Mélanie Bonis was born into a lower-middle-class family in Paris and grew up with the strict rules of Catholic morality of her time. She showed great talent and was sensitive to music, teaching herself how to play the piano. At first, her parents did not support her musical interests, but when she was twelve, a professor from the Conservatoire convinced them to let her take formal lessons. By sixteen, she started studying at the prestigious Conservatoire, where she took classes in accompaniment, harmony, and composition. She studied alongside students like Claude Debussy and Gabriel Pierné and learned from the teacher,cézarFranck. Since it was hard for women composers to get recognition, she used a more neutral version of her first name, "Mel." While at the Conservatoire, she met Amédée Landély Hettich, a student who was also a poet and singer. She set some of his poems to music and fell in love with him. However, her parents did not approve, and in 1883 they arranged for her to marry Albert Domange, a businessman 25 years older than her. He was a widower with five children. After marrying Domange, she moved into family life and had three children. The marriage was notidealbecauseDomangenotlikedmusic. In the 1890s, Bonis met Hettich again, who encouraged her to start composing again. This led to her career growing. During this time, she also had an affair with Hettich, which resulted in an illegitimate child named Madeleine. Madeleine was cared for by a former chambermaid while Bonis focused on her composing. She became a member of the Société des compositeurs de musique and published her work with Éditions Alphonse Leduc.