François-Joseph Fétis
François-Joseph Fétis | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 26 March 1871 | (aged 87)
François-Joseph Fétis (French: [fetis]; 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.[1] His enormous compilation of biographical data in the Biographie universelle des musiciens remains an important source of information today.
Family
Fétis was born in
In October 1806 he married Adélaïde-Louise-Catherine Robert, daughter of the French politician
In 1866 his wife died, and he withdrew from the Brussels society and court. When his father died, Eduard inherited his complete library and collection of musical instruments.
Career
His talent for composition manifested itself at the age of seven, and at nine years old he was an organist at Saint Waltrude, Mons. In 1800 he went to
In 1806 he undertook the revision of the Roman
In 1821 he was appointed professor at the
Fétis produced a large quantity of original compositions, from the opera and the oratorio to the simple chanson, including several musical hoaxes, the most famous of which is the "Lute concerto by Valentin Strobel", premiered with Fernando Sor as soloist. Carcassi, as well as Sor, participated in the performance. The work is attributed NOT to the Alsascian lutenist Valentin Strobel, but to Jean (Johann) Strobach, a member of a prominent Bohemian family of musicians. This Strobach (fl. 1650–1720) served Leopold I, and there is no evidence that Fetis's score is a hoax. The composition was published in 1698, although no copy is known to have survived, except Fetis' manuscript score, which is in the Royal Conservatory Library in Brussels.[citation needed]
In 1856, he worked closely with Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume in writing a fascinating treatise about Antonio Stradivari (Antoine Stradivari, luthier célèbre). It includes detailed chapters on the history and development of the violin family, old master Italian violin makers (including the Stradivari and Guarneri families) and an analysis of the bows of François Tourte. His interest in instruments can also be gathered from his very substantial collection, which includes the oldest surviving Arab oud.[5]
Fetis had the privilege to have Paganini, Schumann and Berlioz as contemporaries and to work with the violin maker and dealer, Jean Baptiste Vuillaume. Fetis's work provides a unique window into the times and as such is a particularly valuable reference for the modern researcher, dealer and player.
More important perhaps than his compositions are his writings on music. They are partly historical, such as the Curiosités historiques de la musique (Paris, 1850), and the Histoire générale de la musique (Paris, 1869—1876); and partly theoretical, such as the Méthode des méthodes de piano (Paris, 1840), written in conjunction with Moscheles.[3]
While Fétis's critical opinions of contemporary music may seem conservative, his musicological work was ground-breaking, and unusual for the 19th century in attempting to avoid an ethnocentric and present-centered viewpoint. Unlike many others at the time, he did not see music history as a continuum of increasing excellence, moving towards a goal, but rather as something which was continually changing, neither becoming better nor worse, but continually adapting to new conditions. He believed that all cultures and times created art and music which were appropriate to their times and conditions; and he began a close study of
Fétis died in Brussels. His valuable library was purchased by the Belgian government and presented to the Royal Library. His historical works, despite many inaccuracies, remain of great value for historians.[3]
His pupils included Luigi Agnesi, Jean-Delphin Alard, Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, Louise Bertin, William Cusins, Julius Eichberg, Ferdinand Hérold, Frantz Jehin-Prume, Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, Adolphe Samuel, and Charles-Marie Widor. See: List of music students by teacher: C to F#François-Joseph Fétis.
Fétis and Berlioz
Some of his criticisms of contemporary composers have become quite famous, as well as the responses that they engendered. He said of
I saw that melody was antipathetic to him, that he only had a faint notion of rhythm; that his harmony, formed by an often monstrous accretion of notes, was nevertheless flat and monotonous; in a word I saw that he lacked melodic and harmonic ideas, and I judged that he would always write in a barbarous manner; but I saw that he had the instinct for instrumentation, and I thought that he could fulfil a useful vocation in discovering certain combinations that others would put to better use than he.[7]
Berlioz, who had proof-read Fétis' editions of the first eight
commented that[Fétis had altered Beethoven's harmonies] with unbelievable complacency. Opposite the E flat which the clarinet sustains over a chord of the sixth (D flat, F, B flat) in the andante of the C minor symphony, Fétis had naively written ‘This E flat must be F. Beethoven could not have possibly made so gross a blunder.' In other words, a man like Beethoven could not possibly fail to be in entire agreement with the harmonic theories of M. Fétis.
Troupenas did in fact remove Fétis' editorial marks, but Berlioz was still unsatisfied. He went on to criticize Fétis in one of the monologues of Lélio, ou le Retour à la vie, the 1832 sequel to Symphonie Fantastique:
These young theorists of eighty, living in the midst of a sea of prejudices and persuaded that the world ends with the shores of their island; these old libertines of every age who demand that music caress and amuse them, never admitting that the chaste muse could have a more noble mission; especially these desecrators who dare lay hands on original works, subjecting them to horrible mutilations that they call corrections and perfections, which, they say, require considerable taste. Curses on them! They make a mockery of art! Such are these vulgar birds who populate our public gardens, perching arrogantly on the most beautiful statues, and, when they have soiled the brow of Jupiter, Hercules' arm, or the breast of Jupiter, strut and preen as though they have laid a golden egg.[9]
Not one to be outdone, Fétis may have had the last word in this debate. In the 1845 edition of his treatise La musique mise à la porte de tout le monde, he describes the word "fantastique" saying that "this word has even slid into music. ‘Fantastique' music is composed of instrumental effects with no melodic line and incorrect harmony."
Theoretical work
Although known primarily for his contributions to musicology and criticism, Fétis had effects on the realm of music theory as well. In 1841 he put together the first history of harmonic theory, his Esquisse de l'histoire de l'harmonie. Assembled from individual articles that Fétis published in the
Fétis' main theoretical work and the culmination of his conceptual frameworks of tonality and harmony is the Traité complet de la théorie et de la pratique de l'harmonie of 1844. This book has influenced later theorists and composers including Paul Hindemith, Ernst Kurth, and Franz Liszt. In the Musik-Lexicon of 1882, Hugo Riemann states that "to [Fétis'] meditations we are indebted for the modern concept of tonality…he found himself emancipated from the spirit of a particular age, and able to render justice to all the various styles of music." Though some other theorists, most notably Matthew Shirlaw,[10] have had decidedly negative views, Riemann's assessment captures the two key features of Fétis' text. Though he did not coin the term "tonality," Fétis developed the concept into its present-day form. He claimed that "tonalité" is the primary organizing agent of all melodic and harmonic successions and that the efforts of other theorists to find the fundamental principle of music in "acoustics, mathematics, aggregations of intervals, or classifications of chords have been futile."[11]
The majority of the Traité complet is devoted to explaining how tonalité organizes music. The primary factor of determining tonality is the scale. It sets out the order of the succession of tones in major and minor (the only two "tonal" modes which he recognizes), the distances which separate the tones, and the resultant melodic and harmonic tendencies.
In his comparative work, Fétis attempted "a new method of classifying human races according to their musical systems"[15] following contemporary trends of social darwinism in the emerging fields of ethnology and anthropology.
Harmonic and rhythmic modulation
However, if one wishes to interpret Fétis' metaphysical theory, one of his unique theoretical ideas is laid out in book 3 of the Traité complet, that of
- Unitonic – Resulting from between the 4th and 7th scale degrees. This phase is also referred to by Fétis as tonalité ancienne.
- Transitonic – Order which began with the introduction of the dominant 7th chord into harmonic discourse, sometime between Montverdi. This development is also directly related to the codification of cadential systems and periodic phrase structure.
- Pluritonic – Modulation is achieved through enharmonic relationships in which one note of a chord is considered the point of contact between different scales. Fétis claims that Mozartwas the first to use such modulations as a means of expression. In this order, the diminished 7th and augmented 6th chords become important as they can modulate to several different tonalities.
- Omnitonic – The final phase of tonality, and one embodied for Fétis by Meyerbeer.[17]
Fétis later applied this same system of ordres to rhythm, "the least advanced part of music...[where] great things remain to be discovered."[18] Though he did not publish these theories in any of his treatises, they appear in several articles for the Revue musicale and in some lectures which had a profound impact on Liszt.[19] Though music had not yet made it past the first phase, Unirhythm, by Fétis' time, he argues that composers may be able to "mutate" from one meter to another within the same melodic phrase. Though Liszt may have been an open disciple of the ideas of the Omnitonic and Omnirhythmic, the influence of such thinking can perhaps be seen most clearly in the music of Brahms, where hemiola and mixing of time signatures is a common occurrence.
"Se i miei sospiri"
The Italian art song, "Se i miei sospiri", appeared in a Paris concert organized by Fétis in 1833. Fétis published the piece for voice and strings in 1838 and then again in 1843 for voice and piano with alternate lyrics ("Pietà, Signore"). It is these alternate lyrics with which the piece is now typically associated. Fétis attributed the song to Alessandro Stradella and claimed to possess an original manuscript of the work but never produced it for examination. As early as 1866, musicologists were questioning the authenticity of the song, and when Fétis' library was acquired by the Royal Library in Brussels after his death, no such manuscript could be found. Owing to this and the fact that the style of the piece is inconsistent with Stradella's own period, the authorship of the piece is now typically attributed to Fétis himself. The original Italian text for the song (Se i miei sospiri) was found set to different music by Alessandro Scarlatti in his 1693 oratorio "The Martyrdom of St. Theodosia".[20]
Publications
- Biographies de Joseph et Michael Haydn (Paris, n.d.)
- Méthode elementaire et abregée d'harmonie et d'accompagnement (Paris: Petit, 1823)
- Traité du contrepoint et de la fugue... (Paris: Charles Michael Ozu, 1824)
- Revue musicale (Paris, 1827–35)
- Curiosités historiques de la musique, complément nécessaire de la musique mise à la portée de tout le monde (Paris: Janet et Cotelle, 1830)
- Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique (Brussels, 1833–1844 [8 vols.])
- Traité du chant en choeur (Paris, 1837)
- Esquisse de l'histoire de l'harmonie considérée comme art et comme science systématique (Paris, 1840).
- Traité complet de la théorie et de la pratique de l'harmonie (Paris and Brussels, 1844)
- Antoine Stradivari, luthier célèbre (Paris, 1856)
- Histoire générale de la musique (Paris, 1869–76; 5 vls., unfinished)
Honours
- Kingdom of Belgium:
- Master of the Royal Music.[21]
- Grand Officer in the Order of Leopold.[21]
- Kingdom of the Netherlands: Commander in the Order of the Oak Crown.[21]
- Kingdom of Prussia: Knight of the Order of the Red Eagle.[21]
- Kingdom of France: Officer of the Legion of Honour.[21]
- Academic Honours
- Member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.[21]
- Member of the Academy of Rome.[21]
- Member of the Academy of Berlin.[21]
- Member of the Academy of Vienna.[21]
- Member of the Academy of Stockholm.[21]
- Member of the Academy of London.[21]
Compositions
Ensembles
- String Quartet No. 1
- String Quartet No. 2
- Grand Sextet, Op. 5
Overture
- Ouverture de concert à grand orchestre
Concerto
Symphony
- 1862: Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major
- Symphonic Fantasy for organ and orchestra
Mass
- Messe di Requiem
Songs
- Se i miei sospiri
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
- ISBN 9781561592630. (subscription or UK public library membershiprequired)
- ^ F.J. FETIS 1784 - 1871. HET MUZIEKLEVEN VAN ZIJN TIJD. Brussel, Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I, 1972/ pag. xxiii
- ^ a b c d e public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fétis, François Joseph". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 294–295. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ISBN 0-918728-99-1.
- ^ "Alexandria to Brussels, 1839". oudmigrations. 2 March 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
- ^ Fétis, Joseph (1 February 1835). "Analyse critique: Épisode de la vie d'un artiste". Revue musicale (in French). IXme année (5). Paris: 33–35.
- ^ See also
Cone, Edward T., ed. (1971). Fantastic Symphony: An authoritative score; historical background; analysis; views and comments (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. p. 217. ISBN 0-393-09926-1.
- ^ "Troupenas". IMSLP. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
- ^ Fétis, F.-J. Esquisse de L'histoire de l'Harmonie: An English Language Translation of the François-Joseph Fétis History of Harmony. Translated, annotated, and edited by Mary I. Arlin. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1994, p. xxii.
- ^ Shirlaw asserts that "anything more ill-considered, more indadequate than Fétis' 'metaphysical' theory of harmony based on the principle of tonality which he himself does not understand, and is unable to explain, it would be difficult to conceive."[full citation needed]
- ^ Arlin, Mary I. "Fétis' Contribution to Practical and Historical Music Theory." Revue belge de Musicologie, Vol. 26/27 (1972/1973), p. 106.
- ^ Fétis, F.-J. Esquisse de L'histoire de l'Harmonie: An English Language Translation of the François-Joseph Fétis History of Harmony. Translated, annotated, and edited by Mary I. Arlin. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1994, p. xxiii.
- ^ Schellhous, Rosalie. "Fétis's Tonality as a Metaphysical Principle: Hypothesis for a New Science." Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Autumn, 1991), p. 219-240.
- ^ Both the Dahlhaus and Schellhous quotes can be found in: Schellhous, Rosalie. "Fétis's Tonality as a Metaphysical Principle: Hypothesis for a New Science." Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Autumn, 1991), p. 219-240
- . Retrieved June 5, 2022.
- ^ Josephson, Nors S. "François-Joseph Fétis and Richard Wagner." Revue belge de Musicologie, Vol. 26/27 (1972-1973), p. 84-89.
- ^ Bloom, Peter A. "Friends and Admirers: Meyerbeer and Fétis." Revue belge de Musicologie, Vol. 32/33 (1978-1979), p. 174-187.
- ^ Arlin, Mary I. "Metric Mutation and Modulation: the Nineteenth-Century Speculations of F.J. Fétis." Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Autumn, 2000), p. 261.
- ^ Móricz, Klára. "The Ambivalent Connection between Theory and Practice in the Relationship of F. Liszt & F.-J. Fétis." Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientarum Hungaricae, T. 35, Fasc. 4 (1993-1994), p. 399-420.
- ^ Glenn Paton, John (1991). "26 Italian Songs and Arias: An Authoritative Edition Based on Authentic Sources". Alfred Publishing.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k F.J. FETIS 1784 - 1871. HET MUZIEKLEVEN VAN ZIJN TIJD. Brussel, Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I, 1972/ pag. 100
Further reading
- JSTOR 25486037.
External links
Scores
Texts and books
- Books with "Fétis" as author (Google Books)
- Books with occurrences of "Fétis" (Google Books)
- Texts with occurrences of "Fétis" (archive.org)
- Biographie universelle des musiciens (2nd edition) at Google Books:
- Vol. 1, 1860 (478 pages) Aaron – Bohrer (+vol. 2)
- Vol. 2, 1861 (484 pages) Boildieu – Derossi (+vol. 1)
- Vol. 3, 1862 (480 pages) Désargus – Giardini
- Vol. 4, 1862 (491 pages) Gibbons – Kazynski
- Vol. 5, 1863 (480 pages) Kechlina – Martini (+vol. 6)
- Vol. 6, 1864 (496 pages) Martini, leP – Pérolle (+vol. 5)
- Vol. 7, 1864 (548 pages) Perotti – Scultetus (+vol. 8)
- Vol. 8, 1865 (527 pages) Sebastiani – Zyka (+vol. 7)
- Biographie universelle des musiciens (supplement by Arthur Pougin) at Google Books:
- Works by François-Joseph Fétis at Project Gutenberg
- Works by François-Joseph Fétis at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)