Société nationale de musique

The Société nationale de musique was an organisation in late 19th and early 20th century Paris, promoting French music and allowing rising composers to present their works in public.

It was founded in the aftermath of France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 on a strong tide of nationalist feeling, and at first excluded all music by non-French composers.

[5] Founding members of the society included Théodore Dubois, Henri Duparc, Gabriel Fauré, César Franck, Ernest Guiraud, Jules Massenet, and Paul Taffanel.

It took place on 17 November 1871 at the Salle Pleyel in the rue de Richelieu, and featured the Trio in B♭ major by Franck, two songs by Dubois, Five Pieces in Ancient Style by Castillon, a reduction of the Violin Concerto by Garcin, an Improvisation for tenor by Massenet, and the Caprice héroïque for two pianos by Saint-Saëns, played by the composer and Fauré.

Among those who joined after the founding members were Georges Bizet, Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray, Vincent d'Indy, Edouard Lalo, Charles Lenepveu and Charles-Marie Widor.

[12] In the early years, concerts were for members only, but in an attempt to increase the society's income and enable it to pay for orchestras, tickets were later made available to the general public.

Chabrier's Pièces pittoresques (1881) and Bourrée fantasque (1893); Franck's Piano Quintet (1880), Prélude, Choral and Fugue (1885), Variations symphoniques (1886) and String Quartet (1890); Fauré's Violin Sonata No.

[14][15] In 1910 a group of young French composers led by Maurice Ravel rebelled, and set up a rival organisation, the Société musicale indépendante (SMI)[n 3].

They secured Fauré as their president, and for a while outshone the older body, attracting composers including Béla Bartók, Manuel de Falla, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky and Anton Webern.