Paris as It Was and as It Is Part 56

By a decree of the Consuls, dated the 1st of Germinal year VIII (22nd of March 1800) the number of pupils, in each of the Colleges of Paris, St. Cyr, and St. Germain-en-Laye, is limited to two hundred, and to three hundred, in that of Compiegne. An augmentation, however, is to be made in favour of the new departments. The pupils are named by the First Consul. On entering the College, they bring a stated proportion of necessaries, after which they are wholly maintained at the expense of the nation till they have finished their studies. The government provides for the advancement of those who give the greatest proof of good conduct and talent. The pupils cannot remain in either of these four colleges beyond the age of eighteen.

As I have before observed, the Central Schools are, in future, to bear the name of Lyceums, and the highest degree of public instruction is to be acquired in the

SPECIAL SCHOOLS.

In these upper schools are to be particularly taught, in the most profound manner, the useful sciences, together with jurisprudence, medicine, natural history, &c. The Special Schools now in existence are to be continued, subject to such modifications as the government may think fit to introduce for the benefit of the Public Service.

They are still under the immediate superintendance of the Minister of the Interior.

The _College de France_ I have before described: the Museum of Natural History, the Special School of docimastic Mineralogy and Chemistry, and that for Oriental languages, I shall speak of elsewhere; but I shall now proceed to give you a rapid sketch of the others which I have not yet noticed, beginning with the

SPECIAL SCHOOL OF PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.

This inst.i.tution was founded in 1648, at the instigation of LE BRUN.

It was formerly held in the _Place du Louvre_, but is now removed to the _ci-devant College des Quatre-Nations_, which has taken the name of _Palais des Beaux Arts_. This is the only school in Paris that has never indulged in any vacation. Each professor is on duty for two months. During the first month, he gives his lessons in the school of living models; during the other, in the school of the antique, called, _la bosse_. It may not be uninteresting to give you an idea of the

COMPEt.i.tIONS.

Every year there is a compet.i.tion in Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, which is to be called _National Prize_. Its object is to confer on those who have gained the first prize, at present proposed by the Inst.i.tute, the advantage of an allowance of 1200 francs for five years, which is insured to them at the French School of Fine Arts at Rome. During their stay there, they are lodged, boarded, and taken care of, in case of illness, at the expense of the Republic.

A compet.i.tion takes place every six months for the rank of places in the schools; and another, every three months for the distribution of medals.

There is also a prize, of 100 francs, founded by M. DE CAYLUS, for a head expressive of character, painted or drawn from nature; and another prize of 300 francs, founded by LATOUR, for a half-length, painted after a model, and of the natural size.

Independently of the compet.i.tion of the school, there is every year a general compet.i.tion followed by a distribution of the works of encouragement, granted to the artists who have distinguished themselves most in the annual exhibition of the _Salon du Louvre_. A jury, named by the compet.i.tors themselves, examines the different pictures, cla.s.ses them according to the degree of merit which it finds they possess, and the Minister of the Interior allots to each of the artists _crowned_ a sum in payment of a new work which they are bound to furnish to the government.

NATIONAL SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE.

In this school, which is held in the _Louvre_, the Professor of Architecture delivers lectures on the history of that art, and the theory of its different branches, on the orders, and edifices erected by the ancients, and on the works of Vitruvius, Palladio, Scamozzi, and Vignole. He takes no small pains to make known the bold style of Grecian architecture, which the Athenians chiefly employed during the ages when they prided themselves on being a free people.

The Professor of Mathematics explains the principles of arithmetic and elementary geometry, which he applies to the different branches of civil and military architecture, such as levelling, the art of constructing plans, and perspective.

The Professor of Stereotomy, in his lectures, chiefly comprises masonry and carpentry; he points out the best methods of employing those arts in civil and military buildings. His demonstrations relate to the theoretical and practical part of both branches. All the pupils, and students of architecture are indiscriminately admitted to the compet.i.tion for the great prize of architecture, provided they are not foreigners.

CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC.

This establishment, situated in the _Rue du Faubourg Poissonniere_, was founded on the 16th of Thermidor year III, (4th of August 1795) for the preservation and reproduction of music in all its branches.

It is composed of a director, three inspectors of teaching, a secretary, a librarian, and thirty-five professors.

The director presides over the whole establishment; the inspectors superintend the teaching, examine the pupils, and teach the branches of study attributed to them by the regulation.

In the Conservatory, the instruction is divided as follows: composition, harmony, solfaing, singing, violin, violincello, harpsicord, organ, flute, hautboy, clarinette, French-horn, ba.s.soon, trumpet, trombonne, serpent, preparation for singing, and declamation applicable to the lyric stage.

The completion of the study is effected by a series of lectures, treating specially of the relations between the sciences and the art of music.

Three hundred pupils of both s.e.xes, taken in equal number from each department, are instructed gratuitously in the Conservatory. The princ.i.p.al points towards which their studies are directed, are, to keep up music in society, to form artists for the execution of public _fetes_, for the armies, and for the theatres.

These pupils are admitted after an examination, which takes place four times a year. Prizes are distributed annually, in a public meeting of the Conservatory, to the pupils who distinguish themselves in each branch of study.

_February 2, in continuation._

To the preceding brief account of the Conservatory, I shall subjoin a few observations on the

PRESENT STATE OF MUSIC IN FRANCE.

Till the year 1789, this was the country where the greatest expense was incurred in cultivating music; yet the means which were employed, though very numerous, produced but little effect, and contributed not to the improvement of that art. Every thing even announces that its progress would have been still more r.e.t.a.r.ded, but for the introduction of the Italian Opera, in 1645, by Cardinal Mazarin.

The brilliant success of _Orfeo e Euridice_, in 1647, determined the national taste in favour of this sort of _spectacle_, and gave birth to the wish of transplanting it to the French stage. It was in 1659 that the first opera, with music adapted to a French poem, was performed at Issy.

Since the epoch of the establishment of the French opera, every department belonging to it, with the sole exception of the singing, has been so much improved, that it is become the most brilliant _spectacle_ in Europe. But, as the lyric theatres in France were always obliged to seek recruits among the pupils formed in the schools maintained by the clergy for the service of public wors.h.i.+p, the influence of the clerical mode of instruction was felt; and this was, in fact, the source of the bad taste which for a long time characterized French singing.

Had the grand opera in France been continued an Italian one, as it was first established, (like those subsequently introduced in the princ.i.p.al cities of Europe) it would have been supported by performers formed by the Conservatories of Italy; and the good taste of those schools would have balanced or proscribed the bad taste of the French cathedrals; but the genius of the seventeenth century chose that the French language, purified and fixed by the writers who rendered it ill.u.s.trious, should also become the language of the lyric theatre. Musical instruction, remaining entirely subservient to the customs of religion, was unable to keep pace with the rapid progress of the arts and sciences during that brilliant period.

Among the defects of the old system of teaching music, must be placed that of confining it to men; nevertheless, the utility of women in concerts and plays was as incontestable then as it is at the present day. Public instruction was therefore due to them in that point of view; but, had no such consideration existed, they should have been admitted to partic.i.p.ate in this instruction, in order to propagate the art in society. The success of this method would have been infallible: as soon as women should have cultivated the musical art with success, its naturalization would have been effected in France, as it has been in Germany and Italy.

The expense of the musical instruction pursued in the schools belonging to the cathedrals was immense, compared with its results in every branch of the art. As to composers, they produced but a very

small number, and few of these distinguished themselves; no instrumental performer of eminence ever issued from them; and, with few exceptions, the singers they formed were very indifferent.

The necessity of introducing a better method of singing induced the government, in 1783, to establish a _Special School of Singing and Declamation._ This inst.i.tution continued in full exercise for ten years; but, though the celebrated PICCINI was appointed to preside over the vocal department, the habits of the old school obstructed its progress, and prevented it from producing the good which was expected from it.

At the epoch of the dissolution of the monarchical inst.i.tutions, there remained in France only the School of Music of the Parisian national guard, and that of Singing and Declamation just mentioned.

The republican government ordered them to be united, and thus was formed the _Conservatory of Music_.

Nor let it be imagined that policy has had no share in establis.h.i.+ng this inst.i.tution. It has furnished the numerous bands of musicians rendered necessary by the levy of fourteen armies which France had, at one and the same time, in the field. It is well known that music has done almost wonders in reviving the courage of the French soldiers, who, when Victory seemed adverse to them, inclined her in their favour, by rallying to the tune of the _Ma.r.s.eillois_. In the heat of action, joining their voice to the instruments, and raising themselves to a pitch of enthusiasm, they received or dealt out death, while they kept singing this hymn. The French then are no less indebted to ROUGET DE LILLE than the Spartans were to TYRTaeUS. At the beginning of the revolution, they had no songs of the warlike kind, except a few paltry ballads sung about the streets. ROUGET, who was then an officer of engineers at Strasburg, was requested to compose a martial hymn. Full of poetic fire, he shut himself up in his chamber, and, in the course of one night, wrote the words of the _Ma.r.s.eillois_, adapting to them music, also of his own composition.

Notwithstanding this patriotic production, and the courage which the author is said to have displayed during the war, he was twice imprisoned, at one time on suspicion of royalism; at another, of terrorism.

Independently of the great number of musicians with which the Conservatory has supplied the armies, it has furnished between two and three hundred to the theatres, as well in Paris as in the departments.[1] The band of the Consular guard was formed from the pupils of the Conservatory, and sixty of them at present compose the orchestra, known in Paris by the name of _Concert Francais_, and the execution of which has been much applauded by many celebrated composers.

Its members meet to discuss the theories which may improve and extend the different branches of the musical art. They have already laid the princ.i.p.al foundations of a body of elementary works for teaching them in perfection. _Les Principes elementaires de Musique_, and a _Traite d'Harmonie_, which is said to have gained the universal approbation of the composers of the three schools, a.s.sembled to discuss its merits, are already published. A method of singing, established on the best principles of the Italian school, applied to French declamation, is now in the press; and these publications are to be successively followed by other didactic works relative to the history of the art.

A princ.i.p.al cause of the present scarcity of fine voices in France, is the war which she has had to maintain for ten years, by armies continually recruited by young men put in requisition at the period when the voice is forming, and needs to be cultivated in order to acquire the qualities which const.i.tute a good singer.

Formerly, French commerce derived but very little advantage from articles relating to music; but the means employed by the Conservatory may probably turn the scale in favour of this country, as well as render it, in that respect, independent of foreign nations.

Before the revolution, England furnished France with _piano-fortes_, the common price of which was from three to five hundred francs.

Germany mostly supplied her with wind and string instruments. German French-horns, though coa.r.s.ely-made instruments, cost seventy-two francs, and the good violins of the Tyrol were paid for as high as one hundred and twenty. The consumption of these instruments was considerable. Nor will this appear surprising, as previously to the foundation of the Conservatory, the instrumental musicians, employed in the French regiments and places of public amus.e.m.e.nt, were mostly Germans.

The French _piano-fortes_ are now in request in most parts of Europe, and their price has, in consequence, increased from one thousand to two thousand four hundred francs. The price of French-horns, made in Paris, which, from being better finished, are preferable to those of Germany, has, in like manner, risen from three to five hundred francs. Parisian violins have increased in proportion.

With respect to printed music, the French import none; but, on the contrary, export a great deal; and the advantages resulting from these two branches of commerce, together with the stamp-duty attached to the latter, are said to be sufficient to defray the expenses of the musical establishments now existing, or those proposed to be created.

Before I close this letter, I must not omit to mention a very useful inst.i.tution, for the promotion of the mechanical arts, established in the _Rue de l'ecole de Medecine_, and called the

GRATUITOUS SCHOOL FOR DRAWING.