Louis Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray
(b. Feb. 2, 1840, Nantes, France; d. July 4, 1910, Vernouillet )
He began his studies at the
Paris Conservatoire in 1859 with Ambroise
Thomas. He won the Prix de Rome in 1862
with his cantata Louise de Mézière. Irvine says that he "had
already produced an opera three years previously in his home town of
Nantes." (Demar Irvine, Massenet: A Chronicle of His Life and Times,
p. 26) [N.B. In 1858, he composed the comic opera L'atelier de Prague
("The Prague Workshop"), which was produced in 1859 at Nantes.]
Bourgault was probably from a family of means and political
clout. His uncle was Billault, "the famous minister of the Second Empire."
(Groves 6, III, p. 110) [N.B. Presumably his maternal uncle was Auguste
Adolphe Marie Billault (1803-1863) who served as minister of
state and chief spokesman of the emperor and president of the
French Legislative Corps (Corps Législatif)
from March 9, 1852 to November 12, 1854. After the
revolution of 1848, the former monarchical assemblies were dissolved and
replaced by a unicameral National Assembly that
replaced with a new
version of his uncle's Legislative Corps.] Adolphe Billault also was
France's Minister of Interior from June 23, 1854 until February 7, 1858.
The chateau of Grézillières was built by Adolphe Billault in 1855 on
the Property of Guillaume Henri Ducoudray-Bourgault. It was used as
headquarters for the German command during the Second World War.
Another important relative was Jules Rieffel (1806-1886) who was
born in Barr in Alsace. While traveling in Brittany, Rieffel met a
ship-owner, Haent-jens, from Nantes who owned 500 hectares (1,235 acres)
in Nozay in western France. But this poor property was grown over in moors
of gorses, heathers and brooms. Jules Rieffel purchased the land in 1830.
He undertook the project to clear the field in order to create, "L'Ecole
d'agriculture de Grand-Jouan," [Grand Jouan is a town north of Nozay]
which became the Agricultural Institute in 1849, the first national school
of French agriculture. Jules Rieffel was the enthusiastic director of 1830
to 1881. He developed an agricultural science based on the experimental
results. Rieffel joined the Bourgault-Ducoudray family--presumably by
marriage--a family that is linked with that of Adolphe Billault, deputy
and future minister of Napoleon III. In 1840, Rieffel founded the
significant journal: Agriculture de l'ouest de la France or
Agriculture of Western France. In 1894, L'Ecole d'agriculture de
Grand-Jouan was transferred to Rennes, a city north of Grand-Jouan. It is
today known as ENSAR, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie de Rennes.
(Source:
http://www.nozay44.com/tourisme/rieffel.htm )
While living at the Villa Medici in Rome, his reserved personality
did not serve him well. Says Irvine, "Bourgault-Ducoudray was reserved and
did not mix too frequently with the other pensioners." (Irvine, p. 30)
Jules Massenet was one of those pensioners. Massenet had come the year
after Bourgault-Ducoudray. Massenet wrote Abroise Thomas about a
encounter with Bourgault-Ducoudray. Irvine summarizes: "One morning in
March [1864], the reserved Bourgault-Ducoudray had finally paid Massenet a
visit. They played bits of Bach Passions, which Bourgault had not known
before. Early in April [1864], Bourgault left to join his family in
Naples, expecting to return to Rome only for the three summer months to
write his envoi." (Irvine, p. 32) His second envoi [first is not
known at present] was a French opera titled Meo Patacca on a text
by Berneri. On November 27, [1864], Irvine says that Bourgault held a
splendid garden party at the Villa Medici that was attended by 20 men and
women from the Trastevere [the old Jewish quarter of Rome
across the river from Campo dei Fiori.] The attendees were
required to dress in costumes from the early 1800s. The party roamed all
over the grounds of the Villa Medici ending up "in a brilliantly lighted
sculptor's [Falguière's] studio, where six musicians with mandolins and
guitars provided music for the costumed dancers." Massenet--who, it
seems was Bourgault's only close friend--was a party guest and Massenet.
The party must have been memorable because Massenet recollected about it
many years later. (Irvine, pp. 35-36) Massenet wrote: "The weather was
fine and the scene was simply wonderful when we were in the 'Bosco', my
sacred grove. The setting sun lighted up the old walls of ancient Rome.
The entertainment ended in [Jean-Alexandre-Joseph]
Falguière's studio, lighted a giorno, our doing.
There the dance became so captivating and intoxicating that we finished
vis-à-vis to the Transteverines in the final salturrele. They all smoked,
ate, and drank--the women especially liked our punch." (Jules Massenet,
My Recollections (Boston:1919) trans. H. Villiers Barnett, p. 48)
Bourgault left the Villa Medici on Christmas Eve, 1864.
Unlike so many of his
contemporaries, who became performers, Bourgault-Ducoudray became interested in what would
be called today musicology, more precisely ethnomusicology. His interest in French folk
music, and that of the Greeks, Russians, as well as oriental music, set him apart and
created for him a unique legacy.
Bourgault-Ducoudray introduced French audiences to exotic
music, including Russian music which was relatively unknown. Additionally,
premiered Balakirev’s symphonic poem Tamara (1881).
He published folksong collections like Trente
mélodies populaires de Grèce et d'Orient (1876; Thirty Popular Melodies from
Greece and the Orient), Trente mélodies populaires de Basse Bretagne (1885; Thirty
Popular Melodies from Lower Brittany), and Quatorze mélodies Celtiques (1909; Fourteen
Celtic Melodies) and lectured, advocating folk music as an untapped resource for the
composers. His knowledge and experience qualified him for a position as Professor of Music
History at the Paris Conservatoire from 1878 to 1908. Claude Debussy was among his pupils.
In 1878, Bourgault lectured at the Conservatoire on the new Russian
composers such as Dargomizhsky, Tchaikovsky, César Cui and Rimsky-Korskov.
(Edward Lockspeiser, Debussy: His Life and Mind, Vol. 1, p. 49) He
gave a lecture concerning his philosophy at the 1878 Universal Exhibition
in Paris. He said:
"No element of expression existing in a tune of any kind,
however ancient, however remote in origin, must be banished from our
musical idiom. All modes, old and new, European or exotic, insofar as they
are capable of serving an expressive purpose, must be admitted by us and
used by composers. I believe that the polyphonic principle may be applied
to all kinds of scales. Our two modes, the major and minor, have been so
thoroughly exploited that we should welcome all elements of expression by
which the musical idiom may be rejuvenated." (Groves 6, III, p. 111)
In preparation for the 1878 Universal
Exhibition, there were many concerts planned for the Trocadéro Palace. A
committee was formed to decide what compositions should be included.
Bourgault served on a sub-committee headed by Gounod. The other members
were Theodore Dubois, Theodore de
Lajarte and Antoine Lascoux. (Irvine, p. 101)
Bourgault met with Peter Tchaikovsky during
one of his many visits to Paris during the period 1883 to 1892. According
to Lockspeiser, their meeting was the result of Debussy's friendship with
Tchaikovsky. (Lockspeiser, I, p. 51) Ethnomusicologist André
Schaeffner, Debussy shared interest in Oriental pentatonic scales and
gamelan instruments with Bourgault-Ducoudray who himself had written
Rapsodie cambodgienne (Kampuchean Rhapsody) with genuine Cambodian
musical themes that was performed in 1889. (Lockspeiser, I, p. 116)
Bourgault's Rapsodie cambodgienne was composed in 1882.
According to liner notes by Adriano (edited by Keith Anderson),
Rapsodie cambodgienne "bears the subtitle Khnénh Préavossa
('The Feast of Water'). In the first part the God of Earth, Préa Thorni,
addresses the God of Water, Préa Congkéar, begging him to cede him his
scepter, in order to re-establish the land’s fertility. It is only through
the supplications of the flood-stricken inhabitants that Congkéar finally
agrees to withdraw. In the second part, the Cambodians celebrate this
event by a colorful religious celebration." (Source:
http://www.naxos.com)
As a composer, Bourgault based many of his works
on folk-music styles. He wrote five operas, and according to the Naxos
liner notes by Adriano, "the two operas Thamara (1891) and
Myrdhin (1905), set respectively in Baku and Brittany, can be
considered his masterpieces, and both deal with the struggle between
paganism and Christianity." Bourgault composed a Stabat Mater
(1874) as an homage to Palestrina. Other dramatic works celebrated
historical personalities like Vasco da Gama and Anne of
Brittany. Additionally, he composed some orchestral works including:
Symphony (1861) a Symphonie religieuse (1868), with chorus,
and the tone-poems Carnaval d’Athènes, Danse égyptienne, L’enterrement
d’Ophélie and Le fils de Saül.
REV:
2/10/2006
