A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Blaze, François
BLAZE, François Henri Joseph, calling himself Castil-Blaze, one of the most prolific writers on music and the drama France has produced, was born at Cavaillon in 1784. His father, a lawyer by profession, was a good musician, friend of Grétry and Méhul, and composer of masses, operas, and chamber music. Blaze was sent to Paris in 1799 to study the law, but the love of music soon began to show itself. He became a pupil at the Conservatoire, and took private lessons in harmony. In the meantime his professional career promised to be a prosperous one. He obtained the position of sous-préfet in the Department of Vaucluse, and other appointments. But to one used to the excitement of Parisian society, and longing for literary and artistic distinction, official life in southern France could not but be tedious and uninteresting. At the age of thirty-six he threw up his post and set out with his family for the metropolis, chiefly with a view to publishing a book compiled during his leisure hours. It appeared in 1820, in two volumes, with the title 'De l'opéra en France,' and is the work on which his claims to remembrance are chiefly founded. The subjects treated comprise a much wider circle of observation than the title would imply. The first volume contains an elaborate though popular treatment of the various elements of music, including hints as to the choice of libretti, and the peculiarities of verse and diction best adapted for musical treatment. The second volume is devoted to the opera proper, describing at considerable length its various components, the overture, recitative, aria, ensemble, etc. The style is lucid and terse, and the book may be recommended to the amateur, although the student will look in vain for new material or originality of treatment. But even to the latter the frequent references to contemporary operas, a subject in which Castil-Blaze was thoroughly at home, will not be without interest. The chapter on the opera in the provinces is particularly valuable from an historic point of view. His remarks on the overture, in which he defends a broader and simpler conception of that form of art against those who expect from it an anticipatory reproduction of the drama itself, with all its complicated characters and situations, are excellent, and would be worth quotation if our space permitted it.
A considerable part of his book is polemical. He attacks the various uses and abuses of theatrical managers, the arrogance of ignorant critics, and the miserable translations supplied by literary hacks for the masterpieces of foreign composers. On the latter point he was entitled to speak, having himself reproduced more or less felicitously the libretti of numerous Italian and German operas. Amongst these we mention 'Figaro,' 'Don Juan,' and 'Zauberflöte'; 'Il Barbiere,' 'Gazza Ladra,' 'Otello,' 'Anna Bolena'; 'Der Freischütz,' 'Oberon,' 'Euryanthe;' and many others. These reproductions were chiefly for the use of provincial theatres where Italian opera was unattainable, and may have contributed much to popularise good music in France. Unfortunately Blaze frequently made bold to meddle with the scores, and even to introduce surreptitiously pieces of his own composition into the works of great masters. He used to tell with delight how one of his choral pieces fathered upon Weber was frequently played and applauded by unsuspecting audiences at the concerts of the Paris Conservatoire. Our author's own compositions do not call for notice. They are of an ephemeral nature, and are justly forgotten. Amongst his romances 'King Réné' is pretty, and was deservedly popular. He wrote several pieces of sacred and chamber music, one serious and two comic operas, none of which was successful to any considerable extent. More valuable is a collection of songs of southern France called 'Chants de Provence.'
The merits of Blaze's literary work having been discussed above, it will suffice to mention the titles of some of his works, mostly compilations, similar in character, although hardly equal to 'De l'opéra en France. We name 'Chapelle musique des Rois de France' (1832); 'La Danse et les Ballets depuis Bacchus jusqu'à mademoiselle Taglioni' (1832); and the works on the Théâtres lyriques de Paris, viz. 'L'Academie impériale' (formerly 'royale'; a history of that theatre published in 1855), and 'L'opéra Italien de 1548 à 1856' (1856).
For ten years previously to 1832 Blaze was musical critic of the 'Journal des Débats,' an important literary position afterwards held by Berlioz. He also wrote numerous articles for the 'Constitutionel,' the 'Revue et Gazette Musicale,' 'Le Menestrel,' etc., partly republished in book form.
Castil-Blaze died in 1857 [App. p.549 "Dec. 11"], after a few days' illness. A life like his, spent laboriously in the bye ways of art, can hardly be called a thing sublime, but it is not without its uses and merits. The ideal truths emanating from creative genius stand in need of an intermediate stage of receptivity between their own elevation and the level of ordinary intellects. Blaze has occupied the position of an interpreter, thus indicated, not without credit. His knowledge of music and musical history was good, and his taste sound and comprehensive up to a certain point. But the wear and tear of journalistic routine could not but blunt his feeling for the subtler touches of beauty, and it would be unsafe to give implicit confidence to his opinion on questions of high art.