1916 Recording of Auguste Mesnard

Auguste Mesnard was born November 17, 1875 in Cognac, France. He began his musi­cal career as a vio­lin­ist, study­ing at the Ecole Nationale de Musique d’Angoulème, and earn­ing a first prize from there in 1891. After an unsuc­cess­ful audi­tion to enter the Paris Conservatoire, one of his musi­cal col­leagues in Angoulème sug­gest­ed that he take up the bas­soon instead. He evi­dent­ly took to the instru­ment right away, as he man­aged to gain entry to Eugène Bourdeau’s bas­soon class at the Paris Conservatoire only two years lat­er (November 1893). He won a first prize there in 1897, and went on to bas­soon posi­tions in the Concerts Rouge, Orchestra Lamoureux, and Societé Nationale de Musique. In his posi­tion as sec­ond bas­soon­ist with the Orchestra Lamoureux, he played the pre­mieres of Debussy’s Nocturnes and L’Après-midi d’un faune.

Auguste Mesnard, c. 1917, from Arthur Edward Johnstone's Instruments of the Modern Symphony Orchestra, page 32.

In 1905, Walter Damrosch, music direc­tor of the New York Symphony Orchestra, trav­eled to Paris in search of prin­ci­pal wood­wind play­ers for his orches­tra. Mesnard audi­tioned for Damrosch and was hired, along with flutist George Barrère, oboist Marcel Tabuteau, and clar­inetist Léon Leroy. Mesnard played under Damrosch for the the 1905-08 sea­sons, and then took a posi­tion with the Chicago-Philadelphia Grand Opera Company. In 1912 he turned down a job with Leopold Stokowski’s Philadelphia Orchestra, but soon returned to New York to join the New York Philharmonic under Josef Stránský. Willem Mengelberg suc­ceed­ed Stránský in 1922, and did not get along with Mesnard. Mesnard’s col­league Benjamin Kohon relat­ed a pos­si­ble reason:

Mesnard and I were asso­ciate 1^st bas­soon­ists with the N.Y. Philharmonic Orchestra for 2 sea­sons under W. Mengelberg, con­duc­tor. I imag­ine that Mengelberg did not like the French bas­soon sound and thus was pick­ing on Mesnard. They had an argu­ment after a rehearsal and Mesnard resigned. And I would have done the same thing if I had been treat­ed in a sim­i­lar man­ner.¹Benjamin Kohon, "Letter to the Editor," The Double Reed 2, 1 (1978).

Mesnard’s career con­tin­ued for anoth­er 20+ years, play­ing with the tour­ing Wagnerian Opera Company, the Capital Theater Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, the Roxy Theater Orchestra, and an orches­tra sup­port­ed by the Works Progress Administration.²The Federal Music Project of the Works Progress Administration was responsible for the creation of 34 new orchestras around the country, and also supported a variety of other performance, educational, and scholarly activities related to music. Presumably, Mesnard was a member of the New York Civic Orchestra, but I haven't yet been able to confirm this. Mesnard retired in 1945 at the age of 70, and died in New York in October 1974, just shy of his 100^th birth­day.³United States Social Security Death Index, database, (FamilySearch, 20 May 2014), Auguste Mesnard, Oct 1974; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).

Mesnard began writ­ing his mem­oirs in 1943, short­ly before his retire­ment, and worked on them over the next decade or so. These were nev­er pub­lished, but copies of the type­script reside in the libraries of Southern Illinois University and the International Double Reed Society. I haven’t been able to exam­ine this yet myself, but French bas­soon spe­cial­ist Laurence Ibisch wrote an arti­cle about Mesnard in the October 1978 issue of The Double Reed, with infor­ma­tion tak­en from the mem­oirs.⁴Laurence Ibisch, "A French Bassoonist in the United States," The Double Reed 1, no. 2 (October 1978): 5-7. Unless oth­er­wise not­ed, all the infor­ma­tion in the pre­ced­ing bio­graph­i­cal sketch comes from Ibisch’s article.

Ibisch also owns and reg­u­lar­ly plays on Mesnard’s Buffet bas­soon — the very one in the pho­to above.⁵Laurence Ibisch, e-mail message to author, March 20, 2017. It was made in 1900, and has six­teen keys (rather than the 22 present on the Jancourt “per­fect­ed” sys­tem). Buffets are com­mon­ly made of rose­wood, but this instru­ment has only a rose­wood wing joint. The rest of the instru­ment is made of much lighter maple, which is more com­mon for German bassoons.

Columbia A2161

During his tenure with the New York Philharmonic, Mesnard also worked worked as a record­ing artist for the Columbia Gramophone Company. Recording com­pa­nies in that era gen­er­al­ly did­n’t cred­it indi­vid­ual orches­tra mem­bers, so it’s prob­a­bly impos­si­ble to know how many ensem­ble record­ings he par­tic­i­pat­ed in. His one record­ing as a soloist was made on October 14, 1916—a duet with harpist Charles Schuetze. The piece they record­ed, Serenade by Edmond Filippucci (1869–1948), is almost cer­tain­ly an arrange­ment. Filippucci’s music is not easy to come by today either in print­ed or record­ed forms, so I haven’t been able to iden­ti­fy the piece itself. But a like­ly can­di­date is his 2 Pièces pour vio­lon avec accom­pa­g­ne­ment de piano: Nº 1. Sérénade, pub­lished in 1894.

Mesnard and Schuetze record­ed four takes, the last of which was issued on Columbia A2161 in 1917 (backed with the Columbia Miniature Orchestra play­ing The Music Box).⁶Discography of American Historical Recordings, Columbia matrix 47068. Serenade / Auguste Mesnard ; Charles Schuetze, accessed March 19, 2017. This is from the era of acoustic record­ing (no micro­phones), and my copy of the disc has been well-used. So, the record­ing has a fair amount of back­ground noise. But, it’s still quite enjoy­able. Listen to Serenade here:

While you’re lis­ten­ing, read this short review of the record­ing, pub­lished in the Bridgeport (CT) Evening Farmer in March 1917:

An extra­or­di­nary Columbia record­ing is a wood­wind (bas­soon) and harp duet: Filipucci’s “Serenade,” played by Auguste Mesnard and Charles Schuetze, solo mem­bers of the New York Philharmonic Society. A zephyr-like harp intro­duc­tion is fol­lowed by a love­ly inter­weav­ing of beau­ti­ful inspir­ing notes. The light del­i­cate voice of the harp over the deep under­tones of the bas­soon is indeed elo­quent of evening—shimmer-moonbeams gleam­ing over the shad­ows of night. So far as is known, the “Serenade” is the only record­ing extant of a harp and bas­soon duet.⁷"Talking Machine Records," Bridgeport Evening Farmer (Bridgeport, CT), Mar. 9, 1917.

Mesnard also record­ed “The Elephant and the Fly” with flutist Marshall Lufsky in December 1916, but this was evi­dent­ly nev­er released.⁸Discography of American Historical Recordings, "Columbia matrix 47247. The Elephant and the Fly / Marshall P. Lufsky; Auguste Mesnard," accessed March 19, 2017. His col­league Benjamin Kohon record­ed the same piece in 1918 for Edison Records. That ver­sion was released, and is avail­able to stream from the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive.

Notes:

• 1
  Benjamin Kohon, “Letter to the Editor,” The Double Reed 2, 1 (1978).
• 2
  The Federal Music Project of the Works Progress Administration was respon­si­ble for the cre­ation of 34 new orches­tras around the coun­try, and also sup­port­ed a vari­ety of oth­er per­for­mance, edu­ca­tion­al, and schol­ar­ly activ­i­ties relat­ed to music. Presumably, Mesnard was a mem­ber of the New York Civic Orchestra, but I haven’t yet been able to con­firm this.
• 3
  United States Social Security Death Index, data­base, (FamilySearch, 20 May 2014), Auguste Mesnard, Oct 1974; cit­ing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, data­base (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
• 4
  Laurence Ibisch, “A French Bassoonist in the United States,” The Double Reed 1, no. 2 (October 1978): 5–7.
• 5
  Laurence Ibisch, e‑mail mes­sage to author, March 20, 2017.
• 6
  Discography of American Historical Recordings, Columbia matrix 47068. Serenade / Auguste Mesnard ; Charles Schuetze, accessed March 19, 2017.
• 7
  “Talking Machine Records,” Bridgeport Evening Farmer (Bridgeport, CT), Mar. 9, 1917.
• 8
  Discography of American Historical Recordings, “Columbia matrix 47247. The Elephant and the Fly / Marshall P. Lufsky; Auguste Mesnard,” accessed March 19, 2017.

• 1
  Benjamin Kohon, “Letter to the Editor,” The Double Reed 2, 1 (1978).
• 2
  The Federal Music Project of the Works Progress Administration was respon­si­ble for the cre­ation of 34 new orches­tras around the coun­try, and also sup­port­ed a vari­ety of oth­er per­for­mance, edu­ca­tion­al, and schol­ar­ly activ­i­ties relat­ed to music. Presumably, Mesnard was a mem­ber of the New York Civic Orchestra, but I haven’t yet been able to con­firm this.
• 3
  United States Social Security Death Index, data­base, (FamilySearch, 20 May 2014), Auguste Mesnard, Oct 1974; cit­ing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, data­base (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
• 4
  Laurence Ibisch, “A French Bassoonist in the United States,” The Double Reed 1, no. 2 (October 1978): 5–7.
• 5
  Laurence Ibisch, e‑mail mes­sage to author, March 20, 2017.
• 6
  Discography of American Historical Recordings, Columbia matrix 47068. Serenade / Auguste Mesnard ; Charles Schuetze, accessed March 19, 2017.
• 7
  “Talking Machine Records,” Bridgeport Evening Farmer (Bridgeport, CT), Mar. 9, 1917.
• 8
  Discography of American Historical Recordings, “Columbia matrix 47247. The Elephant and the Fly / Marshall P. Lufsky; Auguste Mesnard,” accessed March 19, 2017.