François Francoeur

François Francoeur (8 September 1698–August 5 1787) was a French violinist and composer.

Biography

He was born in Paris, the son of Joseph Francoeur, a basse de violon player and member of the "24 violons du roy". Francoeur was instructed in music by his father and joined the Paris Opera as a violinist at age 15. After travel and performances in the principal European culture centres, he returned to Paris as a member of the Concert Spirituel. Francoeur was appointed to the "24 violons du roy" in 1730; music instructor to the Opera in 1739; and (with François Rebel) Opera Inspector, in 1744. In 1753 Rebel and Francoeur took over management of the Paris Opera—which was a centre point for French music. In 1760 Francoeur was appointed Music Master to the King. Dying in 1787 at age 89, he was spared the fate of his nephew, Louis-Joseph Francoeur, Master of the King's Chamber music and orchestra director, who was imprisoned during the French Revolution until the fall of Robespierre in 1794.

Compositions

His surviving compositions, published in "Propylaen der Musik, V. 2" (1989), include two books of violin sonatas, 10 operas and some ballets, created jointly with François Rebel. Thus he is often quoted as a rare case of collaboration in musical composition. A sicilienne and rigaudon were initially attributed to him, in a publication by Fritz Kreisler, but were eventually revealed to be the work of Kreisler himself.

The only known recordings of Francoeur's works are a noteworthy LP recording, "Music for the Wedding of the Count d'Artois", on the Music Heritage label, and the Cypres CD 1626 "Suites de Simphonies", including what may be the same set of works by Francoeur, and excerpts from an earlier opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, "Les Indes Galantes". There is a 2003 recording of Francoeur's Sonata in E for Cello and Piano on Delos by Zuill Bailey which shows off this composer to advantage.

Musicological and stylistic notes

Especial emphasis is placed on the above recordings for musicological as well as aesthetic reasons. In the transition from ages relatively little interested in earlier music (19th and early 20th Century) to an age where a professional specialization in "ancient music" has arisen, composers like Francoeur, who had relatively modest instrumental production or did not in other ways attract special professional attention, have often remained in obscurity. It is easy to see from Francoeur's inventiveness and infectious rhythmic drive why he was esteemed in his lifetime. Had Louis XVI had him as a music instructor earlier in his life instead of, as biographers suggest, a musical mediocrity who chilled his interest in the violin, he might have become a royal composer like Frederick the Great of Prussia.

Francoeur is sometimes categorised amongst the "Classical-era" composers who avoided the "classical style of Haydn and Mozart". The surviving music of Francoeur (supposedly composed close to 1773), though contemporary with that of Haydn and Mozart, shows relatively few of the courtly mannerisms that abound in classical music directly sponsored by royalty. Rather, it has more of an "advanced Rococo" character, spicing strings with creative use of wind instruments. This kind of music seems to have been especially favoured by the rising bourgeoisie and lesser aristocracy in mercantile centres like London, Hamburg, Frankfurt as well as Paris, who provided an increasing market for musical composition.

References

*GroveOnline|Francoeur|Fillion, Michelle, Catherine Cessac, and Lois Rosow|16 July|2007