Guillaume André Villoteau (19 September 1759 in

Bellême Bellême () is a commune in the Orne department in northwestern France. It is classed as a Petites Cités de Caractère. The musicologist Guillaume André Villoteau (1759–1839) was born in Bellême, as was Aristide Boucicaut (1810–1877), ...

– 27 April 1839 in

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city 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 inhabita ...

) was a French

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

Biography

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

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

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 kn ...

during the

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...

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 be ...

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 campaign ...

which accompanied the army of the East during the

French campaign in Egypt and Syria The French invasion of Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was a military expedition led by Napoleon Bonaparte during the French Revolutionary Wars. The campaign aimed to undermine British trade routes, expand French influence, and establish a ...

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, 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, critic, teacher and composer. He was among the most influential music intellectuals in continental Europe. His enormous compilation of biographical data in the ...

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'' (, ''"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 an ...

'' 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 Lille ...

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 Communes of France, commune in the Indre-et-Loire Departments of France, department in central France. Population See also *Les Grottes Pétrifiantes de Savonnières *Communes of the Indre-et-Loire department References

, 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 Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a count ...

, ''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 1759 births 1839 deaths People from Bellême French ethnomusicologists Writers from Normandy 19th-century French musicologists Arabic music Commission des Sciences et des Arts members