A Teacher Lineage - Capet

Capet taught at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1907 until his final years, but who were some of his students? Well, Ivan Galamian was one, as well as Charles Munch, the conductor. They all studied with Capet.

So it's an enviable list, but what do we know about him? Just who did he study with? Was he just a teacher or did he perform as well? Did he compose? So many questions.

Well, to start with, he was born Louis Lucien Capet in Paris on January 8, 1873, and was raised in a working-class family.

His first violin lessons were with Jules Garcin, but almost nothing is known about this teacher.

By his early teens, his parents had him playing in bistros, cafes, and rough venues to help support the family, but by 15, his playing had advanced to the point where formal training became both possible and necessary.

He entered the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied with a disciple of Baillot and Habeneck, and a musical descendant of Viotti.

In the early 1890s, Capet played second violin in the Geloso Quartet, which was founded by Albert Geloso, a pupil of Massart.

Pierre Monteux, who played viola in the ensemble, later recalled a private Vienna performance of a Brahms quartet in the composer's presence.

According to Monteux, Brahms remarked, "It takes the French to play my music properly. The Germans all play it much too heavily."

Well, Capet obtained his premier prix in violin at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1893, and in the years that followed, he founded the Capet Quartet.

Its members varied over time, but early members included violist Henri Casadesus and cellist Marcel Casadesus, who were uncles of pianist Robert Casadesus.

In fact, the group often rehearsed at the Casadesus residence.

Capet's quartet became one of the classic early interpreters of the Debussy and Ravel quartets, and their 1928 recordings of both works for Columbia Records helped preserve their place in the French quartet tradition.

Joseph Gingold, after hearing the quartet perform an all-Beethoven program in Brussels, called it the greatest string quartet concert he had ever heard.

The quartet dissolved after Capet's death in 1928 at the age of 55.

But alongside the quartet, Capet was building another legacy as he taught violin at the Société Sainte-Cécile de Bordeaux from 1899 to 1903.

This was a pivotal period in his development as a pedagogue, because during this time he began researching and developing what would become his treatise, La Technique Supérieure de l'Archet, or Superior Bowing Technique.

His treatise, which was published in 1916, was referred to by Carl Flesch as an otherwise important work, and Flesch criticized aspects of its bow distribution thinking.

The treatise's influence appears to have been transmitted through his teaching rather than through widespread direct reading of the work.

In fact, an English translation didn't surface until 2007.

Capet composed a little, but he was certainly not prolific.

He did, however, edit the pedagogical editions of Rode's 24 Caprices, Fiorillo's 36 Caprices, Gaviniès' 24 Études, Kreutzer's 42 Études, Bach's Six Solo Sonatas, and more for the Edition Nationale series, which was later reissued by Salabert.

So just who was Lucien Capet? Well, he was a teacher, an editor, and the leader of a major French quartet.

And through all of those efforts, he was a carrier of the French violin pedagogical tradition, a tradition that was shaped by his own lineage of teachers that would travel far beyond the streets of Paris.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUIDdDquDCQ

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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