The Conservatoire Américain a History

06-549_00_FM.qxd 10/30/06 6:29 AM Page i The Conservatoire Américain A History Kendra Preston Leonard THE SCARECROW PRESS, INC. Lanham, Maryland • Toronto • Plymouth, UK 2007 06-549_00_FM.qxd 10/30/06 6:29 AM Page ii SCARECROW PRESS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Scarecrow Press, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.scarecrowpress.com Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Copyright © 2007 by Kendra Preston Leonard All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Leonard, Kendra Preston. The Conservatoire américain : a history / Kendra Preston Leonard. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8108-5732-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8108-5732-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Conservatoire américain—History. I. Title. MT5.F66C66 2007 780.71'14437—dc22 2006026100 ϱ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America. 06-549_00_FM.qxd 10/30/06 6:29 AM Page iii To Karen and Winston Leonard, to Anita Wiegand, and to the memory of Lucia Ward 06-549_00_FM.qxd 10/30/06 6:29 AM Page iv 06-549_00_FM.qxd 10/30/06 6:29 AM Page v Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction ix A Note on Bibliographic Abbreviations xv Prologue Francis Casadesus’s Manifesto and the Founding of the Conservatoire Américain (1918–1920) xvii Part I: The Institution without Precedent Chapter 1 The Institution without Precedent (1921–1928) 3 Chapter 2 The Age of Opulence (1929–1939) 19 Chapter 3 Interlude 1: Elizabeth Saylor (1939) 39 Part II: Exile and War Chapter 4 At Home in Exile (1940–1945) 51 Chapter 5 Reconstruction (1946–1948) 63 Chapter 6 Interlude 2: Gaby Casadesus (1946) 71 v 06-549_00_FM.qxd 10/30/06 6:29 AM Page vi vi Contents Part III: “La Belle Dame sans Merci” Chapter 7 A New Era (1949–1957) 75 Chapter 8 La Belle Dame sans Merci (1958–1979) 87 Chapter 9 Interlude 3: Emile Naoumoff (1970s) 109 Part IV: “Après Elle le Deluge” Chapter 10 “Après Elle le Deluge” (1980–1987) 119 Chapter 11 The Schism Opens (1988–1993) 139 Part V: The Frog Rodeo Chapter 12 The Frog Rodeo (1994–present) 155 Epilogue Nutrisco et Extinguo 171 A Note on the Appendixes 185 Appendix A A Timeline of the Conservatoire 187 Appendix B Curriculum Offered at the Conservatoire Américain 195 Appendix C Directors of the Conservatoire Américain 197 Appendix D Selected Professors of the Conservatoire Américain 199 Appendix E Selected Guest Artists at the Conservatoire Américain 203 Appendix F Selected Notable Students of the Conservatoire Américain 205 Appendix G Diplomas and Awards of the Conservatoire Américain 209 Bibliography 251 Index 257 About the Author 263 06-549_00_FM.qxd 10/30/06 6:29 AM Page vii Acknowledgments There are many people who have assisted me in the creation of this book. I would like to thank Pierre Boyer; Thérèse Casadesus Rawson; Diana Vilas Gladden; Joe Kerr; and Debra Takakjian, all with the Fontainebleau Associ- ations; the Office du Conservateur du Chateau, Palais de Fontainebleau; and the Bibliothèque Municipale de Fontainebleau. I am grateful to Elizabeth Austin; Walter Bailey; John G. Doll; Jay Gott- lieb; James Harrison; Charles Kaufman; Jean-Pierre Marty; Emile Naoumoff; Jean O’Hara; Elizabeth Saylor; and the late Mrs. H. P. (Elsie) Watson for pro- viding me with archival materials and interviews. Thanks also to Linda Carmona; Jessie Fillerup; Karin Pendle; Karl Rufener; Carl Serpa; Beth Snodgrass; and Robert Zierolf; and to Dorel Ab- bott; John Abbott; Perry Bartsch; Marion Bleyler; Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Cody; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Cole; Joan Clark; Lorene Dover; Ursula Harris; Dr. and Mrs. Drew Litzenberger; Virginia Mallard; Matilda Mauldin; Mr. and Mrs. Maloy Rash Jr.; Mr. and Mrs. Clay Whittaker; Anita Wiegand; and Karen and Winston Leonard. I am indebted to Renée Camus of Scarecrow Press, who has been a cham- pion for this book. I would also like to thank the book’s anonymous review- ers for their generosity of time and assistance. Research for this book was supported by grants from the National Coali- tion of Independent Scholars; the Peabody Conservatory of Music Alumni Career Development Fund; and the University of Cincinnati University Re- search Council. The Fontainebleau Associations also supported my research through two residencies at the Conservatoire. vii 06-549_00_FM.qxd 10/30/06 6:29 AM Page viii 06-549_00_FM.qxd 10/30/06 6:29 AM Page ix Introduction In the years preceding the First World War, American music students seeking advanced study typically traveled to Germany to enroll at the conservatories— known as Hochschule—there. Few American universities or colleges offered professional-level programs for training serious composers or performers until the late years of the nineteenth century (Yale, which granted its first degree in music in 1890, is one example) and early years of the twentieth century. The majority of those schools that did attempt to educate musicians did so for the purposes of creating music instructors for primary and secondary schools and private teaching. Although a few institutions were founded around the turn of the century for professionals—Juilliard opened in 1905 with the aim of keeping Americans in America for their studies—many students still felt that the best place for them to obtain their education was in Europe. Based on the assump- tion that Germanic models of composition and approaches to precise execution in performance were the best any nation had to offer, a significant number of American composers and instrumentalists attended school in Germany and Austria following their initial studies in the United States. America’s best- known nineteenth-century composers, including John Knowles Paine, George Chadwick, Arthur Foote, Amy Beach, Sidney Homer, and Edward MacDow- ell, all benefited from German or Austrian educations that exposed them to repertoire, interpretations, and techniques lacking in American music schools of the day. These schools emphasized clarity of form and a strong allegiance to tonality, and introduced Americans to abstract and programmatic conceptual- izations, with most American composers choosing to work in the latter camp. ix 06-549_00_FM.qxd 10/30/06 6:29 AM Page x x Introduction Instrumentalists also went abroad for their advanced studies; pianist Amy Fay’s celebrated memoir of her time as a student of Franz Liszt is but one ac- count of an American musician receiving training in Europe.1 Female instrumentalists were especially drawn to study in Germany and Austria, where, following the model of Clara Schumann and other professional women, female concert artists were both comfortably situated as normal members of society and positively received in the concert hall as serious artists. The students who made this trek and enrolled in the Hochschule in those countries were serious practitioners who had exhausted their domestic resources for coaching and pedagogy and were, without exception, less inter- ested in pursuing the more traditional path of becoming an educator than in attaining the career of a soloist. Pianist Julie Rive-King, violinists Camille Urso and Maud Powell, and cellist Elsa Reugger all left the United States to pursue further training in Germany and Austria, having found that the soci- etal limitations placed on women in the United States hampered their abilities to reach their full potential. With the entry of the United States into the Great War, however, much civil interaction between America and Germany ceased. Reactionary musicians refused to play works by German composers; orchestras began to re- place German musicians with those from France, Belgium, and Russia; and it was decidedly impolitic—and often logistically impossible—for anyone to go to Germany, for educational reasons or any other purpose. The practice of American composers and performers pursuing study at Leipzig came to a halt, and Americans began staying at home for advanced musical training. How- ever, this loss of continental training opportunities was felt among students across the country, who found that, with few exceptions, the education provided by music schools in the United States still could not compare with the more rigorous and demanding courses they had taken abroad. At the end of the war, students began exploring their options in regard to international education and found that France, grateful for the assistance provided by Amer- ican forces during the war, was a welcoming place for young musicians. While Americans could not generally enroll at the Paris Conservatory due to its severe admittance restrictions, there were other opportunities for advanced instruction. Although France had not been the top destination for American musicians prior to the war, it had a long and distinguished history of excellence in music education. Children in France were required to learn an instrument and take intensive courses in music history, analysis, and ear-training from a young age, resulting in a significant percentage of citizens with absolute pitch. Dance and music were part of the traditional elementary and second- 06-549_00_FM.qxd 10/30/06 6:29 AM Page xi Introduction xi ary school curricula, and students with exceptional abilities were channeled into regional conservatories at an early age for accelerated training. From these regional conservatories, students were prepared for auditions at the national conservatories, the most prestigious of which was the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, known as the Paris Conservatoire.

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