Restructuring of the CMBV research database

Laurent Guillo has been working on the restructuring of the CMBV’s research database since 2019. It will merge around 80 databases (of works, sources, events & people) produced by the JLB-NET [...]

Workshop

L’Histoire de l’Académie royale de musique by François and Claude Parfaict (1741)

This project involves the publication of a PDF digital book in the form of a critical edition of l’Histoire de l’Académie royale de musique  by brothers François and Claude Parfaict, a major work [...]

Power

Table music

Midway between entertainment and ritual, during the Ancien Régime meals accompanied by music became a social must and symbol of power, a veritable mark of elite status. While the ritual royal banquets [...]

Night scenes in 17th and 18th century theatre

This project stands between the history of the stage and theatre techniques and includes the mindsets and anthropological values attached to the Night. It incorporates political, cultural, dramaturgical, [...]

The Fabrication of Performance: Processes and Politics of Costume-Making in the 18th-Century

In the 18th  century, theatre was an important tool for promoting both political and personal agendas, and it can be seen as a barometer of socio-political changes. While theatrical costumes have [...]

MUSICOVID/ASTRAMUSICA

To combat the pandemic, in March 2020 public authorities worldwide enforced emergency measures, controlling public spaces and restricting personal freedom, which had serious repercussions on social and [...]

A Year with Molière

The magic of the comédie-ballet Around 300 secondary school pupils have been exploring the world of comédie-ballet via a series of visits, performances, meetings and practicals since September. [...]

Classes baroques

The CMBV has embarked on an ambitious baroque project with the town of Maurepas (78) and the French Board of Education.          It invites pupils to embark [...]

Workshop

The Ballard workshop, royal music printers

When directing his workshop from 1672 to 1715, Christophe Ballard worked during a period when institutional music was highly concentrated in Paris and Versailles. Supported by the king, its significant [...]

Workshop

The early French music copyists' workshops

Besides printers and engravers, copyists are essential links in the production of musical sources. They may work in a very productive workshop (Philidor and Fossard's is a typical example), or alternatively [...]

Territories

The Concert Academies in 18th century France

The first Académies de musique, Académies de Concert (also simply called Concerts) emerged in the 1710’s and expanded considerably between 1720 and 1750. They rapidly spread across France and instituted [...]

Power

The Cantata in 18th century France

The Cantata is a major poetic and music genre of the 18th century, particularly during the first thirty years. Born in the 17th century and originally imported from Italy, it took many different forms [...]

The Paris Royal Academy of Music

The Académie royale de musique de Paris, one of the most emblematic institutions of the Baroque period, is closely tied to the birth and development of the opera in France. This project takes several [...]

ThéParis

A multidisciplinary research seminar co-organised by the CMBV, the Centre for Renaissance Studies (Tours University), Côté d’Azur University and the CTEL (Literature & Performing Arts research centre), [...]

Territories

Musical life in France and in the lands of the Bohemian crown in the 17th and 18th centuries

The project aims to investigate the different strategies and methods of cultural exchange in Europe during the Ancien Régime, and to focus on the (little-known) links between France and the lands of the [...]

Territories

Italian music and Italian musicians in France

Traditionally seen as a counter-model, the Italian musical style actually had a substantial impact on the forming of the French musical style. Italian musicians were on French soil due to circumstance [...]

Completed project

Workshop

Les livres d’airs de différents auteurs (LADDA)

The 37 Livres d’Airs featuring various composers and published each year between 1658 and 1694 by Robert and later Christophe Ballard forms a corpus of around 1220 airs. They reflect the popularity of [...]

Completed project

Workshop

Airs de cour

The air de cour was an iconic social musical genre in the late Renaissance and through the first half of the 17th century. It has aroused a great deal of public interest in the last ten years or so, [...]

Completed project

Workshop

Les Soupers du Roi

Symphonies pour les Soupers du Roi : the nature and role of court music 2019 / 2020 academic year Focusing on the iconic Symphonies pour les Soupers du Roi , the CMBV has embarked on a joint 3-year [...]

Power

Religious Music in the Sovereign Courts of Europe

This cross-discipline European research project comprises a comparative study of the use of music to create a ‘sound image’ of a Monarch’s religion during the Counter-Reformation across Europe; how it [...]

Music and Liturgy in the Royal Chapel

In the wake of Alexandre Maral’s research into the Royal Chapel at Versailles, and drawing on seminars and performance practice instigated by the CMBV, this project will investigate how music was addressed [...]

Power

Motets and Liturgy

Focusing on the motet, the iconic musical genre of the Ancien Régime, the project sets out to discover how this ‘modern’ paraliturgical polymorphic music (e.g. chapel motets, grands motets and petits motets) [...]

Territories

Choir school music in France

Choir School Music in France: the Tours-168 and Deslauriers manuscripts  2019 / 2020 academic year The Tours-168 and Deslauriers manuscripts of sacred music are rare testimonies of the music [...]

Theme-based projects

French opera singers

Keen to spot today’s finest baroque singers and highlight neglected French opera music, the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles has created or supported ‘imaginary operas’ and recitals based on well-known [...]