Nicolas Chédeville (1705-1782) - Sonate (V) en do majeur, opera XIII (1737)
Performers: The Suffolk Consort
Further info: Nicolas Chédeville (1705-1782) - Il pastor fido, Op.13
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French composer, arranger, musette maker, player and teacher, brother of
Pierre Chédeville (1694-1725) and Esprit Philippe Chédeville
(1696-1762). His great uncle Louis Hotteterre was one of his godfathers
and may have taught him music and the art of turning instruments. In the
early 1720s he entered the opera orchestra as oboe and musette player,
and on 1 November 1725 he took over the reversion of Jean Hotteterre's
post in the Grands Hautbois from Esprit Philippe. After Jean's death in
1732, he acquired the title to this post. On 2 December 1729 he took out
his first privilege to publish his own compositions. At first he called
himself ‘Chedeville le jeune’ on the title-pages of these works; from
op.3 he listed himself as ‘Chedeville le cadet’. The dedications of many
of his works show that he was much sought after as a musette teacher by
members of the most highly-placed families in France. He taught
Princess Victoire from about 1750, which led to his appointment as
maître de musette de Mesdames de France. In his musette making he seems
to have added to the instrument's lower compass, building musettes going
down to c' (according to the Mercure de France, November 1733). The
Mercure also reported that he had rearranged the keys on the little
chanter, making it easier to play. On 1 July 1748 he retired from the
opera, although he agreed to return to play the musette there whenever
he was needed, according to La Borde. Although he retained his post in
the Grands Hautbois until his death, he must have dropped out of sight
by 1780, because in that year La Borde, who claimed that he was the most
celebrated musette player France had ever had, said that he was dead;
in fact he lived for two more years. Nicolas's first two collections of
pieces for musette or hurdy-gurdy, entitled Amusements champêtres (opp.1
and 2), are similar to his elder brother's early Simphonies; his op.3
works with the same title are more substantial and technically
difficult. His op.6, inspired by a campaign on which he accompanied the
Prince of Conti, contains movements with titles of battles, some of
which express the ‘war-like images’ he referred to in his dedication.
In 1737 he made a secret agreement with Jean-Noël Marchand for the
latter to obtain a privilege to engrave, print and sell a work as
Vivaldi's Il pastor fido, op.13, but in a notarial act dated 17
September 1749 Marchand declared that Chédeville was the composer, also
revealing that Chédeville had provided the money for the publication and
was receiving the emoluments. It is not certain why Chédeville chose to
have his own work attributed to Vivaldi and issued under the privilege
of Marchand, but perhaps, as Lescat has suggested, he was trying to give
the musette, his favourite instrument, the endorsement of a great
composer that it had lacked up until then. His interest in Italian music
was strong around this time. On 7 August 1739 he was granted a
privilege to print, engrave and issue to the public his own arrangements
of concertos and sonatas by Italian composers for the musette,
hurdy-gurdy or flute. The names of ten Italian composers are mentioned
in the privilege, along with those of Quantz and Mahaut. Le printems, ou
Les saisons amusantes (1739) features arrangements of Vivaldi's ‘La
primavera’, op.8 no.1, along with other concerto movements by Vivaldi.
His op.7 is his only collection specifically for the transverse flute,
oboe or violin. The pieces have Italian tempo markings, a greater
variety of keys than the musette works and more pronounced features of
Italian style. In his op.9, dedicated to the ‘illustrious virtuosos’,
both ladies and gentlemen, who were his students, he turned again to the
rustic, pseudo-countrified style so fashionable at the time. Not
arranged into sonatas or suites, the pieces appear to reflect the skill
of the pupil to whom each is dedicated; some are quite simple, while
others, such as ‘The Virtuoso’, use many ‘double stops’ and have rapid,
difficult passage-work. Op.14, dedicated to Princess Victoire, features
variations, incuding 12 based on ‘Les folies d'Espagne’. Though
Nicolas's works are on the whole more substantial and glittering than
those of Esprit Philippe, both were basically intended for the same
purpose – that of the amusement of wealthy amateurs who played for their
own pleasure – and both served that purpose well.
