Napoleon, Music and Musicians

Author(s): J.-G. Prod'homme and Frederick H. Martens

Source: The Musical Quarterly , Oct., 1921, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Oct., 1921), pp. 579-605
Published by: Oxford University Press

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The Musical Quarterly

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 NAPOLEON, MUSIC AND MUSICIANS

By J.-G. PROD'HOMME

A CENTURY has gone by since Napoleon died at Saint

Helena. On May 5, 1821, the man who had made the
world tremble, who had cast down and set up thrones,
who had essayed to found a dynasty and, in out-and-out modern
times, achieved an epic which bears comparison with the most
prodigious ones whose memory is preserved in general history,
disappeared from earth.
When we speak Napoleon's name, we evoke one of the most
extraordinary as well as the most widely discussed geniuses known
to humanity at large, one of those who give the world an impul-
sion whose repercussions make themselves felt across the centuries.
The hero whom Beethoven wished to honor was not only a warrior
genius, he was also a legislator whose universal spirit of organiza-
tion embraced every manifestation of human activity, whether
scientific, literary or artistic, military or political. To discuss
Napoleon the art-lover, Napoleon the musician, is to endeavor
to uncover one of the facets, and by no means the least interesting,
of his multiple personality: it allows us to fathom his sensibility,
always wide-awake and on the alert, and also to show in him the
philosopher presenting in a few lines, a few true and conclusive
words, his sociological ideas with regard to Art.
And when we consider Napoleon in his relations to music and
musicians, we recall, in addition, an art-epoch which at a distance
is revealed to us with certain sharply-defined characteristics, as
apparent in the music as in the other developments of the human
mind and intelligence during the fifteen years of the Consulate
and the Empire. Finally, it recalls a source of inspiration to
which musicians-though in a far less degree than other artists
or writers-have had recourse on occasion.
Thanks to the documents, private and official, the papers
and journals, the memoires covering the Napoleonic era which we
possess in such numbers, we are able to present this survey o
Napoleon in his relations to music in the pages which follow.
* *

When young Napo

himself for a milita
579

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580 The Musical Quarterly

all at the College d'Autun (where he learned French in three

months), he was ten years old. It is possible that he brought
with him some musical recollections of his island, some folk-tunes,
nanne (cradle songs), serenades, ballads, noels, lamenti, voceri or
paghielle, heard in town or in the country. Corsican folk-lore,
recently studied by M. Austin de Croze (Chants populaires de la
Corse, 1912) without being exuberantly luxuriant, at that time
still had preserved a large number of traditional airs, which have
not yet vanished in our own day. And to this anonymous music
there should no doubt be added some songs or ariettes brought
from the Continent, Italy in particular, by travellers.
After having spent three months at Autun (January 1 to
May 12, 1779), he remained for five and a half years at Brienne
(up to October of 1784). In this monarchical academy, where
young gentlemen were educated for the king's service, they were
not only instructed in the sciences and humanities, but were also
given some idea of the arts which might enable them, later on, to
play a part in society; in addition to fencing, an art with which no
soldier and no gentleman could dispense, and drawing, the students
at Brienne were given dancing-and music lessons. The names
of the professors who taught these branches are known: they were
musically speaking, artists quite obscure, Frederic, Morizet and
Gugenberg, the first and last probably of German or Alsatian
origin. They taught both vocal and instrumental music, and
the officers of the future, in their annual public exercises, gave
examples of their musical aptitudes. Thus, in 1782, fifteen stu-
dents performed an "entree for grand orchestra," two others played
a duo, and still others a quartet, and the "Mannheim Menuet."
Yet the year following, the course in music was suppressed, and
its place taken by another course in living languages, regarded as
a more useful study.
There is no record of the young Napoleon-"not very strong
as regards the amenities and Latin," to quote one of his reports-
having taken part in the public musical exercises already men-
tioned. We know, however, that under the direction of an
"academician" by name of Javilliers (there was a dancer of this
name at the Paris Opera from 1701 to 1743) Napoleon was one
of the thirty-seven students who "took lessons in walking and
bowing," as well as one of the seventeen who "executed the steps
of the quadrille together, and with their evolutions in group made
a pretty sight for the pleasure of the onlookers," at the exercises
of 1781.
'A. Chuquet, La Jeunesse de Napoleon, Tome I.

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 Napoleon, Music and Musicians 581

Later on, at Malmaison and the Tuileries, the First Consul

and Emperor showed that he had not forgotten the principles he
had acquired at Brienne. Above all, he enjoyed dancing to the
old airs which recalled to him his youth, such as La Monaco,
which he always called for "as being the easiest, and the air to
which he danced least badly." (Thibeudeau, Mgmoires sur le
Consulat.)
"What do you think of my dancing?" the Emperor one day
asked Countess Potocka. "Sire," she replied, "for a great man
you dance perfectly"
As regards music, he could remember only comic-opera
ariettas or chansonettes, which he sang with a voice as much out
of tune as that of Louis XV.

Usually it was in the morning (says his valet Constant), that these
little reminiscences cropped up. He would regale me with them while
he was being dressed. The air which I most frequently heard him exco-
riate was the Marseillaise. At times, too, the Emperor would whistle,
but not loudly. The tune of Marlborough, when the Emperor whistled,
represented for me his positive announcement of a speedy departure
for the army. I remember that he never whistled so much, and that
he was never more gay than when the moment came for him to leave
for the Russian campaign.

And during the campaign itself he hummed the same air

after the passage of the Niemen, at Thorn, in the June of 1812.

The officers on duty who were resting about his apartment, were
stupefied at hearing him sing at the top of his voice an air appropriate
to the circumstances, one of those revolutionary refrains which had so
often carried the French along the road to victory, the first stanza of
the Chant du depart."'

Six months later, on November 14, between Smolensk and

Krasnoie, the faithful Constant once more draws a picture of
the Emperor, surrounded by the Old Guard, passing across the
firing-line of the battle:

The band played the air: Ou peut-on etre mieux qu'au sein de sa
famille? (Where could one be better off than in the bosom of his family?).
Napoleon stopped it, crying: 'Play rather: Veillons au salut de l'empire!'
(Watch over the safety of the Empire). It would be hard to imagine
anything more inspiring.2

'Albert Vandal, Napoleon et Alexandre.

2These two national airs were taken from the comic operas: the first is the famous
quartet from Gretry's Lucile; the second, an air from Dalayrac's Renaud d'Ast, was
provided with new words at the time of the Revolution.

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582 The Musical Quarterly
The Baron de Meneval, one of his secretaries, tells us:
When he grew weary of reading poetry, he would begin to sing
loudly, but out of tune. When nothing vexed him, or when he was
satisfied with the subject-matter of his meditations, the fact was reflected
in his choice of songs. One of his favorite melodies had for its subject
a young girl whose lover cures her of the bite of some winged insect.
It was a kind of Anacreotonic ode with but a single stanza. It ended
with the line:
Un baiser de sa bouche enfut le medecin.
(A kiss from her lips was the cure he used.)

When he was in a more serious frame of mind, he would sing verses

of hymns or of the revolutionary cantatas, such as the Chant du depart,
Veillons au salut de l'empire, or he would warble the two lines:
Qui veut asservir l'univers
Doit commencer par sa patrie.
(He who would the world subdue
With his own country should begin.)

He would at times pass over to a less serious strain, as, for example,
when having finished his work, he went to the apartments of the Empress:
Ah! c'en estfait, je me marie.
(Ah! now 'tis done and I will wed.)
or else:
Non, non z'il est impossible
D'avoir un plus aimable enfant.
(No, no, 'tis quite impossible
A kinder sweetheart to possess.)

From the standpoint of another of his contemporaries,

Arnault (Souvenirs d'un sexagenaire),
in his case the song was nothing else than the expression of his ill humor.
During his moments of annoyance, walking about with his hands behind
his back, he would hum, as much as possible off the key, Ah! c'en fait,
je me marie. Everyone knew what this signified. 'If you have some
favor to ask of the general, do not ask it at this moment: he is singing,'
Junot said to me.

According to this same Arnault, who followed him to Egypt,

Bonaparte, like all soldiers, preferred "a popular song, arranged
for the oboe, the flute, the trumpet and the clarinet, to the com-
positions of one of the greatest geniuses who ever existed" (Mehul).
At the time he considered Della Maria, a Frenchman naturalized
in Italy, whose graceful and spontaneous gifts had been revealed
the preceding winter in le Prisonnier,l as the greatest of all com-
posers.

'A comic opera presented at the Feydeau Theatre, January 29, 1798.

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 Napoleon, Music and Musicians 583

We shall see, in the following pages, how his preferences,

although they underwent some modification in the course of
years, remained faithful to Italian music.
* *

After visits to C
Napoleon, placed on
of a certain alread
theatres no less tha
the prodigious facil
that he is able to e
Opera-Comique and
appointed command
while preparing h
occupy himself with
arts. Thus it is that
tive commissary o
decree "to make ce
of science and art a
armies, and have th
as is so often the case in similar circumstances; and while Jean-
Pierre Tinet, an artist of the Tuscan Legation, is attached to the
army in the character of an agent "charged to gather up in the
conquered territories the paintings, master-pieces and other mon-
uments of antiquity which are adjudged worthy of being sent to
Paris," Rodolphe Kreutzer, then professor of violin at the Conser-
vatoire, accompanies the army or is sent to join it, and is similarly
active, musically, from the year V to the year VIII (1800). For
nearly two years Kreutzer remains in Italy, having copies made
of numerous manuscripts, and sending off these "trophies of the
valor of the French arms" (as a memorial he addressed to the
ministry in 1808 puts it) to the library of the Paris Conservatoire.
Then, when peace was signed at Campo-Formio, he undertook a
concert-tour through central Europe. He was in Vienna with
Bernadotte, at the beginning of the year 1798, and there made
the acquaintance of Beethoven, to whom he is said to have sug-
gested the idea of the Eroica Symphony. Beethoven, on the
other hand, a long time after, dedicated the famous Sonata for
violin and piano to him.
Alluding to this mission of Kreutzer's, the poet Arndt, in
his book of travels (Reise, Vol. I, p. 340), wrote at the time in
question:

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 584 The Musical Quarterly
The celebrated Kreutzer of Paris came here recently (
saying that the French had collected and carried away all
music by the masters long since dead, and which could o
and studied in Italy. Hence, as regards music, for the mo
no one able to draw off young Europe's boots.

In a letter by Bonaparte, actually written from gr

headquarters in Milan, the 8th Thermidor of the
26, 1797), to the inspectors of the Conservatoire at P
a few interesting lines relating to music:

Among all the fine arts (writes the young commande

music is the one which exercises the greatest influence upo
and is the one which the legislator should most encourag
composition created by a master-hand makes an unfai
the feelings, and exerts a far greater influence than a good w
which convinces our reason without affecting our habits.

Here we already find Bonaparte thinking as a leg

as a general who has observed the effect of music
rather than as an amateur. His reading or his refle
inspired this very accurate thought regarding music
manner he considers music from the standpoint of
when, three months later, he writes to the minister o
the 26th Vendemiare of the Year VI (October 17, 1797
I beg you, citizen minister, to inform the musicians of
Republic (that is to say, of Northern Italy), that I offer fo
to whoever writes the best piece having for its subject
General Hoche, a prize and a medal to the value of one hun
You will be kind enough to appoint three artists who wil
to allocate this prize.
Bonaparte.
Poets and composers at once set to work, and while in Paris,
on the tenth Vendemiare (October 1), they sang an ingenious
lament inspired by the death of the young general of the Republic,
Cherubini's Hymne funebre-one of the finest compositions of
the revolutionary period, set to words by M.-J. Chenier and com-
pleted in eight days-Paisiello, then maitre-de-chapelle of the King
of the two Sicilies, was working on a Musica funebre all' occasione
della morte del fu Generale Hoche, cercatagli dal Sigre. General in
Capite Buonaparte. .... Naples, November 11, 1797.
It was thus that Bonaparte endeavored to rally to the cause
of the French Republic the scholars and artists of the conquered
lands. And this fact may have been partly responsible for the
great and almost exclusive admiration the First Consul showed
for Paisiello. Napoleon himself carried the latter's score to Paris

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 Napoleon, Music and Musicians 585

and deposited it in the Conservatoire: it is inscribed, in his own

hand-writing "Given to the Conservatory of Music by the Citizen
Bonaparte."
Not long after, the Conservatoire, wishing to please its future
master-"Napoleon was already showing through the Bonaparte,"
as Victor Hugo said-had this hymn performed in his presence.
But at the same time it was unluckily inspired to give a perform-
ance of Cherubini's work as well. When the ceremony had ter-
minated, Bonaparte, addressing himself to Cherubini in a dissatis-
fied manner, told him that Paisiello was the greatest of contem-
porary of composers, and that Zingarelli came next. Divining
the tastes of the great man at a word, Mehul, Gossec, Gretry
and Lesueur, who were present, bowed deferentially; but Cheru-
bini whose spine was less flexible, showed less patience and presence
of mind and murmured: "Paisiello might pass at a pinch, but
Zingarelli. .. ." We shall see later on how he soon managed to
earn the disfavor of the master of France.
His stay in Milan, where music played an important part,
finally and completely turned Napoleon's taste in the direction of
Italian musical art, which he had recently enjoyed in Paris, side
by side with operas in Gluck's style, dramas by Lesueur and
Cherubini, and French comic-operas. Nevertheless, his ideas
changed more or less with the years and with circumstances,
notably after his marriage to Marie-Louise, an Austrian princess,
whose musical education had been quite different from that of
Josephine, the former Madame de Beauharnais.
Returning to Paris on December 5, 1797, Bonaparte remained
there for exactly six months, until his departure for Egypt (May
4, 1798). He brought back the Treaty of Campo-Formio, and
solemnly turned it over to the Directory, in session at the Luxem-
bourg Palace, on December 10. This solemnity gave the authors
of the Chant du Depart, M. J. Chenier and Mehul, an opportunity
of presenting their Chant du Retour, which was performed at the
Conservatoire in honor of the Army of Italy, and to celebrate a
peace which none thought as ephemeral as it turned out to be.
In his preparations for the Egyptian campaign, as in those for
the campaign of Italy, Bonaparte developed tremendous activity.
Not only did he occupy himself with military plans, but his spirit
of organization extended to the sciences, to literature, and the
arts, no less than to questions of civil administration. He ap-
pointed a large commission, which was given the name of the
"Egyptian Institute," and included representatives of every
branch of human knowledge. The result of their labors has been

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586 The Musical Quarterly

embodied in a monumental publication known under

the "Description of Egypt," whose twenty volumes i
published at intervals from 1809 to 1826. Instead
the singer Lays, whom Napoleon had first had in
Guillaume-Andre Villoteau, musician and singer,
"Egyptian Institute" became the representative of
loteau has left four memorials on ancient and moder
music, and on the music of the Orientals, which have
in the "Description."
We might here cite the following order of the day
the general-in-chief at his headquarters in Cairo on t
of the Year VII (December 21, 1797):
Every day at noon, in the squares adjoining the ho
bands of the different corps will play various tunes calcu
the sick feel cheerful, and to recall to them the glorious mom
past campaign.
Bonaparte.
* *

With the Consulate

whose hymns had bee
exclusively military
Chant du 25 Messidor
was given at the Inva
for its performance
the fete of the 1st V
a hymn by Lesueur,
four orchestras, concl
From that time fo
will be that of the re
capital, or defiling o
Consul established h
(November, 1799).
The routine of daily
gradually resumed in
whose protocole Bon
shows himself quite
rue de Richelieu (now
known as the ThSdtre des Arts. His visits are marked by two
historical events, two attempts at assassination which are associ-
ated with the two most recent novelties then presented on the great
lyric stage. On the 10th Vendemiaire (October 18), the first
performance of an opera which had had but little success, les

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 Napoleon, Music and Musicians 587

Horaces, by Porta, was to be given when, the evening before, the

police were notified that a conspiracy had been formed against
Bonaparte. During the course of the performance it had been
planned to seize the person of the First Consul and, perhaps, kill
him, improving the opportunity offered by the panic the con-
spirators intended to create in the hall. One of the latter, how-
ever, overcome by remorse, it is said, told all that he knew to
the police, who made their arrangements and arrested all the
conspirators while the performance was in progress, without the
public being aware of it. The matter was not disclosed until
some days afterward, by the newspapers, which, be it said, showed
great discretion. One of the heads of this conspiracy was the
Corsican Arenat; another was the sculptor Cerechi, who had
formerly modeled the bust of Bonaparte in Milan, and had gone
to Paris in the hope of disposing of it for 18,000 francs. The
opera les Horaces is rescued from obscurity only by reason of
this political occurrence connected with it. Bonaparte, inci-
dentally, was soon to return to the Opera, holding his own against
the opposition, notably on October 27 and November 4, at the
same time as the ministers of Austria and Prussia.
The 3d Nivose (December 24) following, to quote Thibeudeau,

the First Consul set out for the Opera at eight o'clock in the evening,
with a picket of guards, having with him in his coach Generals Berthier,
Lannes and his aid-de-camp Lauriston. When they had reached the
rue Saint-Nicaise they found a wretched cart, to which a small horse
was harnessed, placed in such a manner as to block the thoroughfare.
The coachman was skillful enough to avoid it in passing, though he was
driving very speedily. A few moments later a terrible explosion shattered
the panes of the coach, wounded the last man of the escort, killed eight
persons, and more or less seriously injured twenty-eight others, as well
as inflicting damages estimated at 200,000 francs to forty-six buildings
in the vicinity. The First Consul continued on his way, and arrived at
the Opera. There they were singing Haydn's "Creation."

The performance of an oratorio, by two hundred and fifty

musicians and singers, on Christmas Eve at the Op6ra, was a
sign of the times. The following year, the first of the new century,
had not as yet come to an end before peace with the church
was an accomplished fact: the Concordance with the Pope being
signed on September 17. The cathedral of Notre-Dame, restored
to the Faith, celebrated the great event at Easter 1802, with a
Te Deum by Paisiello, whose favor was thus officially confirmed.
And somewhat later, at the Camp at Boulogne, the Chant du
Depart was sung for the last time by more than twelve-hundred

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588 The Musical Quarterly

persons. The two occurrences point out the direction taken by

the new revolution, the successor to the first.
Or, rather than a new revolution, the old social order, little
by little, was once more raising its head, and a new social order
came into being which prudently borrowed some of the institutions
of the ancien regime. Here, too, music played a part in the life
and political activities of the First Consul. Under the title of
"the band of the Consuls," Bonaparte had already established a
military band by Blasius. But now he wished to have a band of
his own, a "band of the First Consul," just as formerly there had
been the body known as "the king's music." The Baron de
Tremont, in an unpublished notice on Rode says:
This musical beginning was not known as an 'orchestra,' and was
made up of only a few of the best instrumental players of Paris. Mal-
maison was the only summer residence which Napoleon and his family
had. And any knowledge of music deserving of honor was so foreign
to the indwellers of Malmaison that the first time the artists were as-
sembled in the chateau, the Consul having been compelled to absent
himself, no one knew what to do with the musicians. Then Napoleon's
sisters and sisters-in-law, younger and gayer than when they became
queens, thought that it would be a good opportunity to have some
dancing and, without any idea of giving offence, they asked the artists
whether they could not play some square dances for them. The latter
replied that they were totally incapable of so doing, and the foolish
request was not repeated.

The musical evenings, the little family concerts at Malmaison,

little by little, brought about the reiestablishment of the music
choir. Eight singers and a body of twenty-seven symphonic
players under the direction of Paisiello formed a corps of mu-
sicians large enough for the place in which they did their duty.
The chapel having been destroyed, divine service was performed
in the hall of the Council of State, where there was room for no
more than the singers and a piano. Arranged in two rows behind
the singers, the violins played in a little gallery facing the altar,
while the basses and wind instruments were relegated to an adjoin-
ing room. The musicians had a good deal of difficulty in
manoeuvering on a field so disadvantageous for concerted work.
On each preceding evening the room had to be stripped of its
furniture, chairs, tables and desks, in order to make an oratory
of it for Sunday use, and all the furniture had to be returned
again on Monday, so that the Council of State might meet there.
Napoleon, when he became Emperor, had a new chapel added to
the Tuileries, on the foundation of the Hall of the Convention,
in which, during the Revolution, the Concerts spirituels had taken

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 Angelina Catalani

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 Napoleon, Music and Musicians 589

place. It was inaugurated on February 2, 1806, with a solemn

high mass.
Under the supreme direction of Paisiello, with Lesueur as
second conductor, the imperial chapel-orchestra was made up
of a master of music, two accompanying pianist-organists, thirty-
four singers and choristers, and fifty instrumentalists (1810);
numbering 99 persons in all, in 1815. Its budget, from 90,000
francs in the Year VIII (1801), had mounted to nearly 154,000
by 1812. (See G. Servieres's Episodes d'histoire musicale.)
It was not until 1806, after having heard the music of the
Court of Saxony, at Dresden, that the Emperor began to think
that he, too, would like to have a musical establishment of a kind
not exclusively religious. He engaged Paer "to conduct the music
of the concerts and theatrical representations at Court, and to
compose all the musical compositions he would be ordered to
furnish by command of His Imperial Majesty," with a stipend of
28,000 francs per annum, and three months' leave of absence
every year. The contract was signed at Warsaw on January 14,
1807. This, "special music of the Emperor" at first included a
pianist-accompanist, Rigel, a secretary, Gregoire, five women
singers (Mmes. Grassini, Paer, d'Ellieu, Albert-Hymm, Giacomelli)
and two male singers (Crescentini and Brizzi). Later on, however,
it included Mmes. Barilli, Festa, Sessi, Camporesi; the tenors
Crivelli, Tachinardi, and Nozzari; the bass Barilli, the 'cellist
Duport, etc. The orchestra was that of the imperial chapel.
All artists of distinction who arrived in Paris were invited to sing
or play at the Emperor's concerts, on the express condition that they
would accept, in silver, some honorable recompense, proportionate to
their merit. The virtuosos, the women in particular, invariably refused
their honorariums in the hope that some jewel would accrue to them in
their stead, even though its value might be less than the sum offered.
A present from Napoleon represented the object of their desire, the goal
of their ambition. Mme. Catalani herself was not accorded this favor,
yet she was renumerated in princely fashion. Five thousand francs
down, a pension of 1200 francs, and the loan of the hall of the Opera,
all expenses paid, for two concerts, whose receipts came to 49,000 francs,
such was the price the Emperor offered the diva in question for having
sung at Saint-Cloud on May 4 and 11, 1805. (Castil-Blaze.)

The Emperor at the time, so the singer Blangini tells us in

his Souvenirs "was undergoing an attack of urgent musical need,
I might almost say, was in a state of musical frenzy." Every
evening, at Fontainebleau, after the theatrical representation,
"His Majesty would repair to the Empress's salon, where he
(Napoleon) would listen to more music up to one o'clock in the

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590 The Musical Quarterly

morning." According to the same writer, the compositions of

Paisiello, Zingarelli, Haydn, Martini and Lesueur made up almost
the whole of the repertory of the imperial orchestra.
* *

The theatres, whic

control under the
were none the more
particular whose bu
a deficit1. The em
its wealthy patrons,
government were n
introduced a little order into the affairs of the ThEatre des Arts,
and a decree of the 6th Frimaire of the Year VI provided it with
a director and a responsible administrator. Besides, the First
Consul decided that all the boxes were to be paid for by those
who occupied them. The same course was adopted as regards
the Op'ra-Comique, which was raised to the rank of an official
theatre; and in 1799 we see "Citizen Bonaparte", with one stroke
of the pen settle arrears of payment amounting to 1,299 livres,
for the rent of boxes at the theatre in question. The grand
political stroke of Brumaire had born fruits, and Bonaparte's
sense of order had begun to show itself here as it did everywhere.
Dating from the same time was the interdiction by the
prefect of police, of works dealing with the coup d'Etat, and on
the 22d Germinal of the Year VIII (April 12, 1800), the minister
of the interior arrogated to himself the right to authorize all such
works as might be represented. This amounted to the reistab-
lishment of the preventive censure. At the Opera "without the
public's paying any attention to the fact, or showing any interest,
the use of the words "throne," "king" and "queen" were intro-
duced in Gluck's "Alceste." A consular decree allowed the
theatre a subvention of 50,000 livres per month, and did
with free admissions.
Under the Empire a series of decrees revived the pension
system, forbade the establishment of new theatres, determined
the kind and variety of those already in existence, and gave the
Opera the exclusive right to perform "those works which are
altogether musical, and ballets in the noble and gracious style;
1See my study "Two Hundred and Fifty Years of Opera" (1669-1919), in the
"Musical Quarterly" of October, 1919.

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:L

View of the Theatre de L'Opera

(about 1818)

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 Napoleon, Music and Musicians 591

such as those whose subjects are derived from mythology and

history, and whose principal characters are gods, kings and heroes."
Finally, there appeared the decree of July 29, 1807, reducing the
number of theatres in Paris to eight. Twenty or more others
had to close their doors before August 15, the date of the Emperor's
fete, and that without receiving any indemnity. The Emperor,
who had already assigned a very definite type of representation
to each theatre, the bounds of which it could not overstep, on
November 1, 1807 created the office of superintendent of the
great theatres. Three stages were dedicated to music: that of
the Opera, which had become the Imperial Academy of Music,
the Opera-Comique and the Opgra-Buffe-the last as a species of
annex to the Opera-Comique, under the name of "Empress's
Theatre," with a monthly subvention of 10,000 francs.
In 1811 a new decree, dated August 13, reestablished in favor
of the Opera-already richly endowed with an annual subvention
of 750,000 francs-the unique privilege of levying on all other
theatrical performances dues or fees, which at times reached the
figure of 200,000 francs per year. Since not a concert could be
given "without the day having been set by the superintendent
of our theatres, after consultation with the director of our Imperial
Academy of Music," it was impossible that the musical life of the
capital, save as regards dramatic music, could develop. The
"exercises" of the pupils of the Conservatoire alone could supply
aliment to nourish the interest of lovers of symphonic music.
As to the Opera-Comique, merged with the lyric theatre of
the rue Feydeau in 1801, the Emperor allowed it to take its place
among the official theatres in 1804. Sometimes in the Salle Favart,
at others in the Salle Feydeau, it continued to represent Mehul,
Gretry, Monsigny, Duni, Philidor, Nicolo, Berton, etc., composers
who were later joined by the young Boieldieu.
The Conservatoire, a child of the Revolution, was also the
object of the master's solicitude. It was endowed with a new
concert-hall, and with a library'. On the other hand the Institute,
beginning with 1803, sent a musician to Rome every year, in
company with the laureates, painters sculptors, and architects
who had been going there since the time of Louis XIV. All in all,
after a dozen years of instability, of demolition and creation,
Bonaparte, then Napoleon, had regularized and hierachized the
musical institutions of France, just as he had all the branches of
his administration.

1See Henri de Curzon, "History and Glory of the Concert-Hall of the Paris Con-
servatory," in the "Musical Quarterly," April, 1917.

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 The Musical Quarterly

Let us now examine into his personal relations with the artists
of his period.
* *

According to one o
with the intimate
former was very sen
vocal music:

Among all the arts music is the only one for which he shows a
special and personal liking. As to the others, he patronizes them from
motives of policy, because of his passion for the grandiose, and the
thought of immortality; but music he really and fully enjoys, is fond
of it for its own sake, and because of the sensations it gives him. It
calms his nerves, it cradles his reveries, it charms his melancholy mo-
ments, it fires his heart. What matter if he does sing out of tune, if
he have a poor memory for a melody, and if he does not know his notes!
Music moves him to the point of robbing him of his self-control, it drives
him to offer the order of the iron crown of Lombardy to the soprano
Crescentini; and this shows that he feels it more deeply than many of
those who believe themselves capable of reading it. (Napoleon et les
femmes.)

All kinds of music did not effect the Emperor with equal
intensity. As we have already said, he instinctively preferred
Italian music, especially that of Paisiello; and when he honored
Lesueur, whose esthetics, if anything, are opposed to those of the
Italians, one may even question whether he was as sincere as
when he allowed himself to be captivated by the charm of his
favorite Paisiello airs: the finale from the Re Teodoro, the duo
from La Molinara (Fra l'inchiostro e la farina), or Nina's air
(Agitate fra mille pensieri). It appears most probable that the
pompous operas of Lesueur, Spontini and their emulators, the
creators of the "Empire style" in music, flatter him as a sovereign
rather than move him as a music lover.
Paisiello had come to Paris in 1801 to conduct the Consular
orchestra, or, according to Reichardt (Vertraute Briefe aus Pa
1, p. 95) to write a great French opera:
He receives 3,000 livres per month, and is provided with lodgin
service and an equipage free of charge. In return he composes a
directs masses of the Consul. He still bears the title of maitre de cha
to the King of Naples, and is merely enjoying a leave of absence. He
was first given a poem by Lemercier to set to music, but Paisiello refused
it, not knowing how to make the shadow who played the principal part
in it sing in an interesting manner from start to finish. Meanwhile,

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 Napoleon, Music and Musicians 593

an old poem of Quinault's, Proserpine, arranged by Guillard, is being

prepared for his use in the style of Marmontel, and he is at present
working on the second act. (Letter of November 15, 1802.)

While awaiting the completion of Proserpine, the Opera-

Buffa presented la Molinara, before an empty auditory, as Reich-
ardt adds: the singer Strimasacchi filled the principal r61e very
poorly indeed, though it was one she had formerly sung in Prague
and in Leipsic. Proserpine, an opera by "the first conductor
and composer in the service of H. M. the King of Naples, for the
moment employed to compose and direct the private orchestra
of the FIRST CONSUL," to quote the libretto-was at last given
on the 8th Germinal of the Year XI (March 29, 1803), and had
but slight success. Fourteen performances sufficed to satisfy
the extraordinary curiosity which the announcement of its prem-
iere had awakened months before. Bonaparte, incidentally, did
not grace either the rehearsal nor the first performance with his
presence, nor did the English Ambassador; a declaration of war
between France and Great Britain was imminent, says Reichardt,
and, in fact, hostilities were resumed in the month of May.
After this miscarriage, Paisiello, pretending that the climate
of Paris did not agree with his wife, asked permission to return
to Naples. Bonaparte had consulted him with regard to the
choice of his successor; but having read in the Journal de Paris
that it was expected that Mehul would be nominated to fill the
vacancy, he immediately ordered Duroc to inform Lesueur of
his nomination to the directorship of the orchestra. And when,
that very day, Paisiello presented his colleague to the First Consul,
the latter said: "I hope that you will still remain with us for a
time; in the meanwhile, M. Lesueur will have to content himself
with the second place," Lesueur replied: "General, I am already
taking the first place when I follow in the footsteps of such a
master as the illustrious Paisiello." This bit of repartee greatly
pleased Bonaparte, and from that moment on the new director
enjoyed the favor which was shown him to the end of the Empire-
and even later.
The year following, on July 10, the teacher of Berlioz presented
at the Opera, which had just assumed the title of "Imperial Academy
of Music," his opera Ossian ou les Bardes, whose subject-matter
gave great pleasure to the master of France, an enthusiast as
regards Ossianic poetry, then very much the fashion. During
the course of the second performance, which he attended, Napoleon
sent for the composer to come to his box and addressed him as
follows: "Monsieur Lesueur, I salute you! Share in your triumph!

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594 The Musical Quarterly

Your first two acts are beautiful, but your third is quite inacces-
sible!" And he made him sit down beside the Empress, in the
front of the box, amid the acclamation of all those present. The
following day Lesueur received a golden snuff-box with the in-
scription: "The Emperor of the French to thecomposer of les Bardes."
The snuff-box contained the cross of the Legion of Honor, together
with six bank-notes, each for a thousand francs.
After the Bardes, Lesueur contributed for the imperial coro-
nation at Notre-Dame (December 2) a march and several pieces,
though the mass which he conducted was by Paisiello; then, at
the Opera, in conjunction with Persuis, he gave l'Inauguration
du Temple de la Victoire (January 2, 1807), the Triomphe de
Trajan (October 23) and la Mort d'Adam (March 21, 1809); while
in 1810 he composed a religious cantata for the wedding of
Napoleon and Marie-Louise.
For the chapel of the Tuileries, Lesueur composed little
oratorios which he interpolated in the service. These scores
undoubtedly pleased the Emperor, for one day, wishing to reward
Lesueur, who had just written his oratorio Deborah, whosemilitary
subject pleased Napoleon better than such subjects as Ruth or
Rachel, for instance, he said:
Your music is grand, elevated, well adapted to its subject, it is
solemn, it is devotional. It is what I feel that the music of the church
should be. Have you composed other oratorios? "Yes Sire, the one
to which Your Majesty has been listening is my eighteenth." Then
you have blackened a good deal of music-paper. That is an expense
in itself, and one for which I wish to pay. Monsieur Lesueur, I grant
you a pension of 2,400 francs to pay for the music-paper you have used
to such good effect. It is only to pay for the paper, you understand,
for such a word as 'gratification' should not be mentioned to an artist
of your merit. (Blangini.)
The other great French musicians of the time, Gretry, for
example, never enjoyed the same measure of favor accorded
Lesueur. One evening at Fontainebleau-Zemire et Azor was
being sung-the Emperor had Gretry sit down beside him and,
so Bouilly tells us, he "experienced the liveliest emotion while
listening to the admirable trio of the magic picture and said, the
words escaping from him as though against his will: "It is divine!
It is perfect! I am very fond of that music." "Then you arenot
disgusted," replied Gretry, with his malicious smile and his
observing glance. Napoleon smiled, and pressed the musician's
hand. Yet, not long after, at a reception, he affected not to
recognize Gretry, and asked him to recall his name to his memory.
"Sire, it is still Gretry," was the reply. This witty retort was

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 Napoleon, Music and Musicians 595

not to the master's liking, however, and he turned his back on

the composer.
With Mehul, who had been appointed a chevalier of the
Legion of Honor when the order was first founded, Napoleon had
been acquainted for some time, through Mme. Beauharnais. He
had considered taking him to Egypt with him, but left him to
remain "in charge at his Conservatory, and, still more important,
at his theatre. These are his true roads to glory." Mehul, as
we have seen, celebrated the fame of the conquerer of Italy, in
1800, at the Temple of Mars. Either after his performance, or
at a later date, the Consul said to him: "Your music, perhaps,
is even more learned and harmonious; yet that of Paisielloand
Cimarosa has greater charms for me." These words suggested to
Mehul the idea of composing an opera-bouffe in the Italian style.
Marsollier gave him the book of l'Irato, or l'Emporte (The Hot-
Head) which was presented in the Salle Favart on February 17,
1801, at Carnival-time, and purported to come from the pen of a
Signor Fiorelli. Its success was very marked and the First Consul
himself enjoyed it greatly. It has been said that Mehul wished
to mystify him in the imitating the Italians, but this is not very
likely. Bonaparte had no patience with pleasantries, and Mehul
might have had to repent his daring. It is more probable that
the deception practiced upon the public had, on the contrary,
been arranged in concert with Bonaparte himself: "No Frenchman
could ever have written music like this," said the latter. Accord-
ing to Elwart, he also told the composer: "See that you deceive
me often this way!" Be this as it may, Mehul dedicated the
score of l'Irato to Bonaparte, in the following terms:
General Consul:
Your conversations regarding music having inspired me with the
desire to compose some works less severe in style than those which I
have hitherto produced, I chose l'Irato. My tentative having succeeded,
it is my duty to dedicate it to you.
With respectful good wishes,
Mehul.

An annotation which follows this dedication contains a decla-

ration of the composer's principles, in which he informs the
public that "it not hasten to boast of his conversion," and further
on plainly affirms: "I know that the general taste is more inclined
to be attracted by music which is purely pleasing, yet good taste
never insists that truth be sacrificed to mere grace in music."
Two years after the production of les Bardes, Mehul, too,
presented an Ossianic opera, Uthal, which the Emperor had per-

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596 The Musical Quarterly

formed at Saint-Cloud. And then came Joseph, his master-work

and one of the master-works of the imperial epoch.
Napoleon's relations to Cherubini were more strained. As
we have already remarked, Cherubini had invited the antipathy
of the First Consul by criticizing his musical tastes without
sufficient discretion. "Paisiello's music is sweet and beneficent
in its effects," Bonaparte one day remarked to him, "but your
instrumentation is too heavy, and while Paisiello calms me in an
agreeable manner, your compositions demand too much attention
on the part of the auditor." Cherubini answered with animation
-with too great animation-that one might be a great general
and yet know nothing about harmony.'
It can be easily understood that with such opinions Cherubini
was not a favorite at Court. Hence he made no difficulties about
accepting the hospitality of Austria, toward the year 1800. It
is possible that he might have remained long in Vienna, had not
the chances of war taken Napoleon himself there in November
1806. "Always he, everywhere!" as Victor Hugo said. ... At
the time Cherubini was commanded by Napoleon to organize a
dozen concerts at Schonbrunn, after which he returned to France.
In 1808, however, he withdrew to the Ardennes, to the chateau
of Chimay, where the former Mme. Tallien resided with the
title of princess.
The misunderstanding between the Emperor and Cherubini
did not come to an end until the period of the "Hundred Days,"
when the composer was made a member of the Institute and
received the cross of the Legion of Honor. But then it was too
late, and it was to the Restoration that Cherubini owed his official
position as director of the Conservatoire.
Spontini was more fortunate. Having gone to France to
seek his fortune there at the time when the effervescence of the
Revolution was on the decline, at the moment when, together
with Cherubini, an art which showed certain novel features had
obtruded itself upon the lyric stage, he dedicated his "Milton,"
produced November 27, 1804, to the Empress Josephine. Not
without some difficulty did he obtain from Jouy an opera book on
one of those subjects drawn from the antique which were the
fashion of the day, la Vestale, one which Cherubini and Mehul
had already refused to set. Two or three years of effort, of appli-
cation of retouching were necessary before an actual performance
of this master-piece of the "Empire" style could take place.
'See the "Memoires" of the Baron de Tremont, "The Musical Quarterly," July
1920, pp. 381, 382.

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 Napoleon, Music and Musicians 597

Having become director of the Empress's music, Spontini o

it to the sovereign's protection that he could at length see
opera represented on December 17, 1807-after fourteen mont
of rehearsal, and following the Triomphe de Trajan, by Lesueu
and Persius (October 14) which, for the Emperor, had a mo
immediate interest than an antique opera. According to Cas
Blaze, Napoleon had had the principal numbers of Spontini's s
performed at the Tuileries as early as February, and follow
their audition had expressed his admiration for the maestr
the warmest terms:

Your opera abounds in new motives. Its declamation is sincere

and in accordance with musical feeling. There are fine airs, duos whose
effect is certain, a finale which carries away the listener. The march
to the scaffold seems admirable to me. ... Monsieur Spontini, I once
more tell you that you will obtain a great success. And you will have
merited it.

If we prune some of the embellishments which Castil-Blaze

lavishes on all his accounts, there may be some truth in these
words; yet it should be remembered that the Emperor never
supported Spontini's opera before its production, and showed
his preference for the Triomphe de Trajan, which flattered him
personally, and Lesueur's la Mort d'Adam.1
Yet he was obliged to recognize that with his la Vestale
Spontini had created the "Empire style" in music. Therefore,
at the beginning of 1809, the Count de Remusat, superintendent
of theatres, informed the director of the Opera, Picard, that the
Emperor had decided to stage Fernand Cortez, Spontini's new
opera, the book by Jouy and Esmenard. This time the rehearsals
did not drag; on the contrary it was necessary to urge on Spontini.
Its premiere, with an extraordinary deploy of scenic means, took
place November 28, 1809, and a brilliant success crowned music,
action, artists and-Franconi's cavalry, fourteen horses mounted
by the Franconi Brothers and their grooms! Fernand Cortez,
already a forecast of the Meyerbeerian spectacular opera, held
its place in the repertory until 1830. Yet, for reasons which are
unknown, the performances were stopped after the thirteenth,
and it was not brought forward again until ten years later. Then
la Vestale did not leave the boards, however, and in 1810 carried
off the decennial prize of 10,000 francs (only awarded once),
decreed a musical work.

'From Saint-Cloud he wrote to M. de Lugay, on August 23: "I do not wish to

have la Vestale given. I think it would be better to give la Mort d'Adam, since it is
ready." The Mort d'Adam was not performed until March, 1809.

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 598 The Musical Quarterly

Appointed assistant-director of the Empress's T

same year of 1810, Spontini, despite the official fav
enjoyed, was dismissed by M. de Remusat in 1812,
by Paer, who accepted the appointment on condition
not required to give up his functions at Court.
'Before taking up Napoleon's relations with individ
male and female, of his time, some mention should
Zingarelli, his other favorite composer. Zingarelli
master at St. Peters in Rome when, having refuse
Te Deum sung for the birth of the "King of Rome,"
was arrested and brought to Paris, incidentally, be i
every consideration. There he remained for a few
home of his friend Gretry, terrified, according to C
lest he be asked to compose a Te Deum which he had f
not to write when, one day (it was the first of Janu
ordered to write a mass, to be performed on the
later, a Stabat Mater. This last was sung at the El
Friday, by Crescentini, Lays, Nourrit, Mmes. Branchu and
Armand. Crescentini accomplished marvels in the verset Vidit
suum dulcem natum, which a gesture from the Emperor bade him
repeat.
After this success nothing further was demanded of the Master.
One day, weary of inaction, Zingarelli ventured to ask whether
he might be allowed to go back to Rome, whither his obligations
as choir-master summoned him. The answer he received was:
Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, to-day even, if that be you
wish. M. Zingarelli is entirely at liberty. It is true that his sojour
in Paris has been a piece of good fortune to us; but His Majesty woul
be annoyed were he to neglect his duties.
This reply might be interpreted as a command, and Zingarel
hastened to leave Paris, after having received the tidy little su
of 14,000 francs to console him for his somewhat hasty displac
ment.
It was while this composer's Romeo was being represented at
the Tuileries, that the male soprano Crescentini was given the
cross of the Iron Crown. The scene has been recounted, as
actually witnessed, by Mlle. Avrillon, one of the Empress's ladi
in-waiting:
On the day in question, I could see his Majesty's face perfectly
through my lorgnettes, from the box in which I was seated, while Cres-
centini was singing the famous air Ombra adorata (Shadow adored)-
which, according to Scudo, he himself had interpolated in the score-
and, without any exaggeration, it was radiant with pleasure. The
Emperor moved about in his arm-chair, spoke to the great dignitaries

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 Madame Grassini
(in the character of Zaira)

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 Napoleon, Music and Musicians 599

of the Empire who surrounded him, and seemed to be trying to make

them share in the admiration which he himself felt. The performance
was not yet over when he had M. de Marescalchi called, and it was
then that he told him to give Crescentini the cross of the order.

"The bestowal of this decoration," Las Casas remarked to

Napoleon at Saint-Helena, at a later period, "caused much com-
ment in Paris:" malevolence seized upon it with the greatest joy,
and made the most of it. Nevertheless, at one of the brilliant
soir&es given in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, the indignation which
it had aroused was drowned in a witty retort. ". . . It was an
abomination," said one facile speaker, "a horror, a veritable pro-
fanation. By what right could a Crescentini claim it?" he cried.
Upon which the handsome Mme. Grassini, rising majestically from
her chair, replied in the most dramatic tones, and with a theatri-
cal gesture: "And his wound, my dear sir, is that to count for
nothing?" Whereupon ensued such a hubbub of delight and
applause, that poor Grassini was greatly embarrassed by the suc-
cess of her defence (Memorial de Sainte-He'lne).
The remembrance of "the handsome Grassini" must have
recalled to the captive of Saint-Helena the happy days of the
second campaign of Italy, and the connection he had formed at
the time with the singer, who was then still young. In 1800
Guisseppina Grassini was twenty-seven; in the full splendor of
her beauty and talent, equipped with an excellent contralto
voice, pure and even throughout its entire range, and admirable
in operas of the semi-seria style.
Bonaparte heard her in Milan, the day following or the
second day after the battle of Marengo, as M. FredericMasson
has already established. Already, two years before, in the self-
same city of Milan, occupied by the French army, she had vainly
endeavored to attract the attention of the young hero, who was
then still faithful to Josephine. In 1800 he was not altogether
the same; and, incidentally, "in Grassini, it was less the woman
who captured his heart than the singer. She, entirely prepared,
had been awaiting her opportunity for two years: one may imagine
whether she offered a long resistance." The day following her
concert at Milan, her departure for Paris had been decided upon,
together with that of Marchesi and Mlle. Billington.
In Paris, she sang together with Bianchi, two duos at the
fete given on July 14 at the Invalides, preceding Mehul's hymn
for three choruses. "A fine piece in Italian, with fine Italian
music," had been the general's demand. He was given two in-
stead of one.

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600 The Musical Quarterly

Bonaparte installed the Grassini in a small house in the rue

Chantereine-recently rebaptized the rue de la Victoire-not far
from the one he himself had occupied before going to the Tuileries.
The singer soon grew bored here, for she had dreamed quite another
dream in following the victor of Marengo. In search of consola-
tion, she formed an intimacy with Rode, the great violinist.
Then she resumed her liberty, after having given two concerts
at the Theatre de la Republique (March 17 and October 10, 1801).
She returned to Paris after the establishment of the imperial
choir, of which she remained a member until 1812. At the time
she received a fixed salary of 36,000 francs, additional annual
gratifications, and a pension of 15,000 francs. Besides this, she
enjoyed the proceeds of a benefit concert given every winter at
the Opera or aux Italiens.
Blangini declares that the sovereign would permit neither
Grassini nor Crescentini to sing in public. He adds:

At the time I was writing several songs, intended for Mme. Grassini's
lovely voice. One day when she was to sing at the Tuileries before
the Emperor, she gave me the words of an air she wished to add to her
program, for me to set to music. These words, which she had written
herself, read as follows:

Adora i cenni tuoi questo mio cuorfedele;

Sposa sard se vuoi non dubitar di me.
Ma un sguardo sereno, ti chiedo d'amor.

"Your each command my faithful heart adores.

I'll be your comrade if you trust in me.
Only one smiling glance my love implores."

In the piece, Cleopatra is speaking to Caesar; but on the stage, while

she sang, Mme. Grassini often turned her glances in the direction in
which the Emperor's box was situated; I am unable to say whether,
that evening, she secured the "smiling glance of love."

In 1814, Mme. Grassini, like so many others, quickly forgot

her imperial successes and favors. Says Scudo:
Always dramatic and always sensible the prima donna could not
refrain from singing amorous duettos with Lord Castlereigh. In these
intimate gatherings, at the residence of the man who had been the
principal agent in formimg the coalition against Napoleon, Mme. Grassini
might be seen draped in the great Indian shawl which she used as a
mantle, pompously declaiming the finest passages from the r6les she had
presented at the theatre of the Tuileries. The Duke of Wellington was
not vexed when this lovely Cleopatra told him:
Adoro i cenni tuoi, questo mio cuorfedele,

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 Napoleon, Music and Musicians 601

and history even affirms that the Duke of Wellington was not shy when
it came to replying to this tender supplication with un sguardo sereno
d'amor.

Mme. Catalani, whose contemporaries have praised her

sonorous, powerful voice, full of charm, a soprano of prodigious
range, which reached the superacute G, preferred British guineas
to Napoleons d'or. After her two concerts at Saint-Cloud, which
we have already mentioned, the Emperor went to visit her on the
stage, and asked: "Where are you going?" "To London, Sire!"
"Stay in Paris! You shall have 100,000 francs and two months
leave of absence. The matter is settled. Adieu, Madame!"
Mme. Catalani swept him a courtesy and-fled to Morlaix th
following day, whence she made her way to England in spite
the Continental Blocade. She did not dare return to France
until 1814, when she obtained the management of the
Italien. On the return of Napoleon from the Island of
however, she found herself strangely embarrassed, and se
first opportunity to disappear from Paris a second time
expectation of happier days.
Among the singers who won the esteem of Napoleon, a
for a time, must be mentioned Garat, who was the rage
the time of the Directory and Consulat, as a singer and a co
of romances. He was highly prized by Lucien Bonapart
ister of the interior during 1799 and 1800. One reception
the ministry, Mme. Recamier tells us, when dinner was
the future emperor rose and led the way to the dining
where, without offering his arm to any of the women pre
seated himself at the middle of the table. Everyone sa
round about him as chance might dictate; Mme. Laetit
mother, at his right, Mme. Recamier on the same side,
further off. Bonaparte who had counted on having this ch
lady, whom he had failed to secure, for a table-companion,
about in annoyance to the guests still standing, and then s
Garat, pointing to the place beside beside him: "Well, G
sit down there!" After dinner they went to the drawin
Bonaparte seated himself, alone, beside the piano, whi
women formed a circle facing the musician, the men s
behind them. Garat sang an air by Gluck. After he ha
several instrumental pieces were played, and at the clos
Sonata played by Jadin, the First Consul commenced to
the piano violently, crying: "Garat! Garat!" It was an o
Garat returned to the piano, and sang an air from Orpheu
enchanted all his listeners.

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602 The Musical Quarterly

The favor enjoyed by the singer-composer was forfeited,

however, before the end of the Empire. Garat frequently sang
at the Tuileries. Yet he was not able successfully to conceal his
royalist sentiments; very witty and caustic, he gave vent to some
hasty sallies which displeased the powers above. Napoleon
thought he could discover an allusion to General Moreau in
Lemercier's Bglisaire, which Garat sang to music. The singer'?
romances Henri IV et Gabrielle and Bayard, among others, aug-
mented the imperial resentment, which betrayed itself in a shabby
enough fashion by the withholding of Garat's salary as a professor
at the Conservatoire, during the fourteen concluding months of the
Empire. This, however, had not prevented Napoleon from deco-
rating the singer-composer with the order of the Legion of Honor;
yet Garat, though very vain, did all in his power to conceal the
fact that he had been decorated. However, if he was by no means
a warm partisan of the Emperor, he remained greatly attached to
the Empress Josephine, whom he continued to wait upon, after
her divorce, in her retreat in Malmaison.
A great violinist, also appreciated by the Empress, was
Alexander Boucher, whom we will mention in conclusion, and
who was quite as famous for his extraordinary resemblance to
the Emperor as for his art. Violinist to the King of Spain, Charles
IV, Boucher undertook a journey to Germany in 1806, and man-
aged to win the favor of Fanny de Beauharnais (who stood god-
mother to his son) and of her niece, Josephine, then at Mayence.
Josephine wished to appoint him her first violinist. Received
shortly after at the Tuileries, Boucher made his appearance one
day at a Court festival with the Spanish embassy, in the uniform
of a colonel, his proper rank as director of the King of Spain's
music. Napoleon, having noticed the uniform, asked Duroc who
the officer might be. Duroc, having questioned Boucher, told
him that he was the generalissimo of the sixteenth-notes of all the
Spains. "What is his name?" "Alexander Boucher," replied
the Empress, "he is the celebrated violinist whom I wished to
present to Your Majesty." "Well, he is sufficiently presented,"
replied Napoleon, "he is here right under my eyes." "I had
thought that an artist of his merit," added Josephine. .. ."Could
not be more happily situated," the Emperor continued her phrase.
"Let him return to Madrid; a generalissimo should never leave
his army." "Still, if he should prefer Your Majesty's service?"
"Do not mention the man to me again," Napoleon said curtly.
The Emperor's self-esteem was wounded by the artists' striking
resemblance to him. When Charles IV was brought a prisoner

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 Napoleon, Music and Musicians 603

to Fontainebleau, in 1808, Boucher did not abandon him, but

remained with him in Marseilles, until an order of the day coming
from the Emperor, who could not suffer a man to resemble him
physically, obliged him to leave the sovereign.
* *

It would be easy t
but we must refrain. We have recalled the most characteristic
among them, and those which present musicians famous for
various reasons. In general, they show the decisive and authori
tative spirit displayed by Napoleon with regard to music as to
all else, and the importance he attached to an art which he valued,
not only for the pleasure it gave him personally, but also because
he]had observed its influence on other men as well as on himself
and knew how to make it serve his political ends.
It would be pleasant to be able to affirm that the Napoleonic
legend has been able to inspire the musicians with as happy
results as it has the poets, novelists and painters of the nineteenth
century; yet hardly anything at all has come of it, musically
and it is in the domain of song, more especially, a form highl
prized at all times and under every government, that the French
have celebrated their hero. Is it not in their songs that the peopl
have always guarded the memory of the great occurrences of
history?
No sooner had he returned from his Italian campaign than
couplets on well-known airs celebrated the praises of the victorious
general; then the defeated of Brumaire were sung; and finally,
the Empire was acclaimed. Napoleon found his Homer of the
people in the person of Beranger (1780-1857); one of whose poems,
le Cinq Mai, or la Mort de Napoleon, is the only one, perhaps,
which has inspired a truly great composer. Berlioz made a cantata
of it for bass voices, which was sung on different occasions, notably
on December 13, 1840, two days before the return of Napoleon's
ashes to the Invalides. This event itself only brought forth a few
romances by obscure musicians, a quadrille by Musard, and a
gallop suggested by the frigate la Belle Poule.
The government of Louis-Philippe had first thought of having
Cherubini's Requiem sung at the ceremony at the Invalides, but
remembering that it had been written for the funeral of Louis
XVIII, decided that Mozart's would be a more fitting choice.
Three hundred executants were gathered at the Invalides on
December 15, and each of the solo parts was sung by four of

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604 The Musical Quarterly

the greatest artists in Paris: Mmes. Grisi, Damoreau, Persiani

and Dorus, sopranos; Pauline Garcia, Eugenie Garcia, Albertazzi,
and Stolz, contraltos; Rubini, Duprez, Ponchard, Alexis Dupont
and Nasset, tenors; and Lablache Tamburini, Levasseur, Baroil-
het and Alizard, basses. Adolphe Adam, in a letter written
December 25, to his Berlin friend Spiker, remarked:

Never has this master-piece by Mozart been sung with such bril-
liancy. The dress rehearsal was held at the Opera, before an immense
assembly of people and caused a tremendous sensation. After the mass
the three funeral marches composed by Auber, Halevy and myself were
played, and on this occasion I had the pleasure of triumphing over my
two illustrious rivals. Auber's march made no impression whatever;
that of Halevy was judged to be a fine symphonic composition, lacking
the character demanded by the occasion. My own was more fortunate:
I had written it in two sections, one funereal, and the other triumphant;
and this contrast was perfectly grasped by the public, which understood
as well as I did, that this funeral, taking place twenty years after the
hero's death, should be a triumph.
The day of the ceremony, together with my two hundred musicians,
I went to Neuilly, where Napoleon's casket was to be disembarked, to
conduct these marches. Unfortunately, the cold was so excessive that
the artists and their instruments were frozen, and the performance was
a very defective one. During the entire progress of the procession,
the musicians played my march and that of Auber. Halevy's march
could not be played, because his symphony was too difficult to execute,
and not sufficiently rhythmic to allow it to be marched to.

Berlioz, who had been set aside in this ceremony, would not
admit that his Requiem, sung two years before in that very chapel
of the Invalides, had not been required of him. He is even said
to have refused to compose a funeral march leaving it to Auber,
Halevy and Adam, to "break their necks on his Apotheose de
juillet," given during the past summer. "0, my divine Emperor!"
he cries, after the ceremony at the Invalides, "What a pitiable
reception was accorded you! My tears froze on my lashes for
shame rather than cold. . . The Mozart Requiem made a sorry
enough impression, for despite the fact that it is a master-piece
it was not cast in the proportions which such a ceremony
demanded."
There was also in Paris, at this same time, a young German
musician, who was present at the funeral of Napoleon, at th
moment when the processional entered the Invalides, on that
glacial Tuesday afternoon, December 15, 1840.
Jour beau comme la gloire,
Froid comme le tombeau.

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 Napoleon, Music and Musicians 605

("Day fair as glory,

Cold as the tomb.")
-Victor Hugo

His name was Richard Wagner, and he had just arranged Doni-
zetti's La Favorite for the piano, and published a little romance,
entitled "A Visit to Beethoven," in the Gazette musicale; in addi-
tion he acted as Paris correspondent for a Dresden periodical.
He alludes to the funeral of Napoleon in an article on Rossini's
Stabat Mater, calling attention to the charming Parisiennes in
search of religious music, after having heard Mozart's Requiem
sung at the Invalides, by Rubini and Mlle. Persiani, and Rossini
composing for them a Stabat Mater as far from devotional as
possible. It was at this time, too, that Wagner wrote his "Two
Grenadiers" to Heine's poem; Schumann's setting of which was
later to gain the greatest popularity.
Berlioz, Wagner, Schumann-Napoleon received the homage
of the greatest, after his apotheosis, as, while alive, and uncon-
scious of the fact, he had inspired Beethoven to write his Eroica
Symphony, "written upon Bonaparte," which remains the most
sublime and worthy tribute ever paid the hero.
One can understand that genuine musicians have not en-
deavored to rewrite the Eroica, nor measure themselves with
Beethoven, whose name will ever be inseparably linked with that
of the First Consul, who inspired him.
(Translated by Frederick H. Martens.)

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