DEBORAH HAYES
Françoise-Elisabeth Desfossez
(1743–1823)
A contemporary of Mme Brillon de Jouy (1744–1824) and Mlle Bayon (1746–1825), and well aware of the celebrated younger pianist Hélène de Montgeroult, Françoise-Elisabeth Desfossez, née de Carraque (or Caraque) was a noted pianist and composer of sonatas. Her surviving works are three solo piano sonatas, Opus 1, and three accompanied sonatas, Opus 3.
In 1763, at the age of 20, Demoiselle Françoise-Elisabeth de Carraque married Charles-Henri, Comte des Fossez (1725?–1809?), a distinguished military officer. The next year, she gave birth to a son, Charles-Henri. After him came twin sons who died in infancy after being baptized, and in 1767, Pierre-Antoine, mute and mentally disabled from birth. The Defossez family home was in Cappy (or Capy) in northern France, about 130 km from Paris. The composer herself evidently spent considerable time in Paris. The oldest son, Charles-Henri Desfossez (1764–1851), became a successful painter, a pastellist.
Defossez’s Opus 1 sonatas were published separately, sonata no. 1 in 1789 and nos. 2 and 3 in 1790. Her only other surviving music is a set of three sonatas for forte piano with accompanying parts for obligatory violin and cello ad libitum, Opus 3, published in 1798. Opus 2 remains unknown, as does anything that may have followed Opus 3.
The three solo sonatas have been recorded for YouTube by Jean-Yves Serreault. Each sonata is in three movements: an opening Allegro, a slower Adagio movement, and a fast finale (Presto assai, Allegretto, and Prestissimo, respectively). On the title page of each sonata, published before the Revolution, the composer is identified as Madame la Comtesse D.F.Z., that is, with her aristocratic title; the family name is much shortened, presumably owing to aristocratic reticence concerning explicit public notice of the name. On the title page of Opus 3, by contrast, published after the Revolution, the title Comtesse is deleted. The composer’s given names are represented by the initials F.E. and her married name is spelled Desfossez— the aristocratic prefix ‘des’ is effectively obscured by being joined to Fossez.
The ease with which Desfossez explores the conventions and possibilities of Classical forms in the Opus 1 sonatas indicates that she had excellent music training. A musically gifted member of an aristocratic family typically had private tutelage beginning in childhood and might publish an Opus 1 collection around the age of twenty. Atypically, Desfossez was in her mid-forties when her music was first published. She may have composed the sonatas earlier and would probably have performed them for private audiences and even circulated the manuscripts privately as well.
By 1798, Desfossez had undertaken study with the noted composer and publisher Ignaz Pleyel (1757–1851), about fourteen years her junior. Pleyel moved to Paris in 1795, at the end of the Terror (having narrowly escaped the guillotine by composing revolutionary music), and In 1797 founded his music publishing business, the Maison Pleyel. Defossez evidently intended to polish her skills and to interest Pleyel in publishing her work. She dedicates her Opus 3 to Pleyel, describing him as her friend and teacher.
The dedications to the earlier Opus 1 sonatas indicate her connections in the musical and political life of the ancien régime. Sadly, the dedicatees of sonatas nos. 1 and 3 were guillotined in 1794 under the Terror. Sonata no. 1 is dedicated to “Madame Hocquart, First Female President of the Courts of Aids”; this body judged cases concerning the state treasury. Her husband, Antoine-Louis-Hyacinthe Hocquart de Tremilly (1739–1794), was attorney general of the Courts of Aids, and then the institution’s first (male) president. Desfossez writes the dedication to Madame Hocquart in English.
Sonata no. 2, is dedicated to Hélène de Montgeroult, using her aristocratic title Madame la Marquise de Montgeroult. (That title is absent from Montgeroult’s own publications which date from after the Terror.) Desfosssez asks her to ensure the sonata’s success by performing it.
Sonata no. 3 is dedicated to Madame la Vicomtesse de Gand, probably Élisabeth-Pauline de Gand, Comtesse de Lauraguais (1737–1794). Desfossez describes the sonata as her expression of love.
______________________
To dedicate my work to you is almost to suggest that I would dare to believe it worthy of you, but these feeble sonatas, which your friendship toward me made you listen to with indulgence, will possibly be favorably received by the public when it knows that you allowed me to offer them to you, and that I join to the happiness of having you as a friend that of having you as my teacher.
Madam, Your friendship has often deign’d to commend my feeble talents; to please you is the most flattering security for public indulgence. Friendship presents you with this tribute of gratitude. I am most tenderly, my dear Friend, Yours [Your] most humble servant
F. Elis. Csse DFZ
Madam, It is by admiring your talents that I dared to exercise mine. Deign to accept their homage, and if you judge this sonata worthy of your execution, it will have, under your fingers, the most flattering success that I could hope for. I have the honor of being, Madam, your very humble servant.
To flatter your delicate and strict taste would require, I feel, a perfect work; but one that no one so far has made. Could I, very unworthy, have made it? No, I feel much more capable of another talent : I know how to love perfectly, which is shown as being perfectly lovable to all. The fruits of this talent seem to me to be made for you. My heart dedicates them to you in saying that it loves you. The other dedication between us will be the pretext and emblem of this one.
Sources
Published scores and covers (handwritten) of op. 1 and op. 3 at imslp.org
Dictionnaire de la noblesse, contenant les généalogies, l'histoire & la chronologie des familles nobles de la France, l'explication de leurs armes et l'état des grandes terres du royaume, possédées à titre de Principautés, Duchés, Marquisats, Comtés, Vicomtés, Baronnies, etc., par création, héritages, alliances, donations, substitutions, mutations, achats ou autrement.
Par François Alexandre Aubert de La Chesnaye-Desbois 1699–1784.
Vol 8, p. 214: BRANCHE de Villaneuve . . . X. Charles-Henri.
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009017581
Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800, by Neil Jeffares (online edition.
http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/Desfosses.pdf
Etat nominatif des pensions sur le Trésor Royal, vol. 4 (Imprimerie Nationale, 1791), p. 403.
https://www.google.com/books/ . . .
Memoires et plaidoyers (“Memoirs and Pleas”) de M. Linguet, avocat à Paris, par Simon Nicolas Henri Linguet 1736–1794. Vol. 4, pp. 307–330 [begins on 441 of 604].
https://babel.hathitrust.org/ . . .