Paul Challine

Paul Challine was born on 23 August 1907 in Pithiviers (France). He received his first music lessons in harmony and counterpoint with Gustave Noel. After school Paul Challine decided to study law in Paris and only attended additional music courses in instrumentation and orchestration at the Ecole Normale de Musique. Paul Challine completed his law studies and earned a living in this profession. But in his leisure time he continued to compose music. One of his first compositions - Trois melodies for voice and piano on texts of Henri Zurfluh - were broadcasted at a radio concert in 1928. Other chamber music followed and was performed in concerts or radio broadcasts.
After the outbreak of World War II Paul Challine was drafted for military service and rose to the rank of a lieutenant. In June 1940 he got in war captivity and arrested in the prisoner-of-war camp Oflag II B (in Choszczno, now Poland). There he became conductor of the camp orchestra and composed the majority of his output as a composer: The operetta "La Reine s'ennuie", a violin concerto, a quartet for violin, cello, clarinet and piano and most notably his sonata for violin and piano which won the SACEM prize in 1942.
Paul Challine was released from war captivity in April 1945, returned to France and worked as a lawyer until his retirement. He did not continue to compose regularly and so only a handful of compositions were written until his passing on 2 February 1994.

In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the song "Offrande" for voice and piano by Paul Challine. The song sets a poem by Pierre Aguetant (1890-1940) to music. The manuscript is not dated, but came from the estate of Pierre Aguetant and so it is likely that Paul Challine sent the manuscript to him before his death in 1940. So a composition date of around 1935 seems reasonable.