Swan Hennessy

Edward Swan Hennessy (24 November 1866 – 26 October 1929) was an Irish-American composer and pianist who lived much of his life in Paris. In his pre-War piano music, he excelled as a miniaturist in descriptive, programmatic music. After joining a group of Breton composers, he developed a reputation as a “Celtic” composer, drawing on his Irish heritage, and writing in a style that was unique in a French as well as an Irish context. Even though he has been almost forgotten after 1950, his music was applauded by contemporary French music critics including Henri Collet, Louis Vuillemin, Émile Vuillermoz and Lucien Chevaillier. In some works, he used jazz elements and took inspiration from funfairs and industrial noise, anticipating trends associated with the group of “Les Six”. Biography Swan Hennessy was born in Rockford, Illinois, of Irish origin and grew up in Chicago. His father, Michael David Hennessy (1837–1919), was a Cork-born former President of the Chicago City Railway Company before he became a lawyer in 1874. Hennessy’s mother was Sarah J. Swan (c.1833–1880), a daughter of Joseph Rockwell Swan, an Ohio Supreme Court judge and founding member of the American Republican Party