Nicolas Chédeville (20 February 1705 – 6 August 1782) was a French

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, musette player and musette maker.

Biography

Nicolas Chédeville was born in Serez,

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

; musicians Pierre Chédeville (1694–1725) and

Esprit Philippe Chédeville Esprit or L'Esprit may refer to: * the French word for spirit; as a loanword: ** Enthusiasm, intense interest or motivation ** Morale, motivation and readiness ** Geist "mind/spirit; intellect" * Esprit (name), a given name and surname * ''Espri ...

(1696–1762) were his brothers. Louis Hotteterre was his great uncle and godfather, and may have given him instruction in music and

turning Turning is a machining process in which a cutting tool, typically a non-rotary tool bit, describes a helix toolpath by moving more or less linearly while the workpiece rotates. Usually the term "turning" is reserved for the generation of ...

instruments. He began playing the

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

and musette (a

bagpipe Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, No ...

-like instrument commonly used in French

baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Classical music, Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance music, Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Class ...

) in the

Paris Opera The Paris Opera ( ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be kn ...

orchestra in the 1720s. After Jean Hotteterre's death in 1732, he took over his post in ''Les Grands Hautbois'', the royal

band. He retired from the

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

in July 1748, though returned occasionally to play the musette there. When he was nearly 70, he married the younger daughter of a

valet A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, ''valet de chambre'' was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "va ...

who had once worked for the Duc d'Orléans, and was still describing himself as musette player to the king. In his last years he experienced financial difficulties. His ten houses were signed over to creditors in 1774, following which he separated from his wife. He resigned from ''Les Grands Hautbois'' in 1777, petitioned for bankruptcy in 1778 and died in Paris four years later. Lawyers were still trying to settle his affairs in 1790. Jean-Benjamin de la Borde called him "the most celebrated musette player France had ever had", though he mistakenly held the opinion that he was dead by 1780, two years before he met his end. He taught the musette to Princess Victoire from about 1750, and became a popular teacher among the aristocracy, eventually attaining the title of ''maître de musette des Mesdames de France''. He was also a musette maker, and extended the instrument's compass in the bass down to c' (

middle C C or Do is the first note of the C major scale, the third note of the A minor scale (the relative minor of C major), and the fourth note (G, A, B, C) of the Guidonian hand, commonly pitched around 261.63 Hz. The actual frequency has d ...

Works

Chédeville's compositions were intended for the amusement and pleasure of wealthy amateur musicians; the French aristocracy of the time found pleasure in playing rustic instruments while living a romantic fantasy of

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...

life (before the French Revolution presented a rather different perspective). His first published works were collections of pieces for musette or

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-turned crank, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin (or nyckelharpa) bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar ...

, entitled ''Amusements champêtres'' (

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

amusements), published in December 1729. He called himself 'Chedeville le jeune', and in later compositions referred to himself as 'Chedeville le cadet'. Another collection of ''Amusements champêtres'' followed, which were of a more advanced technical and musical substance. Some variety was found in op. 6, with pieces named after

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force co ...

s and expressing '

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

-like images'; it was inspired by a military campaign he had gone on with the

Prince of Conti Prince of Conti (French: ''prince de Conti'') was a French noble title, assumed by a cadet branch of the princely house of Bourbon-Condé. History The title derives its name from Conty, a small town in northern France, c. 35 km southwest ...

. He turned briefly to more serious music with Italian influences in op. 7, which is his only collection written specifically for the

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

Impersonation of Vivaldi

In 1737 he made a secret agreement with his cousin Jean-Noël Marchand to publish a collection of his own compositions as

Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist, impresario of Baroque music and Roman Catholic priest. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lif ...

's op. 13, entitled ''Il pastor fido''. Chédeville supplied the money and received the profits, all of which was attested to in a notarial act by Marchand in 1749. This may have been an attempt to give his instrument, the musette, the endorsement of a great composer which it lacked. (Whether Vivaldi was ever aware of the fraud is unknown; there is no record of him lodging any complaint against either Chédeville or Marchand, and he was already dead by the time of Marchand's notarised deposition.) Vivaldi scholars had doubted the authenticity of ''Il pastor fido'' since at least the 1950s, but the forgery was only conclusively proven by French musicologist Philippe Lescat in 1989.Vivaldi/Chédeville "Il pastor fido". Gramophone.co.uk
/ref> Chédeville's interest in

Italian music In Italy, music has traditionally been one of the cultural markers of Italian national cultures and ethnic identity and holds an important position in society and in Italian politics, politics. Italian music innovationin scale (music), musi ...

led to his receiving, in August 1739, a privilege to publish arrangements for the musette, hurdy-gurdy or flute of concertos and sonatas by ten specific Italian composers, in addition to

Johann Joachim Quantz Johann Joachim Quantz (; 30 January 1697 – 12 July 1773) was a German composer, flute, flutist and flute maker of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. Much of his professional career was spent in the court of Frederick the Great, where he s ...

and Antoine Mahaut. ''Le printems, ou Les saisons amusantes'' (1739) is a particularly amusing result of this privilege; it is an arrangement of Vivaldi's '' The Four Seasons'' for hurdy-gurdy or musette, violin, and flute (though the French ''flute'' could also mean the recorder). He replaced Vivaldi's original ''Summer'' with his op. 8 no. 9 concerto, transferred the middle movement of ''Winter'' to ''Autumn'', and replaced ''Winter'' op. 8 no. 12. All this was quite freely arranged and combined with some added Vivaldian material by Chédeville.

Compositions

Published in Paris. All solo works are accompanied by continuo. '/' indicates alternative instrumentation.

Opuses

*Op. ''Amusements champêtres, livre 1er'' (1729); for 1 and 2 musettes/ hurdy-gurdies. *Op. ''Amusements champêtres, livre 2e'' (1731); for 1 and 2 musettes/hurdy-gurdies/

flutes The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

s. *Op. ''Troisième livre d'amusements champêtres'' (1733); for musette/hurdy-gurdy/flute/oboe/

. *Op.4: ''Les danses amuzantes mellées de vaudeville'' (1733); for 2 musettes/hurdy-gurdies/flutes/oboes/violin. *Op.5: ''Sonates amusantes'' (1734); for 1 and 2 musettes/hurdy-gurdies/flutes/oboes/violin. *Op.6: ''Amusemens de Bellone, ou Les plaisirs de Mars'' (1736); for 1 and 2 musettes/hurdy-gurdies/flutes/oboes. *Op.7: ''6 sonates'' (1739); for flute/oboe/violin. *Op.8: ''Les galanteries amusantes'' (1739); for 2 musettes/hurdy-gurdies/flutes/violins. *Op.9: ''Les Deffis, ou L'étude amusante''; for musette/hurdy-gurdy. *Op.10: ''Les idées françoises, ou Les délices de Chambray'' (1750); for 2 musettes/hurdy-gurdies/flutes/oboes/violins. *Op.11: lost *Op.12: ''Les impromptus de Fontainebleau'' (1750); for 2 musettes/hurdy-gurdies/violins/

pardessus de viole The pardessus de viole is the highest-pitched member of the viol family of instruments. It is a bowed string instrument, bowed string instrument with either five or six strings and a fretted neck. The pardessus first appeared in the early 18th c ...

/flutes/oboes. *Op.13: lost *Op.14: ''Les variations amusantes: pièces de différents auteurs ornés d'agrémens'' (includes

variations Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individual ...

on ''Les folies d'Espagne''); for 2 musettes/hurdy-gurdies/pardessus de viole/flutes/oboes.

Arrangements and other works

*''Il pastor fido, sonates ... del sigr Antonio Vivaldi'' y Nicolas Chédeville(1737); for musette/hurdy-gurdy/flute/oboe/violin. *''LE PRINTEMS / ou / LES SAISONS / AMUSANTES / concertos / DANTONIO VIVALDY / Mis pour les Musettes et Vielles / avec accompagnement de Violon / Fluste et Basse continue. / PAR M^R CHEDEVILLE LE CADET / Hautbois De la Chambre du Roy / et Muſette ordinaire De l'Academie Royalle / De Muſique. Opera ottava.''

Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist, impresario of Baroque music and Roman Catholic priest. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lif ...

's '' The Four Seasons'' by Nicolas Chédeville] (1739); for musette/hurdy-gurdy, violin, flute, and continuo. *''La feste d'Iphise'' [arrangement of airs from Montéclair's ''Jephté''] (1742); for 2 musettes/hurdy-gurdies. *''Les pantomimes italiennes dansées à l'Académie royale de musique'' (1742); for 1 and 2 musettes/hurdy-gurdies/flutes/oboes. *''Nouveaux menuets champêtres''; for musette/hurdy-gurdy/violin/flute/oboe. *'' all'baco'', op.4, arrangement for musette/hurdy-gurdy/flute/oboe. *''La feste de Cleopatre'' (1751); for 2 musettes/hurdy-gurdies.

Notes

References

*Jane M. Bowers: 'Chédeville', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2007-06-11), http://www.grovemusic.com/

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chedeville, Nicolas 1705 births 1782 deaths People from Eure French male classical composers French Baroque composers French classical oboists French male oboists French musical instrument makers 18th-century French classical composers 18th-century French male musicians 17th-century French male musicians