The Élégie by Jules Massenet (1842-1912) was perhaps one of the most popular melodies in Europe of the fin de siècle, the last decades of the nineteenth century, often referred to as the Belle Epoque. Massenet originally composed Élégie in 1866 for a piano cycle titled Pièces de Genre, Op. 10 Nº 5. In 1872, he incorporated the piece into Les Erinnyes (The Furies), a play by Leconte de Lisle. The sorrowful melody for muted cello became a solo piece entitled Mélodie-Elégie and was arranged numerou...