Jean Rémusat's Musical and Educational Activity in the Context of Forming European Orchestral Traditions in Shanghai

Abstract

The author considered the main stages of creative formation and musical-educational as well as concert-performance activities of Jean Rémusat (J. Rémusat) in Europe and China. J. Rémusat's achievements as a flutist are examined in the context of his orchestral practice in Parisian and London theaters. Concert programs of J. Rémusat's performances as a soloist and member of ensemble groups on the basis of music-critical publications of Shanghai periodicals of 1860-1870 were analyzed. The main directions of his creative collaboration with other European musicians (G.B Fentum, J. C. H. Iburg) is highlighted in the cultural leisure of Shanghai in the western sector of the city. The author identified the role of the French musician in the founding of the Shanghai Philharmonic Society and the Wind Music Association to intensify the concert and performance activities of local amateur groups and professional musicians and hold their regular performances in front of citizens. It is emphasized that the organization of J. Rémusat's concerts is based on European experience, offering various forms of performances by artists with a repertoire available to the local public. The work of J. Rémusat, conductor and musician-educator, is described in view of his founding of private orchestral groups and his close cooperation with military musicians on the way to creating an amateur group "Shanghai Volunteer Brass Band". The process of professionalization of the amateur orchestra and the development of instrumental composition with the involvement of qualified musicians on the way to its transformation into a symphonic ensemble is highlighted. The orchestra repertoire based on works by classical and romantic composers is described. The representative functions of the orchestra in the celebration and participation in various citywide cultural events in Shanghai is clarified. The principle of formation of the instrumental composition of the municipal orchestra by professional musicians is revealed. It has been found that in the selection of orchestras, J. Rémusat preferred Filipino instrumentalists, who after a three-hundred-year period of Spanish colonial dependence were more familiar with Western orchestral culture than local Chinese musicians. The decisive role of Jean Rémusat as an active propagandist of European orchestral traditions in the creation of the official municipal "Shanghai Public Brass Band" (Shanghai Public Band) has been proved.