Bibliography

In english

  • The biography by Harry Halbreich, Arthur Honegger, published by Amadeus Press in 1999. This is the first extensive study that is objective about the musician. Following a lively and detailed chronology of the life of Honegger, Harry Halbreich reviews the complete works before summarizing his vision of the artist and his music. This is the main work on the musician.biblio_01
  • The work of Geoffrey K. Spratt, The Music of Arthur Honegger published by Cork University Press in 1987, was the first major academic study to be carried out on the works of the musician, and presents some remarkable analysis.
  • The thesis of  Keith WATERS (University of Colorado) : Rhytmic and contrapuntal Structures in the Music of Arthur Honegger (ASHGATE 2002).

  • John Caps’ new study, Crisis music: The Life-and-Times of Six Twentieth-Century Composers, Sussex Academic Press, 2022, contains a whole chapter to Arthur Honegger under the title “The Protestant Ethic”. The other composers mentioned are Alexander Zemlinsky, Alban Berg, Olivier Messiaen, Toru Takemitsu and Arvo Pärt.

Crisis Music by John Caps

In german

  • The excellent biography by Harry Halbreich, Arthur Honegger, published by Slatkine in 1995.
  • The book of the radio interviews of Honegger by Bernard Gavoty : Ich bin komponist, published by Atlantis Verlag, Zurich, 1987.

In french

  • The biography by Harry Halbreich published by Fayard in 1992 to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Arthur Honegger.
  • To complete this book, the same author published L’œuvre d’Arthur Honegger, published by Champion in 1994. He furthers musicology analysis of works by specifying the discography, and in particular aims the book at the well-informed music lover.
  • Finally Harry Halbreich also published Honegger, in the “Les Grands Suisses” collection, by Slatkine in 1995.
  • Huguette Calmel wrote in 1992 the Ecrits d’Arthur Honegger published by Champion, in the “Dimension musique” collection; this work groups together all the reviews of the musician, the prefaces and the work book Je suis compositeur; this is a very good representation of the musical landscape in France at the time. It includes a lot of biographical information, and enables the abstract ideas of the musician to be distinguished while still allowing the quality of the author’s writing, often satirical and caustic, to be appreciated.
  • Huguette Calmel and Pascal Lécroart are the joint authors of a work on Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, published in 1993, in the edition Publimuses. It takes stock of this popular work produced by the fruitful collaboration Paul Claudel and Arthur Honegger.
  • In the same vein, Joseph Roy published Le Roi David d’Arthur Honegger on the subject of the most performed work of the composer, in the “A Coeur Joie” edition, Lyon, in 1992.
  • Jean Roy published in 1994, in the “Solfèges” collection by Le  Seuil, a study on the Le Groupe des Six which provides a good introductory work.

Annual newsletter

More in French, l’Association Arthur Honegger distribute an annual newsletter that groups together contributions that focus on particular themes:

  • N° 1, 1994 : Le Centenaire de la Naissance (essays by Harry Halbreich, Huguette Calmel, Pascale Honegger, Jean-Claude Honegger, Marc Vignal, Pierre Brunel.) [PDF]
  • N° 2, 1995: Echos du Centenaire (essays by Alfred Berchtold, Keith Waters, Laurent Fichet, Myriam Tétaz, Pascal Bentoiu, Patrick Butin) [PDF]
  • N° 3, 1996: Hommage à Paul Sacher (essays by Marie-Claire Beltrando-Patier, Alain Pâris, Huguette Calmel, Serge Gut, Patrick Butin, Peter Jost, Keith Waters) [PDF]
  • N° 4, 1997: Antigone (essays by Gérard Lieber, Huguette Calmel, Jérémy Drake, Patrick Butin) [PDF]
  • N° 5, 1998: Arthur Honegger et le Groupe des Six (essays by Jean-Claude Honegger, Huguette Calmel, Josiane Mas, Jean Roy, Jean-Jacques Velly) [PDF]
  • N° 6, 1999: Andrée Honegger-Vaurabourg (essays by Jean-Claude Honegger, Huguette Calmel, Emeline Framboisier, Claude Abravanel, Pierre-Albert Castanet, Laurent Fichet) [PDF]
  • N° 7, 2000: La musique de chambre d’Arthur Honegger  (essays by Pascale Honegger, Françoise Garcin, Jacques Tchamkerten, Jean-Jacques Velly, Laurent Fichet, Huguette Calmel, Brigitte Balleys) [PDF]
  • N° 8, 2001: Judith (essays by Joseph Roy, Jean-Michel Nectoux, Huguette Calmel, Patrick Butin) [PDF]
  • N°9, 2003: Honegger et la musique de ballet (essays by Romain Feist, Harry Halbreich, Huguette Calmel, Pascal Lécroart, Jacques Tchamkerten) [PDF]

Finally, the following are some earlier works, that are worthy of note:

  • The study of the “Symphonies d’Honegger” by Jean Maillard and Jacques Nahoum, published by Leduc in 1974, which targets musicologists or experienced music lovers.
  • The book by Pierre Meylan, René Morax et Arthur Honegger au théâtre du Jorat, published in 1966, Cervin edition, then republished by Slatkine Reprints in 1993.