Michel-Paul Guy de Chabanon (1730,

Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer ...

– 10 June 1792, Paris) was a violinist, composer, music theorist, and connoisseur of

French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than Fr ...

. He was elected to the

Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions ( epig ...

(1760) and the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

(1779).

Biography

As fiction writer

Michel Paul Guy de Chabanon wrote poetry, elegies (notably that of

Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau (; – ) was a French composer and music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera an ...

), plays (including the tragedy of ''Éponine'') and translations (adjudged by the 19th century ''

Dictionnaire Bouillet ''Dictionnaire Bouillet'' is the informal title of the ''Dictionnaire universel d'histoire et de géographie'' ("Universal Dictionary of History and Geography"), a French reference work in the public domain. The first edition was published in 18 ...

'' as having "little fidelity o the original text but not lacking in elegance and facility").

As musician and music theorist

Michel Paul Guy de Chabanon was also a successful musician, playing the violin in the Concert des Amateurs under the direction of

Joseph Bologne, chevalier de Saint-Georges Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (25 December 1745 – 10 June 1799), was a French Creole (people), Creole virtuoso violinist and composer, who was conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris. Saint-Georges was born in the ...

. He was the author of an opera, ''Sémélé,

tragédie lyrique This is a glossary list of opera genres, giving alternative names. "Opera" is an Italian word (short for "opera in musica"); it was not at first ''commonly'' used in Italy (or in other countries) to refer to the genre of particular works. Most c ...

'', and of several works on music theory, of which the most valued are his commentaries on music in the work of

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

. His double identity as a writer and a musician gave him a unique viewpoint on the links between music and language and in developing a philosophy of music of which his work was the expression. He also contributed to defining opera as a musical genre.Deux visionnaires au siècle des Lumières
Michel-Paul-Guy de Chabanon
(1730–1792) et

Christoph Willibald Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...

(1714–1787)

Works

Translations

* ''

Pindar Pindar (; grc-gre, Πίνδαρος , ; la, Pindarus; ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar is ...

e'' (1771) * '' Théocrite'' (1775) * ''

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

'' (1773).

Works on music esthetics

* 1779 : ''Observations sur la musique, et principalement sur la métaphysique de l'art'' (Paris, 1779; translated by Weber in German a
Ueber die Musik und deren Wirkungen, aus dem franz. übersetzt mit Anmerkungen
Leipzig, 1781) * 1785 : Sur l'introduction des accords dans la musique des anciens, Mémoire * 1785 : ''De la musique considérée en elle-même et dans ses rapports avec la parole, les langues, la poésie, et le théâtre'' (Paris, )1785).

Libretti

*'' Sabinus'' (1773)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chabanon 18th-century French male classical violinists People of Saint-Domingue Latin–French translators Greek–French translators French classical scholars 18th-century French poets French male classical composers French opera composers Male opera composers Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 18th-century French dramatists and playwrights French music theorists 18th-century French male writers Haitian people of French descent 1730 births 1792 deaths 18th-century classical composers 18th-century French composers Writers about music 18th-century French translators