Henri Pfister

Henri Pfister was a French composer and publisher of music. He was born in the second half of the 19th century and founded the music publishing house "Pfister Freres" together with his brother Georges in Paris in 1901. They were located in 30, Boulevard Haussman. They published compositions by Henri Pfister himself but also by composers like Georges Sporck, Jules Bentz, Maurice Pesse, Joseph Jongen, Guy Ropartz, Leon Moreau or Alberto Bachmann. The publication stopped in 1914 and the complete publishing house was sold to Henri Maquaire in 1922 (which was bought by Editions Billaudot in 1980).

Henri Pfister mainly composed songs and chamber music and he was a well-known part of the Parisian concert scene in the early 20th century. His works were performed at chamber concerts or matinees of - for example - the renowned opera singer and professor Marie Roze. The track of Henri Pfister gets lost in the 1920s.

In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the work "Notre Amour - Poeme idyllique". The work was composed in 1910 and is scored for 2 sopranos, baritone and female choir. It consists of the following three parts:

1ere Partie:

Prologue - L'Eveil du Matin - Promenade Nocturne - Depart

2eme Partie:

Retour - Rencontre - Extase - Separation

3eme Partie:

Celle que j'aime - Jalousie - Hallucination - Offrande - L'Aveu - Aimez-vous

In addition there are autograph extracts of "Extase" (dedicated to Jeanne Lannes), "Separation" and "L'Aveu" (dedicated to Aliu Latour).

The complete work remains unpublished, but two extracts were published by Pfister Freres in 1910 titled "Son Baiser" and "Desesperance".