Its management interlocked with senior levels of government to such a degree that it seldom lacked for adequate funding and often was in a position to wield real political influence, as when, during World War I, the Société des Concerts was sent on international propaganda tours.Īpart from its direct pedagogical mission, the Conservatoire was home to three pillars of the nation’s musical culture: the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (1828), the Bibliothèque du Conservatoire (1795), and the Musée Instrumental (1861, though envisaged from the start now the Musée de la Musique). The Conservatoire, after all, emerged from the same ideas and ideals-above all, a staunch commitment to the public utility-as had the National Museum of Natural History (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 1793), the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts (Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, 1794)-even the Bibliothèque Nationale (1792) that at least theoretically made the treasures of the former king’s library available to every citizen of the republic. It stood at the juncture of most Parisian musical enterprise: its graduates staffed the major theaters, onstage and in the pit served as consultants and participants in the development and manufacture of the modern orchestral instruments and composed the competition solos and wrote the method books that served music pedagogy all over the world for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Together with the Opéra and to some extent the music (composition) section of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, the Conservatoire dictated the substance of French musical culture-the élite sort, anyway-from the Revolution to the Belle Époque and beyond. In the early years even the best foreign students were routinely turned away, including Franz Liszt in 1823 though by the 1880s, a quota of 15% foreign students was deemed acceptable. Matriculation at the Conservatoire was so highly valued that families of gifted children would move to Paris and sometimes, like César Franck’s family, change citizenship, since admission required French nationality.
A premier prix from the Conservatoire launched careers in the best theaters and concert societies the foremost instrumentalists rose to occupy, simultaneously, principal chairs at the Opéra and Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (the Paris Conservatory Orchestra) and a professorship at the school. Since its establishment by legislative decree of Aug(16 Thermidor, year III of the Republican calendar), the Paris Conservatoire has functioned as the gateway to the upper echelons of classical music in France-much as, say, the younger “Sciences Po” (originally the École Libre des Sciences Politiques, 1871) has from its beginnings provided the nation’s political and diplomatic leadership. Keywords: Paris Conservatoire, French Republic, music teacher-performers, concerts, music composition, Fauré For the Conservatoire had carved out for itself a secure place in the national patrimony, a heritage widely recognized as contributing to the fundamental strength of the nation. The appointment in 1905 of a director from the outside, Gabriel Fauré, led the institution to address these problems and withstand the upheavals that occurred in the new century. By the late nineteenth century the name alone enabled the Conservatoire to prosper even as it became entrenched in its ways and prone to elitist behaviors and considerable unfairness. Effective leadership, committed teacher-performers and capable students, an excellent physical location in a historic quarter, and a direct link between music composition and its performance all strengthened the institution. Founded to populate the new French Republic with bandsmen and theater artists, theorized as a branch of public education, the Paris Conservatoire developed into and through the nineteenth century with sagacity and prescience.
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