François-Louis Perne, also known as François Perne (4 October 1772 – 26 May 1832), was a French composer and writer on music. He was known both for his writings on the history of music and also for being a director of the

Paris Conservatoire The Conservatoire de Paris (), or 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 Jean Ja ...

Biography

François-Louis Perne 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 ...

. He started his musical training as a

choirboy A choirboy is a boy member of a choir, also known as a treble. As a derisive slang term, it refers to a do-gooder or someone who is morally upright, in the same sense that "Boy Scout" (also derisively) refers to someone who is considered honor ...

in the parish of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie. In 1792, he became a tenor in the chorus of the

Opéra National de Paris 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 kn ...

, where he remained until 1799, when he became a

contrabass Contrabass (from ) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchestral string family ...

ist in the

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

.Perne, Francois Louis - Musical Biographies
In 1811 he was appointed professor of harmony at the

as a successor to Charles Catel. He later became general inspector of the Conservatoire in 1816 and librarian in 1819. He died at

Laon Laon () is a city in the Aisne Departments of France, department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History Early history The Ancient Diocese of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held s ...

Selected works

Essays

* ''Cours élémentaire d'harmonie'' (1823) * ''Ancienne musique des chansons du châtelain de Coucy mise en notation moderne'' (Paris, 1830)

Composition

* ''Fugue à trois partes, trois modes, quatre sujets et quatre faces'' (1800) * ''Canon à sept parties et à nombreuses mutations''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perne, Francois-Louis 1772 births 1832 deaths 18th-century French composers 18th-century French musicologists 18th-century French male musicians 19th-century French composers 19th-century French musicologists 19th-century French male musicians Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris Directors of the Conservatoire de Paris French musical theatre composers Male musical theatre composers Musicians from Paris French writers about music Writers from Paris