1.
CNSAD
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The Conservatoire national supérieur dart dramatique is Frances national drama academy in Paris. Its alumni include Juliette Binoche, Carole Bouquet, Isabelle Huppert, Olivier Martinez, the Conservatoire was founded as a part of the Conservatoire de Paris in 1795, making it the oldest acting school in Continental Europe. It split in 1946, one school for the arts. The Conservatoire offers a study program, with the CNSAD diploma awarded on completion. The school admits approximately thirty students per year, as well as some invited foreign trainees, the school has a rigorous three-round competitive selection process, with only two percent to three percent of applicants gaining admittance. A stage directing program was launched in 2001, le Conservatoire, the schools main building, is located on the rue du Conservatoire in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Its famous theatre, built in 1811 by the architect Delannoy, was the site of Hector Berliozs debut opera, as well as the first French performances of Beethovens Third and Fifth Symphonies
2.
PSL Research University
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PSL Research University is a collegiate university formed from 18 institutions of research and higher education in the Paris area, and three national research organizations. The project was presented in January 2011, in response to a tender of the French Ministry for Higher Education, PSL* brings together 13 chartered institutions, located in Paris and the greater Paris area, and is represented by the Paris Sciences et Lettres - Quartier latin Foundation. Those institutions, encompassing a broad scope, decided to join forces. Its name, which means Sciences and Humanities, hints at the fact that PSL wants to push to the forefront contact points between hard and soft sciences, beyond its academic goals, PSL is equally committed to keep Paris downtown as a high place for scientific and student life. Its campus project is liable to give a new impulse Paris, with its location in the Latin Quarter, in the South of Paris. From this point of view, it runs counter with a trend that tends to delocate campuses outside of Paris. Member institutions cover a wide field, ranging from astrophysics, to arts, as well as economics and management, engineering. Liste, Within the Investments for the Future programme, €21.9 billion are to be allocated to higher-education, PSL* was constituted as a way to pool forces and reap benefits from this programme, so as to promote its excellence science and training tradition. The results of these tenders are announced following different schedules since the end of January 2011, from the very beginning, PSL has been a notable shareholder in the calls for projects. The 52 laureates had been selected by a committee, under chairmanship of the Canadian Philippe Le Prestre. The Equipex grants are intended to fund capital-intensive facilities for advanced scientific research, the overall allotment for the Equipex is €340 million, of which €260 million is immediately usable and €80 million temporarily blocked as an endowment. The selected projects will be awarded between 2 and 10 million euros, PSL* institutions have obtained seven of the 10 Equipex they had applied for. They represent all academic fields, from humanities to life sciences, most of the time, scientists belonging to non-PSL* institutions have been associated to these projects. Conversely, PSL* scientists may use Equipex facilities supported by other institutions, for PSL*, the selected projects are, D-FIH. Excellence Equipments, Launched in 2010, the Equipex call for projects was devised to finance pioneering research equipment with an budget of around €1 billion. The results were published in late February 2010, among the 52 Equipex selected, PSL has obtained 8 of the 10 projects it had presented. The results of the Excellence laboratories tender were published on March 25,2011 by the French ministry for Higher Education, sometimes coupled with Excellence facilities, the Labex are to help promising research teams in all academic fields. PSL* institutions have obtained 11 Labex projects, of this number,6 projects directly supported by PSL* have been awarded a grant
3.
19th arrondissement of Paris
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The 19th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. Situated on the Right Bank of the River Seine, it is crossed by two canals, the Canal Saint-Denis and the Canal de lOurcq, which meet near the Parc de la Villette, the land area of the arrondissement is 6.786 km2. The population of the 19th arrondissement is still increasing, at the last census, in 1999, the population was 172,730 inhabitants. As of the census,68,101 people worked in the arrondissement. This sector has become the home for immigrants to France. Parc des Buttes Chaumont Parc de la Villette Parc de la Butte-du-Chapeau-Rouge The Cent Quatre arts centre 19th arrondissement travel guide from Wikivoyage
4.
9th arrondissement of Paris
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The 9th arrondissement, located on the Right Bank, is one of the 20 arrondissements of Paris, France. Along with the 2nd and 8th arrondissements, it one of the business centers of Paris. The land area of this arrondissement is 2.179 km2, groupe Danone has its head office in the 17 Boulevard Haussmann building in the 9th arrondissement. BNP Paribas has its office in the arrondissement. Kroll Inc. also has an office in this arrondissement, until June 1995, the head office of Société Générale was in this arrondissement. On that month the head office moved to the Société Générale Towers, the former head office remains as the companys registered office. Google Paris has its offices in the arrondissement, the peak population of the 9th arrondissement occurred in 1901, when it had 124,011 inhabitants. Since then, the arrondissement has widely attracted business activity, as a result, the population was in 1999 only 55,838 inhabitants, while it held 111,939 jobs. Media related to Paris 9e arrondissement at Wikimedia Commons 9th arrondissement travel guide from Wikivoyage
5.
Menus-Plaisirs du Roi
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The duc dAumont appointed the renowned gilt-bronze maker Pierre Gouthière doreur ordinaire of the Menus-Plaisirs in 1767 and appointed the architect Bellanger to the Menus-Plaisirs in the same year. For most of the reign of Louis XVI, the intendant of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi was Papillon de la Ferté, many designers were required at the Menus-Plaisirs. The architect Charles-Nicolas Cochin worked for years for the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi, 1735–51. And François-Joseph Bélanger began his career in 1767 working at the Menus-Plaisirs, the Cabinet du Roi provided the commemorative engravings, which are often our only record, and sold them. The functions of design and commemoration overlapped, needless to say, the Menus-Plaisirs were not in charge of the essential furniture of the royal palaces, which were the province of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne. It was delivered on 1 May 1770, the music required for these entertainments was also a concern of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi. Beginning in 1762 the music section was established on a large site extending north from the rue Bergère, the facilities included what had previously been the theatre of the Opéra-Comique at the Saint-Laurent Fair. The site was expanded until it reached the rue Richer on the north. The two institutions were merged into the Conservatoire de Musique in August 1795, a new Conservatory Concert Hall was added in 1811. Under the French Second Empire a different theatre with the name Théâtre des Menus-Plaisirs was constructed at 14 Boulevard de Strasbourg in Paris, under Louis XV a structure was erected in the town of Versailles to house the multiple activities of the Menus-Plaisirs. It still stands, at 22, avenue de Paris, now rendered famous as the site of the Estates-General of 1789, a provisionally fitted-out space was arranged in the building to seat the Assembly of Notable in 1787, and again in 1788. The old Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs is now the home of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, histoire des salles de lOpéra de Paris, p.83. Les Grandes Fêtes et leurs Décors à lÉpoque de Louis XVI, the Menus-Plaisirs during the tenure of the successive brothers Slodtz as Dessinateurs. Dictionnaire des théâtres parisiens au XIXe siècle, les théâtres et la musique, view formats and editions at WorldCat. Robin Emlein The Politics of Pleasure, Partying in the Gardens of Versailles
6.
Bernard Sarrette
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Bernard Sarrette, founded what would become the Conservatoire de Paris. Sarrette was born in Bordeaux, France, the son of a shoemaker, during the French Revolution, he joined the Garde Nationale. There he proposed the formation of a corps of musicians, and was put in charge and he gathered together forty-five musicians from the depot of the Gardes Françaises, and they formed the nucleus for the music of the Garde Nationale, with François Joseph Gossec as artistic director. In May 1790, the municipality of Paris increased the body to seventy-eight musicians, Sarrette was briefly imprisoned from 25 March to 10 May 1794, although the reasons are uncertain. Sarrette regained the title of director during the reorganization of 1800, the protection of Napoleon I was a source of disaster to him in 1815, when the conservatoire was closed, its subsequent history was watched by its founder as a mere spectator from outside. For the last forty four years of his life Sarrette lived in retirement and he died in Paris on 13 April 1858 and is buried in that citys Montmartre Cemetery
7.
National Guard (France)
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The National Guard was originally a French militia which existed from 1789 until 1872, including a period of official disbandment from 1827 to 1830. It was separate from the French Army and existed both for policing and as a military reserve, for most of its history the National Guard, particularly its officers, were widely viewed as loyal to middle-class interests. This had rapidly spread anger and violence throughout Paris, the National Assembly declared the formation of a Bourgeois Militia on 13 July. In the early morning of the day, the search for weapons for this new militia led to the storming of the Hotel des Invalides. Lafayette was elected to the post of commander in chief of the Bourgeois Militia on 15 July, similar bodies were spontaneously created in the towns and rural districts of France in response to widespread fears of chaos or counter-revolution. When the French Guards mutinied and were disbanded during the same month, the officers of the National Guard were elected. Under the law of 14 October 1791, all active citizens and their role was the maintenance of law and order and, if necessary, the defence of the territory. Following a nationwide scheme decided on in September 1791, the National Guard was organised on the basis of district or canton companies, five of these neighbourhood units made up a battalion. Eight to ten battalions comprised a legion, districts might also provide companies of veterans and young citizens, respectively drawn from volunteers of over 60 or under 18. Where possible, there was provision for mounted detachments and artillerymen, the citizens kept their weapons and their uniforms at home, and set forth with them when required. This combination of colours matched those of the revolutionary tricolour, the former Guet royal had held responsibility for the maintenance of law and order in Paris from 1254 to 1791, when the National Guard took over this role. In fact, the last commander of the Guet royal, de La Rothière, was elected to head the National Guard in 1791, in the summer of 1792, the fundamental character of the guard changed. After 9 Thermidor, year II, the new government of the Thermidorian Reaction placed the National Guard under the control of conservative leadership. The Paris National Guard thereafter ceased to play a significant political role, napoleon did not believe that the middle-class National Guard would be able to maintain order and suppress riots. Therefore, he created a Municipal Guard of Paris, a full-time gendarmerie which was strongly militarised, however, he did not abolish the National Guard, but was content to partially disarm it. He kept the force in reserve and mobilised it for the defence of French territory in 1809 and 1814, between 1811 and 1812 the National Guard, was organized in cohorts to distinguish it from the regular army, and for home defence only. By a skilful appeal to patriotism, and judicious pressure applied through the prefects, with the invasion of France by allied Austrian, Prussian, Russian and British armies in 1814, the National Guard was suddenly called on to provide support for regular Imperial forces. Existing National Guard units, such as those of Paris, were deployed as defence corps in their areas of recruitment, mass conscription was extended to age groups previously exempt from military service, to provide more manpower for the expanded National Guard
8.
Marching band
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A marching band is a group in which instrumental musicians perform for entertainment, and prepare for a competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass instruments, woodwind instruments, percussion instruments, most marching bands wear some kind of uniform that includes the school or organizations colors, name or symbol. Most high school marching bands are accompanied by a colorguard, a group of performers, Marching bands are generally categorized by function, size, age, gender, instruments and by the style of show they perform. In addition to traditional parade performances, many marching bands also perform shows at special events like competitions. Increasingly, marching bands perform concerts that implement many songs, traditions. Band is a term for an instrumental group. The marching band originated with traveling musicians who performed together at festivals and it evolved and became more structured within the armies of early city-states, becoming the basis for the military band, from which the modern marching band emerged. As musicians became less important in directing the movement of troops on the battlefield and this intermediate stage led to the modern instrumentation and music for marching bands. Many military traditions survive in modern marching band, Bands that march in formation are often ordered to dress their ranks and cover down your file. They may be called to attention, and given such as about face. Uniforms of many marching bands still resemble military uniforms, in the United States, modern marching bands are most commonly associated with performing during American football games. The oldest American college marching band, the Notre Dame Marching Band, was founded in 1845 first performed at a game in 1887. Many American universities had bands before the twentieth century associated with military ROTC programs. Spotts had seen a flock of birds fly in a V formation, the first halftime show at an American football game was performed by the University of Illinois Marching Illini also in 1907 at a game against the University of Chicago. Another innovation that appeared at roughly the time as the field show. University fight songs are closely associated with a universitys band. Boston College claims the first fight song, For Boston, many more recognizable and popular fight songs are played by high schools across the country. During the 20th century, marching bands added pageantry elements, including baton twirlers, majorettes, dance lines and these bands are said to be corps-style bands
9.
National Convention
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The National Convention was the third government of the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the one-year Legislative Assembly. Created after the insurrection of 10 August 1792, it was the first French government organized as a republic. The Convention sat as an assembly from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795. The National Convention was therefore the first French assembly elected by a suffrage without distinctions of class, although the Convention lasted until 1795, power was effectively stripped from the elected deputies and concentrated in the small Committee of Public Safety from April 1793. After the fall of Robespierre, the Convention lasted for year until a new constitution was written. The election took place from 2 to 6 September 1792 after the election of the colleges by primary assemblies on 26 August. Therefore, the increased suffrage had very little impact, the electorate returned the same sort of men that the active citizens had chosen in 1791. In the whole of France, only eleven primary assemblies wanted to retain the monarchy, of the electoral assemblies, all tacitly voted for a republic – though only Paris used the word. None of the deputies stood as a royalist for elections, out of the five million Frenchmen able to vote, only a million showed up at the polls. The Salle des Machines had galleries for the public who often influenced the debates with interruptions or applause, the members of the Convention came from all classes of society, but the most numerous were lawyers. 75 members had sat in the National Constituent Assembly,183 in the Legislative Assembly, the full number of deputies was 749, not counting 33 from the French colonies, of whom only some arrived in Paris in time. Besides these, however, the newly formed départements annexed to France from 1792 to 1795 were allowed to send deputations, according to its own ruling, the Convention elected its President every fortnight, and the outgoing President was eligible for re-election after the lapse of a fortnight. Ordinarily the sessions were held in the morning, but evening sessions also occurred frequently, sometimes in exceptional circumstances the Convention declared itself in permanent session and sat for several days without interruption. For both legislative and administrative the Convention used committees, with more or less widely extended and regulated by successive laws. The most famous of these included the Committee of Public Safety. The Convention held legislative and executive powers during the first years of the French First Republic and had three periods, Girondin, Montagnard or Jacobin, and Thermidorian. The abolition of the royalty is a matter you cannot put off till tomorrow, the first session was held on 20 September 1792. The following day, amidst profound silence, the proposition was put to the assembly, on the 22nd came the news of the Battle of Valmy
10.
Reign of Terror
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The Reign of Terror or The Terror, is the label given by some historians to a period of violence during the French Revolution. Different historians place the date at either 5 September 1793 or June 1793 or March 1793 or September 1792 or July 1789. Between June 1793 and the end of July 1794, there were 16,594 official death sentences in France, but the total number of deaths in France in 1793–96 in only the civil war in the Vendée is estimated at 250,000 counter-revolutionaries and 200,000 republicans. During 1794, revolutionary France was beset with conspiracies by internal, within France, the revolution was opposed by the French nobility, which had lost its inherited privileges. The Catholic Church opposed the revolution, which had turned the clergy into employees of the state, in addition, the French First Republic was engaged in a series of wars with neighboring powers, and parts of France were engaging in civil war against the loyalist regime. The latter were grouped in the parliamentary faction called the Mountain. Through the Revolutionary Tribunal, the Terrors leaders exercised broad powers, the Reign was a manifestation of the strong strain on centralized power. Many historians have debated the reasons the French Revolution took such a turn during the Reign of Terror of 1793–94. The public was frustrated that the equality and anti-poverty measures that the revolution originally promised were not materializing. Jacques Rouxs Manifesto of the Enraged on 25 June 1793, describes the extent to which, four years into the revolution, the foundation of the Terror is centered on the April 1793 creation of the Committee of Public Safety and its militant Jacobin delegates. Those in power believed the Committee of Public Safety was an unfortunate, according to Mathiez, they touched only with trepidation and reluctance the regime established by the Constituent Assembly so as not to interfere with the early accomplishments of the revolution. Similar to Mathiez, Richard Cobb introduced competing circumstances of revolt, counter-revolutionary rebellions taking place in Lyon, Brittany, Vendée, Nantes, and Marseille were threatening the revolution with royalist ideas. Cobb writes, the revolutionaries themselves, living as if in combat… were easily persuaded that only terror, Terror was used in these rebellions both to execute inciters and to provide a very visible example to those who might be considering rebellion. Cobb agrees with Mathiez that the Terror was simply a response to circumstances, at the same time, Cobb rejects Mathiezs Marxist interpretation that elites controlled the Reign of Terror to the significant benefit of the bourgeoisie. Instead, Cobb argues that social struggles between the classes were seldom the reason for actions and sentiments. Widespread terror and a consequent rise in executions came after external and internal threats were vastly reduced, with the backing of the national guard, they persuaded the convention to arrest 29 Girondist leaders, including Jacques Pierre Brissot. On 13 July the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat – a Jacobin leader, georges Danton, the leader of the August 1792 uprising against the king, was removed from the committee. The Jacobins identified themselves with the movement and the sans-culottes
11.
Luigi Cherubini
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Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music, Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries. Cherubini was born Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini in Florence in 1760, there is uncertainty about his exact date of birth. Although 14 September is sometimes stated, evidence from baptismal records, perhaps the strongest evidence is his first name, Maria, which is traditional for a child born on 8 September, feast-day of the Nativity of the Virgin. His instruction in music began at the age of six with his father, Bartolomeo, considered a child prodigy, Cherubini studied counterpoint and dramatic style at an early age. By the time he was thirteen, he had composed several religious works, in 1780, he was awarded a scholarship by the Grand Duke of Tuscany to study music in Bologna and Milan. Cherubinis early opera serie used libretti by Apostolo Zeno, Metastasio and his music was strongly influenced by Niccolò Jommelli, Tommaso Traetta, and Antonio Sacchini, who were the leading composers of the day. The first of his two works, Lo sposo di tre e marito di nessuna, premiered at a Venetian theater in November 1783. Feeling constrained by Italian traditions and eager to experiment, Cherubini traveled to London in 1785 where he produced two opere serie and an opera buffa for the Kings Theatre. In the same year, he made an excursion to Paris with his friend the violinist Giovanni Battista Viotti, Cherubini received an important commission to write Démophoon to a French libretto by Jean-François Marmontel that would be his first tragédie en musique. Performances of Démophon were favorably received at the Grand Opéra in 1788, with Viottis help, the Théâtre de Monsieur in the Tuileries appointed Cherubini as its director in 1789. Three years later, after a move to the rue Feydeau and the fall of the monarchy and this position gave Cherubini the opportunity to read countless libretti and choose one that best suited his temperament. Cherubinis music began to show more originality and daring and his first major success was Lodoïska, which was admired for its realistic heroism. This was followed by Elisa, set in the Swiss Alps, Les deux journées, in which Cherubini simplified his style, was a popular success. These and other operas were premièred at the Théâtre Feydeau or the Opéra-Comique, feeling financially secure, he married Anne Cécile Tourette in 1794 and began a family of three children. The fallout from the French Revolution affected Cherubini until the end of his life, politics forced him to hide his connections with the former aristocracy and seek governmental appointments. Although Napoléon found him too complex, Cherubini wrote at least one work per year for more than a decade. He was appointed Napoléons director of music in Vienna for part of 1805 and 1806, in 1808 Cherubini was elected an associated member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands
12.
Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny
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Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny was a French composer and a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts. Paul Dukas is quoted as saying, Of all the composers of our country, he may be the first who had the gift of true, human emotion, of communicative expression and he was educated at the Walloon Collége des Jésuites in Saint-Omer. It was here that he first discovered his aptitude for music and he entered into the service of the connoisseur of art and the theater, Louis Guillaume Baillet de Saint-Julien, in the bureau of the Comptabilité du Clergé de France. In 1752, after watching a performance of La serva padrona by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi at the Paris Opera and he then became Pietro Gianottis student, and a contra-bassist at the Paris Opéra. Secretly, with a text by La Ribardière, he wrote Les aveux indiscrets, his first comic opera and this work was well received, and that encouraged him to compose a second opera, in two acts, on a libretto by Pierre-René Lemonnier. Le maître en droit, the year, received the same positive public response. Michel-Jean Sedaine, a well-liked librettist, proposed to Monsigny a collaboration and their common production was excellent, On ne savise jamais de tout, Le roi et le fermier and Rose et Colas. On 15 April 1766, at the Académie royale de Musique, the critics were harsher two years later, with Lîle sonnante. The music, it is true, preserves its usual grace of Monsignys touch, however, Charles Collés libretto happened to be ill-adapted to the stage and justified the works lack of success. It is during this year of 1768 that the composer purchased the post of maître dhôtel in the service of the great courtier Louis Philippe I. A place in the entourage of this patron proved favorable to Monsignys inspiration, michel-Jean Sedaine submitted his libretto, Le déserteur, for which he composed his most successful score. Yet Le faucon, created in 1771 was a failure, on 17 August 1775, La belle Arsène caused controversy among critics. In 1777, following the success of Félix, ou Lenfant trouvé, at the beginning of 1784, he married Amélie de Villemagne, with whom he lived peacefully until 1789. The French Revolution and The Terror deprived them of all their material existence, the musician and his family sank into deep misery and oblivion for a few years. Hearing of the state of poverty, the members of the Opéra-Comique gave him a pension of 2400 pounds. The years of adversity came to an end and Monsigny reached once again his deserved success and he became inspector of teaching at the Conservatoire de Musique de Paris. In 1804, he received the title of Chevalier de la Légion dhonneur, in 1813, he succeeded Grétry at the Institute. Total blindness afflicted his last years, see List of operas by Monsigny
13.
Pierre Baillot
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Pierre Marie François de Sales Baillot was a French violinist and composer born in Passy. He studied the violin under Giovanni Battista Viotti and taught at the Paris Conservatoire together with Pierre Rode and Rodolphe Kreutzer and he was sole author of the instructional Lart du violon. Baillots teachings had a influence on technical and musical development in an age in which virtuosity was openly encouraged. He was leader of the Paris Opéra, gave recitals and was a notable performer of chamber music. He died in Paris in 1842 and his musical talent was remarkable at an early age, and he received his first instruction from an Italian named Polidori. At the age of nine he was placed under a French teacher named Sainte-Marie, whose training gave him the severe state and methodical qualities by which his playing was always distinguished. His love for his instrument was greatly augmented when, at the age of ten, he heard Viotti play one of his concertos, and from that day the great violinist became his model. He now had to serve with the army for twenty months, at the end of time he once more determined to take up music as a profession. This performance established his reputation, and he was offered a professorship of violin playing at the Conservatoire and his next appointment was to the private band of Napoleon, after which he travelled for three years in Russia with the violoncello player Lemare, earning great fame. Returning to Paris, he established concerts for music, which proved successful. He frequently performed together with the Polish pianist and composer Maria Agata Szymanowska, Baillot travelled again, visiting the Netherlands, Belgium, and England, and then he became leader of the opera band in Paris and of the royal band. Mendelssohn was only 16 years old, overcome with emotion, Baillot approached the young composer after the performance and, without uttering a word, simply embraced him. Baillot made a tour in Switzerland in 1833, and died in 1842. Baillot is considered to have been the last distinguished representative of the classical school of violin playing in Paris. Free scores by Pierre Baillot at the International Music Score Library Project
14.
Rodolphe Kreutzer
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Rodolphe Kreutzer was a French violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer of forty French operas, including La mort dAbel. He is probably best known as the dedicatee of Beethovens Violin Sonata No,9, Op.47, though he never played the work. Kreutzer made the acquaintance of Beethoven in 1798, when at Vienna in the service of the French ambassador, Beethoven originally dedicated the sonata to George Bridgetower, the violinist at its first performance, but after a quarrel he revised the dedication in favour of Kreutzer. Kreutzer was born in Versailles, and was taught by his German father. He became one of the foremost violin virtuosos of his day and he was a violin professor at the Conservatoire de Paris from its foundation in 1795 until 1826. He was co-author of the Conservatoires violin method with Pierre Rode and Pierre Baillot, for a time, Kreutzer was leader of the Paris Opera, and from 1817 he conducted there too. He died in Geneva and is buried in Paris at the Père Lachaise Cemetery and he was well known for his style of bowing, his splendid tone, and the clearness of his execution. His compositions include nineteen violin concertos and forty operas and his best-known works, however, are the 42 études ou caprices which are fundamental pedagogic studies. Free scores by Rodolphe Kreutzer at the International Music Score Library Project Rodolphe Kreutzer at AllMusic Rodolphe Kreutzer at Find a Grave
15.
Pierre Rode
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Jacques Pierre Joseph Rode was a French violinist and composer. Rode inherited his teachers style, to which he added more mildness and it is also recorded that he made extensive use of portamento. He collaborated with Baillot and Kreutzer on the official Violin Method of the Conservatoire de Paris, when he returned to Paris, he found that the public no longer responded with much enthusiasm to his playing. Spohr, who heard him both before and after his Russian sojourn, wrote that Rodes playing had become “cold and full of mannerism”. However, according to sources, he suffered from a lymphatic infection caused by streptococcus bacteria that affected his right arm. Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his last violin sonata for Rode when the violinist was visiting Vienna and he also performed chamber music, but the backbone of his repertoire was formed by Viottis concertos, which served as models for his own concertos. These, as well as the 24 Caprices in all the major and minor keys, were written from 1814 to 1819 when he lived in Berlin, in 1828 Rode made a last attempt at a public concert in Paris. It was such a fiasco that it was believed that it hastened his death, on 25 November 1830 at Château de Bourbon near Damazan, Lot-et-Garonne. In all, Pierre Rode composed 13 violin concertos and many works for violin, including at least four Quatuor brillant for violin. Jahrhundert, bericht über die erste gemeinsame Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung und der Société française de musicologie Saarbrücken 1999, joann Élart and Patrick Taïeb, La Complainte du Troubadour de Pierre-Jean Garat, Les Orages, No. 2, Limaginaire du héros, pp. 137–168, joann Élart, Les origines du concert public à Rouen à la fin de lAncien Régime, Revue de musicologie, No. Free scores by Pierre Rode at the International Music Score Library Project
16.
Stradivarius
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According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or equal it, though this belief is disputed. The name Stradivarius has become a superlative often associated with excellence, the fame of Stradivarius instruments is widespread, appearing in numerous works of fiction. The wood used included spruce for the top, willow for the blocks and linings, and maple for the back, ribs. Stradivari made his instruments using a form, unlike the French copyists, such as Vuillaume. It is clear from the number of forms throughout his career that he experimented with some of the dimensions of his instruments and these results suggest that differences in density differentials in the material may have played a significant role in the sound production of classical violins. The content of copper and aluminium is higher than current instruments, a Stradivarius made in the 1680s, or during Stradivaris Long Pattern period from 1690 to 1700, could be worth hundreds of thousands to several million U. S. dollars at todays prices. The 1697 Molitor Stradivarius, once rumored to have belonged to Napoleon, sold in 2010 at Tarisio Auctions to violinist Anne Akiko Meyers for $3,600,000, at the time a world record. Depending on condition, instruments made during Stradivaris golden period from 1700 to about 1725 can be millions of dollars. In 2011, his Lady Blunt violin from 1721, which is in condition, was sold in London for $15.9 million. It was sold by the Nippon Music Foundation in aid of the Japanese earthquake, the auction failed to reach its minimum bid by 25 June 2014, and the viola was not sold. Vice magazine reported in May 2013 that in recent years, Stradivarius investment funds have started to appear, Stradivarius instruments are at risk of theft. However, stolen instruments are often recovered, even after being missing for many years and they are difficult to sell illicitly as dealers will typically call the police if approached by a seller with a Stradivarius known to have been stolen. In recent years, the General Kyd Stradivarius was stolen in 2004 and it was returned three weeks later by a woman who found it and handed it over to the police. The Sinsheimer/Iselin was stolen in Hanover, Germany in 2008 and recovered in 2009, the Lipinski Stradivarius was stolen in an armed robbery on 27 January 2014 and subsequently recovered. The Ames Stradivarius was stolen in 1981 and recovered in 2015, however a number of stolen instruments remain missing, such as the Davidoff-Morini, stolen in 1995, the Le Maurien, stolen in 2002 and the Karpilowsky, stolen in 1953. Above all, these instruments are famous for the quality of sound they produce, the two violinists were allowed to play all the instruments first. None of the listeners identified more than two of the four instruments, two of the listeners identified the 20th-century violin as the Stradivarius. The majority of the listeners misidentified the winning violin as the Stradivarius. none of them sounded substantially weaker than the others While many world-class soloists play violins by Antonio Stradivari, there are notable exceptions
17.
Orchestre de Paris
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The Orchestre de Paris is a French orchestra based in Paris. The orchestra currently performs most of its concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris, soon after its creation, Munch died in 1968, and Herbert von Karajan was hired as an interim music advisor from 1969 to 1971. Successive music directors include Sir Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim, christoph von Dohnányi served as artistic advisor from 1998 to 2000. During his tenure, Barenboim saw a need for a permanent chorus for the orchestra, Oldham remained with the Chorus till his retirement in 2002. From 2002 to 2011, Didier Bouture and Geoffroy Jourdain shared direction of the Chorus, christoph Eschenbach was music director from 2000 to 2010. He conducted recordings of music of Luciano Berio, Marc-André Dalbavie, in May 2007, Paavo Järvi was named the orchestras sixth music director, effective from the 2010–11 season. Järvi is scheduled to conclude his tenure with the Orchestre de Paris at the conclusion of his current contract, in June 2015, the orchestra announced the appointments of Daniel Harding as its 9th principal conductor, and of Thomas Hengelbrock as principal guest conductor, effective September 2016. In 1998, Crédit Lyonnais, which had control of the Salle Pleyel, the Salle Pleyel was closed in 2002, which left the orchestra without a resident hall. The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Théâtre du Châtelet both presented the orchestra during the 2001–02 season, by the fall of 2002, the orchestra had secured the Théâtre Mogador, where it played its next four seasons. After renovations, the Salle Pleyel reopened in September 2006 and became more the Orchestre de Pariss home base. The orchestra took up residence at the new Philharmonie de Paris, near the Cité de la Musique in the Parc de la Villette, with its playing time of 17 minutes, the Orchestre de Paris single remains the longest recording ever in the Dutch Top 40
18.
Hector Berlioz
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Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts. Berlioz made significant contributions to the orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works, and he also composed around 50 songs. His influence was critical for the development of Romanticism, especially in composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss. Hector Berlioz was born in France at La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, Louis was an agnostic, with a liberal outlook, his mother, Marie-Antoinette, was a devout Roman Catholic. He had five siblings in all, three of whom did not survive to adulthood, the other two, Nanci and Adèle, remained close to Berlioz throughout his life. Berlioz was not a prodigy, unlike some other famous composers of the time, he began studying music at age 12, writing small compositions. As a result of his fathers discouragement, he never learned to play the piano and he became proficient at guitar, flageolet and flute. He learned harmony from textbooks alone—he was not formally trained, the majority of his early compositions were romances and chamber pieces. While yet at age twelve, as recalled in his Mémoires, he experienced his first passion for a woman and he also began to visit the Paris Conservatoire library, seeking out scores of Glucks operas and making personal copies of parts of them. He recalled in his Mémoires his first encounter with Luigi Cherubini, Cherubini attempted to throw the impetuous Berlioz out of the library since he was not a formal music student at that time. Berlioz also heard two operas by Gaspare Spontini, a composer who influenced him through their friendship, and whom he later championed when working as a critic, from then on, he devoted himself to composition. He was encouraged in his endeavors by Jean-François Le Sueur, director of the Royal Chapel, in 1823, he wrote his first article—a letter to the journal Le corsaire defending Spontinis La vestale. Despite his parents disapproval, in 1824 he formally abandoned his studies to pursue a career in music. This work was rehearsed and revised after the rehearsal but not performed until the following year, Berlioz later claimed to have burnt the score, but it was re-discovered in 1991. Later that year or in 1825, he began to compose the opera Les francs-juges, the work survives only in fragments, the overture has been much recorded and is sometimes played in concert. In 1826 he began attending the Conservatoire to study composition under Jean-François Le Sueur and he also submitted a fugue to the Prix de Rome, but was eliminated in the primary round. Winning the prize would become an obsession until he won it in 1830
19.
Symphonie fantastique
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Symphonie fantastique, Épisode de la vie dun artiste. En cinq parties Op.14, is a symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is an important piece of the early Romantic period, the first performance was at the Paris Conservatoire in December 1830. Franz Liszt made a transcription of the symphony in 1833. According to Bernstein, Berlioz tells it like it is and you take a trip, you wind up screaming at your own funeral. In 1831, Berlioz wrote a lesser known sequel to the work, Lélio, for actor, orchestra, Berlioz provided his own preface and program notes for each movement of the work. They exist in two principal versions – one from 1845 in the first score of the work and the second from 1855, from the revised preface and notes, it can be seen how Berlioz, later in his life, downplayed the programmatic aspect of the work. In the first score from 1845, he writes, The composers intention has been to various episodes in the life of an artist. As the work cannot rely on the assistance of speech, the plan of the instrumental drama needs to be set out in advance. The following programme must therefore be considered as the text of an opera. In this case the invisible orchestra is placed on the stage of a theatre behind the lowered curtain, the author hopes that the symphony provides on its own sufficient musical interest independently of any dramatic intention. This melodic image and its model keep haunting him ceaselessly like a double idée fixe and this explains the constant recurrence in all the movements of the symphony of the melody which launches the first allegro. It is here that the listener is introduced to the theme of the artists beloved, the theme itself was taken from Berliozs scène lyrique Herminie, composed in 1828. The revised program notes from 1855 state, He meets again his beloved in a ball during a glittering fête, more formal statements of the idée fixe twice interrupt the waltz. The movement is the one to feature the two harps, providing the glamour and sensual richness of the ball, and may also symbolize the object of the young mans affection. Berlioz wrote extensively in his memoirs of his trials and tribulations in having this symphony performed, due to a lack of capable harpists and harps, especially in Germany. Another feature of this movement is that Berlioz added a part for solo cornet to his autograph score, the work has most often been played and recorded without the solo cornet part. Conductors Jean Martinon, Colin Davis, Otto Klemperer, Gustavo Dudamel and he broods on his loneliness, and hopes that soon he will no longer be on his own
20.
Bourbon Restoration
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The Bourbon Restoration was the period of French history following the fall of Napoleon in 1814 until the July Revolution of 1830. The brothers of executed Louis XVI of France reigned in highly conservative fashion, and they were nonetheless unable to reverse most of the changes made by the French Revolution and Napoleon. At the Congress of Vienna they were treated respectfully, but had to give up all the gains made since 1789. King Louis XVI of the House of Bourbon had been overthrown and executed during the French Revolution, a coalition of European powers defeated Napoleon in the War of the Sixth Coalition, ended the First Empire in 1814, and restored the monarchy to the brothers of Louis XVI. The Bourbon Restoration lasted from 6 April 1814 until the uprisings of the July Revolution of 1830. There was an interlude in spring 1815—the Hundred Days—when the return of Napoleon forced the Bourbons to flee France, when Napoleon was again defeated by the Seventh Coalition they returned to power in July. During the Restoration, the new Bourbon regime was a monarchy, unlike the absolutist Ancien Régime. The period was characterized by a conservative reaction, and consequent minor but consistent occurrences of civil unrest. It also saw the reestablishment of the Catholic Church as a power in French politics. The eras of the French Revolution and Napoleon brought a series of changes to France which the Bourbon Restoration did not reverse. First of all, France became highly centralized, with all decisions made in Paris, the political geography was completely reorganized and made uniform. France was divided more than 80 departments, which have endured into the 21st century. Each department had an administrative structure, and was tightly controlled by a prefect appointed by Paris. The Catholic Church lost all its lands and buildings during the Revolution, the bishop still ruled his diocese, and communicated with the pope through the government in Paris. Bishops, priests, nuns and other people were paid salaries by the state. All the old rites and ceremonies were retained, and the government maintained the religious buildings. The Church was allowed to operate its own seminaries and to some extent local schools as well, bishops were much less powerful than before, and had no political voice. However, the Catholic Church reinvented itself and put a new emphasis on personal religiosity that gave it a hold on the psychology of the faithful, education was centralized, with the Grand Master of the University of France controlling every element of the entire educational system from Paris
21.
Hundred Days
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The Hundred Days marked the period between Napoleons return from exile on the island of Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815. This period saw the War of the Seventh Coalition, and includes the Waterloo Campaign, the phrase les Cent Jours was first used by the prefect of Paris, Gaspard, comte de Chabrol, in his speech welcoming the king back to Paris on 8 July. Napoleon returned while the Congress of Vienna was sitting, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars pitted France against various coalitions of other European nations nearly continuously from 1792 onward. The overthrow and subsequent public execution of Louis XVI in France had greatly disturbed other European leaders, rather than leading to Frances defeat, the wars allowed the revolutionary regime to expand beyond its borders and create client republics. The success of the French forces made an out of their best commander. In 1799, Napoleon staged a successful coup détat and became First Consul of the new French Consulate, five years later, he crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I. The rise of Napoleon troubled the other European powers as much as the revolutionary regime had. Despite the formation of new coalitions against him, Napoleons forces continued to conquer much of Europe, the tide of war began to turn after a disastrous French invasion of Russia in 1812 that resulted in the loss of much of Napoleons army. The following year, during the War of the Sixth Coalition, Coalition forces defeated the French in the Battle of Leipzig, following its victory at Leipzig, the Coalition vowed to press on to Paris and depose Napoleon. In the last week of February 1814, Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher advanced on Paris, the Battle of Reims went to Napoleon, but this victory was followed by successive defeats from increasingly overwhelming odds. Coalition forces entered Paris after the Battle of Montmartre on 30 March 1814, on 6 April 1814, Napoleon abdicated his throne, leading to the accession of Louis XVIII and the first Bourbon Restoration a month later. The defeated Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba off the coast of Tuscany, Napoleon spent only nine months and 21 days in uneasy retirement on Elba, watching events in France with great interest as the Congress of Vienna gradually gathered. He had been escorted to Elba by Sir Neil Campbell, who remained in there while performing other duties in Italy. Equally threatening was the situation in Europe which had been stressed and exhausted during the previous decades of near constant warfare. The conflicting demands of major powers were for a time so exorbitant as to bring the Powers at the Congress of Vienna to the verge of war with each other. Thus every scrap of news reaching remote Elba looked favourable to Napoleon to retake power as he reasoned the news of his return would cause a popular rising as he approached. So threatening were the symptoms that the royalists at Paris and the plenipotentiaries at Vienna talked of deporting him to the Azores or to Saint Helena, at the Congress of Vienna the various participating nations had very different and conflicting goals. Tsar Alexander of Russia had expected to absorb much of Poland and to leave a Polish puppet state, the renewed Prussian state demanded all of the Kingdom of Saxony
22.
Louis XVIII of France
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Louis XVIII, known as The Desired, was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1814 to 1824 except for a period in 1815 known as the Hundred Days. Until his accession to the throne of France, Louis held the title of Count of Provence as brother of King Louis XVI, on 21 September 1792, the National Convention abolished the monarchy and deposed King Louis XVI, who was later executed by guillotine. When the young Louis XVII, Louis XVIs son, died in prison in June 1795, during the French Revolution and Napoleonic era, Louis XVIII lived in exile in Prussia, the United Kingdom and Russia. When the Sixth Coalition finally defeated Napoleon in 1814, Louis was placed in what he, Napoleon escaped from his exile in Elba, however, and restored his French Empire. Louis XVIII fled and a Seventh Coalition declared war on the French Empire, defeated Napoleon, Louis XVIII ruled as king for slightly less than a decade. The Bourbon Restoration regime was a constitutional monarchy, as a constitutional monarch, Louis XVIIIs royal prerogative was reduced substantially by the Charter of 1814, Frances new constitution. Louis had no children, therefore, upon his death, the passed to his brother, Charles. Louis XVIII was the last French monarch to die while reigning, as his successor Charles X abdicated and both Louis Philippe I and Napoléon III were deposed. Louis Stanislas Xavier, styled Count of Provence from birth, was born on 17 November 1755 in the Palace of Versailles, the son of Louis, Dauphin of France and he was the grandson of the reigning King Louis XV. As a son of the Dauphin he was a Fils de France, Louis Stanislas was christened Louis Stanislas Xavier six months after his birth in accordance with Bourbon family tradition, being nameless before his baptism. By this act, he also a Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit. The former died in 1761, leaving Louis Auguste as heir to their father until the Dauphins own premature death in 1765, the two deaths elevated Louis Stanislas to second in the line of succession, while Louis Auguste acquired the title Dauphin. Louis Stanislas found comfort in his governess, Madame de Marsan, Governess of the Children of France, as he was her favourite among his siblings. Louis Stanislas was taken away from his governess when he turned seven, Antoine de Quélen de Stuer de Caussade, Duke of La Vauguyon, a friend of his father, was named his governor. Louis Stanislas was an intelligent boy, excelling in classics and his education was of the same quality and consistency as that of his older brother, Louis Auguste, despite the fact that Louis Auguste was heir and Louis Stanislas was not. Louis Stanislas education was religious in nature, several of his teachers were men of the cloth. La Vauguyon drilled into young Louis Stanislas and his brothers the way he thought princes should know how to withdraw themselves, to like to work, and to know how to reason correctly. In the same month his household was founded, Louis was granted titles by his grandfather, Louis XV, Duke of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Perche
23.
Anton Reicha
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Anton Reicha was a Czech-born, later naturalized French composer. He was also an accomplished theorist, and wrote treatises on various aspects of composition. Some of his work dealt with experimental methods of composition. His father, the piper, died when the boy was just 10 months old. The young composer ran away from home when only ten years old, when they moved to Bonn, Josef secured for his nephew a place playing violin in the Hofkapelle electoral orchestra alongside the young Beethoven on viola, but for Reicha this was not enough. He studied composition secretly, against his uncles wishes, and entered the University of Bonn in 1789, when Bonn was captured by the French in 1794 Reicha fled to Hamburg, where he made a living teaching harmony and composition and studied mathematics and philosophy. Between 1799 and 1801 he lived in Paris, trying to gain recognition as an opera composer, in 1801 he moved on to Vienna, where he studied with Salieri and Albrechtsberger and produced his first important works. Reichas output during his Vienna years was prolific and included large semi-didactic cycles of works such as 36 Fugues for piano, Lart de varier, during the later Paris period, however, he focused his attention mostly on theory and produced a number of treatises on composition. Works of this period include 25 crucially important wind quintets which are considered the locus classicus of that genre and are his best-known compositions. Due to Reichas unwillingness to have his music published, he fell into obscurity soon after his death and his life and his father Šimon, the town piper of the city, died when Anton was just 10 months old. He first visited his grandfather in Klatovy, and then his paternal uncle Josef Reicha, a virtuoso cellist, conductor and composer living in Wallerstein, Bavaria. In 1785 the family moved to Bonn, where Reicha became a member of the Hofkapelle of Max Franz, Elector of Cologne, playing violin, the young Beethoven entered the Hofkapelle as violist and organist in 1789 and Reicha befriended him, the two became lifelong friends. He managed to escape to Hamburg, vowed never to perform in public again and began to earn a living teaching harmony, composition and he continued composing and studied mathematics, philosophy and, significantly, methods of teaching composition. In 1799 he moved to Paris, hoping to achieve success as an opera composer, once there, like Beethoven and the young Schubert, he studied with Antonio Salieri and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger. Both were renowned teachers, and Albrechtsberger was also an important theorist, Reichas move to Vienna marked the beginning of a more productive and successful period in his life. As he wrote in his memoirs, The number of works I finished in Vienna is astonishing, once started, my verve and imagination were indefatigable. Ideas came to me so rapidly it was difficult to set them down without losing some of them. I always had a penchant for doing the unusual in composition
24.
Camilla Urso
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Camilla Urso was a child prodigy and American violinist born in France. Born Émilie-Camille Urso in Nantes, France, she was the first daughter of an Italian flutist, the first of five children, Camilla’s birthdate is still being disputed by historians, some claiming the year of her birth to be 1840, and others claiming it to be 1842. The family lived with her mother’s sister, Caroline, when she was six years old, despite general skepticism about her ability to master a “masculine” instrument, she began taking violin lessons. She started out studying for three hours a day, and eventually, that time was increased to seven hours a day. She made her debut a r year after studying, at a concert for the family of a recently deceased bassoon player in her father’s orchestra. ”Camilla studied at the Paris Conservatory for three years, admitted in June 1849, and passing her final exam in July 1852. She was not accepted into the Conservatory right away, being only eight years old when the family arrived in Paris, she was a year too young to audition. Also, the females who were previously accepted into the Conservatory were allowed to study harmony, piano, organ, harp keyboard harmony. Camilla competed against seventy-six boys for nine spots open in the class in front of an established panel of musicians, including Alard, Auber, Caraffa. Although Lambert Massart took Camilla in without asking for pay, he was known for his rigorous coursework and strictness, Camilla, despite being female, was not exempt from this punishment. According to Susan Kagan, “Camilla Urso had no childhood, between the ages of seven and ten, while a student at the prestigious Paris Conservatory, she practiced eight hours or more a day. ”In 1852 in the annual student competition she won third place certificates of merit in solfège. She was the first female student at the Conservatory to win a prize on violin, in the autumn of 1852 she appeared in New York City with her own company of assisting artists, including her father on flute. Reporting on her appearance at a private soirée, the Evening Post wrote, She handles the violin with as much freedom and she breathed into the instrument a mellowness, an expression, a purity of sound truly remarkable. Urso was accompanied by an orchestra conducted by Theodore Eisfeld, and the program included the Viotti concerto, Bériots Air varié, Urso later appeared in Boston, Philadelphia, and other American cities. She was exceedingly successful, especially in concerts with Alboni and Sontag, in 1855 she and her parents established a residence in Nashville, Tennessee. Urso played with the Philharmonic Society in Boston in 1863, in 1863–1864 she toured New England with the Patrick S. Gilmore band and in 1864–1865 went on tour in Canada. In June 1865 she appeared to acclaim in Paris. For the next thirty years she toured the United States and abroad, including Australia and she stopped performing in 1895 and lived in New York, where she taught privately and at the National Conservatory of Music. She died in New York and is buried in the Green-Wood Cemetery, notes Sources Encyclopædia Britannica article on Camilla Urso This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Gilman, D. C
25.
Daniel Auber
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Daniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer. The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy, though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments. His first teacher was the Tirolean composer, Josef Alois Ladurner, at the age of 20 Auber was sent to London for business training, but he was obliged to leave England in 1804 when the Treaty of Amiens was breached. Auber had already attempted musical composition, and at this period produced several concertos pour basse, modelled after the violoncellist Lamare, in whose name they were published. The praise given to his concerto for the violin, which was played at the Paris Conservatoire by Mazas, encouraged him to undertake a resetting of an old comic opera and he also began to study with the renowned Luigi Cherubini. In 1813 the unfavourable reception of his one-act debut opera Le Séjour militaire put an end for some years to his attempts as composer, but his failure in business, and the death of his father in 1819, compelled him once more to turn to music. He produced another opera, Le Testament et les billets-doux, which was no better received than the former, but he persevered, and the next year was rewarded by the complete success of La Bergère châtelaine, an opera in three acts. This was the first in a series of brilliant successes. In 1822 began his association with librettist Eugène Scribe. Their first opera, Leicester, shows evidence of the influence of Gioachino Rossini in its musical style, Auber soon developed his own voice, however, light, vivacious, graceful, and melodious—characteristically French. Le maçon was his first major triumph, staying in the repertory until the 20th century, an ensemble from the latter found its way into Herolds ballet La Somnambule as an air parlante. Auber achieved another triumph in La muette de Portici, also known as Masaniello after its hero. Produced in Paris in 1828, it became a European favourite, and the foundation work of a new genre, grand opera. La Muette broke ground also in its use of a ballerina in a leading role, official and other dignities testified to the public appreciation of Aubers works. In 1829 he was elected a member of the Institut de France, Fra Diavolo, which premiered on 28 January 1830, was his most successful opera. That same year,1830, he was named director of the court concerts, next year, on 20 June 1831, he had another big success, with Le Philtre, starring Adolphe Nourrit. The libretto was translated into Italian and set by Donizetti as Lelisir damore, two years later, on 27 February 1833, Gustave III, his second grand opera, also triumphed and stayed in the repertory for years. The libretto was to be used more, first by Saverio Mercadante for Il reggente, with the action transferred to Scotland
26.
Adolphe Adam
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Adolphe Charles Adam was a French composer and music critic. Later set to different English lyrics and widely sung as O Holy Night, Adam was a noted teacher, who taught Delibes and other influential composers. Adolphe Adam was born in Paris, to Jean-Louis Adam, who was a prominent Alsatian composer and his mother was the daughter of a physician. As a child, Adolphe Adam preferred to improvise music on his own rather than study music seriously and occasionally truanted with writer Eugène Sue who was something of a dunce in early years. Jean-Louis Adam was a pianist and teacher but was set against the idea of his son following in his footsteps. Adam was determined, however, and studied and composed secretly under the tutelage of his older friend Ferdinand Hérold, a popular composer of the day. When Adam was 17, his father relented, and he was permitted to study at the Paris Conservatoire—but only after he promised that he would learn music only as an amusement, not as a career. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1821, where he studied organ and harmonium under the celebrated opera composer François-Adrien Boieldieu. Adam also played the timpani in the orchestra of the Conservatoire, however, he did not win the Prix de Rome and his father did not encourage him to pursue a music career, as he won second prize. By age 20, he was writing songs for Paris vaudeville houses and playing in the orchestra at the Gymnasie Dramatique, like many other French composers, he made a living largely by playing the organ. In 1825, he helped Boieldieu prepare parts for his opera La dame blanche, Adam was able to travel through Europe with the money he made, and he met Eugène Scribe, with whom he later collaborated, in Geneva. By 1830, he had completed twenty-eight works for the theatre, Adam is probably best remembered for the ballet Giselle. He wrote several ballets and 39 operas, including Le postillon de Lonjumeau. After quarreling with the director of the Opéra, Adam invested his money and borrowed heavily to open a fourth house in Paris. It opened in 1847, but closed because of the Revolution of 1848 and his efforts to extricate himself from these debts include a brief turn to journalism. From 1849 to his death in Paris, he taught composition at the Paris Conservatoire. His Christmas carol Cantique de Noël, translated to English as O Holy Night, is an international favorite, Cantique de Noel is based on a poem written by M. Cappeau de Roquemaure. Adam is buried in Montmartre Cemetery in Paris, List of operas by Adam List of ballets by Adolphe Adam
27.
Ambroise Thomas
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Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas was a French composer, best known for his operas Mignon and Hamlet and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871 till his death. There is good music, there is bad music, and then there is Ambroise Thomas, - Emmanuel Chabrier Thomass parents were music teachers. By the age of 10, he was already an experienced pianist and violinist, in 1828, he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with Jean-François Le Sueur while at the same time taking piano lessons privately from the famous virtuoso Frédéric Kalkbrenner. In 1832, his cantata Hermann et Ketty won the Conservatorys prestigious composition prize, the Grand Prix de Rome and he took with him a love for Mozart and Beethoven, but once in Rome, he became an ardent admirer of the Italian cantilena and melodic tradition. It was during his Italian sojourn that he wrote all of his music, namely, a piano trio, a string quintet. The first opera Thomas composed, La double échelle, was produced at the Opéra Comique, Le caïd, did still better, and achieved over 400 performances. For the next quarter of a century Thomass productivity was incessant, the overture to Raymond has also been given the occasional modern performance. To his theatrical successes, Thomas added administrative achievements, in 1856 he acquired a professorship at the Conservatoire, where he taught, among others, Jules Massenet, one of the few French composers of the younger generation whose music interested him. See, List of music students by teacher, T to Z#Ambroise Thomas and he succeeded Auber as director of the Conservatoire in 1871. With Mignon, Thomas achieved his first great acclaim outside, as well as within and it is still heard sometimes today, more often in the form of extracts for concert use, or in recordings, than in complete stagings. One of its arias, Connais-tu le pays, was for generations among the most famous operatic excerpts by any composer, Thomas turned to Shakespeare again for his Hamlet, with a libretto by the seasoned team of Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. This opera has a strong, dramatic libretto, although it closes with a happy ending. It enjoyed a vogue, and like Mignon it continues to have a certain following, during 2010 it was heard at New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. His last opera, Françoise de Rimini based on a passage from Dantes Inferno, seven years later La tempête, a ballet, was produced at the Opéra, again with little effect. Massenet had hopes of succeeding him in the job of Conservatoire director, the man who got the job was not Massenet but, rather, organist-composer Théodore Dubois. Thomas was the first musician to ever be awarded the Grand-Croix de la Légion dhonneur, see, List of operas by Ambroise Thomas. La gipsy, second act ballet at the Opéra de Paris,1839 Betty, joseph Mazilier, Opéra de Paris,1846 La tempête, chor. Joseph Hansen, Opéra de Paris,26 June 1889 String Quartet in E major, Op.1 Listing of the works of Alexandre Falguière Composers, Ambroise Thomas Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Thomas, Ambroise Thomas Ambroise Thomas String Quartet in e minor Soundbites & short biography
28.
Louise Farrenc
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Louise Farrenc was a French composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher. Born Jeanne-Louise Dumont in Paris, she was the daughter of Jacques-Edme Dumont, a successful sculptor, Louise Farrenc enjoyed a considerable reputation during her own lifetime, as a composer, a performer and a teacher. She began piano studies at an age with Cecile Soria. In 1821 she married Aristide Farrenc, a student ten years her senior, who performed at some of the concerts regularly given at the artists colony of the Sorbonne. Following her marriage, she interrupted her studies to give concerts throughout France with her husband, accounts of the time record that she was an excellent instructor with many of her students graduating with Premier Prix and becoming professional musicians. Despite this, Farrenc was paid less than her male counterparts for nearly a decade, only after the triumphant premiere of her nonet, at which the famous violinist Joseph Joachim took part, did she demand and receive equal pay. For several decades after her death, her reputation as a performer survived and her nonet had achieved around 1850 some popularity, as did her two piano quintets and her trios. In December 2013, Farrenc was the subject of the long-running BBC Radio Three programme Composer of the Week, at first, during the 1820s and 1830s, she composed exclusively for the piano. Several of these pieces drew high praise from critics, including Schumann, in the 1830s, she tried her hand at larger compositions for both chamber ensemble and orchestra. It was during the 1840s that much of her music was written. While the great bulk of Farrenc’s compositions were for the piano alone, the claim can be made that Farrenc’s chamber music works are on a par with most of her well-known male contemporaries. Throughout her life, chamber music remained of great interest and she wrote works for various combinations of winds and or strings and piano. In addition to music and works for solo piano, she wrote two overtures and three symphonies. She had the honour to hear her third symphony Op.36 performed at the Société des concerts du Conservatoire in 1849. The one area which is missing from her output is opera. Another factor here is the public, as a not a very knowledgeable one. This is the reason why her work has fallen into oblivion today and her works were recognized by the savants and connoisseurs of the time as first rate, but this was not enough to gain her any lasting fame as a composer. Louise Farrenc wrote exclusively for the piano from 1820 to 1830 and her work includes 49 compositions with opus numbers
29.
Henri Herz
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Henri Herz was a pianist and composer, Austrian by birth and French by domicile. He was also a teacher at the Paris Conservatoire. Among his major works are eight piano concertos, a sonata, rondos, nocturnes, waltzes, marches, fantasias. Herz was born Heinrich Herz in Vienna, as a child he studied with his father, and in Koblenz with the organist Daniel Hünten. In 1816 he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied under Victor Dourlen and his brother Jacques Herz was a fellow-pupil at the Conservatoire who also became a pianist and teacher. Herz was married to Pauline Thérèse Lachmann, a French courtesan known as La Païva and it is generally believed that they married in London, but it is not clear that this actually occurred. In any case, such a marriage would have been bigamous, by him she had a daughter. Richard Wagner, Hans von Bülow, Théophile Gautier and Émile de Girardin attended her salon and her spendings nearly ruined Herzs finances, and he traveled to America in 1848 to pursue business opportunities. While he was away, her spending continued, and Herzs family turned Thérèse out of the house in frustration, in 1830, he founded his own piano factory in Paris. In 1838, he built the Salle Herz on the rue de la Victoire, used for performances by Berlioz and he died in Paris aged 84. His performances were compared to the extravagant manner of Leopold de Meyer. He wrote a book about his experiences abroad, Mes voyages en Amérique, Herz taught at the Conservatoire between 1842 and 1874. Of his pupils, only Marie-Aimée Roger-Miclos recorded, in the early 1900s, Herz composed many pieces including eight piano concertos. Among his many works, he was involved in the composition of Hexaméron. Many, however, found his piano style showy and shallow, Herz was also an inventor of a mechanical device he named a dactylion, designed to loosen and strengthen pianists fingers. The dactylion had a success then. He patented dactylion in France in 1835, in 1843-1866 he also registered several patents related to construction and fabrication of pianos
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