The Music
Whilst in the wood Miss Lamont heard sounds of a band of violins drifting past her from the direction of the house. The sounds were very soft and intermittent, and were lower in pitch than bands of to-day. She could afterwards write down from memory about twelve bars, but without all the inner harmonies.
She ascertained immediately afterwards that no band had been playing out of doors that afternoon at Versailles. It was a cold, wet winter’s afternoon.
In March, 1907, the twelve bars were shown to a musical expert, who said (without having heard the story) that the bars could hardly belong to one another, but that the idiom dated from about 1780. He found a grammatical mistake in one bar. After hearing the story, he said that bands in the eighteenth century were lower in pitch than they are now. He suggested the name of Sacchini.
In March, 1908, Miss Lamont and a friend were told in Versailles that no bands had been allowed to play in the park in winter until 1907. They also ascertained that no music played at Versailles, or in the park, could have been heard at Trianon.
In the same month they searched through a great deal of unpublished music in the Conservatoire de Musique at Paris, and discovered that the twelve bars represented the chief motives of the light opera of the eighteenth century, excluding Rameau and his school, and that, as far as they could discover, nothing like them occurred in the opera of 1815 onward. They were found in Sacchini, Philidor, Monsigny, Grétry, and Pergolesi. Grammatical mistakes were found in Monsigny and Grétry.
Sacchini.
“Dardanus.” General likeness.
“Œdipe à Colone.” Number 6. Two bars intact in the key answering to that heard in 1902, allowing for the rise of a semi-tone, which had taken place since the eighteenth century. This was proved by later editions of operatic music, in which the songs were dropped a semi-tone to retain the original key.
Philidor in a collection of single airs (Rigaudons, 1767)—the cadence.
“Le Maréchal Ferrand”: repetition of single notes, the first bar of the melody, and many other hints of likeness.
Duni. 1765. The same general characteristics, but no exact resemblance.
Monsigny.
“Le Roi et le Fermier.” Written for performance at the opening of the new theatre at the Petit Trianon, August 1, 1780, when the Queen first acted herself. Up to 1908 it had not been republished. In it the figure of the first of the twelve bars was found.
“Le Déserteur.” No published edition was found after 1830. In one published before that date the last three bars of the music were found, and the melody of the first bars was assigned to the second violins, and very freely, in inversions and variations, in other places. The character of the accompaniment was reminding.
Thirds and sixths constantly occur in Monsigny’s music.
Grétry. The same phrases were used and the ascending passage was found. Also, hidden consecutive fifths.
Pergolesi.
“Largo and Andante in D.” Similar phrases were used.