Musical Cosmopolitanism in Paris 1779 – 1792
the sovereigns from the two countries . Spain ' s music is not lost on Louis XIII and Louis XIV . Louis XIV , who plays several instruments , is particularly passionate about the guitar . For her part , Queen Maria Theresa brings Spanish musicians along in her retinue . Let ’ s note that a larger number of French musicians may head to Spain . When Marie- Louise d ' Orléans marries Carlos II of Spain , 108 no less than 34 musicians travel with her ! During the reign of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette , Spanish music may have gone out of fashion , which explains this absence .
Also missing are English musicians . This is a great surprise given that the Royal Art is an “ export ” from the other side of the Channel . To our eyes , this notable absence has only one explanation : The relative decadence of Great Britain ' s music toward the middle of the eighteenth century , while France is in the midst of a promising instrumental music and comic opera boom .
Musicians from the North of Europe and Russia are hardly more common than this on the Paris scene . And yet , in 1784 , as a result of a Franco-Danish initiative , the lodge La Réunion des Etrangers makes its first appearance in Paris . Judging by our table , this lodge does not appear . But in a matter of weeks , the last of the upper-crust Parisian lodges gains an international reputation . 109 First of all , this lodge brings together members of the Danish community in Paris , including the Baron de Bu , the King of Denmark ' s chamberlain , and M . Von Blome , Danish ambassador and member of la Société Olympique , the consul of his Danish Majesty and of Karl Heinrich von Gleichen , an ambassador in Lisbon then in Paris , and a member of the lodge Les Amis Réunis . Some well-known Frenchmen are members : the academic Edme Béguillet and Jean- Pierre Beyerlé . 110 This lodge ' s various directories show a considerable Scandinavian artist presence : engravers including Jean-Georges Preisler , and Peter Adolph Hall , the famous Swedish miniaturist who is also a member of Les Amis Réunis . The only representative from these regions is the famous Baron of Bagge , and he is an amateur musician . 111 With these musical desert zones now surveyed , let ' s look at the areas that are more than abundantly represented .
Overrepresentation Paris and Versailles in the time of Louis XVI form a musical microcosm that ultimately develops a concentrated cosmopolitanism . There are a number of Italians , Germans , and Austrians in the lodges , as well as Czechs who came from Bohemia . The table shows that the most represented country is Germany , or to be more precise , the Germanic countries . Joining Freemasonry is important for Germanic musicians , since Freemasonry had generally less freedom in Germany than in France .
The huge influx of musicians from Germanic countries is not a coincidence . It corresponds to a turning point in the history of French music . In the second half of the eighteenth century , the crucial sociopolitical factor is the rise and above all the triumph of the bourgeoisie , which in music translates into the development of a newer , larger public . From now on , music and its interpreters are not obligated to take orders from princes or the Church , but to divine the desires expressed in the name of this new public . The new
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 108 Marie Louise d ’ Orléans ( 1662 – 1689 ), daughter of Philippe the 1 st , Duke of Orléans and of
Henriette of England ; her maternal uncle Louis XIV makes her marry Charles II of Spain . 109 BNF , cab . ms , FM !. 97 , dossier of La Réunion des Etrangers , Orient de Paris , founded January 11 , 1784 . 110 Pierre-François Pinaud , Une loge prestigieuse à Paris : Les Amis Réunis , à la fin du siècle des Lumières ( under preparation ). 111 He was originally from the Duchy of Courland , today a part of Latvia .
! 38