Michel Paul Guy de Chabanon


Michel-Paul Guy de Chabanon was a violinist, composer, music theorist, and connoisseur of French literature. He was elected to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres and the Académie française.

Biography

As fiction writer

Michel Paul Guy de Chabanon wrote poetry, elegies, plays and translations.

As musician and music theorist

Michel Paul Guy de Chabanon was also a successful musician, playing the violin in the Concert des Amateurs under the direction of Joseph Bologne, chevalier de Saint-Georges.
He was the author of an opera, Sémélé, tragédie lyrique, and of several works on music theory, of which the most valued are his commentaries on music in the work of Aristotle
. His double identity as a writer and a musician gave him a unique viewpoint on the links between music and language and in developing a philosophy of music of which his work was the expression. He also contributed to defining opera as a musical genre.

Works

Translations

Pindare Théocrite Horace.

Works on music esthetics

  • 1779 : Observations sur la musique, et principalement sur la métaphysique de l'art
  • 1785 : Sur l'introduction des accords dans la musique des anciens, Mémoire
  • 1785 : De la musique considérée en elle-même et dans ses rapports avec la parole, les langues, la poésie, et le théâtre.

Libretti