Chevalier de Meude-Monpas

{{short description|French classical musician, conductor and composer}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Chevalier de Meude-Monpas | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name =  | birth_date = | birth_place = [[Paris, France]] | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | education = | alma_mater = | known_for = | notable_works = Concerto in D (1786) | style = Classical | movement = | spouse = | partner = | awards =  | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | website =  | module = }}

The '''Chevalier de Meude-Monpas''' (fl. c. 1780-1790) was a French composer, musician, author, and royalist of the 18th-century. Meude-Monpas was otherwise known as J.J.O. de Meude-Monpas (possibly Josse Jean-Olivier). He was a "gentilhomme-servant du roi", meaning he was on the king's payroll, and a composer and violinist,<ref>Gazette du commerce (Paris. 1763)13 novembre 1783 : "M. de Monpas exécuta son concerto de tête & en improvisant : il fut fort applaudi." https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9782811w/f5.image.r=%22meude-monpas%22?rk=21459;2</ref> as well as a member of several academies.

==Career==

Meude-Monpas was born in [[Paris]] and studied violin with {{ill|Pierre Lahoussaye|fr|Pierre Lahoussaye}}, and composition with [[François Giroust|Giroust]], but later he pretended to be one of [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]'s pupils because he shared the man's opinions and purported to be extremely sensitive. In 1786 Meude-Monpas published six concertos for violin, with 2 violins, viola, double bass, 2 oboes and 2 horns. Like many other members of the court, he left the country during the [[French Revolution]] and served for a time in a corps under the orders of the [[Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé|Prince de Condé]]. Later, [[Stéphanie Félicité, comtesse de Genlis|Mme de Genlis]] met him in Berlin where he was writing and publishing poetry. She gave the poetry a bad review, an opinion shared by [[Nicolas-Étienne Framery|Framery]], who criticized it as ignorant and absurd in the [[Mercure de France]] (ann. 1788, n.26).

On May 5, 1790, Meude-Monpas had an impromptu poem published in which he suggested that the [[Armand, duc d'Aiguillon|Duke of Aiguillon]] had dressed as a woman to take part in the [[Women's March on Versailles]] (this was a preexisting legend) : "We have been transported to miraculous times. / While d'Aiguil ... disguises himself as a woman, / [[Marie Antoinette|Antoinette]] becomes a brave man, / Worthy of honouring the noble blood of the House of Guise."<ref>"Nous sommes transportés aux temps miraculeux./ Tandis que d'Aiguil,.. en femme se déguise,/ Antoinette devient un homme courageux / Et digne d'honorer le noble sang des Guise".</ref> Meude-Monpas denied that he had been referring to the duke. On May 23, the [[Marquis de Condorcet]]'s ''Chronique de Paris'' jeered at him and reminded the public that Meude-Monpas was a self-styled "chevalier" - in fact, the son of a master goldsmith in Paris, a Mr. Josse "who would be amazed to see his youngest son has become a gentleman-servant and a chevalier (knight) in spite of his ancestors, and the [[Don Quixote]] of dukes, marquis and counts, his noble peers and friends."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k772638k/f3.item.r=%22meude-monpas%22.zoom|title=La Justice / dir. G. Clemenceau; réd. Camille Pelletan| date=29 April 1889 |access-date=31 October 2020}}</ref>

An article by [[Camille Pelletan]] in [[Georges Clemenceau]]'s newspaper ''La Justice,'' published on April 29, 1889, is an important source regarding Meude-Monpas. It describes a counter-revolutionary [[List of journals appearing under the French Revolution|newspaper]] called "Le Petit Gautier" or, more officially, ''Le Journal de la Cour et de la Ville''. [[:fr:François Jourgniac de Saint-Méard|François Jourgniac de Saint-Méard]] (1745-1827) and Jean-Olivier de Meude-Moupas were notable contributors.

==Personal life==

Meude-Monpas was known as a staunch supporter of [[Louis XVI]] and had a public reputation. Nearly a century later, he became a character in a play by [[Edmond de Goncourt]], ''La Patrie en Danger'', drame en cinq actes, en prose, premiered on March 19, 1889 at the [[Théâtre Libre]], salle des Menus-Plaisirs. (see ''Journal des débats politiques et littéraires'', March 19, 1889). Meude-Monpas is mentioned in [[François-Joseph Fétis]]'s ''Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique''.<ref>Deuxième édition, entièrement refondue et augmentée de plus de moitié... Tome premier [- supplément]. Tome 6. 1833-1844 http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb42986517h</ref> The author notes that Meude-Monpas was a "black [[musketeer]]" (which means that he belonged to a company riding black horses, not to another company, riding grey ones).

==Publications== [[File:Chevalier_de_Meude-Monpas_cover.jpg|thumb|right|Cover of ''Violin Concertos by Black Composers of the 18th and 19th Centuries'', soloist [[Rachel Barton Pine]], from Cedille Records]]

* ''A Dictionary of Music'' (''Dictionnaire de musique dans lequel on simplifie les expressions et les définitions mathématiques et physiques qui ont rapport à cet art, avec des remarques impartiales sur les poètes lyriques, les vérificateurs, les compositeurs, acteurs, exécutans''), 1787. Minkoff Reprint, Genève, 1981. Wentworth Press (2018). * ''Réponse à la question proposée par M. l'abbé Raynal, adressée à l'Académie de Lyon : "Les Richesses toujours ont causé nos malheurs"'', 1788 https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb30935898h.public * ''Quelques réflexions par le Chevalier J.-J.-O. de Meude-Monpas'', 1789 * ''De l'influence de l'amour et de la musique sur les moeurs, avec des réflexions sur l'utilité que les gouvernements peuvent tirer de ces deux importantes passions'', 1789 * ''Éloge de J. J. Rousseau: avec des anecdotes très-intéressantes relatives à ce grand homme, qui n'ont point encore été publiées'', 1790. Wentworth Press (2018) * ''Panthéon Littéraire'', 1790

== Recordings == One of his concerti was recorded by [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj2GByERDs8 Rachel Barton Pine – Cedille Records, 1997]: CDR 90000 035.

A recording of his Concerto in D (1876) was included as part of a compilation of violin concertos of 18th and 19th century French composers in 1998.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/22/arts/classical-briefs-650609.html "Classical Briefs" ''New York Times'' (Feb. 22, 1998), "None of the works is an outright masterpiece, but the Chevalier de Saint-Georges's A major Concerto (1775) is utterly charming. Mozartean in sensibility, with sunny ostinatos, the piece possesses an infectious spirit despite its obviously derivative nature. The Chevalier J. J. O. de Meude-Monpas's Concerto in D (1786) is even more interesting, with Rococo accents brushing up against French Baroque elements."]</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meude-Monpas, Chevalier de}} [[Category:Year of death missing]] [[Category:18th-century French classical composers]] [[Category:18th-century French male composers]] [[Category:French male classical violinists]] [[Category:French Classical-period composers]] [[Category:French classical musicians]] [[Category:French male classical composers]] [[Category:Year of birth uncertain]] [[Category:18th-century French violinists]]