Name Michel Guy Role Composer | Libretti Sabinus | |
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Occupation Violinist, composer, writer Died June 10, 1792, Paris, France | ||
Michel-Paul Guy de Chabanon (1730, Saint-Domingue – 1792, Paris) was a violinist, composer and writer on music theory and French literature. He was elected to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (1760) and the Académie française (1779).
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As fiction writer
Michel Paul Guy de Chabanon wrote poetry, elogies (notably that of Rameau), plays (including the tragedy of Éponine) and translations (adjudged by the 19th century Dictionnaire Bouillet as having "little fidelity [to the original text], but not lacking in elegance and facility").
As musician and music theorist
Michel Paul Guy de Chabanon was also a successful musician, playing the violin in the Concert des Amateurs under the direction of Joseph Bologne, chevalier de Saint-Georges.
He was the author of an opera, Sémélé, tragédie lyrique, and of several works on music theory, of which the most valued are his commentaries on music in the work of Aristotle . His double identity as a writer and a musician gave him a unique viewpoint on the links between music and language and in developing a philosophy of music of which his work was the expression. He also contributed to defining opera as a musical genre.