Without it, the greater part of the
works that are the honour of our music would never have been played;
perhaps they would not ever have been written. The Society possessed the
rare merit of being able to anticipate public opinion by ten or eleven
years, and in some ways it has formed the public mind and obliged it to
honour those whom the Society had already recognised as great musicians.
[Footnote 215: The facts which follow are taken from the archives of the
_Societe Nationale de Musique_, and have been given me by M. Pierre de
Breville, the Society's secretary.]
The two founders of the Society were Romaine Bussine, professor of
Singing at the Conservatoire, and M. Camille Saint-Saens. And, following
their initiative, Cesar Franck, Ernest Guiraud, Massenet, Garcin,
Gabriel Faure, Henri Duparc, Theodore Dubois, and Taffanel, joined
forces with them, and at a meeting on 25 February, 1871, agreed to found
a musical society that should give hearings to the works of living
French composers exclusively. The first meetings were interrupted by the
doings of the Commune; but they began again in October, 1871. The
Society's early statutes were drawn up by Alexis de Castillon, a
military officer and a talented composer, who, after having served in
the war of 1870 at the head of the _mobiles_ of Eure-et-Loire, was one
of the founders of French chamber-music, and died prematurely in 1873,
aged thirty-five.
Pages:
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351