Pougin, Arthur, French critic and writer (1834-1921). 2 autograph letters signed.

Paris, 15. II. 1882.

12mo. Together 4½ pp. on bifolia.

 125.00

Both to a fellow journalist, probably Charles Vincens in Marseille, answering a request on the composer Prosper Sain d'Arod who had been named director of the Conservatory of Marseille. In the more personal longer letter, Pougin explains his belated response with the illness of one of his daughters and his financial difficulties following the theft of 5000 francs from his journal La Musique Populaire. Pougin informs the recipient that he finally went to the Paris Conservatory to talk to the secretary of Ambroise Thomas to seek out information on Sain d'Arod. However, there was a "terrible obscurity" surrounding this name in Paris and it was only thanks to a note by a Mr. Domergue that he could gather the information provided in the second letter, some of which Pougin had also published in article on Sain d'Arod for François-Joseph Fétis's Bibliographie universelle des musiciens.

According to the second letter, Sain d'Arod was "almost entirely unknown in the musical world of Paris". Pougin answers specific questions, claiming that Sain d'Arod never won a price of the Paris Conservatory, and while it is even unclear if he ever attended the famous institution, he certainly did not work as a "subsitute" for Froméntal Halévy and was not a member of the Institut de France.

Minimally stained.

Stock Code: BN#31147 Tag: