The ' was a weekly musical review founded in 1827 by the Belgian
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 m ...
, teacher and composer
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 univer ...
, then working as professor of
counterpoint and
fugue at the
Conservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...
. It was the first French-language journal dedicated entirely to
classical music. In November 1835 it merged with
Maurice Schlesinger's ''Gazette musicale de Paris'' (first published in January 1834) to form ''Revue et gazette musicale de Paris'', first published on 1 November 1835. It ceased publication in 1880.
History
By 1830 the ''Revue musicale'', written and published by Fétis, was on sale at
Maurice Schlesinger's music seller's premises.
[Vol 7 (Tome VIII, IVme année) (1830) sold by Fétis, Alexandre Mesnier & Schlesinger. See review of Vol. 7 i]
''Revue française'', Issues 13-14, p. 281-3
Schlesinger (whose father founded the ''Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'') was a German music editor who had moved to Paris in 1821. Schlesinger published editions of classical and modern music under his own name at a reasonable price, most notably works by
Mozart,
Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led ...
,
Weber,
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
,
Hummel and
Berlioz. He also published ''
Robert le diable
''Robert le diable'' (''Robert the Devil'') is an opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer between 1827 and 1831, to a libretto written by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. ''Robert le diable'' is regarded as one of the first grand o ...
'' and ''
Les Huguenots
() is an opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer and is one of the most popular and spectacular examples of grand opera. In five acts, to a libretto by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps, it premiered in Paris on 29 February 1836.
Composition history
...
'' by
Giacomo Meyerbeer, as well as ''
La Juive'' by
Fromental Halévy
Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy, usually known as Fromental Halévy (; 27 May 179917 March 1862), was a French composer. He is known today largely for his opera ''La Juive''.
Early career
Halévy was born in Paris, son of the cantor ...
. Schlesinger founded his own rival publication, the ''Gazette Musicale de Paris'', which first appeared on 5 January 1834.
Another music journal, ''
Le Ménestrel
''Le Ménestrel'' (The Minstrel) was an influential French music journal published weekly from 1833 until 1940. It was founded by Joseph-Hippolyte l'Henry and originally printed by Poussièlgue. In 1840 it was acquired by the music publishers Heug ...
'', had first appeared the previous month on 1 December 1833. Until ''La Revue et Gazette'' ceased publication in 1880, ''Le Ménestrel'' was to be its main rival in terms of influence and breadth of coverage.
In 1835, Schlesinger bought the ''Revue musicale'' from Fétis and merged the two journals into the ''Revue et gazette musicale de Paris''. He widened the subject matter of the ' from music itself to also include literature about music – in 1837 he commissioned from
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...
for the ''Gazette'' the
novella ''
Gambara'' (dealing with the new style of
grand opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and orchestras, and (in their original productions) lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on o ...
).
The name ''Revue musicale'' returned for six months in 1839 as the ''Revue musicale, journal des artistes, des amateurs et des théatres'' while the journal was a bi-weekly publication. The list of contributors to the ''Revue et gazette musicale'' in 1840 included:
François Benoist,
Hector Berlioz,
Castil-Blaze,
Antoine Elwart
Antoine Aimable Elie Elwart (19 September 1808 – 14 October 1877) was a French composer and musicologist.
Biography Childhood
Elwart was born in Paris in the family home. At the age of ten, he became a chorister at the mastery of the Saint-Eu ...
,
Stephen Heller,
Jules Janin
Jules Gabriel Janin (16 February 1804 – 19 June 1874) was a French writer and critic.
Life and career
Born in Saint-Étienne (Loire), Janin's father was a lawyer, and he was educated first at St. Étienne, and then at the lycée Louis-le-Gra ...
,
Jean-Georges Kastner
Jean-Georges Kastner, born 9 March 1810 in Strasbourg, died 19 December 1867 in Paris, was a composer and musicologist.
Biography
Kastner's parents were Johann Georg Kastner, from Dettwiller, and Marie Salome Pfeiffer, from Woerth. Despite his ...
,
Léon Charles François Kreutzer,
Franz Liszt,
Édouard Monnais (director of the
Paris Opera from 1839 to 1847),
Joseph d'Ortigue,
Theodor Panofka
Theodor Sigismund Panofka (25 February 1800, Breslau – 20 June 1858, Berlin) was a German archaeologist, art historian and philologist. He was one of the first scholars to make a systematic study of the pottery of Ancient Greece, and one of the ...
,
Ludwig Rellstab
Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Rellstab (13 April 179927 November 1860) was a German poet and music critic. He was born and died in Berlin. He was the son of the music publisher and composer Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab. An able pianist, he publ ...
,
Georges Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...
,
Robert Schumann and
Richard Wagner.
The French-language monthly magazine ''
Revue des deux Mondes'', founded in July 1829, also featured a section named "Revue musicale".
Publication chronology, 1827—1850
;''Revue musicale''
First series (6 volumes) - published monthly by Fétis.
Vol. 1 (1827-8)Première année – Tome I
Vol. 2 (1828)Première année – Tome II
Vol. 3 (1828)Tome III
Vol. 4 (1829)Deuxième année – Tome IV
Vol. 5 (1829)Troisième année – Tome V
Vol. 6 (1830)Quatrième année – Tome VI (ending January 1830)
Second series (9 volumes) - published weekly on Saturdays by Fétis.
Vol. 7(Deuxième serie, Tome premier) (6 February–1 May 1830)
Vol. 8(Deuxième serie, Tome second) (8 May–7 August 1830)
Vol. 9(Deuxième serie, Tome troisième) (14 August–6 November 1830)
Vol. 10(13 November 1830 – 29 January 1831)
Vol. 11(Tome XI - V
me année: 5 February 1831 – 28 January 1832)
Vol. 12(Tome XII - VI
me année: 4 February 1832 – 26 January 1833)
* Vol. 13 (1833) (Tome XIII - VII
me année)
*
Issue No. 1, 2 February 1833*
Issue No. 48, 28 December 1833* Vol. 14 (Tome XIV - VIII
me année)
*
Issue No. 1, 5 January 1834*
Issue No. 52, 28 December 1834Vol. 15(IX
me année: 4 January 1835 – 27 December 1835) Published on Sundays
;''Gazette musicale de Paris''
Published weekly by Schlesinger on Sundays.
1834, Vol. 1(First edition, 1
ère année, No. 1, Sunday 5 January 1834)
1834, Vol. 2(1
ère année, No. 27, 6 July 1834)
1835, Vol. 1(2
e année, No. 2, 11 January 1835). In issue 44, pp. 353–4 (the first edition of ''Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris'') Schlesinger - comparing himself to a general of Ancient Greece - announced on 1 November 1835 in glowing terms that the struggle with Fétis had been won, and that ''La Revue Musicale'' would pass, with arms and baggage-train, ensigns flying and with all the honours of war, into the ''Gazette musicale''. Fétis announced that subscribers to his ''Revue'' would receive the Gazette under the Revue's masthead until 1 January 1836, and that he would continue to write exclusively for the Gazette.
1835, Vol. 2(Nos. 45-52, November–December 1835, with supplements)
; ''Revue et gazette musicale de Paris''
Appeared on Sundays.
3rd year, 18364th year, 18375th year, 1838* 6th year, 1839. From January 1839 until 11 April 1841 the journal appeared twice weekly, on Thursdays and Sundays. For the first six months, (January–June 1839), the Thursday edition appeared as
*''Revue musicale, journal des artistes, des amateurs et des théatres'' with similar font and masthead design. The first edition appeared on Thursday, 3 January 1839, with consistent volume numbering, as 6
e année, No. 1.
''Revue musicale, journal des artistes etc.''(Thursdays only: No. 1, Thursday, 3 January 1839 to No. 26, Thursday, 27 June 1839, as ''Revue Musicale'': plus No 27, Thursday, 4 July, and No. 28, Sunday, 7 July, as ''Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris'') The Sunday edition continued as
''Revue et gazette musicale de Paris'', 6th year, 1839(6
e année, No. 1). (Sundays only: No. 1, Sunday, 6 January until No. 26, Sunday, 30 June; then No 27, Thursday, 4 July, and No. 28, Sunday, 7 July as above; then both Thursday and Sunday editions until No. 72, Sunday 29 December.)
[NB The date of the first issue is misprinted 6 Janvier ''1838'' instead of 1839.]7th year, 1840(Contains both Thursday and Sunday editions of ''Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris'')
8th year, 1841(bi-weekly until issue of 11 April 1841, p. 225, then Sundays only from 18 April)
9th year, 184210th year, 18431844Changes to masthead design and layout. (supplement to 7 January issue contains facsimiles of hundreds of signatures of composers and musicians).
18451846Schlesinger sold the journal in 1846 to a former employee, Louis Brandus.
1847Reverts to old masthead & layout.
1848(Google books)18491850*etc. until 1880
The journal was suspended from September 1870 to September 1871 during the
Siege of Paris, bringing the
Franco-Prussian War to an end.
References
;Notes
External links
''La Revue et gazette musicale de Paris'' review of the 13-volume edition by Doris Pyee-Cohen and Diane Cloutier, 1999; and its complet
Introduction Répertoire international de la presse musicale
Répertoire international de la presse musicale (Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Internationales Repertorium der Musikzeitungen), commonly known as RIPM, provides access to music periodical literature published between 1750 and 1966 throu ...
(RIPM)
''Revue et gazette musicale'' from 1834 to 1880at the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
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