Guillaume André Villoteau (19 September 1759 in

Bellême Bellême () is a commune in the Orne department in northwestern France. The musicologist Guillaume André Villoteau (1759–1839) was born in Bellême, as was Aristide Boucicaut (1810-1877), owner of ''Le'' ''Bon Marché'', the world's first depa ...

– 27 April 1839 in

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...

) was a French

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

Biography

An ambulant musician, engaged in the dragons, Villoteau then integrated the mastery of

Notre Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...

on the eve of the French Revolution. He left the orders and entered the

Paris Opera The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...

during the

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...

where he became conductor of the choir. The singer

François Lays François Lay, better known under the stage name Lays (14 February 1758 – 30 March 1831), was a French baritone and tenor opera singer. Originally destined for a career in the church, Lays was recruited by the Paris Opéra in 1779. He soon b ...

having refused to leave, he took his place in the

Commission des sciences et des arts The Commission des Sciences et des Arts (''Commission of the Sciences and Arts'') was a French scientific and artistic institute. Established on 16 March 1798, it consisted of 167 members, of which all but 16 joined Napoleon Bonaparte's conquest ...

which accompanied the army of the East during the

French campaign in Egypt and Syria The French campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in the Ottoman territories of Egypt and Syria, proclaimed to defend French trade interests, to establish scientific enterprise in the region. It was the ...

by Bonaparte. Villoteau was particularly interested in Arabic music. He started from scratch and could not rely on any music score: his interlocutors benefited only from an oral transmission. He had the opportunity to carry out his musical research until

Philæ ; ar, فيلة; cop, ⲡⲓⲗⲁⲕ , alternate_name = , image = File:File, Asuán, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 93.jpg , alt = , caption = The temple of Isis from Philae at its current location on Agilkia Island in Lake Nasse ...

, and collected a valuable collection of instruments bought by his friend

François-Joseph Fétis François-Joseph Fétis (; 25 March 1784 – 26 March 1871) was a Belgian musicologist, composer, teacher, and one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century. His enormous compilation of biographical data in the ''Biographie univers ...

and donated to the Museum of Music of Brussels. His contributions to music form 505 pages in the Imperial edition in folio of the ''

Description de l'Égypte The ''Description de l'Égypte'' ( en, Description of Egypt) was a series of publications, appearing first in 1809 and continuing until the final volume appeared in 1829, which aimed to comprehensively catalog all known aspects of ancient and m ...

'' and 1015 pages in the

Panckoucke The Panckoucke family was a French family engaged in publishing and printing. * Amélie Panckoucke (1750-1830), writer and salonnière, sister of Charles-Joseph ; * André Joseph Panckoucke (1703-1753), founder of the Panckoucke bookstore in Lill ...

edition. It will be a real treatise on Egyptian music, past and present. On his return to France, he retired in 1809 to his property of the Mazerais, a commune of

Savonnières Savonnières () is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. Population See also * Les Grottes Pétrifiantes de Savonnières *Communes of the Indre-et-Loire department The following is a list of the 272 communes of the ...

, where he became mayor from 1813 to 1815. He then moved to Tours where he set up the first mutual school in the city.

Édouard de Villiers du Terrage Édouard de Villiers du Terrage (26 April 1780 – 19 April 1855) was a French engineer who together with Jean-Baptiste Prosper Jollois journeyed with Napoleon to Egypt, and prepared the ''Description de l'Égypte.'' 1780 births 1855 deat ...

, ''Journal et souvenirs sur l'expédition d'Égypte, mis en ordre et publiés par le baron Marc de Villiers du Terrage'', Paris, E. Plon, Nourrit, 1899, and ''L'expédition d'Égypte 1798-1801, Journal et souvenirs d'un jeune savant'', Paris, Cosmopole, 2001 and 2003, p. 385

Selected publications

* ''Recherches sur l'analogie de la musique avec les arts'', v. I y v. II, Paris: Imperial edition, 1807 * ''Dissertation sur les diverses espèces d'instruments de musique que l'on remarque parmi les sculptures qui décorent les antiques monuments de l'Égypte''. In ''Description de l'Égypte'', Paris: Prunelle, Imperial edition, 1809, p. 181. * ''Description historique, technique et littéraire des instruments de musique des Orientaux'', Paris: Imperial edition, 1813 * ''De l'état actuel de l'art musical en Egypte. Relation historique et descriptive des recherches et observations faites sur la musique en ce pays''. In ''Description de l'Égypte'', Paris: Panckoucke, 1827. * ''Musique de l'antique Egypte'', Brussels: Degreef-Laduron, 1830.

Bibliography

* Fétis (Jean-François), "Villoteau", in ''Dictionnaire universelle des musiciens'', Bruxelles, 1844, vol. 8, p. 459–464. * Mayaud (Isabelle), "Guillaume-André Villoteau (1759–1839) et l'Égypte : l'expérience d'une vie", in ''Voyages et voyageurs, circulation des hommes et des idées à l'époque révolutionnaire'', actes du 130e congrès des sociétés savantes, La Rochelle, April 2005, p. 121132. * Grinevald (Paul-Marie), "Villoteau, ethno-musicien de Bonaparte et de l’Égypte", Touraine Généalogie, Bulletin n° 92, 4th trimester 2012, p. 398. * Grinevald (Paul-Marie)
''Guillaume-André Villoteau (1759-1839): Ethnomusicographe de l'Égypte
', Paris,

L'Harmattan Éditions L'Harmattan, usually known simply as L'Harmattan (), is one of the largest French book publishers. It specialises in non-fiction books with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. It is named after the Harmattan, a trade wind in W ...

, 2014. 302 p. (series: L'Univers musical).

References

External links

Guillaume-André Villoteau (1759-1839) et l'Égypte

Guillaume-André Villoteau
(in English)
Villoteau, Guillaume André (1759 - 1839), writer on music
on Oxford Index

on ''Influences'' (26 April 2012)
'' Guillaume-André Villoteau (1759-1839) : ethnomusicographe de l'Égypte''
on Stanford University Libraries

on Library of Congress {{DEFAULTSORT:Villoteau, Guillaume Andre 19th-century French musicologists French ethnomusicologists Arabic music Commission des Sciences et des Arts members Writers from Normandy 1759 births 1839 deaths