Concert spirituel, public spectacle in which they play, during the time when all the other spectacles are closed, motets and symphonies. It is established in the Salle des Suisses at the Tuileries. They have had convenient loges constructed and a big orchestra [seating area]; and this spectacle was more or less well attended according to the greater or lesser intelligence of the people who were put in charge.

Anne Daveau, [1] called Philidor, member of the King’s Music, came up with the idea in 1725. It is a tributary spectacle of the Académie Royale de Musique [Paris Opéra], which managed it for a while itself; and it is currently assigned to M. Royer, singing master of the Children of France.

It is the most beautiful concert in Europe, and it can very easily become the best that it is possible to create, because by its [terms of] establishment it is not limited to simple instrumental pieces or to motets; they can have cantatas played there, Italian arias by excellent masters, vocal pieces that are new and detached [from operas], etc. In 1727 they presented, with success, the cantata Retour des dieux sur la terre, with words by M. Tanevot, and the music by M. Colin de Blamont; and in 1729, the cantata that is entitled la Prise de Lerida and several Italian ariettes attracted a great crowd there.

Whenever any instrumentalist of repute or foreign singer (male or female) shows up in Paris, it is there that one is sure to hear them well. The number of good instrumentalists that comprise this concert, the chorus members that are chosen from among the best musicians in the churches of Paris, the actresses at the Opéra most favored by the public, and the most brilliant voices of the chapel and chamber [music] of the king that they have taken the trouble to present there, all make it very pleasant for music lovers; and when they have the art of varying the pieces that are performed, the public runs there in a body.

It is only there, moreover, and at the King’s Chapel, that one can enjoy the beautiful motets of M. Mondonville. This famous composer of this kind of music is to the concert spirituel what M. Rameau is to the opera: he has grasped, in his sacred compositions, the grand manner that this illustrious artist has brought to dramatic works; yet he grasped it with originality; he saw the light as soon as it appeared, and he has composed in such a way that one can easily see that he was capable of opening new pathways in his art, regardless of whether M. Rameau had opened them before him or not. See Singing.

Note

1. Anne Danican Philidor, 1681–1728 (translator’s note)