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‘THE FAMOUS VIDAL’: NEW LIGHT ON THE LIFE AND WORKS OF A GUITARIST IN LATE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2021
Abstract
During the second half of the eighteenth century the Spanish guitar reached a level of popularity in France not equalled elsewhere. Among the various composers who contributed to the vogue for the instrument in this country, sources of the period refer to a certain Mr Vidal, a guitarist of Spanish origins who was regarded as one of the most important masters of the guitar in Europe. Despite multiple references to his musical activities no extensive study has yet been made, which leaves this figure only partially studied. In order to address this lacuna, this article reconstructs the life of this guitarist, placing his music in the environment in which he lived in order to obtain a clearer picture of the situation of the guitar and the role of Vidal as a composer, guitarist, publisher and teacher.
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Footnotes
An early version of this article was presented as a paper at the 7th Lake Konstanz Guitar Research Meeting in Hemmenhofen (Germany) in March 2019. I am most grateful for the invaluable help and advice of Christopher Page, Erik Stenstadvold and David R. M. Irving in the preparation of this article. I would also like to thank Kenneth Sparr for input and constructive comments as well as the two anonymous reviewers for this journal for their suggestions.
References
1 Original spellings in primary sources are preserved throughout the text.
2 Yates, Stanley, ‘Three Early Guitar Concertos (the Earliest-Known Guitar Concerto and Two Others) from Late Eighteenth[-]/Early Nineteenth-Century Paris: Vidal, Doisy and Doisy-Viotti’, Soundboard 36/3 (2010), 6Google Scholar.
3 The so-called Spanish guitar was an instrument with an octoform body and a fretted neck, strung with gut in five double courses, which progressively evolved into six single strings at the end of the eighteenth century. Unless stated otherwise, all the references to the ‘guitar’ in this text are addressed to this instrument.
4 Some noteworthy exceptions are Sparks, Paul, ‘The Origins of the Classical Guitar’, in Tyler, James and Sparks, Paul, The Guitar and Its Music from the Renaissance to the Classical Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)Google Scholar; Pascal Valois, ‘Les guitaristes français entre 1770 et 1830: pratiques d'exécution et catalogue des méthodes’ (PhD dissertation, Université Laval, 2009); and Stenstadvold, Erik, An Annotated Bibliography of Guitar Methods, 1760–1860 (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon, 2010)Google Scholar. There are also some important articles that will be mentioned throughout this text.
5 Devriès, Anik and Lesure, François, Dictionnaire des éditeurs de musique français, volume 1: Des origines à environ 1820 (Geneva: Minkoff, 1979), 156Google Scholar. In his foreword to B. Vidal: Concerto for Guitar & Strings, ed. Stanley Yates (Heidelberg: Chanterelle, 2010), Erik Stenstadvold provides some relevant remarks about Vidal not included by Devriès and Lesure.
6 Fétis, François-Joseph, Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique, first edition, eight volumes, volume 8 (Brussels: Meline, Cans, 1844), 554Google Scholar.
7 Gerber, Ernst Ludwig, Neues Historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkünstler, four volumes, volume 4 (Leipzig: Rühnel, 1814), 445Google Scholar.
8 In fact, he spelled the name of the guitarist as ‘Vida’ and added ‘Sgr’, indicating ‘signor’.
9 Stenstadvold, Guitar Methods, 194–195.
10 Antoine Gatayes, Seconde méthode de guitare à six cordes, second edition (Paris: Frère, c1813–1816), 4. I am most thankful to Sophie Terrettaz for her valuable help in translating the French texts in this article.
11 In 1992 Antonio Fappani included in volume 9 of his twenty-two volume Enciclopedia Bresciana (Brescia: Fondazione Opera Diocesana S. Francesco di Sales, 1974–2007) the birth and death dates of these two brothers without offering his sources. Joseph Bernard is listed as having been born in Brescia on 28 November 1723 and dying in Paris on 22 May 1793; Giacomo was apparently born on 18 August 1726, also in Brescia, and is supposed to have died in Paris c1800. See http://www.enciclopediabresciana.it (2 September 2020).
12 Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs, 118.
13 On the music advertisements in the French press see Anik Devriès-Lesure, L’édition musicale dans la presse parisienne au XVIIIe siècle: catalogue des annonces (Paris: CNRS, 2005).
14 Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, twenty-eight volumes, volume 7 (Paris: Diderot, 1757), 1011. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was in charge of the musical entries in this colossal work (Diderot and d'Alembert, Encyclopédie, volume 1, xliii). While other musical entries state the name of the author, this one does not provide that information.
15 Stenstadvold, Guitar Methods, 28.
16 For a detailed account of the organology and tuning of the instrument throughout this period see Sparks, ‘Origins of the Classical Guitar’.
17 It is not clear which of the two Merchi brothers composed all the music that appeared in Paris from 1757 to 1780 under their surname. However, some of the works themselves bear the name Giacomo, which may point to him. Jürgen Libbert, in his entry on Merchi in Grove Music Online www.oxfordmusiconline.com, gives preference to Joseph Bernard, while Stenstadvold (Guitar Methods, 139–140) points to Giacomo.
18 ‘Recueil de menuets pour guittare avec les Folies d'Espagne variées, par M. VIDAL, maître de Guittare. Prix 2 liv. 8 s. Chez le Sieur Bouin, marchand de musique & de cordes d'instrumens, rue S. Honoré, au gagne-Petit, près S. Roch, à côté des écuries de Monseigneur; Mlle Castagny, rue des Prouvaires, & aux adresses ordinaires’, L'avant-coureur (3 April 1769), 213. This work has not so far been located.
19 In those years the famous violinist and composer Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville (1711–1772) had his residence in the same street as Vidal.
20 Philippe Macquer, Dictionnaire portatif des Arts et Métiers, two volumes (Paris: Chez Lacombe, 1766–1767), volume 2, 55.
21 Erik Stenstadvold, ‘“We Hate the Guitar”: Prejudice and Polemic in the Music Press in Early 19th-Century Europe’, Early Music 41/4 (2013), 595.
22 Ursula M. Rempel, ‘Women and Music: Ornament of the Profession?’, in French Women and the Age of Enlightenment, ed. Samia Spencer (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984), 172–173.
23 Of the twenty-eight names listed as ‘maîtres de chant’ between 1768 and 1785 found in Devriès-Lesure, L’édition musicale, nine are not associated with any instrument, seven with the guitar, six with the harp and three with the harpsichord. The Tablettes de Renommée des Musiciens (Paris: Cailleau, 1785) lists 132 musicians under the heading ‘Compositeurs Virtuoses, Amateurs et maîtres de Musique Vocale et de gout du chant’ (no pagination), most of them being singers at the opera or active at different chapels in the city.
24 The painting Marie-Antoinette jouant de la harpe dans sa chambre, made in 1777 by Jean-Baptiste Gautier Dagoty (nowadays in the Musée du château de Versailles et de Trianon), shows the queen playing a harp with a guitar-like instrument in the background.
25 There has been some confusion about the frequency of publication of this journal. However, both the Jolivet 1771 catalogue (mentioned in Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs, catalogue No. 115) and Almanach Musical of 1776 (page 61) clearly state that it was published weekly.
26 Patouart le fils was the son of Louis François Joseph Patouart ‘ordinaire de la chambre du roi’, who, besides writing music for cello, also composed some for guitar. Advertisements for Patouart le fils began to appear after 1768.
27 On 15 April 2013 the Maison de ventes spécialisée ALDE in Paris sold an item entitled Muse lyrique, dédiée à la Reine. Recueils d'Airs avec accompagnement de Guitarre dated 1775 and consisting of 198 pages.
28 La muse lyrique lasted until 1790; this represents a publication period of twenty years for a weekly periodical for guitar, which is remarkable for the eighteenth century. When Jolivet went out of business in 1778, another important publisher and also a guitarist, Pierre Joseph Baillon, successeur de Jolivet, took over. After Baillon's death in 1785 his widow continued the journal until 1790.
29 On Boüin see Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs, 41.
30 Annonces, affiches et avis divers (23 March 1772), supplement, 248.
31 Annonces, affiches et avis divers (31 October 1774), 886.
32 A man named Vidal was teaching guitar in the United States in June 1774 (O. G. Sonneck, Early Concert-Life in America, 1731–1800 (New York: Musurgia, 1949), 76). The complete name of this figure was Lewis Vidal and he advertised himself as ‘a considerable time first player on the French horn in the Court of Portugal’ with a ‘competent knowledge of either the French or Italian languages’ and who ‘teaches to accompany the guitar with the voice after the method of M. Merchi’ (South Carolina & Amer. Genl. Gazette (23–30 September 1774), 34). Several references to Lewis Vidal have been found in the United States at least until late October 1774, when an advertisement states that ‘he proposes [to] teach twice a week such ladies and gentlemen within the compass of twenty miles as will favour him with their commands to sing or play on the English or French guitar, saltero or mandoline’ (South Carolina & Amer. Genl. Gazette (21–28 October 1774), 32). It is difficult to believe, given how active he was in France at this exact time, that the Vidal who is the subject of this article managed to make a trip across the Atlantic and fit in all that is described above; however, we should not exclude this possibility. I am very thankful to Doc Rossi, Heather Thomas, Thomas Smith, Peter Danner and Gary Boye for help in connection with my research on this man in the US.
33 Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs, catalogue No. 25.
34 Castaud published or sold music by Merchi, Albanese, Suin, Guichard, Legat de Furcy, Salivas, Solié and Porro.
35 ‘Septième Recueil de pièces & d'airs nouveaux, avec accompagnement de guittare & d'un violon, que l'on peut supprimer si l'on veut; composé par M. VIDAL l'aîné, Maître de guittare. La réputation de l'auteur fait l’éloge de cet ouvrage’, Mercure de France (December 1774), 243–244.
36 On Daniel Cornabé see Jean-Philippe Priotti and Guy Saupin, Le commerce atlantique franco-espagnol (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2008).
37 Another musician with the name ‘Vidal’ is mentioned as ‘Haute contre du concert & de la metropole d'Avignon’ (high tenor of the concert and cathedral of Avignon) in the Lyon area (Affiches de Lyon 1766, No. 33, 161). I am indebted to Erik Stenstadvold for this information.
38 Gazette de France (1 July 1776), 242.
39 Tablettes de Renommée des Musiciens provides a list with almost every minor guitarist or composer for this instrument in those years, but only one Vidal appears.
40 The number ‘13’ is most probably a misprint for the number ‘3’, a left-hand position on the neck of the instrument where that passage can be performed properly.
41 Almanach Musical (1783), 184.
42 Journal de Politique et de Littérature (25 March 1776), supplement, 292. Mademoiselle Genty had composed some music for guitar almost a decade before Vidal arrived in Paris.
43 Les Spectacles de Paris ou Calendrier Historique et Chronologique des Théâtres (1777), 2–3.
44 The Merchi brothers had also played there on 31 May 1753, but using another plucked instrument, the colascione (Libbert, ‘Merchi’).
45 Almanach Musical (1777), 142, (1778), 192, (1779), 202.
46 Annonces, affiches et avis divers (3 February 1782), 217.
47 Almanach Musical (1783), 117.
48 Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs, catalogues Nos 18–24.
49 Tablettes de Renommée des Musiciens, no page number.
50 Madame la Presidente de Meslay was Laurence-Marie Magon de la Balue, wife of Jérôme-Pélagie Masson de Meslay (1742–1798). De Meslay gathered a large collection of music and he (or his wife) may have had Vidal as music teacher. I am indebted to Kenneth Sparr for providing me with this information.
51 I am most thankful to Kathryn Adamson for her valuable help with the items by Vidal in the Spencer Collection at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
52 Gazette de France (5 September 1786).
53 Journal de la Librairie (23 September 1786). Robert Léaumont (who was born in Saint-Domingue, Haiti, in 1762 and died in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1814) was a French pianist, composer and teacher. He fought in the American Revolutionary War and was wounded at the battle of Yorktown in 1781, after which he was named Chevalier de l'Ordre Royal et Militaire de Saint-Louis (Chevalier of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis). He continued his career as a musician in the United States from c1795 to his death (Nicholas Michael Butler, ‘Leaumont, Robert’, Grove Music Online www.oxfordmusiconline.com (12 October 2020)). Pieces by him were published in France from 1784 to 1790, so he most probably was there during that time. Devriès-Lesure, L’édition musicale, 303.
54 Advertisement appearing in the Recueil périodique d'ariettes 12 (December 1786), 172.
55 In fact, he had applied for the privilege on 27 June, six months after the journal was initiated. See Michel Brenet (pseudonym of Marie Bobillier), ‘La Librairie musicale en France de 1653 à 1790, d'après les registres de privilèges’, Sammelbände der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft 8/3 (1907), 466.
56 Vidal, Nouveaux principes de guittare (Paris: author, 1787–1788), i.
57 Very little is known about this guitarist. His activity seems to have been restricted to Paris between 1783 and 1787, judging from the advertisements for his works that appeared in the city. He was in charge of the Journal de Guitare published by Camand in 1785. On Camand see Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs, 76–77.
58 Taking into account that the price of a large loaf of bread (of 1.8 kilogrammes, or four pounds) cost nine sous in August 1788, rising to 14.5 in February 1789, and that at that time bread took around fifty per cent of the wage-earner's expenditure (up to eighty-eight per cent in the worst times of the economic crisis), only wealthy persons could afford to buy printed music in this period. In 1789 the effective daily earnings of a builder's labourer were eighteen sous, almost a livre (one livre was twenty sous) (George E. Rudé, ‘Prices, Wages and Popular Movements in Paris during the French Revolution’, The Economic History Review 6/3 (1954), 246–267). Such a labourer would have had to have worked eight days exclusively to pay for the cost of Vidal's method.
59 The first notice of this journal I have found lists cahiers 4, 5, 6 and 7 (Mercure de France (13 September 1788)). An advertisement in Journal de Paris on 21 December 1787 announces ‘Nouvelles étrennes de guitarre dédiées aux amateurs, suivies d'un journal pour le même instrument par P. PORRO. Chez l'auteur, rue Michelle Comte’, which may indicate that this journal started in early 1788.
60 It seems that this journal was published from late 1789 until mid-1791 (Kenneth Sparr, ‘Barthélemy Trille Labarre: Professeur de Guitare et Compositeur, Élève d'Haydn’, Soundboard Scholar 4 (2018), 26). According to the publisher, a ‘sheet of paper’ (‘feuille’) was released ‘every morning’ (‘tout [recte tous] les matins’). However, only 197 issues have been found to have existed, which indicates that this periodical – with an average of six pages per issue – was most probably published two or three times a week.
61 Devriès-Lesure, L’édition musicale, 521, makes a mistake attributing the address rue Saint-Martin to Vidal in 1788. She refers to the Mercure de France (12 January 1788), but the original advertisement does not refer to Vidal, but to a certain M. Vincent.
62 In his press announcements Vidal utilized several ways to address the same place: ‘Rue de Richelieu, entre la rue ménar et la rue neuve St. marc, N° 99’, ‘près du Théâtre italien’ or simply ‘vis-à-vis la rue Feydeau’. Nowadays, Vidal's ‘Soirées Espagnoles’ would be located at approximately the current number 85b of this street.
63 Three works in 1786, three in 1787, nine in 1788, six in 1789 and one in 1790.
64 Vidal also published one other work by Ximénez, although not for guitar: Trois sonates pour le violon avec accompagnement de basse, Op. 2 (Paris: Vidal, 1789).
65 Annonces, affiches et avis divers (14 October 1791), 3742–3743.
66 Journal Général de France (17 October 1791), 1170.
67 The Six Duos pour deux violons, dédiés à M. Le Comte de Charost by Vernier père were advertised in February to be sold both by Le Duc and Vidal (Annonces, affiches et avis divers (25 February 1790), 472). However, in May the same publication was advertised as being sold only by Le Duc (Journal de Paris ou Poste de Paris (28 May 1790), supplement 48, iv), which may indicate that Vidal had already left. This is also supported by the fact that the Six Duos were Vidal's last known publication before his departure.
68 Kirsty Carpenter, ‘Emigration in Politics and Imaginations’, in The Oxford Handbook of the French Revolution, ed. David Andress (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 330.
69 It should be emphasized that these figures concern advertisements, not publications. Many of the publications are listed in the book with more than one advertisement; on average there seem to be roughly two advertisements per publication. The actual number of publications can therefore be more or less halved. In reality the numbers were probably higher owing to the existence of unadvertised or unlisted publications; musical periodicals (journals) are, for example, generally not included in the book. The proportion of publications before or after 1789 would, nevertheless, probably remain much the same.
70 Howard G. Gordon, ‘The Politics of Public Order, 1795–1802’, in The Oxford Handbook of the French Revolution, 538.
71 Kirsty Carpenter, Refugees of the French Revolution. Émigrés in London 1789–1802 (New York: Palgrave, 1999), 10.
72 Sparr, Barthélemy Trille Labarre, 27.
73 The title-page also states that the publication can be acquired in Paris, but no address is provided, which supports the theory that he indeed closed his business in the French capital.
74 I am thankful to Christopher Page for providing me with all the information regarding Mrs St. Aubin.
75 This could be the piece Koliker claims to have been ‘composed during his last trip to London’. The name of the Baron is spelled ‘Colleraine’ in Annonces, affiches et avis divers (23 February 1792), 750.
76 In 1801 Hanger wrote his memoirs in a book of two volumes with the presumptuous title The Life, adventures and opinions of Col. George Hanger (London: J. Debrett, 1801).
77 Carpenter, Emigration in Politics, 332.
78 Carpenter, Refugees of the French Revolution, 185.
79 Journal Général de France (17 October 1791), 1170.
80 Annonces, affiches et avis divers (23 February 1792), 750. This piece may have had some success, since it was published again later by Imbault some time between 1799 and 1802, as the address suggests (Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs, 85).
81 On the life of Collot d'Herbois see Michel Biard, Collot d'Herbois: légendes noires et Révolution (Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 1995).
82 Beatriz Badorrey Martín, ‘Aguirre y Yoldi, Alfonso’, in Real Academia de la Historia http://dbe.rah.es (15 August 2019).
83 Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs, 40–41.
84 Miguel Ángel Marín, ‘Repertorios orquestales: obertura, sinfonía y concierto’, in Historia de la música en España e Hispanoamérica, volume 4: La música en el siglo XVIII, ed. José Máximo Leza (Madrid: Fondo de cultura económica, 2014), 354.
85 On the evolution of sonata form throughout this period see William S. Newman, The Sonata in the Classic Era (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963). In the early guitar-concerto repertory, in addition to Vidal, we can mention Antoine de Lhoyer's Op. 16 (1802) and Ferdinando Carulli's Op. 8a (1809) as examples of the two-movement genre. I am indebted to Stanley Yates for his valuable comments on this matter.
86 Yates, B. Vidal: Concerto for Guitar, 2.
87 Yates, B. Vidal: Concerto for Guitar, 2.
88 Yates, B. Vidal: Concerto for Guitar, 3. Biographical comments by Stenstadvold. The author specifies ‘c1783’.
89 The École royale de chant et de déclamation opened its doors on 1 April 1784 with François-Joseph Gossec as director and included on its staff professors of singing, solfeggio, harpsichord, composition, violoncello, violin, declamation, French language and theatre, dance and fencing. Constant Pierre, Le Conservatoire national de musique et de déclamation. Documents historiques et administratifs (Paris: Imprimerie National, 1900), 16.
90 According to a memoir by the professors of the École royale de chant et de déclamation for the period 1784–1791, the school was asked to include teachers of oboe, flute, clarinet, horn and bassoon as part of a thorough reorganization of the institution. Pierre, Le Conservatoire national, 48.
91 Doisy declares himself ‘protecteur et ami sincère de la guitare’ (protector and true friend of the guitar), in Correspondance des amateur Musiciens (6 April 1805), 105.
92 On the creation of the Conservatoire National de Musique see Constant Pierre, Bernard Sarrette et les origines du Conservatoire National de Musique et de Déclamation (Paris: Delalain frères, 1895); Jean Mongrédien, French Music from the Enlightenment to Romanticism, 1789–1830 (Portland: Amadeus, 1996); Emmanuel Hondré, ed., Le conservatoire de musique de Paris: regards sur une institution et son histoire (Paris: Association du bureau des étudiants du Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, 1995); and Rémy Campos, Le Conservatoire de Paris et son histoire: une institution en question (Paris: L'Oeil d'Or, 2016).
93 Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs, catalogues Nos 107, 111. It is not clear if Imbault published a new edition of this concerto or if he continued to sell Boüin's editions, since no copy bearing any sign of Imbault has been found. There is no record of any performance of it at that time.
94 On an overview of early guitar concertos see Yates, Three Early Guitar Concertos, 6–11.
95 ‘Recueil de pièces et airs variés, nos 1 et 2 de la Suite des Premières leçons, nouvellement composées pour la guitare, par VIDAL. Prix 4 liv. 10 chq, l'auteur, rue Feydeau, no 223’, Annonces, affiches et avis divers (22 May 1795), 4496.
96 Jean de la Tynna, Dictionnaire Topographique, Historique et Étymologique des Rues de Paris (Paris, 1812), 169. Even today this street has thirty-four numbers.
97 Annonces, affiches et avis divers (8 April 1795), 3349.
98 Vidal, Nouvelle méthode de guitare dédiée aux amateurs (Paris: author, 1797), 14. All the other pages bear the address ‘Feydeau No. 223’.
99 We can find the same situation with other publishers. In 1798 Cochet had his address at number 394 of rue Neuve-Saint-Marc, a street that even today has only thirty-nine numbers. Imbault in 1799 had one of his businesses in rue Favart No. 461, a street with only twelve numbers, indicating that it was the number 4, shop unit 61. The guitarist and publisher François Doisy established himself from 1803 in the same street as Vidal, at number 244.
100 See Devriès-Lesure, L’édition musicale, 74–75.
101 Annonces, affiches et avis divers (22 May 1795), 4496.
102 See Cari Johansson, French Music Publishers’ Catalogues of the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century, two volumes (Stockholm: Kungl. Musikaliska Akademiens Bibliotek, 1955), catalogues 35–43 and appendices 1–20.
103 Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs do not provide any information about it.
104 Imbault published relatively little music for guitar, apart from these works by Vidal.
105 Det Kongelige Bibliotek in Copenhagen (DK-Kk) owns a copy of the first pot-pourri. The plate of the title-page of this piece was modified, adding the address rue Favart No. 461, where Imbault had another business from 1799 on. Luis Briso de Montiano has informed me that this pot-pourri and a second one were sold some years ago on http://www.ebay.com, but no more information about them is known.
106 The dating of this periodical is based on the low plate number ‘3’ and the fact that Decombe does not advertise himself as a successor to Salomon, something he would do from 1797 on. It probably started in early 1796 with the new year. Only five issues are known to be preserved, at the Royal Academy of Music, London (GB-Lam).
107 Most probably the decree referred to is that of 19 July 1793 by the Convention Nationale related to authors’ copyright, the date 10 July probably being a mistake. Since Vidal worked with Decombe in c1796 with his Recueil périodique d'ariettes, Vidal probably continued his Journal after the Recueil périodique came to an end in about 1797.
108 ‘Elle a une fort belle peau, de beaux yeux, de beaux bras, une disposition surprenante pour la musique. Je lui ai donné un maître de guitare pendant le temps qu'elle est restée au couvent: elle en a bien profité; elle a une jolie voix’. Joseph-Gaspard de Tascher de La Pagerie (father of Joséphine), quoted in Charles Kunstler, La vie privée de l'Impératrice Joséphine (Paris: Hachette, 1939), 7.
109 One of the most important guitarists at the end of the century, François Doisy, dedicated his Principes Généraux de la Guitare (Paris: author, 1801) to Madame Bonaparte.
110 Vidal, Nouvelle méthode de guitare, dédiée aux amateurs, par Vidal, composée de tous les pincés de la main droite, de tous les coulés de la main gauche, le doigté, les agréments pour connoître toute l’étendue du manche, des leçons, des préludes dans tous les tons, de tous les accords majeurs et mineurs, de simples romances avec accompagnement de vingt-sept variations ou folies d'Espagne, tant pour les commençans, que pour les virtuoses, terminée par une grande sonate (Paris: author, 1797). I am very thankful to Christophe Bettoli at the Bibliothèque Clignancourt of the Université Paris-Sorbonne for kindly providing a copy of this item for my research.
111 Le Nouvelliste littéraire des sciences et des arts (1 September 1797), 8.
112 Vidal, Nouvelle méthode, 1.
113 ‘Le manche trop long, empêche de monter l'instrument au ton de l'orchestre, et lui ôte son brillant’ (A very long neck prevents the instrument from being raised to orchestral pitch and takes away its brilliance). Vidal, Nouvelle méthode, 1.
114 Vidal, Nouvelle méthode, 1. On critical opinion about the guitar see Stenstadvold, ‘We Hate the Guitar’.
115 Le Nouvelliste littéraire des sciences et des arts (1 September 1797), 8.
116 Gerber, Neues Historisch-biographisches Lexicon, 445. This date has been copied by many other sources, including Fétis in his Biographie universelle.
117 On the origin of this instrument see Matanya Ophee, ‘The Story of the Lyre-Guitar’, Soundboard 14/4 (1987–1988), 235–243.
118 I am grateful to Luis Briso de Montiano for providing me with a copy of this method from his private collection.
119 Salvador Castro de Gistau dedicated his Op. 7 to Baykoff, a work which can be dated 1803–1805. He was also the dedicatee of François Doisy's Trois grands duos concertants for two guitars in 1803.
120 I am most thankful to François R. Velde for this information.
121 Kelly, Walter Keating, The History of Russia, From the Earliest Period to the Present Time; Compiled from the Most Authentic Sources, Including the works of Karamsin, Tooke and Ségur, two volumes, volume 2 (London: Bohn, 1854–1855), 201Google Scholar.
122 Le courrier des spectacles, ou journal des théâtres (3 February 1798).
123 Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs, 74.
124 Some items of this journal published by Decombe have been found in the Royal Academy of Music, London (GB-Lam) and the Statens Musikbibliothek, Stockholm (S-Skma). On Decombe see Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs, 54. The printing style suggests that it was a new publication by Decombe and not a modified republication with the same plates as used in Vidal's Journal de Guitare (c1797). I am indebted to Marina Demina, librarian at The Music and Theatre Library of Sweden (Stockholm) for kindly helping me with my research on Vidal's music in the Daniel Fryklund collection.
125 ‘La plupart de ces romances et Airs sont arrangées pour la guittare par Vidal. Philis et autres’, Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs, catalogue No. 55.
126 Le courrier des spectacles, ou journal des théâtres (19 February 1803), 3.
127 Ledhuy, Joseph Anne Adolphe, Essais sur l'amélioration de la lyre-guitare ou description méthodique de la lyre-organisée (Paris: Savary et Porro, c 1806), 15Google Scholar. There has been some misunderstanding as to the identity of this man, as he is often confused with the author of the Encyclopédie Pittoresque (Paris: Delloye, 1835). However, the author of that work was his son, Jean-Baptiste-Adolphe Ledhuy, born in 1803. I am very thankful to Viviane Niaux, librarian of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, for providing me with valuable information on this matter.
128 For further discussion on this matter see Valois, Les guitaristes français, 150–153.
129 Annonces, affiches et avis divers (29 November 1792), 4938.
130 General Advertiser, Philadelphia (3 April 1792), 4.
131 Stenstadvold, Guitar Methods, 194.
132 Lemoine, Antoine Marcel, Nouvelle Méthode de guitare à l'usage des commençans (Paris: author, 1799), 10Google Scholar.
133 Fétis, Biographie universelle, volume 8, 554, states that Antoine Bailleux published Vidal's Opp. 6, 7, 8, 12 and 25. However, there is no evidence of that. The catalogues by Bailleux in Devriès and Lesure, Dictionnaire des éditeurs and Johansson, French Music Publishers do not list any work by Vidal.
* Several recueils were catalogued with opus numbers while others were not.