Under the Ancien Régime, the Church was by far the largest employer of music professionals. It was also the only structure - decentralised throughout the country - that provided training for musicians of all categories, through choirmasters' schools. The scientific aim of the programme is to reconstruct the fabric of ecclesiastical music throughout France: the course of musical careers, internal hierarchies, place in society, typology of early music venues, etc.
Muséfrem brings together historians and musicologists in an active, open, participatory network. Nourished by the many coherent sources produced at the start of the Revolution, the prosopographical database is not their goal, but their tool. Twice a year, previously new articles are published, sketching out, department by department, a panorama of musical life at the end of the Ancien Régime, based on thousands of corresponding biographical notes. These publications, of which there will be 60 by 2022, are supervised by a scientific committee and supported by an editorial committee. Every year in October, Muséfrem organises a study day open to all on a variety of themes. Gradually, beyond the musical situation in 1790, the programme sheds in-depth light on the realities of the 18th-century musical world.
16th meeting of the Muséfrem Network: “Learning (through) singing: Choirboys in France in the 18th Century”
Organised in partnership with the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, the 16th meeting of the Muséfrem Network devotes its study day to choirboys in France. Drawing on the data assembled by this [...]
Des musiciens au service des églises (XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles)
In France, before the Revolution, the musical establishments of cathedrals and collegiate churches employed professional musicians and served as training grounds for musicians of every kind. Since the [...]