I was well received by M.de Boze.He had a thirst for knowledge, of which he possessed not a little, but was somewhat pedantic.Madam de Boze much resembled him; she was lively and affected.I sometimes dined with them, and it is impossible to be more awkward than I was in her presence.Her easy manner intimidated me, and rendered mine more remarkable.When she presented me a plate, I modestly put forward my fork to take one of the least bits of what she offered me, which made her give the plate to her servant, turning her head aside that I might not see her laugh.She had not the least suspicion that in the head of the rustic with whom she was so diverted there was some small portion of wit.M.de Boze presented me to M.de Reaumur, his friend, who came to dine with him every Friday, the day on which the Academy of Sciences met.He mentioned to him my project, and the desire I had of having it examined by the academy.M.de Reaumur consented to make the proposal, and his offer was accepted.On the day appointed I was introduced and presented by M.de Reaumur, and on the same day, August 22d, 1742, I had the honor to read to the academy the memoir I had prepared for that purpose.Although this illustrious assembly might certainly well be expected to inspire me with awe, I was less intimidated on this occasion than I had been in the presence of Madam de Boze, and I got tolerably well through my reading and the answers I was obliged to give.The memoir was well received, and acquired me some compliments by which I was equally surprised and flattered, imagining that before such an assembly, whoever was not a member of it could not have common-sense.The persons appointed to examine my system were M.Mairan, M.Hellot, and M.de Fouchy, all three men of merit, but not one of them understood music, at least not enough of composition to enable them to judge of my project.
During my conference with these gentlemen, I was convinced with no less certainty than surprise, that if men of learning have sometimes fewer prejudices than others, they more tenaciously retain those they have.However weak or false most of their objections were, and although I answered them with great timidity, and I confess, in bad terms, yet with decisive reasons, I never once made myself understood, or gave them any explanation in the least satisfactory.I was constantly surprised at the facility with which, by the aid of a few sonorous phrases, they refuted, without having comprehended me.They had learned, I know not where, that a monk of the name of Souhaitti had formerly invented a mode of noting the gamut by ciphers: a sufficient proof that my system was not new.This might, perhaps, be the case; for although I had never heard of Father Souhaitti, and notwithstanding his manner of writing the seven notes without attending to the octaves was not, under any point of view, worthy of entering into competition with my simple and commodious invention for easily noting by ciphers every possible kind of music, keys, rests, octaves, measure, time, and length of note; things on which Souhaitti had never thought: it was nevertheless true, that with respect to the elementary expression of the seven notes, he was the first inventor.
But besides their giving to this primitive invention more importance than was due to it, they went still further, and, whenever they spoke of the fundamental principles of the system, talked nonsense.
The greatest advantage of my scheme was to supersede transpositions and keys, so that the same piece of music was noted and transposed at will by means of the change of a single initial letter at the head of the air.These gentlemen had heard from the music-masters of Paris that the method of executing by transposition was a bad one; and on this authority converted the most evident advantage of my system into an invincible objection against it, and affirmed that my mode of notation was good for vocal music, but bad for instrumental;instead of concluding as they ought to have done, that it was good for vocal, and still better for instrumental.On their report the academy granted me a certificate full of fine compliments, amidst which it appeared that in reality it judged my system to be neither new nor useful.I did not think proper to ornament with such a paper the work entitled, Dissertation sur la musique moderne,* by which Iappealed to the public.
* Dissertation on modern music.
