Gaillarde

Brive-la-Gaillarde is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture of the Corrèze department. The population of the urban area was 89,260 as of 1999. Although it is by far the biggest commune in Corrèze, the capital is Tulle.-History:...

 in Corrèze

Corrèze

Corrèze is a department in south central France, named after the Corrèze River.The inhabitants of the department are called Corréziens or Corréziennes according to gender.-History:...

. As a child she studied piano with a number of teachers, took preparatory classes with Sophie Chen, and was admitted to the Paris Conservatory in 1893. She studied with Alphonse Duvernoy

Alphonse Duvernoy

Victor-Alphonse Duvernoy was a French pianist and composer.-Life and career:Duvernoy, son of noted bass-baritone Charles-François Duvernoy , was a student of Antoine François Marmontel, François Bazin and Mathurin Barbereau at the Conservatoire de Paris where he studied piano from 1886...

 and won a medal in competition, but left the Conservatory without graduating.

Her family moved to Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, and Selva began giving concerts at the age of 13 in Lausanne

Lausanne

Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...

. She studied with Vincent d'Indy

Vincent d'Indy

Vincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher.-Life:Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and...

 in Valencia, and became a professor at the Schola Cantorum de Paris in December 1901, later taking positions at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

, the École Normale de Musique in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, and the Prague Conservatory

Prague Conservatory

Prague Conservatory, sometimes also Prague Conservatoire, in Czech Pražská konzervatoř, is a Czech secondary school in Prague dedicated to teaching the arts of music and theater acting.- Instruction :...

. Blanche Selva was the only French pianist of her time to specialise in Czech music, and she was consequently very popular in Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

. She continued to tour and work as a concert pianist in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. By the age of 20 she had performed all of J.S. Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

's keyboard works in 17 recitals. Between 1906 and 1909 she premiered all four books of Isaac Albéniz

Isaac Albéniz

Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms .-Life:Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz...

's piano suite Iberia

Iberia (Albéniz)

Iberia is a suite for piano composed between 1905 and 1909 by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz. It comprises four books of three pieces each; a complete performance lasts about an hour and a half....

.

In 1924 Selva moved to Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

, where she founded her own music school and performed in a duo with violinist Joan Massià i Prats. In 1930 she developed a paralysis that ended her performing career, but she continued teaching, writing and composing.

In 1936 she left Barcelona because of the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

 and lived for a while in Marseille

Marseille

Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

, then Moulins, Allier

Moulins, Allier

Moulins is a commune in central France, capital of the Allier department.Among its many tourist attractions are the Maison Mantin the Anne de Beaujeu Museum.-History:...

, and Saint-Saturnin, Puy-de-Dôme

Saint-Saturnin, Puy-de-Dôme

Saint-Saturnin is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France.-References:*...

, Auvergne

Auvergne (région)

Auvergne is one of the 27 administrative regions of France. It comprises the 4 departments of Allier, Puy de Dome, Cantal and Haute Loire.The current administrative region of Auvergne is larger than the historical province of Auvergne, and includes provinces and areas that historically were not...

. Still suffering from illness, she entered a hospital in Saint-Amant-Tallende

Saint-Amant-Tallende

Saint-Amant-Tallende is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France.-References:*...

 where she died in December 1942 at age 49.

Writings

Blanche Selva was active as a translator and transcriptionist, and published several texts on piano technique, including:

• Music Teaching of Piano Technique (7 volumes), Paris from 1916 to 1925

She also published professional articles in magazines and journals including Tablettes de la Schola, Le Monde Musical, La Revue Musicale and Le Revista Musical Catalana. Selected articles include:

• "The Sonata, Study of its historical and expressive for the interpretation and hearing", Paris 1913
• "Sonatas by Beethoven", Barcelona 1927
• "Monograph on Déodat de Séverac
  Déodat de Séverac
  Déodat de Séverac was a French composer.-Biography:...
  
  ", Paris 1930

Music for piano/organ

• Paysage au soleil couchant (1904)
• Suite (Prélude, Allemande, Courante, Burla, Chanson, Farandole) for piano (1904)
• Cloches dans la brume for piano (1905)
• Cloches au soleil for piano (1905)
• Pièces for piano (1908)
• Petite pièce for organ (1908)
• La Vasque aux Colombes (1921)
• Primers Jocs for piano (1931)
• Le jeu du pentacorde qui vole, exercice for piano (1940)
• Transcriptions pour piano d'œuvres de Vincent d'Indy et César Franck (1910–1912)

Vocal and choral music

• Les Ancêtres du Lys (1905)
• Rosaire d'après Francis Jammes (1906)
• Venez sous la tonnelle d'après Francis Jammes (1908)
• Muntanya blava for voice and piano (1928)
• Mes de Maria for voice and piano (1929)
• Dix mélodies sur des poèmes catalans (1935)
• La Farigola (1926)
• El Tronc (1929)
• Quicumque Enim Spiritu Dei Aguntur (1929)
• Pensament Matinal (1931)
• O Fleurs des fleurs d'après Blanche Selva (1939)

Chamber and orchestral music

• La Nit de la Purissima (1929)
• Quatre pièces pour violon et piano (1934)
• Poème de la Resureccio ou Oratorio pascal (manuscript lost, 1938)

Recordings

Selva's works have been recorded and issued on CD, including:

• Blanche Selva, une promenade musicale (Blanche Selva Association and the Centre International Albert Roussel)
• Malibran-Music (Association and Blanche Selva 2002).