Search

Before the French Revolution began in 1789, André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry composed opéra comique that achieved great success both in Paris and abroad. As the revolutionary tides swept toward republican musical aesthetics, the illustrious Grétry receded from the public eye and briefly struggled to remain afloat. A newly discovered letter that he wrote during this period to the famed Abbé Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes offers a window into the effects that revolutionary legislation had on musicians. Sieyes, author of the seminal revolutionary text “What is the Third Estate?”, pioneered liberty of the press and authors’ rights legislation as a member of the French National Assembly and National Convention. His efforts were realized when the first intellectual property laws relating to music became codified in 1791 and 1793. In the 1790 letter, although Grétry praises Sieyes’ policy proposals, he also raises personal and professional injustices surrounding intellectual property rights to music. Grétry’s letter addresses his concerns about the translations of stage works from French to Italian, the unsanctioned performances of opéras and opéras comiques, and the general welfare of French musicians. While in his nineteenth-century memoirs Grétry recasts himself as a republican, this letter from early in the Revolution focuses on musicians’ more tangible concern to, in his own words, “place bread on the table.” The letter invites an interrogation of how musicians approached the new patronage structure in revolutionary France, which abruptly transferred from the court and church to the nation as a result of political upheaval. A valuable addition to scholarly understanding of Grétry’s participation in the Revolution, the letter simultaneously begs a rethinking of his contribution to revolutionary causes and a reevaluation of musicians’ professional activities during the French Revolution.