Born 1841, Ambert, Puy-de-Dôme, Fr.--died 1894, Paris), French composer whose best works reflect the verve and wit of the Paris scene of the 1880s and who was a musical counterpart of the early Impressionist painters.

Chabrier was attracted in his youth to both music and painting. He studied law in Paris from 1858 to 1862. During these years he also studied the piano and harmony and counterpoint. His technical training was, however, limited, and in the art of composition he was self-taught. From 1862 to 1880 he was employed at the Ministry of the Interior, producing during this period the operas L'Étoile (1877 "The Star") and Une Éducation manquée ("A Deficient Education"), first performed with piano accompaniment in 1879 and with orchestra in 1913. Two unfinished operettas were sketched out between 1863 and 1865 in cooperation with the poet Paul Verlaine. He was closely associated with the Impressionist painters and purchased the celebrated "Bar at the Folies-Bergère" by his friend Édouard Manet.

After hearing Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at Munich in 1879 Chabrier left the Ministry of the Interior to devote himself exclusively to music. As chorus master at the Concerts Lamoureux he helped to produce a concert performance of Tristan and became associated with Vincent d'Indy, Henri Duparc, and Gabriel Fauré as one of the group known as "Le Petit Bayreuth." Chabrier's best music was written between 1881 and 1891 when, after visiting Spain (where he was inspired by the folk music), he settled at La Membrolle in Touraine. His works during this period include the piano pieces Dix Pièces pittoresques (1880; "Ten Picturesque Pieces"), Trois valses romantiques (1883; "Three Romantic Waltzes") for two pianos, and Bourrée fantasque (1891; "Bourrée [dance] Fantastic"), the orchestral works España (1883, "Spain") and Joyeuse Marche (1888; "Joyful March"), the opera Le Roi malgré lui (1887, "The King in Spite of Himself"), and six songs (1890). The last three years of his life were marked by a mental and physical collapse.

Chabrier's music, frequently based on irregular rhythmic patterns or on rapidly repeated figures derived from the bourrée, a dance of his native Auvergne, was inspired by both broad humour and a sense of caricature. His melodic gifts, developed by the popular songs of the Paris cafés-concerts, were abundant though inclined to coarseness. In his piano and orchestral works he developed a sophisticated Parisian style that was a model for the 20th-century composers Francis Poulenc and Georges Auric. His orchestration was remarkable for novel instrumental combinations. In España his use of the brass and percussion anticipated effects in Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka.

Chabrier was also a notable letter writer, the collection of his published letters being valued for its literary as well as its musical interest and for its streak of spontaneous, Rabelaisian humour.

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