Paris districts 5-7

This area was important during the late Middle Ages, but nearly all medieval traces are wiped out; today it is a centre of jazz cafés, such as Caveau de la Huchette and Le chat qui pêche in the rue de la Huchette and the Caveau des Oubliettes at 52 rue Galande, originally devoted to the French chanson.

In the rue de la Harpe was the workshop of the leading music printer Pierre Attaingnant (c 1494-1552), who produced a large amount of song books and volumes of motets, masses and instrumental music.

Plaque on the house (rebuilt) where Charles Garnier, the architect of the Opera, died in 1898. The present name of his greatest creation is Palais Garnier.

After his arrival in Paris in 1821, the young Berlioz lived in this street: at first at nr 104 and from 1822 to 1825 at nr 71 with the surgeon Dr. Broussais. He started a study of medicine, in compliance with his father’s wish, but in 1823 turned after all to music and became the pupil of the composer LeSueur; it has been suggested that he moved to nr 79, where his cousin Alphonse Robert lived.

This school was established in 1550 as a Jesuit college and became renowned for its musical representations, for instance David et Jonathas by Charpentier (1688).

Rameau was organist here from 1706.

In the building of the famous university of Paris, closed during the revolution and gradually reopened from 1806, various artists with their families occupied appartments. Among them the sculptor Jacques-Edme Dumont, the father of Jeanne-Louise who after her marriage with the musician Aristide Farrenc would be known as Louise Farrenc (1804-1875). She became a piano teacher at the Conservatoire and a composer of fine piano-, chamber- and symphonic music. She spent her childhood at this address; other houses couldn’t be tracked down, unfortunatedly. She was buried at Montparnasse in the Dumont family grave.

Organ by Cavaillé-Coll from 1863, inaugurated by César Franck. Maurice Duruflé was the organist of this church from 1930 until 1975, when a motor accident prevented the continuation of the job.

Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986), organist and composer of a famous Requiem, lived in the house which was provided by the church of St Étienne du Mont for its organist.

Among the celebrities who have been buried in the Pantheon is the writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  one of the champions of the Enlightenment. He also was a composer of various dramatic, vocal and instrumental works, two of which became influential: Le devin du village (1752) in opera buffa style paved the way for the opéra comique and Pygmalion (1770) was the first ‘melodrama’ – spoken drama with instrumental interjections. His monument is outside.

The composer, music theorist and teacher Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) lived here from 1934, when in Paris; he died in his second house at the Mediterranean coast (Le Canadel, >fr4). Remarkable compositions from his extensive oeuvre are seven works based on Kipling’s Jungle Book, written between 1899 and 1940.

The Schola Cantorum was established in 1894 by Bordes, Guilmant and d'Indy as a church music school, but became a general music academy and a rival of the Conservatory. Roussel, Séverac, Canteloube, Albéniz and – shortly – Satie and Varèse were among the pupils. Since 1900 in this building. The site was once occupied by an English monastery and its chapel became a concert hall; two early masterworks had their first performance there: Ravel’s string quartet (1904) and Messiaen’s Poèmes pour Mi (1937). A small exhibition on the history of the institute is in the entrance hall.

House of César Franck from 1865 until his death in 1890.

Five houses to the left, at nr 87, the legendary pianist and conductor Alfred Cortot lived.

House of the composer Ernest Chausson? (could not be verified)

House of Francis Poulenc from 1936 until his death in 1963; in the same period he also spent much time in his country house in Noizay, near Tours (>fr6).

House of Camille Saint-Saëns from 1877 until 1889, when he embarked for a world tour, which brought him to North Africa, Ceylon, Argentine and more. His belongings ended up in Dieppe (>fr7). He was back in Paris only in 1904.

Birthplace of the chansonnier of Armenian descent, Charles Aznavour (1924-2018), born as Shahnourh Varinak Aznavurian.

Birthplace of the famous singer Maria Garcia Malibran (1808-1836), daughter of the singer Manuel Garcia and sister of the singer and composer Pauline Viardot.

House of the American composer and ‘bad boy of music’, George Antheil (1900-1959). He lived here from 1923 until 1928 and created a sensation with the 8 pianos, 8 xylophones, electric door bells and aircraft propeller in his Ballet mécanique. He frequently integrated jazz into his often provoking compositions.

Some performances in this theatre made a great impression on Berlioz: Weber’s Freischütz in 1824 and ─ three years later ─ Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet with the actress Harriet Smithson. She became his muse, but their relation was awkward: at first he adored her, but was turned down; later he married her but ran away.

Camille Saint-Saëns was born in 1835 at 3 rue du Jardinet, but this part of the street has disappeared during the construction of the boulevard St Germain and nothing remembers his birthplace.

Charles Gounod lived here during his childhood, around 1830.

Former restaurant Dagneau, favourite spot of Chopin and George Sand. Now a bank.

Famous café, since long ago a meeting point of artists and intellectuals, including many composers. Only Chopin is honoured with a portrait.

Former Jeu de Paume and Théâtre Guénégaud until 1789. A plaque mentions the performance in 1671 of what is considered the first French opera: the pastoral Pomone by Robert Cambert.

The Institut de France consists of five ‘Academies’. Within the Académie des Beaux-Arts are eight ‘seats’ for composers to be elected as members (académiciens). Seventy six composers took their seats between 1795 and 2016; remarkable is the seat for Charles Trenet and on the contrary the masters which were NOT elected: Bizet, Debussy, Ravel, Roussel and Poulenc. Charles-Marie Widor – a member and secretary ─ lived in a wing of the building between 1915 and 1920.

The Académie des Beaux-Arts awarded the Prix de Rome between 1818 and 1968. The composers had to write a cantata or lyrical/dramatic scene in a limited time; for that purpose they could stay in an attic room at the institute. Of the c 145 winners, only a fifteen or so are still considered of importance/ the great majority has fallen into oblivion. Ravel is missing again, in spite of five attempts (for a sixth attempt he had passed the maximal age of thirty); a matter of favouritism.  

The writer George Sand lived here from 1832 until 1836, in the last year she became friends with Chopin.

The painter Eugène Delacroix had his studio at this address between 1836 and 1844. He painted Chopin's most famous portrait in 1838.

House of the 18^th century actress Adrienne Lecouvreur, the tragic protagonist in Cilea’s opera Adriana Lecouvreur (1902).

The favourite hotel of Jazz musicians, including Chet Baker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis (with Juliette Grèco), Billy Holiday, Bud Powell and Lester Young. Pink Floyd also stayed here.

Richard Wagner lived in the back of this house during the winter of 1841/42 and worked at his Flying Dutchman.

House of the Russian composer Aleksandr Nikolayevich Tcherepnin, who lived intermittently in Paris between 1921 and 1948; the exact years of his stay at this address are not known.

Boris Vian, Juliette Gréco and many jazz musicians appeared in Le Club Saint-Germain-des-Prés, a hotspot in the 1950s.

Financial problems urged the great organ maker Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811-1899) at the end of his life to sell his lavish factory and house at boulevard du Maine and move to a more modest accommodation.

Louis-Nicolas Clérambault was organist here in the early 18^th century. Behind the organ front by Chalgrin from 1776, Cavaillé-Coll made in 1862 one of his most monumental instruments, with five manuals and 102 stops. Following organists were Fauré, Widor and Dupré.

A  scene from the third act of Massenet’s Manon takes place in this church.

House of the poet and inventor Charles Cros (1842-1888). In the 1870s he created a ‘paléophone’ [= ‘sound of the past’], which was the direct precursor of Edison’s phonograph from 1879. Cros can be considered the inventor of sound recording, but he took no advantage of it; Edison so much the more.

The composer Gabriel Pierné lived here from 1900 until his death in 1937.

Plaque of the 16th century poet Clément Marot, whose psalms and chansons play an important role in the history of protestant church Music. The plaque also mentions that Casanova stayed here (c 1760; fortunately they didn’t meet).

The salon of Madame Barthe de Rayssac was a meeting point of artists in the 1880s and ‘90s. Ernest Chausson was a frequent visitor during his student years.

Parisian pied-à-terre of Jules Massenet from 1900 to 1912  when living at his mansion in Égreville near Fontainebleau (>fr2).

At the west side of the Luxembourg garden there are monuments of Massenet and Chopin.

At this institute, Dom. Mocquéreau  established a department of Gregorian Plainchant in 1924. The Benedictine monk was a leading figure of the reconstruction and dissemination of the medieval religious chant at the monastery of Solesmes (>fr6).

House of Joseph Canteloube de Malaret (1879-1957), the composer of the still popular Chansons d’Auvergne. He lived here from 1911 until his death.

On this spot was a building which was intended to become a Salle de Concerts Spirituels  and a church music school, but finally became the house and workshop of the organ maker Aristide Cavaillé-Coll in 1854. In 1866 he moved to the avenue de Maine (>fr5).

The Belgian composer Guillaume Lekeu lived here from 1888 until 1893, following lessons by César Franck. His chamber works are a match for those by his teacher.

House of the partly romantic, partly impressionist composer Déodat de Séverac (1872-1921). He lived here, close by his friend Canteloube, from 1806 until 1910, when he moved to Céret (>fr4).

First Parisian house of Joseph Canteloube, from 1906 until 1911 while he studied at the Schola Cantorum.

Edgar Varèse, then living in the USA, stayed with the painter Fernand Léger from March to December 1924.

The famous Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis lived here between 1970 and 1974, being not welcome in his homeland, then suffering under dictatorship. He returned intermittently in the 1980s.

Department of musicology of Paris University since 1951.

This restaurant was a meeting point of the Groupe des Six.

N.B. From this address, tourists making a walking tour can continue in the 14^th arrondissement (>fp5).

School for blind people. The young Louis Vierne stayed here between 1881 and 1890. Music lessons were part of the curriculum, but he also followed lessons by Franck.

The American song writer and composer Cole Porter (1891-1964) lived intermittently in this lavish house from 1919 to 1939. In 1919 he studied with d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum.  In the 1920s he once invited the complete Ballets Russes from Monte Carlo to entertain his guests. In 1928 he composed the musical Paris.

House of the composer Henri Duparc from 1897 to 1907.

House of the composer Vincent d’Indy (1851-1931). He was brought up by his grandmother, Countess Rezia-d’Indy. After having spent his early childhood nearby, at 97 rue du Bac, he moved here in 1863; it would remain his Paris home until his death.

Inhabitants of the same address were Ellie MacSwiney and her family. After Ellie’s marriage with Henri Duparc, the couple occupied an apartment on the fifth floor from 1871 to 1880.

House of the pianists Robert and Gaby Casadesus from 1924 until Robert’s death in 1972.

The Russian composer Aleksandr Skryabin stayed in 1896 in a hotel at this address (today Hôtel Sweden).

The composer Emmanuel Chabrier lived with his family in this street from 1863, at first at nr 23, later at nr 40.

Chabrier should have lived at this address , but the years are unknown.

At nr 97 was the first Parisian house of Vincent d’Indy (>0716).

Last house of the composer André Jolivet (1905-1974). His compositions include much incidental music for the Comédie Française and several concertos, one of which  for the electronic instrument Ondes Martenot.

Franz Liszt visited Paris in 1861 and stayed with his daughter Blandine, who was married to the politician Emile Ollivier; his mother was living there too. During this visit, Liszt met Berlioz, Wagner and his former mistress Marie d’Agoult. In 1864 he returned and in 1866 again, after the death of his mother (Blandine had already died in 1862). In this year was the performance of his Graner Messe in the St Eustache (>fp1).

House of the legendary chansonnier and composer of Je t'aime… moi non plus, Serge Gainsbourg (1928-1991) and the actress Jane Birkin. With museum, across at nr 14, to be opened in Sept. 2023.

Richard Wagner stayed in 1861 in a hotel at this address. Also Jean Sibelius has stayed here around 1901.

Last house of the singer and composer Pauline Viardot-Garcia (1821-1910). She was the daughter of the singer Manuel Garcia and the sister of the singer Malibran. In 1883, at the end of her career and after the death of her husband and her lover Turgenyev, she moved here.

Of the many addresses at which Edgar Varèse alternately lived in Paris and in the USA, this one he occupied from 1928 until 1931.

Famous organists played the Cavaillé-Coll organ of this neo-gothic church: César Franck from 1885 to 1890 and Charles Tournemire from 1898 to 1939; for both are plaques at the entrance. Gabriel Pierné filled the gap of 1890-1898  and Jean Langlais was the organist from 1945 until his death in 1991. The actual disposition of the organ from 1857 is III/p/71.

In front of the church (at square Samuel-Rousseau) is the monument of Franck.

House of Samuel Dushkin, violinist and first biographer of Stravinsky; the latter was a frequent visitor. George Gershwin visited Dushkin in 1928.

Like his predecessors, president Jacques Chirac wanted to leave behind an important museum. The building was designed by the architect Jean Nouvel and opened in 2006. The museum is devoted to non-European culture and houses the French Society of Ethnomusicology, wich manages a research centre, a library, a sound archive and a collection of over 10.000 mostly non-European instruments, a part of which is displayed in the museum.