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The Paris Conservatoire in the Nineteenth Century
Abstract
These music articles were commissioned by an editorial board as part of our former online-only review article series. We are offering them here as a freely available collection.
... The first conservatory in the modern sense of the word was established in Paris. In 1795, the existing schools of singing (the École Royale de Chant) and playing (the Institut National de Musique) merged to become the Paris Conservatory (the Conservatoire de Musique), which offered its first classes in 1796-97 (Holoman 2015). There had, however, already existed conservatories in Italy for several centuries, the most famous in Naples. ...
... in late 1815 as a natural consequence of the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy (Holoman 2015). It reopened the following year. ...
What characterized conservatory music theory pedagogy in nineteenth-century Europe? This article discusses the traditions of music theory pedagogy associated with the conservatories in Paris, Vienna, and Leipzig, specifically focusing on the middle of the nineteenth century (ca. 1830–70). In the first section, the characteristics of the three individual traditions are discussed separately. The second section compares these traditions from three perspectives: theoretical framework, pedagogical approach, and historical legacy. Although the traditions are different on several central points (e.g., ties to Italian partimento pedagogy in Paris, to Ramellian fundamental bass in Vienna, and to Weberian Roman numeral analysis in Leipzig), they also have some fundamental similarities that drew the borders—the defining limits—of conservatory music theory. The author argues that in the nineteenth century the idea of music theory as a primarily written discipline (centered on textbooks and written exercises and largely separated from musical performance) became a central element of these general characteristics of music theory pedagogy that would be taken for granted and accepted as self-evident across institutional traditions.
In an enticing article for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Hans von Bülow suggested that Joseph Joachim would be well suited to achieve a reform of violin playing in the 1850s, which would effectively close the door behind Virtuosentum. The Golden Age of virtuosity had been on its way out for several years, impacting also violin performance. And yet, violin programming in the musical metropolises London and Paris was slow to adapt. As recent work on Joachim's virtuoso years has shown, his repertoire during the 1840s encompassed far more than German classics. It accommodated plenty of virtuoso music by H.W. Ernst, de Bériot, Ferdinand David, and Vieuxtemps, as well as his own substantial, virtuoso compositions, composed for his London tours in the 1840s. As this article argues, Joachim's programming did not change overnight: the shift from performing and composing virtuoso pieces to identifying himself with lofty and serious works happened gradually. One vehicle through which Joachim transformed the state of ‘violin playing’ of the 1840s was the violin romance. Joachim, who spent three months in Paris in early 1850, used the aesthetic of the romance to transform not only the state of violin playing but also the violin romance itself. Two simple romances he composed in 1850 were followed by a third romance in 1857. The third was, in effect, a Bravourstück in disguise, exhibiting none of the older virtuoso tricks such as flying bow strokes that had fallen out of favour. Rather, in Joachim's third romance, the conspicuous, ‘1840s’ virtuosity merged into ‘shape-oriented virtuosity’, a term used in a 1854 review of Joachim's playing. Many later nineteenth-century composers of violin romances from Bruch to Sibelius adopted Joachim's romance model, negotiating between melodic simplicity and violinistic demand, resulting in lyrical pieces in which virtuosity was an undercurrent, hidden but present.
What if the core curriculum for graduate students in music performance were designed to prepare students to succeed in the world of the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
This dissertation offers a hypothetical answer: a structured and systematic academic curricular framework for music graduate students of performance of concert music (especially those in terminal degrees, such as doctoral students), along with music instructors, professional music performers, school administrators, and college professors, seeking to prepare such students for achieving and maintaining a music career more in keeping with the current work environment, especially those skills demanded by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the current cultural moment. Syllabi designed by the author for the proposed curriculum are included. This research is supported by various studies: of the Paris Conservatory, the first state school created during the period of the First Industrial Revolution; of the curriculum of selected outstanding current institutions in the United States; and an analysis of a comprehensive bibliography of recent publications on the topic of the skills needed by current performers of concert music. The conclusion advocates the development of a new curricular area in music performance: “Professional Musicianship.”
Par décret, en novembre 1793, la Garde nationale créait à Paris un Institut national de musique et lui adjoignait une bibliothèque et un cabinet d'instruments "antiques, étrangers et à nos usages". Composé grâce aux saisies opérées chez les émigrés et condamnés, ce cabinet ne survécut pas à 1816. Les raisons de cet échec sont étudiées ici et montrent combien les musiciens du Conservatoire de Paris eurent de difficulté à concilier mémoire et pédagogie, héritage et outil de travail. Ce n'est que sous le Second Empire que ressurgira un projet patrimonial viable.
Le Conservatoire et la politique culturelle de l’état au XIXe siècle: cent ans de décisions budgétaires
- Mathieu Ferey
Les méthodes officielles du Conservatoire
- Emmanuel Hondré
Gabriel Fauré au Conservatoire de Paris: une philosophie de l’enseignement
- Jean-Michel Nectoux
L’enseignement de la direction d’orchestre à ses débuts
- Laurent Ronzon
1795-1995: deux cents ans de pédagogie
- Anne Bongrain
- Alain Poirier
Liste des professeurs du Conservatoire des origines à nos jours
- Emmanuel Hondré
La Bibliothèque de Conservatoire (1795-1819): une utopie réalisée?
- Catherine Massip
Claude Delvincourt et les Cadets du Conservatoire: une politique d’orchestre, 1943-1954
- Marguerite Sablonnière
Regard sur les créations de classes au Conservatoire
- Anne Balmary
‘Mens sana in corpore sano’: l’introduction de l’histoire de la musique au Conservatoire
- Rémy Campos
Les premiers exercices publics d’élèves d’après la presse contemporaine (1800-1815)
- Jean Mongrédien