Disciplined music. The control of music in French conservatoires of the 19th century.

Abstract

What is it that characterizes a conservatory ? What music does it teach, and
how? Far from being a mere music school, based on the model of the National
Conservatoire of music founded in France in 1795, the institution obeys a particular
conception of music and of musical practices. The Conservatoire indeed relies on
Jacobine ideals. Opposing against ecclesiastic and foreign control of music, it must
be a laique and national teaching institution, able to produce on the new musical
market entirely French productions, from the formation of the musicians to the
musical performances. The institution also is characterized by the framing of the
outer and inner space. The framing of the outer space passes through the centralized
network of provincial conservatoires, conceived as dependent from the Paris
Conservatoire. The framing of the inner space passes through the closure of the
Conservatoire and the spatial individuation of the students according to their
progress, their specialty and their class. Space for living, the Conservatoire also
becomes a disciplinary space as defined by Michel Foucault. The control of the
manners and the sexuality of the students results in repeated musical rehearsals in
the classroom. Abstinence and rehearsal are supposed to determine a virtuous circle,
aiming at the conservation of music: chastity leads to more frequent rehearsals, and
music helps remaining chaste, in a circular movement that allows maintaining the
repertoire. The Conservatoire therefore is a specific music school, above either
criticism or praise. It is not certain that such a model, imagined in a specific
context, is fitting for the teaching of a novel music or of novel ways of performing
it.