SubmittedFriday, 03 May 2019
French music had already in the Opera
NEW MUSICAL INSTITUTIONS
1. The Société Nationale
Before 1870, French music had already in the Opera and the Opéra-Comique (without counting the various endeavours of the Théâtre Lyrique) an outlet which was nearly enough for the needs of her dramatic productions. Even when musical taste was most decadent, the works of Gounod, Ambroise Thomas, and Massé, had always upheld the name of French opéra-comique. But what was almost entirely lacking was an outlet for symphonic music and chamber-music. «Before 1870,» wrote M. Saint-Saëns in Harmonie et Mélodie, «a French composer who was foolish enough to venture on to the ground of instrumental music had no other means of getting his works performed than by himself arranging a concert for them.» Such was Berlioz’s case; for he had to gather together an orchestra and hire a room each time he wished to get a hearing for his great symphonies. The financial result was often disastrous: the performance of the Damnation de Faust in 1846 was, for example, a complete failure, and he had to give it up. The Conservatoire, which was formerly more hospitable, rather reluctantly performed a portion of L’Enfance du Christ; but it gave young composers no encouragement.
The first man who attempted to make the symphony popular, M. Saint-Saëns tells us in his Portraits et Souvenirs, was Seghers, a dissentient member of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, who during several years (1848-1854) was conductor of the Société de Sainte-Cécile, which had its quarters in a room in the rue de la Chaussée d’Antin. There he had performed Mendelssohn’s Symphonie Italienne, the overtures to Tannhäuser and Manfred, Berlioz’s Fuite en Égypte, and Gounod’s and Bizet’s early, works. But lack of money cut short his efforts.
Pasdeloup took up the work. After having been conductor for the Société des jeunes artistes du Conservatoire since 1851, in the Salle Herz, he founded, in 1861, at the Cirque d’Hiver, with the financial support of a rich moneylender, the first Concerts populaires de musique classique. Unhappily, says M. Saint-Saëns, Pasdeloup, even up to 1870, made an almost exclusive selection of German classical works. He raised an impenetrable barrier before the young French school, and the only French works he played were symphonies by Gounod and Gouvy, and the overtures of Les Francs-Juges and La Muette. It was impossible to set up a rival society against him; and an exclusive monopoly in music was, therefore, held by him. According to M. Saint-Saëns he was a mediocre musician, and had, in spite of his passion for music, «immense incapacity.» In Harmonie et Mélodie M. Saint-Saëns says: «The few chamber-music societies that existed were also closed to all new-comers; their programmes only contained the names of undisputed celebrities, the writers of classic symphonies. In those times one had really to be devoid of all common sense to write music.»
this was: French Music Had Already In The Opera
go to next chapter: new generation
