Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83

(iv) Music publishing.

Music publishing began almost simultaneously in Lyons and Paris in 1528, with the Contrapunctus issued by Etienne Gueynard in Lyons and the Chansons nouvelles published by Pierre Attaingnant in Paris. It is possible that another Lyons printer (? Antoine Du Ry) had published woodcut engravings of a collection of motets by Layolle in about 1525; only one of the parts has been preserved. However, Attaingnant was the first to use the method of single-impression printing, also adopted by Jacques Moderne in Lyons in 1532. Attaingnant obtained a royal privilege in 1529, renewed in 1531, and in 1537 was describing himself as ‘imprimeur et libraire du roy en musique’. By 1552 he had published over 150 collections of sacred and secular polyphonic, vocal, and instrumental music. In Lyons, Moderne published some 50 musical works between 1532 and 1557, sometimes pirated from his Parisian rival, but in the mainstream of the cosmopolitan repertory. There were other less prolific publishers in Lyons, such as the Beringen brothers, Robert Granjon and Simon Gorlier. In Paris the leading publisher in the middle of the century was Nicolas Du Chemin, who issued about 100 collections of music between 1549 and 1576, including nearly 700 chansons, among them the first settings of Ronsard’s Amours. Finally, the most important publishers of the second part of the century were Adrian Le Roy, himself a lutenist and composer, and his partner and cousin Robert Ballard, the founder of a dynasty of music publishers. They produced over 300 music books of all kinds, and held privileges reviewed every 10 years, as well as bearing the title of ‘printers to the king’. Their dedications to the Queen Mother, the King and the Duke of Orléans confirm their close relationship with the court and with officially recognized poets such as Ronsard, Dorat and Baïf.

The rise of music publishing made for wider distribution of musical works and gave composers the opportunity to extend their reputations. Printing in itself offered them professional openings: in Paris, Du Chemin engaged Claude Goudimel, Nicole Regnes and Loys Bisson as ‘correcteurs’ and in Lyons Moderne employed Francesco Layolle and probably Pierre de Villiers. While giving preference to composers already recognized by the public (Janequin, Arcadelt and subsequently Lassus), publishers also made contact with provincial maîtres de chapelle such as Cadéac (in Auch), Le Heurteur (Tours) and Cléreau (Toul). Le Roy & Ballard took advantage of visits to Paris by foreign composers (notably Alfonso Ferrabosco and Alessandro Striggio), and ‘discovered’ the Toulouse composer Antoine de Bertrand. It was to Le Roy & Ballard that the Confrérie Sainte-Cécile at Evreux turned to provide advertising material for their annual puy competition, a connection that enabled the publishers, in their turn, to find new composers of talent. A new power in music was thus consolidated in Paris, while at the end of the century music publishing in Lyons was in decline.

France, §I, 2: Art music: The Burgundian court

(v) Instrument making.

Instrument making grew and flourished at this period, encouraged not only by the rise of professional instrumentalists’ associations organized by the Confrérie Saint-Julien, which had been founded in the rue St-Martin in 1328. The main centres of instrument making were Lyons and, above all, Paris. There seem to have been spinet and clavichord builders (H. de l’Oeuvre) and flute makers (Claude Rafi) in Lyons earlier than lute and violin makers, of whom there were about 40 in the second half of the century, some of German or Italian origin. The outstanding figure was the lute maker Garspard Duiffoprucgar (Tieffenbrucker) from Bavaria, who was active from 1553 to 1571. In Paris there were at least 70 instrument makers in the second half of the century; this figure does not include organ builders, some of whom called themselves ‘master spinet makers’. Several, including the organ builders Antoine Dargillières and Francisque des Olliviers, the spinet makers Jean Potin, Médéric Lorillard and Jacques Le Breton, and the lute maker Pierre Aubry bore the title facteur du roi. The story that Charles IX ordered 24 violins from Andrea Amati is a legend of 18th-century origin. The instrument makers of Paris also imported flutes, guitars and lutes from Lyons, lutes from Germany and violins, lutes and cornetts from Padua, Venice and Brescia. François Richomme, one of the king’s violinists, played a violin made in Cremona, valued on his death at 90 livres. In the second half of the century some makers were also producing violins ‘after the fashion of Cremona’, cornetts ‘after the fashion of Venice’ and so on. Demand seems to have been high: in 1575 Gervais Rebans acepted an order for 200 lutes, and when Claude Denis died in 187 there were over 600 instruments in his workshop. Several dynasties of intrument makers were found in the latter part of the 16th century, including the Denis, Hardel, Hurel and Jacquet families. In 1599 letters-patent were granted to the corporation of ‘faiseurs d’instruments’, defining the conditions for practising their trade.

France, §I: Art music

3. The 17th and 18th centuries.

The territorial unity sought by the kings of France was accompanied by a desire for political, administrative and cultural centralism in which music played an important part. Louis XIII and, after 1661, Louis XIV insisted on the presence of their leading subjects at court, where a whole ritual was designed to reinforce royal power. Over the decades an ever wider gap opened up between provincial centres and the court, particularly when musical genres such as opera and the grand motet became fashionable and required large numbers of performers. Versailles and Paris inevitably attracted the finest musical talents in the kingdom, who were summoned to participate in the development of national art. The artistic vitality of the provinces suffered in proportion: the maîtrises in particular had increasing difficulty in attracting qualified maîtres de chapelle, and by the beginning of the 18th century were in a state of decline. Composers who did not secure a post in the capital remained of marginal importance in French musical life.

The French church preserved a considerable degree of independence from the authority of Rome. The Council of Trent was not accepted in France until 1615, and even then not by the king or the Parlement but only by the assembly of clergy, after much resistance from the Gallican parties. A Gallican liturgy was introduced, and the Harlay breviary of 1680 even omitted the reference ad usum romanum; a neo-Latin form of poetry emerged, and was used by the composers of motets (see also Neo-Gallican chant).

The relatively isolated position of French music was partly mitigated by Italian influence. The Italian model is mentioned in the first privilege granted to the French opera, and while Louis XIV and Lully discouraged court musicians from going to Italy to study, Italian influence could be discerned in the work of most French composers, although some, like François Couperin, claimed to have adopted the style of the goûts réunis. There was constant comparison of the respective merits of Italian and French music in the successive querelles that marked musical life from the middle of the 17th century until the time of Gluck. Finally, when the most acute phase of absolutism ended around 1750, Paris became an increasingly cosmopolitan European centre, eventually succeeding Mannheim as the primary centre of symphonic music in the continent.

Versailles had already lost its dominant position under Louis XV, and Paris now became the best place in France to observe the rapid growth of ideas and the evolution of taste. Most of the philosophers of the Enlightenment incorporated music in their thinking, and Sauveur, Rameau, d’Alembert, Diderot and the Encyclopedists made original contributions to European musical theory and aesthetics of music.

(i) The musique du roi.

(ii) Opera: an affair of state.

(iii) Concert life in Paris.

(iv) Musical life in the provinces.

(v) Music publishing.

(vi) Instrument making.

France, §I, 3: Art music: The 16th century

(i) The musique du roi.

Under Louis XIII, the musique du roi was divided into the chapelle (directed by two surintendants), the chambre and the écurie, but there was also a smaller independent ensemble, the musique du cabinet, consisting of 12 violins. The posts of these musicians were subject to purchase or reversion, or were in the gift of the king. Musicians were permitted to hold more than one office: around 1650 François Richard was lute master to the children of the chapelle, lutenist in the chambre, composer to the chambre and lutenist to the queen, while in 1714 Lalande held the posts of sous-maître of the chapelle, composer, surintendant and sous-maître of the chambre. Within the chambre, one ensemble acquired particular importance: the 24 Violons du Roi, founded in 1614. It later became the Grande Bande, and was disbanded in 1761. These separate ensembles within the musique du roi combined for performances on major religious occasions and a weddings and funerals.

The young Louis XIV was taught the lute, the harpsichord and the guitar from an early age, but his greatest interest was dancing (fig.8) and he created the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661, shortly before the inauguration of the Académie Royale de Musique. For the latter he held competitions to fill what he regarded as the most important posts. The first such competition, in 1663, enabled him to appoint two sous-maîtres to the chapelle, Henry Du Mont and Pierre Robert. Twice the king himself was the sole judge in the contest to appoint his organists: in 1678, when there was a competition for four organists’ posts in the chapelle, and again in 1693, when he listened to seven organists before deciding to appoint Couperin. The most spectacular competition, for four sous-maîtres to the chapelle, occurred in 1683, when the king invited the bishops of France to summon the maîtres de musique of their cathedrals to Versailles to perform motets of their own composition. 35 candidates presented themselves, with the four appointments eventually going to Goupillet, Collasse, Minoret and Michel-Richard de Lalande, the last of whom was Louis’s personal choice. In 1714, after the others had resigned, Lalande assumed all four posts.

In 1686 Mme de Maintenon founded the Maison Royale St-Louis for the education of girls of noble birth at Saint-Cyr. Nivers was organist and singing master there until his death in 1714 and he, Moreau and Louis-Nicolas Clérambault provided numerous motets for the school’s repertory. Celebrations of the Office of the Assumption and Tenebrae services in Holy Week attracted an audience to Saint-Cyr, as well as to the Abbey of Longchamp and other monastic establishments.

Under the regency and the last two kings before the Revolution the musique du roi lost its dominant position in musical life. Louis XV preferred the pastoral simplicities of Rousseau’s Le devin du village to motets, which were now performed at the Concert Spirituel, while his daughters were interested mainly in instrumental music. There was an atmosphere of chicanery in the chapelle du roi after the end of the regency (1723) until 1760, with much wrangling between the surintendants and maîtres of the chambre, particularly over the performance of settings of the Te Deum. In 1761, for financial reasons, Louis XV once again amalgamated the musicians of the chambre and the chapelle into a single ensemble. The only subsequent innovation of note occurred in 1784, with the foundation of the Ecole de Chant des Menus Plaisirs, directed by Gossec, to train singers for the king’s service. Earlier, in 1778, Mozart had assessed the situation accurately when, on being offered a post as organist at Versailles, he remarked: ‘Anyone who enters the king’s service is forgotten in Paris.’

France, §I, 3: Art music: The 16th century

(ii) Opera: an affair of state.

French opera was created in a manner that would weigh heavily on the musical life of the country. After Mazarin’s disastrous attempt to introduce Italian opera with Luigi Rossi’s Orfeo (1647), the creation of a distinctive indigenous opera seems to have become a kind of national duty. Louis XIV put a ban on foreign musicians; in 1666 Cavalli returned to Italy and the Italian musicians in the cabinet were dismissed. In 1683 Henry Desmarets asked the king’s permission to visit Italy and perfect his art; his request was initially granted, but Lully then persuaded the king to revoke his decision, arguing that the composer would lose his taste for French music. The poet and librettist Pierre Perrin had wished for the foundation of an Académie de Poésie et de Musique, and suggested it to Colbert in 1667. According to Charles Perrault’s Mémoires, Colbert himself would have preferred ‘to leave everyone free to compose operas’, but in 1669 Perrin obtained a privilege to set up academies ‘in our good city of Paris, and other cities of our realm’, the privilege to run for a period of 12 years. When Perrin found himself in difficulties, Lully bought the privilege from him in 1672; this time the wording of the document referred only to Paris, adding merely that Lully might found schools of music ‘wherever he may judge it necessary’. The following year he also obtained an order preventing actors from using more than two voices and six violins in their plays. While the purpose of the other academies created by royal decree (the Académie Française and the academies of painting and architecture) was to formulate theories of their arts and serve as centres for debate the sole objective of the Académie Royale de Musique (and the Académie Royale de Danse) was to stage the works of Lully. In 1684 Louis XIV issued letters-patent making it clear that Lully’s monopoly was valid ‘throughout the whole extent of the realm’, and not only for himself but for his heirs. Actors had already been forbidden to make use of ‘outside’ musicians. Lully defended his rights tenaciously, and even brought a lawsuit against the Les Bamboches marionnette company in 1677.

None of the stage entrepreneurs to whom Lully ceded his rights (for large sums of money) was able to exploit them for long. These licensees included Gautier’s company in and around Marseilles after 1685 and companies in Lyons after 1688, in Rennes in 1689 and in Lille in 1695. Most such ventures ended in bankruptcy. Louis XIV’s decision, which had no parallel in other countries, contributed to the crushing of all initiative in the French provinces.

In Paris, the company of Italian actors performing at the Palais Royal respected the rules imposed by Lully on the number of musicians permitted in vaudevilles and parodies of operas. When they were dismissed in 1697 their tradition was continued by the Foire St-Germain and the Foire St-Laurent, which encountered opposition from the Comédie-Française in defence of its own monopoly. The Opéra-Comique, founded in 1715, was granted a royal privilege in 1721 and became very popular, even among the nobility. However, it experienced many financial and legal difficulties, and in 1762 it merged with the Comédie-Italienne; the members of the company had the title of comédiens du roi. Touring companies began travelling the provinces with a lighter repertory than that of the Opéra, but their existence was precarious. An ever-increasing gulf separated the court and the capital from other French cities, where only ritual performances of the Te Deum or grand funerals provided occasional reminders of royal power.

While the Concert Spirituel and other concert organizations were open to Italian and German repertory, the Académie Royale remained a French bastion devoted to the operas of Lully, Rameau and their successors. According to Bachaumont’s Mémoires, written in the 1770s, during the period of Gluck’s phenomenal success at the Opéra its directors showed ‘little curiosity about foreign music, fearing it would be detrimental to their own’.

France, §I, 3: Art music: The 16th century

(iii) Concert life in Paris.

The idea of concerts organized for the sole purpose of listening to music became widespread in Paris in the first half of the 17th century. Mersenne mentioned concerts given by Maugars, Lazarin, Robert Ballard (ii) and Dubuisson, and for the period before 1650 the concerts spirituels of Pierre de La Barre (iii) which were attended by the nobility. The ‘Assemblée des honnestes curieux’ organised twice a week by Chambonnières seems to have existed from 1640 to 1655. In the next generation many musicians gave concerts in their own homes, including the lutenist Jacques Gallot, the guitarist Médard, the viol players Sainte-Colombe, father and son (and the elder Sainte-Colombe’s daughters), and Antoine Forqueray.

Many musical fêtes were also held in and around the capital. At the end of the 17th century lovers of Italian music could attend the church of St-André-des-Arts, where the priest, Nicolas Mathieu, introduced them to the trios of Corelli. Among those who attended was Charpentier, who was to direct the music of Mlle de Guise.

The most important concert organization in the 18th century was the Concert Spirituel, founded by Anne Danican Philidor, who obtained a privilege in 1725 allowing him to put on ‘public concerts of sacred music’, although only on days when the Académie Royale de Musique was closed, on condition that ‘no French music nor extracts from operas be sung’. From late 1727 Philidor was allowed to add French music to his repertory. By the time of the Revolution the Concert Spirituel had given nearly 1300 concerts, including music by over 450 composers, first in the Salon des Suisses and then in the Salon des Machines in the Tuileries, made available by the king. The directors of the Concert Spirituel included Mouret, Dauvergne, Gaviniès and Leduc (whose directorship marked perhaps the organization’s most brilliant period), and Joseph Legros. The repertory comprised contemporary French works as well as works by Pergolesi (whose Stabat mater was always popular), J.C. Bach, Haydn, Sacchini and Piccinni. Mozart composed his Paris Symphony for the Concert Spirituel in 1778, and many foreign virtuosos, particularly from Germany and Italy, performed there.

During the 18th century there were many other concert series, including those organized by the financier Crozat from 1713 to 1724, by the fermier-général Le Riche de La Pouplinière from 1731 to 1761 and directed for over 20 years by Rameau, and by the Société Académique des Enfants d’Apollon from 1741. Other concert organizations included the Ecole Gratuite de Dessin, founded by the painter Bachelier (1770); the concerts of Baron de Bagge, a composer and amateur violinist, who was said to pay to have pupils; Mme Filippo Ruge’s Italian concerts (1756–7); and the Concert des Amateurs (1769–81), which commissioned a series of six symphonies from Haydn (1785–6). Among the members of the nobility who maintained sizable musical ensembles were the Prince de Carignan, the Prince de Rohan, the Comte de Clermont and the Prince de Conti, who took on some of La Pouplinière’s musicians after 1762. This intensive musical activity also led to the publication of specialist journals – the Journal de musique (1770–77) and the Almanach musical (1775–83) – from which we know that at this period Paris had over 350 music teachers and over 100 organists.

France, §I, 3: Art music: The 16th century

(iv) Musical life in the provinces.

Many maîtres de chapelle dreamed of a career that would eventually take them to Paris or the Chapelle Royale; one such was Julien Louin, an organist of Nantes, who was granted leave of absence by his chapter in 1685 to go to the capital and ‘learn the new modes’. The king also reserved the right for his emissaries ‘to take from churches, cathedrals and elsewhere, in those places through which they pass, the finest voices and the best singers they may find and make them part of their company’ (Du Peyrat, 1645). The competitors in the puy of Caen in 1671 were urged to imitate ‘the music books of the masters of the king’s chapel as best they can’.

Among the public promoters of musical activities were the provincial Etats or local government bodies, who needed musicians to enhance the pomp of their meetings. They included the Etats of Brittany (Lully’s Atys was performed at Rennes in 1689) and of Burgundy (the Prince de Condé invited Mozart to Dijon in 1766), but the grandest were the Etats of the Languedoc in the 17th century, when Etienne Moulinié was director of music. While the puy of Evreux continued in existence, the chapter of Saintes organised a composition prize in 1628; a puy was founded in celebration of St Cecilia at Le Mans, and in 1672 a prize was set up to continue the tradition of the Confrérie Sainte-Cécile. In some towns the citizens themselves founded musical organizations: at Toulouse, whose oboe bands were famous throughout the region, a Société des Lanternistes gave concerts from 1640 onwards, and Troyes had an ‘académie’ founded in 1647 at the Hôtel-Dieu St-Bernard. After the foundation of the Académie Royale de Musique, very few people were ready to license rights from Lully and his successors and venture into the production of opera, although the licence rights obtained in 1684 by the organist Pierre Gautier (ii) ran for six years at Marseilles and in Provence, and his company performed five operas by Lully at Marseilles, Aix, Toulon, Avignon and Montpellier. In 1688 a three-year concession was granted in Rouen, and several operas by Lully were also staged in following years. In Lyons, the companies of Joseph Dupuis and Jean-Pierre Leguay (1701) exploited their privilege in the region, but not without difficulty. However, most such ventures encountered problems with venues, recruiting and finance, and ended in bankruptcy.

Provincial institutions of greater stability appeared during the first years of the 18th century, mainly in the south of the country; these were the académies, founded with the permission and patronage of the regional governor or administrator, by groups of prominent citizens; their aim was the organization of regular concerts in which amateurs could also take part. The first académies were at Bordeaux (1707), Lyons (1713), Arles (1715), Marseilles (1717), Pau (1718), Aix-en-Provence (1719), Carpentras (1719), La Rochelle (1719) and Montpellier (1719). By 1738 some 30 such académies had been set up in the provinces, but there were frequent interruptions to their subsequent activities. A distinction must also be drawn between genuine académies, with statutes agreed by the authorities, and ordinary concerts, which required only simple permission. However, while the Duke de Richelieu declared at Montpellier in 1752 that the académie was ‘a thing both useful and agreeable to society’, a request to open an académie in Caen in 1759 was refused because it might ‘distract the citizens from the care of their business’. In 1747, when the members of the Grenoble académie asked permission to use a public building in the city for their concerts, the municipal authorities replied that they could not make 99% of the citizens support such an expense for the pleasure of a mere 1%.

However, the académies, which were suppressed by the Revolutionary government in 1793, played a considerable part in musical life, and some of their orchestras were conducted by talented composers, although attempts to involve amateur musicians usually failed. Consequently it was felt, for instance in Bordeaux in 1779 and Lille in 1785, that musical education should be provided, at least for the young. When the Mozart family stayed at Dijon in 1766, Leopold severely criticized the musicians he found there as ‘detestable … wretched … asini tutti’. In 1776 a Parisian singing master called Vaudémont advertised his speciality as training ‘pupils for dramatic performances and provincial companies’.

The programmes of the Concert Spirituel, particularly under the directorship of Antoine Dauvergne (1762–73), testify to the creative vitality that still existed in some provincial maîtrises: a dozen maîtres from Dijon, Auch, Reims, Orléans, Coutances and Nîmes performed motets, while performances were given of a symphony by Franz Beck of Bordeaux and organ pieces by Philippe Valois of Toulouse. After 1775, however, when the fashion for grands motets had passed, the provinces made almost no contribution to concert programmes. During the 17th century some 25% of the country’s composers had come from maîtrises, but in the 18th century the figure fell to less than 10%.

France, §I, 3: Art music: The 16th century

(v) Music publishing.

After 1607 Pierre Ballard described himself as ‘seul imprimeur du roy pour la musique’. Having distributed the air de cour in all its forms early in the century, he and his successors then gave priority to collections of chansons pour danser and chansons pour boire (20 books, 1627–61), chansonnettes (20 books, 1675–94) and airs à deux parties (37 books, 1658–94). Sometimes the Ballards received an ‘express command’ from the king to publish motets for the chapelle, but they took advantage of their privileged position chiefly to publish the works of Lully, from Bellérophon (1679) until 1720. After the composer’s death his heirs tried to dispense with their services and had several operas engraved by Henri de Baussen, but they eventually had to cede the whole body of Lully’s work to the Ballards. From the middle of the 17th century there was increasing resentment of their privilege among musicians, and lawsuits were brought against them by Métru and Sanlecque. The Ballards now had to face strong competition from copyists who, like Henri Foucault, traded in manuscript scores, and from Estienne Roger of Amsterdam, who was distributing ‘pirated’ works throughout Europe. Above all, their monopoly was challenged after about 1660 by Parisian authors and printers who had given up the use of movable type in favour of the copperplate engraving process, particularly for the instrumental music (including major works by Marais, Gaultier, Chambonnières and Louis Couperin) neglected by the Ballards. Many composers deposited their works with music shops such as those of the Boivins and Leclercs. In 1738 Charles-Nicolas Leclerc became a music publisher himself, and after 1750 there was a considerable increase in the publication of engraved music. The new publishers were either musicians such as Bailleux, Imbault and Sieber, instrument makers such as Cousineau, Naderman and Pleyel, engravers such as Hue and Vendôme, or full-time music publishers (Boyer, La Chevardière, the Erard sisters). Paris became the main European centre of music publishing, and many foreign composers entrusted their works (particularly their instrumental music) to French publishers, attracted by the high quality of engraving and the publicity they were given by the concert organizations. There were over 150 engravers working in Paris during the 18th century. In a single year (1775), for instance, 250 musical works were published. Theoretical treatises and teaching manuals appeared increasingly after 1750, with high print runs, and this trend culminated in a corpus conceived by the Conservatoire in 1794 as the basis for music teaching. Outside Paris the only music publishing of any importance was in Lyons, where the outstanding figures were J.A. Castaud and C.G. Guera.

France, §I, 3: Art music: The 16th century

(vi) Instrument making.

The development of instrument making can be traced from the statistics: Pierre (1893) gives the names of some 350 instrument makers in France for the 18th century alone, including 170 makers of string instruments. Although most of them lived in Paris, some worked in such large cities as Lyons, Strasbourg, Toulouse and Lille or, occasionally, in smaller towns such as La Couture Boussey (woodwind) and Mirecourt (violins).

The organ ‘in the manner of Titelouze’ was the standard instrument for a large part of France, and complementary Flemish influence was evident. After 1660 the French classical organ became predominant, in parallel with the flourishing contemporary school of organ composition, exemplified by the works of Couperin, Grigny, Louis Marchand and others. Long before the Revolution, however, the instrument had lost its vitality. In the 17th century Flemish influence initially dominated harpsichord making, but French makers, including the Denis, Jacquet and Desruisseaux families, soon developed their own distinctive instruments. In the 18th century, when some 60 makers were working in Paris alone, many devoted themselves to the restoration of instruments made by the Flemish Ruckers family, obtaining a clearer and less sustained sound because of the light casework, particularly in double-manual harpsichords. Hüllmandel praised the ‘extreme lightness’ of the keyboards made by the Blanchets, and the harpsichords of Pascal Taskin, with their famous jeu de buffle and genouillères (knee-levers) operating the registers. Although the most prized lutes still came from Padua and Bologna, Parisians makers such as Jean Desmoulins, maker to the king about 1630, also excelled. In violin making Italian models retained supremacy, but the early Parisian school emerged in the 18th century with such makers as Claude Pierray, Jacques Boquay and above all Louis Guersan. English viols were the instruments most prized at the beginning of the 18th century, before Michel Collichon, Guillaume Barbey and Nicolas Bertrand began making slimmer instruments with the addition of a seventh string.

Woodwind instruments were a French speciality, thanks to a dynasty founded by Jean Hotteterre, a native of the Norman village of La Couture Boussey. He had settled in Paris by 1632, and was followed by his son Martin and nephew Nicolas who were also virtuoso performers; their oboes, bassoons, musettes and flutes were admired in England and other parts of Europe. Another famous dynasty was the Tourte family of bow-makers, founded by Louis and continued by his son François, who is said to have been advised by Viotti. The pianoforte made its first appearance in France at the Concert Spirituel in 1768. Sébastien Erard was granted a privilege in 1785 to exploit a kind of pianoforte which had ‘been preferred to those made in England’. Throughout the 18th century the Académie des Sciences pronounced its verdict on new instruments and refinements to existing instruments.

France, §I: Art music

4. The 19th century.

In suppressing the maîtrises, académies and guilds, the Revolution caused more of an upheaval in traditional musical life than when it abjured the king and his court music. Far from giving priority to the musical education of the less privileged classes, it created a highly élitist and monopolistic institution in the Paris Conservatoire, while confirming strong support for the Opéra. With no sacred music worthy of the name, the provinces, apart from some large cities, experienced a long period of musical deprivation in the 19th century, for which military bands and Orphéon male-voice choral societies provided only limited compensation.

Talented composers competed for the Prix de Rome, awarded annually from 1803 onwards by the six members of the Académie des Beaux Arts, most of whom were Prix de Rome winners themselves, as were the professors of composition who had taught them at the Conservatoire. They were therefore well placed to have their works accepted by the Paris Opéra. While there was no official artistic policy, everything conspired to bar from the musical establishment any composers who had not followed this course. Gabriel Fauré, who had not won the Prix de Rome but who nonetheless became director of the Conservatoire, was a late exception who proved the rule.

The notion of ‘decentralization’, formed about 1829, was constantly invoked in the course of the century, but had no cultural, administrative or political support; all decisions had to pass through Paris. The state, which had concentrated all musical institutions in the capital for three centuries, was very slow to develop a sense of its educational responsibility for the rest of the country. After 1880 there was a movement to recognize art as a public service, but music remained the poor relation for a long time. When the Conseil Supérieur des Beaux-Arts was set up in 1875, it had 12 artists but only one musician. In 1883, when there were still only five subsidiaries of the Paris Conservatoire, and the state barely contributed to their budgets, Bourgault-Ducoudray was appointed to draw up a report on the reform of teaching in schools and conservatories, which led to the foundation of new institutions in the provinces. In the name of ‘artistic decentralization’, the Chamber of Deputies voted for a modest amount of aid for popular provincial concerts and for some open-air productions of opera in the south of the country.

(i) Opera.

(ii) Concert life.

(iii) Musical education.

(iv) Music publishing.

(v) Instrument making.

France, §I, 4: Art music: The ‘grand siècle’ and its aftermath

(i) Opera.

Throughout the 19th century French governments allocated the main part of their musical budgets to the Paris opera houses: the Opéra and the Opéra-Comique, and also, for limited periods, the Théâtre Italien and the Théâtre Lyrique. Although their management methods (ranging from direct administration to licensing) and conditions of contract changed a good deal over the period, this bias towards Parisian opera remained constant throughout all political régimes, which also exercised strict control over the unsubsidized theatres of Paris and the provinces.

When the theatres were granted complete freedom by the Revolutionary assembly in 1791, the droit des pauvres and censorship were abolished; they were reintroduced in 1794 after a period notable for its anarchy and its bankruptcies. Napoleon affirmed his will ‘to continue the unifying and national work of the academies and institutions of the ancien régime’, and set up a hierarchical management system controlled by privileges. By a decree of 1806 provincial theatres were divided into two categories: resident theatres and touring companies. Large cities were authorized to have two theatres: a main theatre for grand opera and another to perform the so-called ‘secondary’ repertory. This system continued under the Bourbon Restoration, but a ruling of 1824 made it clear that each city must be responsible for the financing of its own theatre. Under Louis-Philippe (1830–48), when the railway was beginning to make travel easier, there were many bankruptcies, and municipalities were reluctant to build new theatres (numbers fell from 361 in 1849 to 357 in 1918). There was a general demand for freedom of the theatre, finally granted by Napoleon III in 1864 (although censorship was retained). A period of some disorder followed, and most of the established companies faced crisis, unable to compete with the touring companies which monopolized the best performers and most successful repertories. From 1852 Montelli’s company toured the north of the country with Verdi’s Ernani. The company of the American Ullman, with Caroline Carvalho and V. Capoul, toured 23 towns in 1873 and 25 in 1880. Under the Third Republic, municipalities usually granted the directors of permanent companies a concession and a subsidy on certain conditions. The frequently incompetent directors had to resort to agents, who became intermediaries between artists and theatres, and whose intervention often led to a generally low standard of production. In 1880 royalties in the provinces were a quarter of the amount in Paris, where the state supported all the national theatres. However, there were some exceptions: Rouen staged 34 first French performances between 1835 and 1912 (including the first performance in France of Siegfried), and Marseilles gave 14 operatic premières between 1869 and 1902. Most of the time, however, such productions were confined to one-act opéras comiques, with music by local composers, and they were never revived in Paris.

France, §I, 4: Art music: The ‘grand siècle’ and its aftermath

(ii) Concert life.

While chamber music was played more or less everywhere in amateur circles and salons, for instance in Marseilles, Douai and Bagnères, Paris had a series of public chamber concerts, organized by Pierre Baillot between 1814 and 1840, at which an élite audience heard quartets by Beethoven, Boccherini, Haydn and Mozart. This series was followed by other concerts, such as those put on by Alard and Franchomme (1837–1870), Dancla (1838–70), Maurin and Chevillard (1852–70) and Armingaud (1856–68). Such chamber music concerts were rarer in the provinces. In the symphonic field, François Habeneck founded the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire in 1828, by a decree of the minister for the arts, and the society was granted exclusive rights to the use of the Menus Plaisirs during the season.

The conditions imposed on concert performances were not favourable: while the obligation to pay a fee to the Académie Royale de Musique abolished in 1831, the ‘droit des pauvres’ was retained until the 20th century. The authorities did not want the number of concerts in Paris to increase, because they were felt to represent competition for the national theatres. Consequently, most of the concert societies were short-lived (the Athénée, 1829-35; the Société Libre des Beaux-Arts, 1830–33; the Société Philharmonique, 1822). Most of the provincial cities founded philharmonic societies, which consisted chiefly of amateurs and received varying amounts of support from the municipal authorities. They gave only a few concerts a year, mostly for charity. Throughout the century, however, these societies were the main source of performances of orchestral music in the provinces. The first of them were founded before the Parisian societies: at La Rochelle in 1815, Rennes in 1819 and Le Puy in 1820; local initiative led to the creation of the Grande Association Musicale de l’Ouest in 1835, uniting the musical resources of Niort, La Rochelle, Angoulême, Limoges and Poitiers, and to the founding in 1866 of the Association Musicale de l’Ouest, bringing Laval, Rennes and Le Mans together. However, towards the end of the century the philharmonic societies, now recruiting only professionals, had lost all their dynamism. In Paris, Jules Pasdeloup founded the Société des Jeunes Artistes (1853) and then the Concerts Populaires de Musique Classique (1861), at reduced prices (the first concert, in the Cirque Napoléon, had an audience of 6000), and with a new repertory. Following Pasdeloup’s example many cities created their own societies for popular concerts, among them Toulouse (1861), Nantes (1866), Marseilles (1871) and Lyons (1874). The Angers society (founded in 1877) was distinctive for the quality of its orchestra as well as for a greater emphasis on modern repertory. In 1878 the state granted subsidies to Pasdeloup, and on a smaller scale to Edouard Colonne, who was continuing the custom of Sunday concerts, but not to any of the provincial societies. In Paris, Romain Bussine and Camille Saint-Saëns founded the Société Nationale de Musique in 1871. Under the banner of ‘Ars Gallica’ it was to contribute to the reinvigoration of the French school until, in its own turn, it became conservative, and the split caused by Maurice Ravel in 1909 led to the creation of the Société Musicale Indépendante.

France, §I, 4: Art music: The ‘grand siècle’ and its aftermath

(iii) Musical education.

The Revolutionary authorities were asked to respond to a universally acknowledged education, as many people saw France as being behind the times by comparison with neighbouring countries. The musical school of the National Guard, which had been directed by Bernard Sarrette, was transformed into the Institut National de Musique in 1793 and later became the Conservatoire, which he continued to direct from 1796 to 1816. The institution nearly disappeared at the time of the Restoration because of its Revolutionary origins, but eventually found stability, despite frequent criticism that it did not provide enough good voices for the national opera houses. An institution specializing in choral singing was founded by Alexandre Choron in 1820, the Ecole Royale et Spéciale de Chant, which became the Institution Royale de Musique Religieuse, but it fell victim to the 1830 revolution. But the rest of the country was still without a system of musical education. A plan devised by Sarrette in 1798 for the creation of a three-tier hierarchy of music schools in the départements was never realized. Some cities had already founded free civic music schools, for instance Dijon, with its Institut de Musique from 1794 to 1797, Douai in 1806, and Roubaix and Marseilles in 1820. The music school in Lille asked the ministry several times to grant it the status of a subsidiary of the Paris Conservatoire, but it remained a municipal school until 1826, when it was promoted to the status of subsidiary (‘succursales’) Conservatoire at the same time as the school of Toulouse. Two new subsidiaries were created in 1841 at Metz and Marseilles. In granting the title of Conservatoire, the state imposed a model on the municipalities but did not provide financial means, and consequently the rise in the number of such subsidiaries nationwide was very slow. The central authority regarded them as a means of discovering fine voices and good instrumentalists who could then be encouraged to pursue their careers in Paris, often with the aid of bursaries granted by their own cities, so that what appeared to be decentralization was only an instrument tending to reinforce centralization.

The movement launched in Paris by G.L.B. Wilhem for musical teaching and practice on a popular level was a far cry from this more or less élitist current. With the support of the Baron de Gérando and his Société pour l’Instruction Elémentaire, Wilhem devoted himself to bringing music teaching into the primary schools of the Paris area, using a set of simplified signs and tables known as the Wilhem Method. At a time when the humanitarian ideas of Lammenais, Saint-Simon and Fourier were spreading, and had been taken up first by Franz Liszt and soon afterwards by Félicien David, the authorities saw this movement chiefly as a means of keeping the working classes out of bars and improving the ‘coarseness’ of their habits. The Orphéon male-voice choir movement began in 1833; many such societies were founded throughout the country, and soon went beyond the choral realm, venturing into instrumental music with brass bands. Many Orphéon competitions were organized after the first was held at Troyes in 1849; an inventory of 1867 enumerates 3243 Orphéon societies, representing nearly 150,000 members, the largest being in the north and the next largest in the Bouches-du-Rhône, Seine and Rhône areas. Teaching methods, however, deteriorated, with Pierre Galin and his ‘méloplaste’ and the numerical method of Emile Chevé and Aimé Paris, and were much criticized. The quality of supervision, of the repertory and of interpretation became very mediocre, with the result that the movement became far removed from its initial idealism.

In the field of sacred music, the Ecole de Musique Classique et Religieuse was founded by imperial decree in 1853. It was directed by Louis de Niedermeyer, with state subsidies, and trained many organists and maîtres de chapelle who took up appointments in the provinces. After the separation of church and state, however, the subsidies ceased. In 1896 the opening of the Schola Cantorum by Charles Bordes, Alexandre Guilmant and Vincent d’Indy also marked a return to old traditions and the study of counterpoint, and the new institution was soon presenting itself as a rival to the Conservatoire.

France, §I, 4: Art music: The ‘grand siècle’ and its aftermath

(iv) Music publishing.

It has been calculated that there were almost 1000 music publishers in France between 1820 and 1914, the great majority in Paris. However, most of them were small firms, specializing in music for café concerts and Orphéon societies, and issued few works. The most prosperous firms were those that published successful works whose popularity ensured that they would be arranged for amateurs, or would earn royalties, an aspect facilitated by the founding in 1850 of SACEM, the Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique. A long period of litigation preceded the signing in 1886 of the Berne Convention, which finally assured the international protection of copyright.

The main publishing houses were the firms of Janet and Cotelle (1810–37), Richault (1816–66), Schlesinger (1821–46), Troupenas (1825–50), Escudier (1840–81), famous as Verdi’s publisher, and Brandus (1846–87), which acquired the lists of Schlesinger and Troupenas. The only relatively large provincial publisher was Benacci-Peschier in Lyons (1839–54). The first half of the century was the period of greatest prosperity in French music publishing; as the century progressed it confined itself almost exclusively to the national repertory, with such firms as those of Heugel (from 1839), Massenet’s publisher; G. Hartmann (1848–91), publisher of César Franck and his disciples; Leduc (from 1842) and Durand (from 1870). Until 1860 French commercial policy was protectionist, with high import duties (up to 29%) charged on foreign publications. In 1830 exports of printed music were three times higher than imports. However, in 1867 export figures were lower than import figures for the first time, and this trend continued, owing largely to German competition. This decline can be explained not only by the movement of excise policies towards free exchange but also by the modernization of printing techniques, bringing with it more competitive prices, and by the rise in importance of the Germanic repertory in French musical life. Between 1863 and 1896, French exports remained stationary, while German imports were on average 74% of the total. French publishers were never able to find an answer to this reversal of the previous trend, even during the First World War, when they tried in vain to come to a common agreement to replace the classic German editions.

France, §I, 4: Art music: The ‘grand siècle’ and its aftermath

(v) Instrument making.

French instrument making occupied an important position in 19th-century Europe, if only because of the technical progress made by Erard (with the double-action harp in 1810 and the double-escapement piano in 1822), and because of Adolphe Sax’s brass instruments. While France was chiefly exporting string instruments between 1800 and 1805, the piano soon became the major export: in 1827 Erard was employing 150 workers, and in 1830, when about 100 makers were working in Paris, pianos represented 61% of the instruments sold abroad. Patents and new inventions proliferated, mechanization was increased, and the government’s protectionist policies allowed exports to be ten times greater than imports. The country’s main customer at the time was the United States. The largest instrument makers even opened their own concert halls and sought the endorsement of famous artists (Liszt preferred Erard pianos, while Chopin favoured Pleyel instruments). After piano making, the greatest activity was in brass instruments and organ building.

The Second Empire was the golden age of French instrument making; organs and pianos were both manufactured on an industrial scale, while string instruments, woodwind and brass instruments continued to be made in small or medium-sized workshops. The five largest piano manufacturers were Erard, Pleyel, Pape, Herz and Kriegelstein, while makers of brass instruments (Gautrot, Thibouville, Buffet) benefited from the rise of military bands and Orphéon societies, which made Adolphe Sax’s fortune. Outside Paris woodwind instruments were still made at La Couture Boussey, and inexpensive string instruments at Mirecourt. England became the French makers’ principal customer at this period. World exhibitions acted as shop windows for local production, especially those of 1855 (with 243 exhibitors), 1878 (226 exhibitors), and of 1889 and 1900 in Paris. However, the trade agreements of the 1860s opened the way to foreign instruments; piano makers failed to modernize their equipment while the Germans and Americans were adopting new technology. The first workers’ strikes came in 1882. The trend was now entirely reversed, and after 1875 the most sought-after French instruments were strings and wind. After 1890 imports, particularly of pianos, rose steadily, and just as in music publishing Germany became the chief supplier (75%), particularly of Bechstein and Blüthner instruments. French instruments were no longer popular abroad except at the very top of the range.

France, §I: Art music

5. The 20th century.

The importance of the state in cultural and musical life was undoubtedly maintained more strongly in France than in any other country, although greater awareness of the problem sparked a movement towards more professionalism and a decline in amateur music. The 20th century saw the slow demise of traditional institutions such as the Institut and the Prix de Rome, which was ended in 1969, as well as a genuine stagnation in musical education and industries linked to musical life. The two World Wars marked a distinct watershed for these various areas.

(i) To 1945.

The Third Republic continued to provide a moderate amount of support in the form of subsidies to the Opéra, directed for a long period (1914–45) by Jacques Rouché, whose personal fortune, made in the perfumery business, helped to compensate for its chronic financial deficit. Under the Front Populaire, in 1936, the Opéra was nationalized and the Opéra-Comique, facing bankruptcy, was amalgamated with it under the title of ‘Réunion des théâtres lyriques nationaux’, under the direction of Rouché. In the provinces, the opera houses maintained with difficulty by the municipalities continued to suffer as a result of competition from touring companies, and favoured productions of operetta in the hope of attracting a largely indifferent public.

Between the wars the musical life of Paris was as brilliant as ever, with the Ballets Russes, Ballets Suédois, and various spectacles supported by such patrons as Princesse Edmond de Polignac and Marie-Laure de Noailles, who held salons devoted to the avant-garde of contemporary aesthetics. In the orchestral field the four concert organizations gave rather routine programmes every Sunday: the concert societies were those of Pasdeloup (under Albert Wolff), Colonne (Gabriel Pierné), Lamoureux (Paul Paray), and the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (Philippe Gaubert and Piero Coppola). New works were played by other ensembles such as the Concerts Wiéner (1921–22), the Concerts Straram (1923–33), and the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris (under Pierre Monteux, 1929–38). Some radio stations such as Radio-Paris also maintained their own orchestras, but they were not permanent ensembles. In 1934 the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française was formed; it was the first orchestra of this type, and was conducted by D.-E. Inghelbrecht. In 1975 it became the Orchestre National de France. In the provinces, although some large cities such as Marseilles, Lyons and Bordeaux maintained high standards of their own, the main musical events were visits by touring Parisian virtuosos. Most military bands had now ceased to exist, and the Orphéons were very much in decline.

Musical education was the area that experienced the greatest paralysis at this time, beginning with the conservatories. In Paris the scandal of the ‘Ravel Affair’ – the composer’s rejection by the Prix de Rome jury – brought the appointment of Fauré as director of the Conservatoire, and several decisions favouring a more open policy. In the provinces, several new subsidiary conservatories were founded (22 in 1930, as well as 21 Ecoles Nationales), but while the statutes initially provided for state funding of 33% that proportion was progressively reduced, becoming a merely nominal amount after 1930, despite protests. On the initiative of Edouard Herriot a ‘Commission de rénovation et de développement des études musicales’ was set up in 1928, but although a report ensued (written by Charles L’Hopital) there were no effective reforms. Almost the same thing happened when the Front Populaire came to power in 1936 and decided that singing should be taught in the first year at secondary school. Some works were commissioned from composers after 1938, but further measures to introduce music into primary and secondary school teaching, as envisaged by the minister Jean Zay, were deferred. On the eve of World War II the conservatories were in a situation of mediocrity: in obtaining state support the municipalities had thought they would acquire both extra financial means and a guarantee of quality, but neither was forthcoming. In Paris, on the other hand, new private institutions as well as the Schola Cantorum attracted many French and foreign pupils: the Ecole Normale de Musique was founded in 1918 by Alfred Cortot and André Mangeot, and Nadia Boulanger, already well known as a teacher, was one of its first members of staff.

Music publishing and instrument making saw further development of the trends of the end of the previous century. Publishing remained in the hands of family firms, content to exploit their existing lists rather than look for fresh additions to the repertory or turn their attention to the musical heritage of France, which was of increasing importance in musical life. While Durand concentrated on the music of Debussy and Ravel, a new firm, Salabert, built its success on popular songs. Instrument makers saw a fall in the sales of pianos and string instruments, but wind instruments (made by Cousenon, Selmer and Buffet) continued to be exported.

(ii) After 1945.

The second half of the century saw both the deployment of the latent forces of ‘centralizing Jacobinism’ in France, and a more or less permanent (although mostly ineffectual) opposition. A national commission was set up in 1962 to study musical issues and reported three years later, but there were no practical results. André Malraux, as minister of culture, set up a music service within the Direction des Arts et Lettres in 1966, and in 1970 it became the Direction de la Musique, de l’Art Lyrique et de la Danse (still in existence today). The composer Marcel Landowski, who was appointed as its head, noted that since the time of Lully there had been no autonomous administrative and political body for music. The principal task of the new service was to address teaching problems in the conservatories, with the creation of national regional conservatories (formerly subsidiaries of the Paris Conservatoire: 16 were created in 1973 and 27 in 1980), of Ecoles Nationales (41 in 1973, 60 in 1980), and of approved Ecoles Municipales (39 in 1973, 72 in 1980). State aid, now inclusive, provided about 25% of the budget of the regional conservatories in 1980. In the provinces, the plan made provision for the appointment of ‘regional delegates’ to encourage and coordinate local musical life, while the virtues of decentralization were extolled. Finally, the state founded a Conservatoire National Supérieur in Lyons in 1979, to be on a par with the Paris Conservatoire. Conversely, despite successive announcements by ministers to the effect that music teaching in primary and secondary schools must be a priority, hardly any progress was made in that area.

Opera, however, remained a central preoccupation of government. After the creation of a Réunion des Théâtres Lyriques Municipaux, grouping 13 cities together, a plan for reform of the national opera houses, commissioned from Jean Vilar with the assistance of Pierre Boulez and Maurice Béjart, was brushed aside in 1967. The Opéra-Comique effectively closed down in 1972, but at the Opéra the administrator, Rolf Liebermann, succeeded in gaining public support, thanks to record budgets between 1973 and 1980. Subsidies were granted to the opera houses of some of the larger cities: the Opéra du Rhin at Strasbourg and the opera houses of Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lyons and Marseilles. At the same time, however, in 1974, Radiodiffusion Française was closing down its regional orchestras. In 1967 the old Société des Concerts du Conservatoire had become the Orchestre de Paris, which it was hoped would be a model of its kind.

In the years after the mid-century, research on contemporary music was concentrated in the Groupe de Recherches Musicales created at Radiodiffusion Française by Pierre Schaefer in 1958, and the Centre d’Etudes de Mathématique et Automatique Musicales (CEMAMu) founded by Iannis Xenakis in 1966. However, no organization of the time was more influential than the Domaine Musical founded in 1954 by Pierre Boulez. With the backing of private patronage it gave performances of the repertory of the Second Viennese School and the international avant-garde of the day. Gilbert Amy succeeded Boulez at its head from 1967 to 1973. In 1974 President Pompidou and the minister Michel Guy appointed Boulez to carry out his project for an Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique-Musique (IRCAM), which three years later became the music department of the new Pompidou Centre in Paris. It was reorganized by Boulez in 1980, still with the purpose of bringing composers and scientists together to pursue collective research. In 1976 Boulez had also instigated the foundation of the Ensemble InterContemporain, a chamber orchestra specializing in contemporary music and capable of performing especially the works produced by IRCAM.

During the 1960s a new form of musical activity emerged in the shape of festivals, held between spring and autumn, mainly in the provinces (apart from the Festival d’Automne in Paris). Although the open-air spectacles produced in the south of France (in Orange, Béziers, Arles, etc.) at the end of the 19th century may be regarded as forerunners of these events, the first to bear the name of Festival was the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 1947. It was followed by the festivals of Besançon (1948), Bordeaux, Strasbourg, and so on. In 1978 there were some 300 festivals, both large and small, throughout the country, over 100 of them state-subsidized. Some were founded by great performers (Pablo Casals at Prades, Sviatoslav Richter at Meslay); some cover specialist fields (early music at Saintes), and three have played an important part in the dissemination of contemporary music – Royan (1965–76), La Rochelle (1973–80), and Metz (first held in 1972) – giving premières of many French and foreign works, but reaching what is mainly an audience of professionals.

The state has also undertaken to preserve the French musical heritage. In 1988 the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles was founded, with the task of promoting French music of the 17th and 18th centuries in the fields of broadcasting, teaching and research.

On the other hand the state authorities, with their natural tendency to favour operations engendering prestige, have been unable to maintain much vitality in music publishing, despite mergers (Heugel and Leduc, Eschig and Durand), or in instrument making: in 1970 the German company of Schimmel bought the three French brand names of Erard, Pleyel and Gaveau, and ten years later imports of musical instruments were three times greater than exports. Finally, the leading record labels have now all become subsumed into multinational companies.

France, §I: Art music

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