ABOUT

The international Fête de la Musique takes place on June 21 in over 300 cities around the world. Christian Dupavillon explains the origins of this holiday in France.

ORIGIN OF THE FÊTE DE LA MUSIQUE

By Christian Dupavillon

Christian Dupavillon is an architect and high-ranking civil servant in the Ministry of Culture. In 1982 he was advisor in the private office of the Culture Minister. The views expressed in this article are those of the author.

One morning in January 1982, the Director of Music at the Ministry of Culture, Maurice Fleuret, sent me a memo saying that the French owned more than four million musical instruments. Three quarters of these instruments lay deteriorating in cupboards, attics and cellars before departing this life in dustbins and on rubbish tips. I couldn't help but lament their fate.

Afterwards, the memo turned out to be not so sad - indeed, it spawned a great idea. Why couldn't, one day a year, those cellos, guitars, trombones, kettledrums, triangles and big bass drums wake up, be restored, produce sounds, find someone to play them and enchant anyone who cared to listen? Why, on that day, couldn't performers, professionals and amateurs alike, play completely freely indoors and out, everywhere, in public squares, under porches and on covered walkways, areas of school playgrounds and hospital gardens, at entrances to music academies or under café awnings just for the sheer pleasure of playing? All that was missing from this mammoth concert was a name, a date and a Prince Charming to awaken Sleeping Beauty.

The first such festival took place on 21 June 1982. It was given the homonym "Faites de la musique", "Make music," [in French this has the same pronunciation as fête de la musique, festival of music]. The day of the summer solstice, the longest day in the year, was chosen? The Director of Music at the Ministry of Culture played the role of the young prince. To avoid annoying those people who, for one reason or another, loathe music and during nocturnal hours equate it to "disturbing the peace at night", the festival was held from 8.30 p.m. to 9 p.m. The diversity of the performances and large number of "venues" were to make it a totally new experience. Music-lovers swarmed around monuments and thronged streets and squares...

How right we were to pursue the idea. The following year, the time restrictions were dropped. Today, after eighteen successful years, the festival is firmly established. Orchestras, brass bands, jazz, rock, pop, techno, ethnic, rap and funk music groups, gospel singers, school and church choirs, music-hall performers, musicians from different French regions and indeed from all over the world celebrate music every 21 June.

What is the fête de la musique?

It's the day - it's now a firm fixture - when musicians, whether they're amateurs or professionals, can play wherever they want at any time, day or night. They might choose a station concourse, a school playground, the inside of a cathedral or church, a café, the steps of a town hall, historic building or prefecture, a passage-way, a prison and so on. Amateurs, often nervous when they have to sing or play an instrument in public, have the chance to play freely without feeling self-conscious. What's more, the festival isn't a financial burden on the Ministry of Culture or regional and municipal authorities. All it requires is a poster, a list of venues across France, information available by phone or on the Internet, the suspension of royalties for the day, and an increase in the number of commuter trains, and bus and underground services running until dawn.

Audiences have heard some unique concerts: a 12-year-old playing a concerto for violin and orchestra, with him on the violin and the orchestra broadcasting on 91.70 FM (France Musique music channel); music-hall performers singing in hospitals; a harmonica player in a porte-cochère; two pianists performing a Schubert fantasy on two floors of the same building with the windows wide open; percussion bands parading down streets; a concert of Polish music in a church heard by all passers-by; Yiddish songs in a museum under construction; Scandinavian melodies accompanied by a nyckelharpa [traditional Swedish folk instrument] in the garden of a cultural centre; folk music in the underground; and a faltering imitation of Freddie Mercury in a school playground.

While some professionals criticize it for being a gimmick and others complain that it has been taken over by sponsors and media organizations, the fête de la musique gives anyone who wants to the chance to play or listen to absolutely every type of music. A virtually trouble-free festival of over 15 hundred concerts in a single night!

A world-wide festival