The () was a Paris school for church music, founded in 1853 by

Louis Niedermeyer Abraham Louis Niedermeyer (27 April 180214 March 1861) was a Swiss and naturalized French composer. He chiefly wrote church music and a few operas. He also taught music and took over the École Choron, renamed École Niedermeyer de Paris, a schoo ...

as successor to the , which had been established and run by Alexandre Choron between 1817 and 1834.

Background

Although a protestant from Switzerland,

valued the Franch heritage of Roman catholic church music.

Jean-Michel Nectoux Jean-Michel Nectoux (born 20 November 1946) is a French musicologist, particularly noted as an expert on the life and music of Gabriel Fauré. He has published many books on Fauré and other French composers, and has been responsible for major exhi ...

, biographer of

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. ...

– one of the school's first students – writes, "the name Niedermeyer is indissolubly linked with the renaissance of religious music in France".Nectoux, p. 5 Few church choirs survived intact after the French Revolution and efforts to rebuild them were hampered by lack of resources. Alexandre Choron founded the Royal School of Religious Music in 1817, but it was disbanded at his death in 1834. In 1840 Niedermeyer, up to then known chiefly as a composer, founded a Society of Vocal and Religious Music. The society performed sixteenth- and seventeenth-century works, and beginning in 1843 these were published in an eleven-volume anthology.

Foundation

Niedermeyer had ambitions to open a music school to follow Choron's lead and in 1853 the newly-installed French Emperor,

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

, agreed to be the patron of a small boarding school established by Niedermeyer in premises he had rented in the rue Neuve-Fontaine-Saint-Georges (now the rue Fromentin) in the

9th arrondissement of Paris The 9th arrondissement of Paris (''IXe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as (; "ninth"). The arrondissement, called Opéra, is located on the right bank of th ...

.Nectoux, p. 6Galerne, p. 30 He favoured a boarding school because it insulated the pupils from distractions, eliminated time-wasting travel, had the teaching staff on hand to help pupils, and made it easier for the students to communicate with each other. Apart from the compositional subjects – solfege,

harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

and

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

– the emphasis was on instrumental performance: organ and piano, taught by Xavier Wackenthaler, Clément Loret and Niedermeyer himself.Nectoux, p. 7 The school was notable for its attention to choral singing. Three times a week all the students assembled to sing under Pierre-Louis Dietsch, the school's harmony teacher as well as choirmaster at the Madeleine and conductor at the Opéra. Their repertoire was old church music including that of

Josquin des Prez Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez ( – 27 August 1521) was a composer of High Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he was a central figure of the ...

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (between 3 February 1525 and 2 February 1526 – 2 February 1594) was an Italian composer of late Renaissance music. The central representative of the Roman School, with Orlande de Lassus and Tomás Luis de V ...

, J. S. Bach and

Tomás Luis de Victoria Tomás Luis de Victoria (sometimes Italianised as ''da Vittoria''; ) was the most famous Spanish composer of the Renaissance. He stands with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlande de Lassus as among the principal composers of the late Re ...

, usually unaccompanied. The Archbishop of Paris,

Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour (4 August 1792 – 3 January 1857) was a French Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Paris from 1848 to 1857. Life Sibour was born at Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux in Drôme in 1792. After his ordinatio ...

, after a certain hesitation because Niedermeyer was a protestant, gave the school his backing, and the pupils often performed at the church of Saint-Louis-d'Antin, whose clergy gave them instruction in religion and the classics. The Archbishop's backing led the Minister of Public Education, Hippolyte Fortoul, and the Prince de la Moskowa, aide de camp to the Emperor, to ensure that state funds were available to the school. One of the school's first students,

, recalled in old age that the school had provided "some sort of general education" in addition to its musical curriculum. An unusual feature of the school was that pupils taught each other: the more senior students helped the masters in solfege and piano courses, gaining experience in instruction that would be useful in the careers as choirmasters for which many of them were destined. The most outstanding students were eligible for appointment to the faculty once they had completed their studies, as happened to Fauré's contemporary and friend Eugene Gigout.

After Niedermeyer

Niedermeyer died suddenly in 1861, and was temporarily replaced by Dietsch, whom Nectoux describes as "the most despised of all the teachers".

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (, , 9October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano ...

took over the senior piano class and in Nectoux's words "turned his class into a veritable musical seminar devoted to tackling those 'modern' composers who did not find a place in the school's official list of studies:

Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most pro ...

Schumann Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...

and

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

". Dietsch was replaced in 1865 by

Gustave Lefèvre Victor Gustave Lefèvre (2 June 1831 in Provins – 17 March 1910 in his home in Boulogne-Billancourt) was a French composer and music educator. Publications * ''Traité de contrepoint et du rythme'' (unpublished), * ''Traité d'harmonie'' ...

, Niedermeyer's son-in-law. At the time of the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...

uprising (1871) and the ensuing violence in the city the school was temporarily evacuated to Switzerland.Jones, p. 27 The music scholar Roger Nichols writes that apart from Fauré, the school had – for a religiously inclined foundation – "a strange tendency ... to produce composers of stage music of the lighter kind", among them

Edmond Audran Achille Edmond Audran (12 April 184017 August 1901) was a French composer best known for several internationally successful comic operas and operettas. After beginning his career in Marseille as an organist, Audran composed religious music and b ...

, Edmond Missa, Alexandre Georges,

Claude Terrasse Claude Terrasse (27 January 1867 – 30 June 1923) was a French composer of operettas. Terrasse was born in L'Arbresle, Rhône. He became known by writing the music for the play ''Ubu Roi'' by Alfred Jarry in 1896. In Paris, his brother-in-law, t ...

and Andre Messager. Alumni who followed the founder's intentions more closely included

Henri Büsser Paul Henri Büsser (16 January 1872 – 30 December 1973) was a French classical composer, organist, conductor and teacher. Among his teachers were César Franck, Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet. In addition to his own compositions Büsser edi ...

and the organists

Leon Boellmann Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...

, Albert Périlhou and

Eugène Gigout Eugène Gigout (; 23 March 1844 – 9 December 1925) was a French organist and a composer, mostly of music for his own instrument. Biography Gigout was born in Nancy, and died in Paris. A pupil of Camille Saint-Saëns, he served as the organis ...

.Nichols, p. 178 Lefèvre was succeeded as director by his son-in-law, Henri Heurtel, and the school continued until the 1920s.

References

Sources

* * * * {{Coord missing, France Music schools in Paris Church music 1853 establishments in France