Canonic Repertories and the French Musical Press: Lully to Wagner

328 Pages·2021·28.97 MB·English

by  William Weber

CANONIC REPERTORIES
AND THE
FRENCH MUSICAL PRESS
LULLY WAGNER
TO
WILLIAM WEBER, BEVERLY WILCOX
with
Canonic Repertories and the
French Musical Press
Eastman Studies in Music
Ralph P. Locke, Senior Editor
Eastman School of Music
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Canonic Repertories and the
French Musical Press
Lully to Wagner
William Weber,
with Beverly Wilcox
Copyright © 2021 by William Weber. Chapter 2 copyright © 2021 by Beverly Wilcox.
First published 2021
University of Rochester Press
668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
www.urpress.com
and Boydell & Brewer Limited
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
www.boydellandbrewer.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-64825-016-3 (hardback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-80010-329-0 (ePDF)
ISSN: 1071-9989 ; v. 177
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Weber, William, 1940- author. | Wilcox, Beverly, author.
Title: Canonic repertories and the French musical press : Lully to Wagner / William
Weber, with Beverly Wilcox.
Description: Rochester : University of Rochester Press, 2021. | Series: Eastman studies
in music, 1071-9989 ; 177 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020056199 | ISBN 9781648250163 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Musical canon--France--History. | Musical criticism--France--History. |
Music--France--History and criticism. | Opera--France.
Classification: LCC ML270 .W23 2021 | DDC 780.944--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020056199
Cover image: Frontispiece, Évrard Titon du Tillet, Le Parnasse françois.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction 1
1 The Domestic versus the Foreign in Eighteenth-Century Paris
and London 16
2 Elements of Canon Formation at the Concert Spirituel
(Beverly Wilcox) 37
3 To Praise or to Criticize? The Evolution of Music Criticism
in Eighteenth-Century France 73
4 Haydn in the Press during the 1780s: How Did a Canon Arise? 102
5 Parallel Canons at the Opéra and the Comédie-Française at the
End of the Ancien Régime 128
6 Negotiating Canonic Repertory and les progrès de la musique at
the Paris Opéra, 1815–1830 164
7 The Evolution of le vieux répertoire at the Opéra-Comique in the
Nineteenth Century 202
8 Richard Wagner, Concert Life, and Musical Canon in Paris,
1860–1914 228
An Afterword 267
Bibliography 271
Index 301

Acknowledgments
This book has arisen from the growing intersection between the fields of
history and musicology. I have served as professor of history at California
State University, Long Beach, but I nonetheless have been increasingly
involved with musicologists, influenced by the growing interdisciplinary
focus of scholars in the humanities and social sciences. I am particularly
indebted to Jeanice Brooks, Christophe Charle, David Charlton, Lauren
Clay, Denis Christophoul, Jeremy Coleman, Michel Noiray, Andrei
Pesic, and James Webster. I am also grateful for help or encourage-
ment from Celia Applegate, Olivia Bloechl, Logan J. Connors, Georgia
Cowart, Mark Darlow, Katharine Ellis, Mark Everist, Richard Flamein,
Wolfgang Fuhrmann, Rebecca Harris-Warrick, Sarah Hibberd, Janet
Johnson, Thomas Kaiser, Michael O’Dea, Jeffrey Ravel, Solveig Serre,
Patrick Taïeb, and Sabine Teulon Lardic. Roy Domoe contributed to the
final preparation of the manuscript. Linda Clark, my wife, has served as
critic and editor.
The following chapters have appeared elsewhere:
Chapter 1 appeared as “Domestic versus Foreign Composers at the Opéra and the
King’s Theatre in the Eighteenth Century” in Moving Scenes: The Circulation
of Music and Theater in Europe, 1700–1815, edited by Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire,
Philippe Bourdin, and Charlotta Wolff, Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2018.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher.
Chapter 2 is adapted from a chapter in the doctoral dissertation of Beverly Wilcox,
University of California, Davis, 2013. Printed with permission of the author.
Chapter 3 will appear in French as “Louer ou critiquer? Le Concert spirituel dans
la presse, 1725–1790” in Presse, théâtre et beaux-arts à la fin de l’Ancien Régime,
edited by Michael O’Dea for the Presses Universitaires de Lyon. Reprinted with
permission of the publisher.
Chapter 5 appeared as a paper at a conference on digital study of the Comédie-
Française held in 2016 at Harvard University and MIT, and appears presently on
the web site of the conference with the MIT Press, Comédie-Française Registers
Project, http://cfregisters.org/app#.
Chapter 7 appeared as “The Opéra and the Opéra-Comique in the Nineteenth Century:
Tracing the Age of Repertoire” in L’Opéra de Paris, la Comédie-Française et
viii acknowledgments
❧
l’Opéra-Comique: approches comparées (1669–2010), edited by Sabine Chaouche,
Denis Herlin, and Solveig Serre, Éditions CNRS, 2012. Reprinted with
permission of the publisher.
Illustrations
Figures
2.1 Frontispiece, Évrard Titon du Tillet, Le Parnasse françois 41
7.1 Average ages of repertory at the Opéra and the Opéra-
Comique, 1802–92 208
8.1 Program of Antonio Sighicelli concert, Salle Herz, Paris,
April 8, 1869 239
8.2 Program of Thérèse Castellan concert, Salle Herz, Paris,
April 9, 1869 241
8.3 Program of Henri Ketten concert, Salle Pleyel, Paris,
February 2, 1864 243
8.4 Program of Hans von Bülow concert, Salle Pleyel, Paris,
February 12, 1860 259
8.5 Program of Misha Elman concert, Salle Gaveau, Paris,
March 15, 1912 261
8.6 “Fête national du 14 juillet,” L’Écho des concerts et spectacles
(Lille), July 14, 1912 264
Tables
2.1 “Great” composers at the Concert Spirituel, in order of
date of birth 45
2.2 Works by deceased composers under successive Concert
Spirituel administrators 50