Born in 1855 in Paris, Chausson entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1879 and studied under the French composers Jules Massenet and César Franck.
Franck especially influenced Chausson's works, which include operas, choral works, songs, chamber music, church music, and compositions for orchestra and for piano. Best known are his Symphony in B-flat Major (1890) and the Poème, for violin and orchestra (1896).

He had been the pupil of Franck and was the friend of Debussy and he was indeed a link between Franck and Debussy. Franck's classicism has influenced him, but his quest for a more veiled mode of expression, like that of the French symbolists, drew him closer to teh Debussy of Pelleas et Melissande, whose work he followed attentively. Chausson's Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 3, dates from the summer and autumn of 1881. 

Despite the great success of his later symphony and "Poeme," some of Chausson's early music is among his best, and the trio is a good example. The restless and very personal first movement, the charm and wit of the second movement, and the striking inner tensions of the finale make this trio among the most satisfying "elegiac" chamber music in the concert repertoire.

Ernest Chausson is a symphonist. He lacks neither stamina not breadth. But it is to his credit that the spirit of chamber music may be detected throughout his compositions, and even in the Symphony in B flat. This characteristic combination of symphonic and small ensamble music is apparent in Chausson's Concerto for piano, violin and string quartet. This hybrid work is actually a dramatic sonata with violin and piano as the leading characters, along with the string quartet as their foil. Chausson's music here is sentimental and attached to his own suffering; however he has the ability to weave his sad song against the background of teasing harmonies. And his veiled melancholy is made more moving by its striving to overcome the dark forces.

Ernest Chausson's accidental death in 1899, at the age of 44, put a premature stop to an opus which had consistently evolved since his first works in 1882, both in terms of inspiration and beauty of form.