Franchomme filled various places successively in Paris. He at first belonged, during the years 1825 and 1826, to the orchestra of the Theatre “Ambigüe-Comique.” He then went over, in 1827, to the “Grand Opéra,” but remained there only one year. He belonged for a longer period to the Italian Opera, but he relinquished this position after a few years. Instead, he established regular quartet evenings with the famous violinist, Delphin Alard; and in 1846 he undertook the Cello instruction at the Paris Conservatoire. He died on January 21 or 22, 1884. His compositions, consisting of a Concerto, Nocturnes, Etudes, Variations, and a variety of smaller Drawing-room pieces, have still some value for cello players. His best productions are the Twelve Caprices (Op. 7), which for pieces of that kind have every claim to consideration.
The best known pupils of Franchomme are Vidal (the younger), Jacquard, and Barbot.
Louis Antoine Vidal, born at Rouen on July 10, 1820, devoted himself by preference to the literary branch of music after he had finished his Cello studies. By his valuable work, “Les instruments à archet,” he attained to a prominent position among the French writers on music of modern times.
The younger Jacquard, whose Christian name was Louis Auguste, born on December 26, 1832, at Pont-le-Roy, so distinguished himself as a scholar of the Paris Conservatoire, that he gained in 1850 the second, and in 1852 the first prize. He is a permanent member of the Orchestra of the Conservatoire Concerts.
Jean François Barbot, born in 1847 at Toulouse, settled down in his native town after he had completed his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, and is still at the present time working there at his profession as an artist. Other modern French cellists are—Battanchon, Seligmann, Dancla, Lebouc, and Jacquard the elder. They were all Norblin’s pupils.[126]
Felix Battanchon, born on April 9, 1814, in Paris, frequented the Conservatoire of his native town, and studied there under Vaslin and Norblin, who turned him out as a clever Cellist. After he had worked in various ways as a solo player, he was appointed in 1840 to the orchestra at the Grand Opéra. His compositions consist of Etudes, which are fully adapted to the object in view and of which several books have been published; Caprices, Duets, Trios (for three Violoncellos), and light pieces of various kinds. His Op. 4, which contains twenty-four Studies, has been introduced into the Paris Conservatoire.
Hippolyte Prosper Seligmann, whose name suggests a German origin, was born on July 28, 1817, in Paris, entered the Conservatoire there on December 2, 1829, and had Norblin as his master for the Violoncello, and Halévy for Composition. In 1834 he received the second prize and, two years later, the first prize. After he left the Conservatoire, in the middle of 1838, he played a great deal in public, and in course of time made concert tours through Southern France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and Germany. For the beauty of his tone he is indebted to a valuable Amati Cello of large size. As a composer, Seligmann only cultivated the lighter kind of music. His Violoncello pieces are no longer used in solo playing.
Arnaud Dancla, born January 1, 1820, at Bagnères-de-Bigorre, was likewise Norblin’s pupil at the Paris Conservatoire. He was dismissed, in 1840, with the first prize. Dancla distinguished himself especially as a quartet player. In Cello compositions, he published Etudes (Op. 2), two books of Duets, a “Fantasia” on Themes from Auber’s “Sirène,” “Melodies,” and a Cello School, “Le Violoncelliste moderne.”
Charles Joseph Lebouc, born on December 22, 1822, at Besançon, attended the Conservatoire in Paris, and at first had Vaslin as his teacher for a short time, but subsequently Norblin. He also distinguished himself in playing chamber music. Besides some pieces for Violoncello, with piano accompaniment, he composed a “Methode complète et pratique de Violoncelle.”