Louise Marie Madeleine Fontaine
Louise de Fontaine was born in Paris, in the parish of Saint-Roch, on 28 October 1706. Her baptism act was as follows:
Marie Emmanuelle Bayon Louis
Madame Louis, née Marie-Emmanuelle Bayon, was a French composer, pianist,
and salonnière of considerable activity and influence. Her principal published
works are, as Mademoiselle Bayon, a collection of six keyboard sonatas, three of
them with violin accompaniment, opus 1 (1769), and, as Madame Louis, the full
score of her two-act opéra-comique, Fleur d’épine, or "May-Flower" (the
heroine’s name), scored for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra. The composer’s
unpublished works, discussed during her lifetime but not yet found, include
further instrumental chamber music and opéra-comiques, and music for La fête
de Saint Pierre, a divertissement to a libretto by Antoine-François Quétant
(1733–1823), performed at the Château de la Cour-Neuve in Paris on St. Peter’s
day in 1771.
Marie-Emmanuelle Bayon was born in Marcei, department of Orne (west of
Paris), in 1746. In her preface to the op. 1 sonatas she refers to "the many
kindnesses bestowed upon me since my tenderest infancy" by the family of
Madame la Marquise de Langeron to whom the volume is dedicated. It may be
assumed that Bayon grew up in or near Paris and received, perhaps through this
patronage, special training in music. Accounts of her activities from the age of
about twenty-one appear in the memoirs and correspondence of some of the
leading women and men of the eighteenth-century French Enlightenment. She
composed instrumental music and music for plays, which she performed at
Madame de Genlis’s salon on the rue de Grenelle in collaboration with noted
amateurs like herself as well as internationally known French and foreign
professional musicians. She also participated as actor-singer in salon dramatic
productions, such as comédies, skits, and proverbs. Her good friend, the
encyclopedist and philosopher Denis Diderot, would compare her work to that of
Domenico Alberti, Johann Christian Bach, Johann Gottfried Eckard, Johann
Schobert, and other foreign composers whose music was currently admired in
Paris.
In 1770, on 20 June, Bayon married Victor Louis (1731–1800), an architect with
important social and political connections similar to her own. In 1774 the couple’s
only child was born, Marie-Hélène-Victoire Louis (d. 1848). In Bordeaux the Louis
residence became the site of a highly select salon. Sources also mention
performances of two "opéras" by Madame Louis. It was during this period,
probably in 1775–76, that she completed Fleur d’épine.
Diderot hired Bayon to take on his daughter, Angelique, as a student. In a series
of dialogues published in 1771, Diderot offers some insight into Bayon’s
character and the impact she left upon his daughter. At one lesson Angelique
describes her teacher as "a charming woman, in whom one does not know what
to praise the most—her mind, her character, her morals, or her talent," and adds
that her composition has "facility, expression, grace, melody." At a subsequent
lesson the student compares "pieces by my friend Madame Louis" to those of the
Venetian composer Domenico Alberti (ca. 1710–1740), a collection of whose
sonatas had been published in Paris in 1760: both composers must be played
"with delicacy and good taste" and are therefore difficult to perform, the pupil
observes. By contrast, she knows pieces that are "strong in harmony, loaded
with sounds, varied through modulations," so that, while they may sound difficult,
they "require only precision and a steady beat."
The published score contains an overture and twenty musical numbers—eleven
ariettes, or arias, sung by four of the five characters) plus two duets, two trios,
ensemble finales for each act, two small chorus numbers, and a brief
instrumental fanfare. The Overture is in two sections, Allegro and Andante, each
in Classic key-area form (sonata form). The energetic opening section in G Major
modulates to D major and then explores D minor and other keys, with new
melodic motives, before returning to the home key. In the Andante in C major
the composer creates a softer texture by omitting horns and scoring initial
statements of each melody for strings alone. The expected return to the first key
of the overture is accomplished by the opening duet, which begins in G-major.
The arias are generally in "ABA" form with a brief orchestral introduction.
The production of Fleur d’épine attracted the attention of several Paris writers
and critics. The Mémoires secrètes for 23 August, the day after the premiere,
noted that Fleur d’épine, a "fairy play" (féerie), was "well received." The writer
commented that, while the beginning was cold and without wit, the end of the first
act was better and the second act was "charming," with "flashes of wit" and "a
magnificent spectacle." (The theatre had a suspended platform that could be
lowered and raised over the stage and this was probably used for Seraine’s final
entrance in all her glory.) The short review concluded: "The Comédiens spent a
lot of money on this play. The music, not very strong, is pleasant."
A second review, dated 26 August, was longer and more enthusiastic. The plot
was recounted at some length and the play was reported to be "wonderfully
successful." The echo scene was singled out for praise, as was the spectacle of
Dentue’s "assembled relatives," an "indescribly laughable" collection of "the most
hideous and bizarre figures." The writer reported that Madame Trial "sings
deliciously," and described the effectiveness of each of the other four actors in
glowing terms.
The review in the Correspondance secrète dated 31 August pronounced the
premiere performance "monstrous," especially the sight of a man playing a 
woman (Dentue). The reviewer recounted the plot in detail, noting that the joke
about the sleepy "great nobleman" was "singularly applauded." The writer also
reported, erroneously, that Fleur d’Épine was based on "a few fragments" found
in Voisenon’s papers, and incorrectly named the work’s producers. The music
was described as "sweet but feeble," offering few memorable tunes. A second
report on 7 September noted that in a subsequent performance Fleur-d’Èpine
had undergone so many "corrections" that it was "tolerable enough" to continue
playing.
"Six sonates", op.1. Paris, Vendôme, 1769 (facsimile ed., New York: Da Capo Press, 1990).
"Fleur d’épine", full score. Paris, 1776. Excerpts, ed. D. Hayes, in "Women Composers: Music Through the Ages" (12 vols; New York: G. K. Hall/Macmillan, 1995- ), vols. 4 and 5.