Ernest Cabaner

Ernest Cabaner was born on 12 October 1833 in Perpignan (France) as Joachim Jean Philippe Martre, the natural child of Marthe Martre and Joachim Barthelemi Cabaner. Not before the age of 19 he changed his name into Ernest Cabaner.

Ernest Cabaner learned to play the piano and moved to Paris at the age of 17 and studied under Antoine Francois Marmontel at the Paris conservatory. As a highly eccentric person Ernest Cabaner followed a completely different path for his musical career then others. He earned a small living from playing piano in bars and brothels, but also worked as a bartender or in other jobs. He very soon became part of the Boheme and was a close friend to composers, painters and poets like Emmanuel Chabrier, Edouard Manet, Paul Cezanne, Auguste Renoir, Arthur Rimbaud or Paul Verlaine. Ernest Cabaner was much admired in this circle because of his enigmatic and complex character: He collected old shoes to use them as flowerpots, lived a strict diet of cheese rolls and milk combined with a massive use of absinthe, hashish and opium and in conversations he was famous for droll one-liners. His personal output as a musician or composer is small and would be forgotten nowadays but Ernest Cabaner had so many interactions with so many important artists, that he became himself a celebrity: The young Arthur Rimbaud lived in the apartment of Ernest Cabaner for some time. Ernest Cabaner taught him to play the piano and he used a form of synesthesia for his instructions because Ernest Cabaner believed that specific pitches are connected to a specific colour. Arthur Rimbaud later used these experiences in his famous poem "Voyelles". Arthur Verlaine is known for his famous quote about Ernest Cabaner, describing him as a "Jesus Christ after three years on absinthe". His extravagant lifestyle resulted in a lifelong sickliness of Ernest Cabaner. In 1880 he was so ill that he had to go to a sanatorium. To cover the costs his friends organised an auction and donated paintings and other items (for example Edouard Manet donated "Le suicide") and Emmanuel Chabrier acted as the treasurer of the earnings. Shortly afterwards Ernest Cabaner died on 3 August 1881 in Paris (France).

As a composer Ernest Cabaner left two dozens of songs for voice and piano which are quite important as examples of pre-surrealistic compositions: For example "Le Hareng saur" on words by Charles Cros. Beside his chansons only a handful of piano compositions are known. 

In my possession is the autograph manuscript of a piano piece by Ernest Cabaner. The manuscript came from the estate of Emmanuel Chabrier and has his handwritten note "musique de Cabaner" on the first page of music. The manuscript itself provides no title of the composition, not even a tempo indication. The manuscript is not dated, but Cabaner and Chabrier were close friends since the 1870s, so it is very likely that the composition dates from around 1875.

This is one of the very few piano compositions by Ernest Cabaner of which only two others are known.

Ernest Cabaner portrayed by Edouard Manet in 1880

Ernest Cabaner portrayed by Auguste Renoir in 1876 (Cabaner is the person on the very right)