Composer Ernest Chausson dies in bicycle accident

Background. Ernest Chausson was a French Romantic composer born in Paris in 1855. To please his father, he studied law and was appointed a barrister for the Court of Appeals, though he had little or no interest in the profession. At the Conservatoire he studied with César Franck, with whom he formed a close friendship lasting until Franck's death in 1890. From 1886 until his death in 1899, Chausson served as secretary of the Société Nationale de Musique. He was prone to depression, a trait later linked to suggestions that his fatal crash may have been suicide.

The Accident. On 10 June 1899, Chausson died instantly when his bicycle hit a brick wall while he was riding downhill. The exact circumstances remain unclear. Although the event was probably an accident, suggestions of suicide have emerged because Chausson was prone to depression.

Legacy. A small park in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, Square Ernest-Chausson, is named in his honour. The suicide theory was propounded by Debussy's biographer Edward Lockspeiser, but has been rejected more recently by Chausson's own biographer Ralph Scott Grover.