François-Joseph-Marie Fayolle (15 August 1774 - 2 December 1852) was a French writer on music, who was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and is known by his articles in connection with the '' Biographie Universelle'', having furnished the greater portion of the biographies, and by his joint authorship of Choron's ''Dictionary of Musicians'', to which work Fétis was much indebted for information.

Life

After a brilliant career at the Collège de Juilly, he entered the '' Corps des Ponts et Chaussées'' in 1792, and became ''

chef de brigade ''Chef de brigade'' ( English: Brigade chief) was a French military rank. It was used as the equivalent of the rank of major in the French Royal Army's artillery units and colonel in the French Revolutionary Army. Before the revolution ''Chef ...

'' of the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

on its foundation in 1794. Here, under the instruction of Prony,

Lagrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaMonge Gaspard Monge, Comte de Pelusium, Péluse (; 9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geom ...

, he studied higher mathematics, but without neglecting literature, and with Fontanes assistance translated a great part of the ''

Æneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. Written by the Roman poet Virgil between 29 and ...

.'' Of his verses the following line has alone survived:

Le temps n'épargne pas ce qu'on a fait sans lui.

Though forgotten as a mathematician and a poet, Fayolle has acquired a solid reputation for his services to musical literature. He studied harmony under Perne, and the violoncello under Barni, but abstained from printing his compositions; and contented himself with publishing ''Les quatre Saisons du Parnasse'' (Paris, 1805–9), a literary collection in sixteen vols., 12mo, for which he wrote many articles on music and musicians. He also furnished the greater part of the biographical notices in the ''Dictionnaire historique des Musiciens'', published under the names of Choron and himself (two vols. Paris, 1810–11), a work to which Fétis is much indebted. In 1813 he published ''Sur les drames lyriques et leur execution.'' He collected materials for a

History of the Violin The violin, viola and cello were first built in the early 16th century, in Italy. The earliest evidence for their existence is in paintings by Gaudenzio Ferrari from the 1530s, though Ferrari's instruments had only three strings. The ''Académie ...

, of which, however, only fragments appeared, under the title ''Notices sur Corelli, Tartini, Gaviniés, Pugnani, et Viotti, extraites d'une histoire du violon'' (Paris, 1810). After the fall of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

, Fayolle came to England, where he taught French, and wrote for the '' Harmonicon''. On the eve of the Revolution of 1830 he returned to Paris, and resumed his old occupation as a musical critic. Among his later works may be mentioned a pamphlet called ''Paganini et Bériot'' (Paris, 1830), and the articles on musicians in the supplement to

Michaud Michaud is a surname of French origin, most often found in France, Canada and the United States. Notable people with the name include: * Alexandre Michaud de Beauretour (1771–1841), Piedmontese general who served in the Imperial Russian Army * A ...

's ''Biographie Universelle''. At the age of 78, he died on 2 December 1852, at Ste. Perrine, a house of refuge in Paris.

References

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Fayolle, François-Joseph-Marie French critics 18th-century French writers 19th-century French writers 1774 births 1852 deaths