FRENCH MUSICAL BROADCASTING FROM 1945 TO 1954

The musical programs of the "Porché decade" by Christophe BENNET After the dark years of the Occupation, the Liberation launches the time of the rebuilding of the country, but also the rebuilding of the radio. New people are arriving, others are coming back. The protagonists of musical broadcasting are not necessarily sweeping away past habits. It is certain, however, that the ten years after the war mark the radio (which is now called a "public service radio") with a new sceal and a fresh spirit. Beside the strengthening of the artistic resources, especially by the creation of new orchestras, a multidecade old idea takes shape: the conception of stations that are not necessarily thematically specialized, but differently oriented. Through the prism of musical programs, we'll find traces of this slow mutation 1 .

A HUMAN REVIVAL AND AMBITIOUS POLICIES IN A BROADCASTING LANDSCAPE TO BE RESHAPED

The content and the organization of the musical programs in the post-war decade can only be understood in the light of the context of the "rebuilding of the radio". The emerging personalities, the policies they favor, the arrangement of the stations and the musical resources, the innovative and creative initiatives are as many elements which interact and shape the frame.

DETERMINED MEN ARE RULING THE FRENCH RADIO

Appointed on March 12 th 1946 at the head of RDF, Wladimir Porché finds a disorderly institution: services inherited from the Occupation with, on the one hand the Parisian station (held by the occupying forces) and on the other hand the Vichy station (gathering the prewar national radio services). Their tasks are multiple: leading the internal negotiations concerning the building of a status while the services inherited from the Liberation, overabundant and closed on themselves are being reorganized; launching the plans for rebuilding of the network as soon as possible despite the shortage of manpower and the industrial weakness of the country. Though indisputably influenced by his formidable stepmother, Simone Porché 2 , the one who is the "common denominator of the RDF 3 " is clever enough surround himself with competent and valuable men. Created a couple of days after Wladimir Porché's appointment, the "Club d'Essai" is handed over to Jean Tardieu, who makes it a broadcasting laboratory with an exceptional prestige4 . As early as the summer of 1946, after a few months of activity, Porché then appoints Paul Gilson at the "direction des programmes artistiques de la RDF". This "perfect administrator, a poet who loved music5 " is a former journalist and great reporter. This might explain why he is the passionate architect of the concert schedules of the best orchestras in France and abroad6 . As for the direction of music, the "architect" Henry Barraud is appointed, almost at the same time. Gilson largely gives him a free rein. Under his impulsion, the Radiodiffusion, from the beginning of the 1950s, gains an importance that announces a great future. During the following two decades, he will be carrying on his mission with inflexible loyalty and cleverness by enlarging it to the multiple possibilities that technical progress gave7 . Henry Barraud then accepts to manage a great musical service capable of enabling the Radio to play an important role in the artistic resurgence and, furthermore, the reputation of France. He eagerly means to apply his rules of probity to all his coworkers, the musicians, and even the listeners, considered as indispensable partners.

A CONSOLIDATED ARTISTIC ORGANIZATION

Concerning the musical bands, Henry Barraud incorporates the 'Orchestre National' to the RDF. This orchestra becomes its jewel and its emblem. Constituted in 1941, the Orchestre Radio-Lyrique also becomes one of the jewels of the musical department, since it is devoted to genres that were then appreciated by many listeners: opera, opera-comique and operetta. For about fifteen years it is handed over to Jules Gressier, who had conducted many regional theaters before entering the RDF. The latter anticipates its decentralization policy by granting six regional capitals (Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Strasbourg, and Toulouse) with orchestras whose members are as able to interpret the vast classical repertoire as the semicharacter repertoire and possibly the works by local composers. As early as 1946, Henry Barraud, Raymond Loucheur and the inspector of National Education Maurice David grant the Radio with a choir school in which about twenty boys and girls aged 10 and over can receive, on the one hand a general education, and on the other hand the technical bases of music and vocal art8 . A choir is also founded in 1947 by Renée Alix. An indispensable complement of the orchestras, this choir gathers 120 artists and remains, with that of the Opera, the only professional choir in Paris. In November 1951, the bulletin "Radio-Informations-Documentation" publishes a survey of the RTF orchestras where the numbers of performers are mentioned: "For Paris: the "Orchestre National" (106 performers); the "Orchestre Radio-Symphonique de Paris" (80); the "Orchestre Radio-Lyrique" (56). For the regional areas: the orchestras of Lille, Lyon, Nice, Strasbourg, Toulouse. And in the overseas districts: the orchestras of Alger and Tunis.9 "

In his purpose of keeping a balance between all the contributors of his difficult mission, Henry Barraud clearly indicates that he wants to: "recreate this warm animation which used to surround composers like Koussevitzky, Strauss, Diaghilev and the Sunday concerts societies or chamber music.10 " This is because only the Radio is capable of integrating in its budget the enormous charges of such an initiative, of which he estimates that only the Radio is able to bring back the various sectors of its former audience, and more especially the bourgeoisie, visibly more attracted by sport, tourism or the cinema. Beside the reading committee, consisting of composers with various tastes, and the promise to the winners that they'll be broadcasted soon, Barraud allows to creation the best conditions that could be imagined.

THREE COMPLEMENTARY NATIONAL STATIONS

The manager of the music department adapts the programs to the specificities of each of the three existing stations: the great repertoire and contemporary production belong to the Programme National; the semi-character pieces, jazz, songs, are often integrated into a spoken background, very much in the spirit of the "musicalfurniture" hailed by Erik Satie), which is more broadcasted by Paris Inter and the Programme Parisien. Some of the musical programs, that are instructive and even educative, are born and will last. This is the occasion to pay our tribute to Agathe Mella, and her co-worker Guy Erismann, for the sensitive initiative which, as we are going to see soon, they take on Paris Inter. On September 27 th 1953, the weekly journal "La Semaine radiophonique" publishes parallel interviews of the two new station managers. Although the "Chaîne nationale" keeps Henry Barraud as manager, two new "captains" will henceforth respectively operate on "Chaîne parisienne" (Jean Vincent-Bréchignac) and Paris Inter (Agathe Mella). While the first station is devoted to a light program ("the morning song, an orchestra without any oop-lah at dinner time"), the new female manager of Paris Inter explains that she "sought a formula eclectic enough to satisfy the French audience of Paris Inter, as much as an international audience.11 "

A DIVERSITY OF BROADCASTING FORMULAS DEVOTED TO MUSICAL ECLECTICISM

Those complementarities of the stations of the national network appear even more in the monitoring of the musical broadcasting of the decade 1945-1954.

AN UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF CLASSICAL MUSIC ON THE WAVES

The monitoring of the programs shows the very unequal distribution of classical music on the various channels. The samplings which constitute the basis of this study show a relative continuity in the matter. Over the 463 programs relevant to the vast domain of "classical music", 233 (meaning more than half of it) come from the Programme musical 12 . This is undeniably the station where the formula of "home orchestras" is the most used. Until 1950, one can notice many performances of RDF's bands and orchestras. We could for instance mention "Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus by the Orchestre Radio-Lyrique and the choirs of the RDF, conducted by Marcel Cariven" on Sunday December 26 th 1948 and the program "Thirty years of music in Paris" on Sunday October 26 th 1950, in which works by Daniel-Lesur are performed by the "String quartet of the RDF, conducted by Léon Pascal". As early as 1950, we can notice that the name of the station is shortened: the "Programme national" simply becomes the "National". From the following year on, the set of initials itself is modified, offering the new name of RTF to the orchestras of the "Radio-Télévision Francçaise". The radio orchestras remain omnipresent in the time schedules of the national station. On Monday November 9 th 1953, for instance, the listeners of the station can hear Marcel Dupré's "Cortege and litanies (by) by the 'Orchestre Radio-Symphonique de Paris' conducted by René Alix". With 167 musical programs, the Paris Inter (called 'Programme Paris Inter' until 1949) absorbs more than a third of the slots of the panel. As the "elder station", it proposes all the types of programs: many symphonic concerts (41 against 61 on the national station), like the one on Monday December 3 rd 1952, in which, under a catch-all title of "varied music" the Lille orchestra notably performs the overture of Boccacio (by Franz von Suppé). Over this little representative corpus of the decade, we even notice 14 concerts of chamber music, and a concert of modern music, on Sunday November 8 th 1953, a "Postponed broadcasting of the concert of modern music devoted to the "Groupe des Six" and announced by Jean Cocteau", notably including Germaine Tailleferre's Overture. With 52 programs (i.e. 11% of the corpus), the Programme Parisien (or simply 'Parisien' from 1952) is on the third rung in musical matters. The only slot of chamber music is located at the beginning of the period13 , like the three programs of didactic cycles which don't go beyond the year 194814 . That very year the lyrical shows are also no longer scheduled on Programme Parisien15 . It is the same situation for the five slots of "varied music", a genre inherited from the interwar period, which includes Mozart16 as well as Chaikovsky17 , and the three slots of "light music", its twin sister, where the Romance in F minor by the latter also finds it place18 , next to Robert Schumann's White wolf 19 . Eventually, some slots of classical music also appear on Radio Luxembourg, a private station, which used to costly maintain an orchestra of about sixty musicians at the villa Louvigny20 . In the pages of the specialized weekly newspapers, we can notice "symphonic concerts conducted by Heni Pensis21 " or "Musical hours", such as the one scheduled on Monday November 29 th 1954, where Joseph Fuchs plays the Concerto for violin in D Major by Brahms. It is important to underline the presence of music on this private station, especially in view of the important decrease of the audience figures of the RTF, particularly in the evenings, while Radio Luxembourg's steadily progresses at the beginning of the fifties22 .

Drawing by Jean COCTEAU, in La Chambre d'écho, Cahiers du club d'essai de la Radiodiffusion française, 1947

SEVERAL CATEGORIES OF MUSICAL PROGRAMS

The symphonic concerts, which represent one fourth of the sampling's slots, follow the long broadcasting tradition, and still appear as the most broadcasted genre in musical programs 23 . In 1947, the stations of the RDF show their complementarity by sharing the the orchestras. This I how, on Tuesday December 23 rd , the Marseille orchestra, conducted by Louis Cahuzac 24 , performs the first part of concert including the Symphony in G minor (by Mozart) from 1.30 pm to 2 pm on the 'Programme national' channel, followed, from 2.05 to 2.30 pm, on the 'Programme Parisien' channel, by a second part beginning with the Overture of The Calm of the sea (by Mendelssohn). On Friday December 26 th similarly, although the Strasbourg orchestra proposes the overture of The Magic Flute at 12.45 on 'Programme Paris Inter', it is on 'Programme National' at 1.15 pm that the concert continues with Ma mere l'Oye (by Ravel) conducted by Victor Clowez. The latter channel also relays international events, such as the "postponed program of the concert of Radio-Canada devoted to Maurice Ravel" on Tuesday December 23 rd 1947. The panel of programs is full of mentions of other orchestras: the Société des Concerts Colonne (2 mentions 25 ); the Lille orchestra (13); the Nice orchestra (11); the Toulouse orchestra (11); the Orchestre National (8); the Orchestre Radiosymphonique de Paris (8). On Radio Luxembourg, the symphonic concert is also the strongest musical program. We could, among many others, mention the program titled Popular symphonic concert, hosted by Pierre Hiégel. In the program of Sunday November 8 th 1953, the former records archivist of Radio-Cité's and ex-announcer of the German station Radio-Paris 26 , notably explains the overture of Le Roi d'Ys (by Edouard Lalo). As it already did in the interwar period, this work knows a strong popularity. In a program hosted by Paul Le Flem on Sunday December 2 nd 1951 on 'Programme National', the listeners can listen to this success of the composer from Lille through its interpretation by the orchestra of Concerts Pasdeloup and the performance of conductor Pierre Dervaux. Beside the very numerous "symphonic concerts", commented or not, we also find some sequences of "symphonic music", like on the program of Paris Inter, where, in an hour dedicated to "Works by Vaughan Williams", the British composer's Symphony in F minor is broadcasted on Tuesday December 28 th 1948.

The slots of symphonic and chamber music also bridge the gap between two types of programs. Many slots are spread all over the daily schedule during the decade. Although they often last only a couple of minutes, those "interludes of records" are scrupulously detailed in the newspapers: 5 minutes of I Pgliacci by Leoncavallo on Tuesday December 23 rd 1947 on Programme National; 7 minutes of the The Silk Ladder overture (by Rossini), on Saturday the series Music for everyone (in 1947), thematic gatherings (like the sequence entitled Music and candies on Monday December 3 rd 1951 (with Crème fouettée by Richard Strauss) and the daily Little Morning Concert (in 1954). Chamber music mainly finds it place on Programme National, in formulas of "Public concert [postponed or not] of chamber music.28 " We however can notice the complementarity between the stations of the RDF on Tuesday December 24 th 1946. Between 12.30 and 12.55 am, "Pierre-Michel Le Conte and his orchestra of chamber music" notably perform Rameau's Hen on Programme Parisien, while the Programme National releases a performance of Boccherini's very famous Minuetto (between 1pm and 1.20 pm). On Paris Inter, the celebrities are regularly invited. Lily Laskine plays pieces for harp (on Friday December 26 th 1947); Yehudi and Hephziba Menuhin perform the Sonata in G Major by Lekeu (on Thursday December 30 th 1947). On Monday November 9 th 1953, the station, at the head of which which Agathe Mellawas recently appointed proposes a "postponed relay of the recital given by Kirsten Flagstag" with, among other pieces, In me is shining a victorious day (by Brahms). The pieces for soloists and programs of recital are on the contrary almost nonexistent on Programme National and Programme Parisien.

Beside these ersatz and derivative concerts, "original productions of classical music" are emerging almost everywhere. Designed by personalities of the musical areal, they often have an educative orientation. In 1949, Pierre Hiégel hosts a series with the nice title of Love of music on Radio Luxemboug. In 1950, on Paris Inter, Claude Roland-Manuel produces The Sunday musicians. The program of October 29 th proposes works by Wagner by the "Harmony orchestra of the Renault factories, conducted by M. Dulery." On Monday December 3 rd 1951, José Bruyr, by dissecting Gounod's Faust, tries to answer the question "Who was Faust?". As soon as Paris Inter is created, Jean Witold every morning presents The Great musicians. Every day, he "replies to the listeners on a precise point (Bach's works for organ, Weber's trips and influence…). A passionate lover of old forgotten musical sheets, he particularly targets the humble. It is, he says, "a great joy to lead new lovers to music. 29 " Behind these "didactic cycles", there are often passionate producers, with good pedagogical qualities. The longevity of some incited us to classify them as "cult programs." On Programme National, there is the program The Pleasure of Music by Alexis Roland-Manuel and Nadia Tagrine30 , and on Paris Inter, the no less popular Tribune of records critics (The Club of the records amateurs until 1948). Surrounding Armand Panigel, music lovers and musicians like José Bruyr or Henry-Jacques analyze various performances, like for "their guest on Saturday November 8 th 1953: Mahler's Fourth Symphony in G Major..31 " Over the panel of the 463 programs examined, the slots of lyrical music are mainly present in the first half of the decade (23 of the 30 programs are situated before 1950). Giuseppe Verdi occupies a major place in the broadcasting. His Otello is broadcasted twice in less than two years: on Friday December 31 st 1948 on Programme National, with José Luccioni and the orchestra of the RDF, conducted by Jules Gressier; and on Saturday November 4 th 1950 on Paris Inter, with the orchestra and choirs of the Scala, conducted by Carlo Sabajno. On the Programme Parisien channel, lyrical music doesn't go beyond the threshold of 1949, and each time under the most popular aspect of the art: the operetta. On January 1 st , Marcel Cariven, who had led orchestras accompanying Tino Rossi's successes before the war, conducts "several famous tunes and duets from French operettas" to hail the new year A couple of days before, on Tuesday December 28 th 1948, Paris Inter had broadcasted a selection of Puccini's Bohème, by curiously entitling this lyrical quarter of hour "Light music". One sees well that the categorization is fragile and the borders between the musical genres porous. Many programs anyway are composed either of pieces of semicharacter (or "genre music"), or pieces that have no link between themselves.

By associating the categories of "light music", "varied music" and "genre music", one can account not less than 25 programs that maintain the survival of an average or "middle" music, a typically broadcasting concept born in the thirties 32 . For the first category, we could mention as an example the half hours released by William Cantrelle 33 on Saturday evenings from 1952 to 1954, on the national station, programs which also include very classical values like Plaisir d'amour by Martini 34 , the Turkish march of The Athena's ruins by Beethoven 35 , or a Gavotte by Veracini or Schumann's Evening song by 36 . We could associate the program entitled "Festival-Lux" on Radio Luxembourg with the programs entitled "varied music", where William Cantrelle illustrates himself, by mixing for instance "the tune of Die Enthfûhrung aus dem seraglio (Mozart) [and] the Nuptial march of a Puppet (Ch. Lecocq). 37 " In the weird promiscuity of the protagonists that the mixing of the genres sparks, François Périer hosts "the accordionist Marceau; Jean Richard, Henri Médus from the Opéra; the 'Concerts du Conservatoire' orchestra conducted by Gaston Poulet", on Sunday December 2 nd 1951. As for "genre music", it flourishes under the direction of Pierre-Marcel Ondher 38 , who produces and hosts a morning and daily program on Paris Inter from 1952 on. Some genres in minority also enter the great family of "classical music". The "spiritual concerts", at first, bear this title all over the decade on the Programme National 39 , but they join the Cantatas at Saint-Thomas's given on Paris Inter between 1950 and 1954, or the "postponed relay of Paul Pierné's Requiem" on November 28 th 1949. The very young choir school performs under different titles and on different stations: on Sunday October 29 th 1950, , from 9.20 to 9.35 am, we can hear "the Maîtrise of RDF, conducted by M. Couraud" on the national channel; on Sunday November 28 th 1954, from 10 to 10.15 am, "the maîtrise sings" on Paris Inter. At last, modern music remains marginal. In fact, apart from the already mentioned program of Paris Inter devoted to the 'Groupe des Six', one can pick up only one other program on Programme National, entitled "French Contemporary Music" and devoted to Jean-Michel Damase, performed by the wind quintet of the Orchestre National on Sunday November 28 th 1954.

Regarding this slim sampling of the programs of the (almost) "Porché decade", we could say that the term of musical eclecticism is appropriate. After the first post-war years, in which the three stations confirm their differences and their complementarities, they eventually follow broadcasting policies from which the references to the 'grand repertoire' or classical masters are not completely absent. Though "requested works" and modern creations don't appear in the typology of the programs of the decade, they're present (and it should be underlined) in the symphonic concerts and the slots of chamber music that the Programme National and Paris Inter relay or produce. The latter does not skimp on commented programs, cyclic rendezvous and other durable productions connected with music. Whereas Programme Parisien remains on aesthetically less classical positions and assumes its "entertainment" and more popular orientations, the great composers however pop in into sequences of "mainstream music": light music or operetta. Finally, Radio Luxembourg, the only private station, (since Europe #1 is then only a project) sparingly injects some concerts and didactic productions in its programs with. To that effect, it uses its own orchestra and "valuable celebrities" of the musicology at the microphone. It however remains musically very withdrawn compared to the most cultural channels of the French national radio.

Many thanks to Gérard Hocmard for his help with the language issues. 35 On November 14 th 1953. 36 On December 4 th 1954. 37 Sunday December 29 th 1946, at 8 pm on Programme National. 38 PMO, for his friends, is a pseudonym for Pierre Hervy. 39 On Monday October 30 th 1950, from 10 to 10.30 pm, the listeners of the national channel can hear "The Volunteer by Purcell [performed by] Marie-Louise Girod and the Protestant choir of Brussels, conducted by Fritz Hoyois.

Jean Tardieu, the musicians' friend by Robert PROT

There is no doubt that Jean Tardieu used to have a privileged relation with music. Indeed, we can speak of a particularly favorable background: his mother was a musician, his grandfather a conductor and an appreciated composer at the end of the 19 th Century. Three unpublished sheets conserved at the IMEC would confirm it if necessary: "In this world bewitched by music, was lucky enough to have access, when still very young, an amazed neophyte, and be initiated to a sacred Feast. I took my first steps in an enchanted forest and didn't believe my eyes and my ears."

The poet in him sought to discover the encounter of music and the words, and the man in charge of the 'Radiodiffusion Française' always mixed word and music in his conception of the programs. As soon as he was appointed in 1946, he gave his program: to look for unpublished works or works ordered from musicians in order to try to find an autonomous broadcasting style.

Jean Tardieu gave a priority to the presence of music on the Radio. It has often been said that the prewar radio was talkative. I rather think this insipidity was due to a lack of experience of those who confused the radio studio with a lecture venue, in regard to the pompous style that the announcers felt obliged to use. A simple monitoring of the program of the period however shows the presence of music, any kind of music. Eclecticism was dominating, even a kind of bad taste.

Henry Barraud for Programme National, Jean Tardieu for the 'Club d'Essai' were going to help the young composers and performers. Successively, as we already sid, Claude Arrieu, Henri Dutilleux, Christiane Barraud and France-Yvonne Bril were to be the actors of this undertaking. Then, the 'Programme special' in frequency modulation, with Marius Constant, was to be created, a logical following and outcome of this will of granting to music all its importance.

The monitoring of the programs of the 'Club d'Essai' shows how Jean Tardieu was loyal to his wish of letting all sorts sort of music heard and also of offering young musicians, composers or performers the occasion to make themselves known.

Since we cannot quote all of them, let's at least mention, among the contemporaries the names of Tony Aubin, Pierre Boulez, Marius Constant, Georges Delerue, Maurice Jarre, Maurice Ohana, Claude Prey, Henri Sauguet, Germaine Tailleferre, and others. As early as 1946, 'Club d'Essai' broadcasted not only concerts of modern,, but also of ancient or almost forgotten music, organized and announced by personalities like Nadia Boulanger and her sister, Marcel Mihalovici or Tibor Harsanyi. This channel scheduled soloists like Monique Haas, Lily Laskine, Yvon and Maroussia Le Marc'Hadour, Gérard Souzay and others.

Jean Tardieu was very attached to the gathering of voice and music through the microphone. He writes: "… technical meansin particular the Radiowhen they come after the fundamental and traditional arts, are led not only to transmit and translate them, but also to metamorphose them more or less profoundly and more or less quickly."

Under the title Ten o'clock opera, some forgotten or never produced works were broadcasted from February 1947 on. Because of the reduced financial means of the service, these programs were based on readings and only one or two pianos used to accompany the singers. The pianists were Geneviève Joy, Jacqueline Bonneau or Robert Veyron Lacroix! Bronislav Horowicz adds that a modern work was accompanied on Martenot waves by young Pierre Boulez.

The series was possible thanks to the archivists of the musical library of 'La Radiodiffusion française". Some titles among the works of ancient music produced in the first year were La Colombe, by Charles Gounod, Le Combat de Tancrède et Clorinde, by Monteverdi, The Theater manager and Bastian and Bastianne, by Mozart. In 1951 and 1952, composer Antoine Duhamel, Georges's son, produced two operas: Il Trionfo del' onore, by Scarlatti and Pygmalion, by Rameau.

Still in the series of chamber operas, a command to Georges Delerue and Michel Polac (for the libretto) sparks a confidence by the latter to Elinae Clancier: "there was a young girl who was named France Yvonne Bril who managed the musical section and had the cheek to command chamber operas from Marius Constant, Georges Delerue, and others, and they asked me for an opera libretto. Thus I made a chamber opera with Delerue; I was twenty-three, it was quite daring! I had planned on concrete music, but as Delerue disliked it, it was very Debussy music. I would however have enjoyed, at that time, to write an opera of concrete music. There was both audacity and resistance within the 'Club d'Essai'? Delerue was a friend, but he was very classical. Finally, we did not produce so much concrete music in the works of the 'Club d'Essai'."

In his letters, Jean Tardieu tries to reassure his general manager on his audacities, but was it necessary? Wladimir Porché wasn't a "manager in slippers" and the policy proposed by Jean Tardieu couldn't displease him: "The avant-garde character of these programs mustn't necessarily concern an "avant-garde art" but the purpose of a fresh and original broadcasting style: it could be an "avant-garde way" of presenting ancient music and literature."

Beside this research of unpublished works, there was the seeking of new talents, the two going hand in hand. In 1952, Jean Tardieu clearly reminds the Comity of Music that: "Devoting ourselves to the young composers and performers was (…) our first point of view: this was essentially enabling them to agree on the means of recording, control their playing, their interpretation, the significance of their music, eventually intensify their research in the special field of radio."

As early as 1946, the aim was a monthly public program: The Tribune of the young composers presented the first audition of a work followed by a debate. This program was to be the beginning of an initiative of the International Committee for Music, which, under the auspices of UNESCO, launched the International Rostrum of composers; This annual event was created in 1954 by 'Radiodiffusion Française', Hessicher Rundfounk, 'Radiodiffusion belge' and 'Radiodiffusion suisse'. Its purpose was to encourage the circulation of the modern musical works between the thirty-one networks of national radios that backed this Tribune on the five continents. This is why in 2001 seven hundred radios participated in the program. The fiftieth edition was hosted in Vienna, and the fifty first in Paris in June 2004. In France, right from the beginning, the 'Club d'Essai' and its musical manager, France Yvonne Bril managed the organization.

Other programs of the 'Club d'Essai' aimed at promoting young musicians, with The Entrance of the musicians, a weekly program, with the best students of the Conservatoire National de Musique (1948), Let's sing it now!, a weekly program with the pupils of private singing classes, and others.

Still in 1948, Jean Tardieu decided the creation of a chamber orchestra, composed of professional musicians, recent laureates of the Conservatoire, to "get them familiarized with the job, enabling most of them to play as soloists, and, besides and over all, to provide a young conductor with a tool, by giving him the occasion to conduct regularly. This is how Louis de Froment, conductor of that orchestra for two years in a row, fulfilled this task with great success, triumphin, among other difficulties, of those constantly imposed by the obligation of producing unpublished works."

Let's mention other initiatives, for example the monthly program Les Musicophiles by Daniel-Lesur, the programs devoted twice a week to orchestras and amateur choirs: The Musical Crusade and The Sunday musicians.

About the latter, Jean Tardieu wrote: "Do we have to assess the musical activity of amateurs in France? A weekly program entitled Les Musiciens du dimanche, which was broadcasted for several years, enabled people to listen to many orchestras, chamber music groups and choirs, composed of enlightened s and often very talented amateur, belonging to every class of the society, and to state that our country was much more musical, or had become more musical than is commonly believedprobably, precisely because of the increasing influence of the radio and the records."

Later in the same text, he went on: "The other program, entitled Accord parfait, by Claude Roland-Manuel, is a competitive program, which asks the listeners a series of more or less difficult questions, which allow us to catch theoften outstandinglevel of musical erudition of our listeners." I shouldn't forget the Club of the records lovers whose members surrounding Armand Panigel (they were eight of them) argued, week after week, about the qualities and faults of such or such recording of a famous work. From 1946 on, the program knew a success comparable to the one of Le masque et la plume, with which it competed in matters of longevity. It rapidly changed its title for The Tribune of the records critics, wich was kept until 1983.

Extracted from the book by Robert PROT: Jean Tardieu et la nouvelle radio, Paris, L 'Harmattan, 2006, p. 17-27.

Table of the musical programs (1945-1954) 27

	Category of program	Number	in %
	Symphonic concert	118	25,5%
	Interlude by record (s)	52	11,2%
	Didactic cycle	47	10,2%
	Long slot of records	46	9,9%
	Chamber music	34	7,3%
	Soloists	33	7,1%
	Original production surrounding classical music	32	6,9%
	Lyrical music	30	6,5%
	"cult" program	14	3,0%
	Varied music	11	2,4%
	Light music	11	2,4%
	Spiritual concert	10	2,2%
	Chamber music concert	8	1,7%
	Choir school	5	1,1%
	Recital	4	0,9%
	Symphonic music	3	0,6%
	"Musique de genre" (varied and light music)	3	0,6%
	Modern music	2	0,4%
	Total	463	100,0%

Cf. the framed abstract of the essay by Robert Prot, "Jean Tardieu et la nouvelle radio", Paris, L'Harmattan, 2006.

This is a quote by Darius Milhaud.

About Paul Gilson, one could usefully read the statement of Pierre Dellard, "Paul Gilson, a man of culture, dedicated to a modern radio", published in "Les Cahiers d'Histoire de laRadiodiffusion", #73, year 1952, p. 123-144.

One could especially read "La Musique à la RTF. Témoignages, structures techniques" by France-Yonne Bril in « Les Cahiers d'Histoire de la Radiodiffusion », #73, the year 1952, p. 123-144.

The " Maitrise" gave the children a school as well as a musical education.

Mentioned in "Les Cahiers d'Histoire de la Radiodiffusion", #69, the year 1951, April-June 2001 : "La musique à la RTF : 11 orchestres permanents", by Bernard Lauzanne.

Henry Barraud, "Histoire de la musique », la Pléiade, p. 1 524.

Article quoted in "Les Cahiers d'Histoire de la Radiodiffusion", #77, the year 1953 of July-September 2003, p. 60.

The samplings that feed this study have been based on 42 days of the decade, from the fourth term of each year (3 to 7 days per year).

This is the « Sonata in B flat for violin and piano" (by Mozart) broadcasted on Monday December 22 nd 1947.

The "History of the Opera" and the series "The key of singing" in 1947 and the "Composers of France" in 1948.

At the very beginning of the period, the 'Programme Parisien' also broadcasts "home orchestras", for a lyrical work, "Hans, the flute player (by Louis Ganne), by the 'Orchestre Radio-Lyrique' and the choirs of the RF [Radiodiffusion Française], conducted by Roger Ellis" (on Tuesday December 24 th 1946) as well.

On Tuesday December 23 rd 1947, a concert still conducted by Roger Ellis.

On Saturday December 3 rd 1949, "Pierre Cadel and his orchestra" add his Russian danse to their musical mixture.

On Wednesday December

th 1948, under the title "The bunch is on the table, by Marcel Pagnoud and his band."19 On Saturday December 4 th 1954 in the context of a "Light music Festival".

This cultural effort was written in the bill of specifications of the Grand Duché.

On Saturday December 3 rd 1949 and Saturday December 8 th 1951, he conducts symphonies by Haydn.

Jacques Durand, "The audience figures of the radio from 1946 to 1956", in "Les Cahiers d'Histoire de la Radiodiffusion", #71, the Porché decade,January-March 2002, p. 53-60.

January 1 st 1949 on Paris Inter; 10 minutes devoted to "Works by Fauré", on Monday December 3 rd 1951 on the national station. As for the long slots of records, copied on the models of the prewar radio, they tend to fade away. With a duration of 2h35, the slot entitled "New records", which include Rachmaninov's Concerto in G minor by, proposed on Monday December 30 th 1946 on Programme Parisien, is an exception. The "long slots of records" usually don't last more than half an hour. On Paris Inter, the title is often promising, such as23 For any numerical or proportional figure, one can see the table of the musical programs(1945)(1946)(1947)(1948)(1949)(1950)(1951)(1952)(1953)(1954).24 A clarinet player in his youth, Louis Cahuzac (1880-1960) had illustrated himself during the thirties through concerts of chamber music.25 Including, on Sunday November 9 th 1952, the "Concert of Viennese music, a relay of the concert given at the Théâtre du Châtelet, conducted by Georges Sébastien, announced by Gustave Smazeuilh." 26 Cf. our recent article published under the title of "French Musical Broadcasting and the turmoil of World War Two".

Following a sampling of 8 days per year.

The 8 concerts of the corpus don't overtake the year 1949, when are created on Paris Inter "Three Sonatines for flute by Marcel Bitsch" (on November 27 th ).

"Jean Witold speaking", an article from "La Semaine radiophonique" quoted in "Les Cahiers d'Histoire de laRadiodiffusion" #73, year 1952, July-September 2002, p. 154.

Broadcasted on the national station, the two programs which frame our period are the one of Sunday Decemberr 23 rd 1945, with the Orchestre Radio-symphonique, conducted by Jean Giardino and the one of Sunday November 28 th 1954, with Marcel Couraud 's vocal band.

"During the program, the dialogue is totally improvised on themes indicated in advance: the discussion starts a second time from the listening of the records", we can learn from the chronicle by François Pouget published on July 20 th 1947 in "Radio Loisirs" [and quoted in Les Cahiers d'Histoire de la Radiodiffusion, "The year 1946", #50 of September-December1996, p. 158.]

Christophe Bennet, Musique et Radio dans la France des années trente, la création d'un genre radiophonique, PhD thesis of History of Music and Musicology, Paris, June 2007.

At the end of the thirties, this composer and conductor was already leading mixed programs, which were usual on Poste national Radio Paris.


teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers.

FRENCH MUSICAL BROADCASTING FROM 1955 TO 1964: NEW PATHS FOR THE BROADCASTING OF MUSIC by Christophe BENNET

During the 55-64 decade, French radio knows very serious modifications. Beside the birth of the private station Europe #1 (which doesn't concern our topic, since it hardly broadcasts any classical music), which is going to overshadow the national radio, it is going to be transformed, parallel to the replacement of its successive managers. The eleven years with Wladimir Porché at the helm were essential. Parallel to the development of the radio (the multiplication of the stations, programs, transmitters, the quick development of the transistor) those years were also those of the birth of television. Between 1957 and 1960, three directors succeed one another at the head of the station: Gabriel Delaunay, Christian Chavanon and Raymond Janot. Beside the change of name of the stations they'll cause, these ephemeral nominations only superficially modify the roles and the complementarity of the national stations. While Inter and the Chaîne nationale are still broadcasting classical music, in favor of a "general public" for the first one and in favor of "sophisticated listeners" for the latter, a new station, strictly musical, is about to emerge. It is going to take a lion's share in the area of broadcasted classical music, in all its forms1 .

TWO OF THE THREE PUBLIC STATIONS ARE STILL BROADCASTING MUSICAL MUSIC

On the Programme Parisien, the station which is at any time devoted to commercial music and entertainment, great authors and modern musicians are hardly broadcasted. Here and there, Pierre Hiégel, the indispensable "Monsieur Music" still plays the great popularizer. Parallel to his programs on the outlying stations (Radio Luxembourg, then Radio Monte Carlo), he is also very present on Radiodiffusion française from 1950 to 1956: The great music, The great public concert, At the music lover's home, Music is for you, Love of music, The Sunday popular symphonic concert. This program is broadcasted on Programme Parisien. On Sunday November 6 th 1955, for example, he explains a work by Benjamin Britten and also the Concerto for orchestra by Bela Bartok, pieces which are neither "popular" nor accessible! On this station, one can also find some didactic cycles and other original productions dealing with classical music, such as Jean Doyen2 's Romantic page and Henri Jacqueton3 's During the performance.

As early as 1960, the reform of the stations imagined by Christian Chavanon for one of the three big stations, France II (Regional), a regional program broadcasting all day long (an innovation !) with a Parisian base and local branches (which anyway remain rather complicated)4 . Beside rare scattered recitals, one can mostly notice some series of programs such as The thousand stories of music by Paul Castan5 or Do you like [such musician] by producer Serge Berthoumieux6 . The latter also proposes a program which is renewed for several seasons: If you enjoy music. He proposes as many German works by Beethoven and Brahms7 as pieces by the very French composer Gabriel Fauré8 .

PARIS INTER STICKS TO A VULGARIZATION POLICY

From 1955 to 1962, the broadcasting of Paris Inter (then called 'Paris Inter France I' as of March 20 th 1960) is comparable to what we could notice in the previous period. Around noon, one often hears performances by the orchestras of Marseille, Toulouse or Nice9 . According to Henry Barraud, those regional orchestras were not to remain in the areas of classical music, under the baton of local conductors:

"I had a policy of conductors, but I also had a policy of programs for the provincial orchestras. For me it was a way of bringing in modern music of good quality, but not a sufficient quality to be performed by the Orchestre National, or even the Radio-symphonique. With those orchestras, I then brought in very acceptable modern music.10 ".

During those eight years, Inter also proposes symphonic concerts in the evenings, such as on Sunday November 6 th 1955 with the Orchestra of the Italian-Swiss radio11 and on Saturday October 22 nd 1962, when the microphone is pointed on the Orchestre Philharmonique of the RTF12 .

As far as the didactic cycles are concerned, the daily programs The great musicians by Jean Witold, Precious waxes by Claude Lehmann or the daily series by René Dumesnil called The Evolution of lyrical genres tend to steadily fade away. It is the same for the other productions of classical music which also keep struggling on after the successive reshapings of the station. One must however mention, in 1960, the Concerts in Paris 13 and in 1962 the Sunday program by André Gauthier, Debussy before Pelleas. On October 18 th , for example, this producer proposes to listen to "Nocturne for piano, by W. Gieseking; excerpts from Nocturnes for orchestra, by the Société des Concerts, conducted by Jean Fournet." Throughout the years that precede the creation of the "Office", however, the genuine novelty on Inter is probably the media coverage of the festivals staged everywhere. For example, one could mention the "1960 Besançon Festival", including a recital by soprano Teresa Stich-Randall relayed on Tuesday October 18 th from 8.50 to 10.20 pm. On Friday November 2 nd 1962, focusing once again on this concept, Agathe Mella's station splits its evening between the "Choralies de Vaison-la-Romaine 14 " and the "Montreux Festival 15 ".

In an article where she related the official opening of a formula of public classical concerts encouraged by Jean Fontaine, the female manager explained her fondness for the promotion of classical music. Having obtained a reluctant agreement from the "Conseil des Programmes 16 ", she wants the equivalent for classical music of the big public program of entertaining music, "Discoparade". Under the name of "Prestige de la musique", this new series is about to soon become, and remain for thirty-four years, a label of quality: The success was total and unchanged: the audience was often from modest origin, living in the suburbs of Paris. The listeners of the classical records programs hosted by Jean Fontaine had moved about. Excited provincial female listeners came over fawning at the feet of the the announcer; one of them, a blind woman, came every month guided by her dog. 17 " 13 Broadcasted from 11.18 pm to midnight, the program of Thursday October 20 th 1960 proposes a " Marcel Delannoy -Louis Aubert Festival" 14 With the Tübingen Orchestra and the Band of Ancient instruments from Remscheid which perform the Concerto for two violins and orchestra (Bach) from 9.18 o 10.18 pm. 15 From 10.18 to 11.15 pm: Dvorak's Stabat Mater op.58 by the Choir and Orchestra of the Prague Philharmonic, conducted by K. Ancerl. 16 According to A. Mella, this "committee was composed of composers and other eminent people from the musical area [exclusively interested in] modern music, which they composed themselves." 17 Agathe Mella, "The Great concerts of 'Prestige de la Musique', in "Les Cahiers d'Histoire de la Radiodiffusion" #67, "From the pirate radios to the free stations », January-March 2001, p. 150-156.

THE "CHAÎNE NATIONALE" REMAINS A PRESTIGIOUS STATION

The monitoring of the musical programs shows an undisputable unity, even though over the decade 1955-1964, the Chaïne Nationale takes on four different names in turn: "Programme National"; "National -France III"; "RTF Promotion"; and finally "France culture". Beside the cult program by Alexis Roland-Manuel, which still illuminates the Sunday slot of 11 am to noon18 , the common denominator is the daily morning slot called Prélude symphonique. Resisting the successive reshapings, the program increases from 9 minutes (in 1955) to 45 minutes on Sundays (in 1962, the year when this slot is split into two). The musical content is generally very classical, like the program of Friday November 2 nd 1962: 7.20 -7.30 (first part): Chaconne in F minor (Pachelbel), München Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Kurt Redel. 7.45 -7.58 (second part): Concerto grosso #10 in G minor, op 3 (F. Manfredini, revised by Lupi), Instrumental group "I musici".

The works of the great classical authors are omnipresent. On Sunday November 6 th 1955, Symphonie #35 "Haffner" by Mozart is scheduled in the "Relay of the concert released at the Théâtre du Chatelet by the orchestra of the Concerts Colonne Society. 19 " Five years later, on Tuesday October 18 th 1960, this same work is performed by the Marseille orchestra, conducted by Marcel Pagliano. Modern music is also well anchored in the programs of the national station. We could for instance mention: "French modern music: Raymond Loucheur, hosted by Micheline Banzet 20 "; a "Hindemith Concert 21 "; and the series French modern musicians. On Sunday May 24 th 1964, the latter is dedicated to Jean-Louis Martinet. The Chamber orchestra of the RTF, conducted by André Girard, performs his Symphonic movement #5 for string orchestra. The other "home orchestras" are highly requested: the Orchestre Philharmonique of the RTF; the Orchestre National (that very day, they are respectively conducted by Tony Aubin and Charles Bruck).

Many didactic cycles are still scheduled on this station which, under the name of France III, still hosts: "prestigious programs, art, culture, classical music, theatre, education, and scientific programs. The concerts are still going to be mainly broadcasted in pairs by the last born of the French radio. Inseparable from the artistic undertaking of the "Programme musical", the seeking of a program with a high fidelity signal gives birth to a great station exclusively dedicated to "sophisticated music".

FROM THE SPECIAL PROGRAM IN F.M. TO THE FIRST HOURS OF 'FRANCE MUSIQUE': A FOURTH, STRICTLY MUSICAL, STATION 25

Until then, only fragments of programs, ideas, or techniques had been formulated concerning a station devoted to classical music. The technical progress in stereophony and frequency modulation, and the development of new programs within the frame of the Club d'Essai researches eventually led to the creation of a fourth program on March 28 th 1954: the "Special program in frequency modulation", under the impulse of Jean Tardieu and Paul Gilson, then Manager of the Artistic Services of the RTF 26 . What is about to become France Musique begins as an exclusive club of listeners, capable of receiving this frequency band. They know each other, have direct relations with the production, and often visit the studio based on "Avenue du Recteur Poincaré", in the sixteenth district of Paris, or the offices on "Rue de l'Université"27 .

The new program remains, at the beginning, an "appendix of the Club d'Essai 28 ", to which its programs are linked, and will remain so until about 1958, when the program ceases being experimental. It is officially placed under the direction of Jean Tardieu, but Marius Constant, assisted by Jean-Marie Oberlin, actually is the one who really decides on the programs, the styles, in a word, the one who "without holding the name, is the manager of the emerging program. 29 " From Myriam Soumage to Micheline Banzet or Claude Roland-Manuel, and also the team of the Tribune of the records critics, which rapidly became famous, one can find around them the crème de la crème of French musicology. This program of a new type (94% music) aims at setting into relief the sounding qualities, specific to the broadcasting in Frequency Modulation (FM). The programs are mainly used in order to test, in agreement with the manufacturers, the technical progress realized in the field of recording / broadcasting: "Then the rare listeners could hear, from the very beginning of a strings quartet, the compared effects of the different types of stereophony. 30 " Gradually, the program is developing. We can notice a slight turning point at the end of the fifties, after an interruption from December 1957 to March 1958. This is due to Gabriel Delaunay, the new general manager of the RTF, who hardly believes in this kind of broadcasting, "a radio for the wealthy people", according to him. In 1959 however, the first program in stereophony appears, with "at the beginning only two programs: the Orchestre National on Thursday evenings, broadcasted in stereo, and a specialized program: "For the amateur of stereophony" on Saturday mornings. 31 " Successively named "France IV Haute fidélité 32 ", "RTF Haute Fidélité 33 ", and "France Musique", the musical station, between 1962 and 1964, negotiates a transition, during which the opening of the 'Maison de la Radio 34 ' and the creation of the "Office de Radio Télévision Française", linked to its famous "great reforms 35 ", are going to make it soar.

After many years on Paris Inter, the famous and influential Tribune of the records critics is henceforth hosted by France Musique. On the program of Sunday May 24 th 1964, A. Panigel, J. Bruyr and A. Goléa are comparing several performances of Bach's First concerto for keyboard BWV 1052. The program entitled Three days with, first created on the Programme Special station, also enjoys a broad longevity. On Monday 7 th , Tuesday 8 th and Wednesday 9 th November 1955, Micheline Banzet had already devoted three rendezvous to conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler. On Monday 9 th , Tuesday 10 th and Wednesday 11 th December 1963, her interview of André Cluytens enables her to notably broadcast the overture of Tannhäuser 36 . Other productions punctuate the programs of the specialized station: Easy classics and Classical without any wig, by Anne-Marie 30 Jean-Louis Alibert, op. cit., p. 18. By the same author, one could read: "Nineteen hours of music per day: the functions of France Musique", a Phd thesis in Information and communication, Grenoble III, November 1982. 31 Cf. the already mentioned article : "The beginning of France Musique". 32 On March 20 th 1960, this new name ends the "Special program in Frequency Modulation". 33 For a very short time between "Haute Fidélité France IV" and "France Musique": from October 20 th and December 8 th 1963. 34 Inaugurated by Général de Gaulle on December 14 th 1963, the "Round House" has a surface of two hectares, with one thousand offices, 58 studios, a tower 68 meters high and 5 kilometers of hallways on 10 floors: Robert Prot, "Dictionary of the radio", Grenoble/Bry-sur-Marne, PUG/INA, 1997, article "Maison de la radio de Paris", p. 381-382. 35 Christian Brochand, "Histoire générale de la radio et de la télévision en France", tome 2, Paris, La Documentation Française, 1994, p. 112 : The great reforms could be summarized in "three points : a decentralization and regionalization of the programs, the transformation of televised information, and a remelting of the broadcasting programs." 36 RTF Haute-fidélité, Monday December 9 th 1963, from 10 to 11 pm: "Three days with André Cluytens, interviews by Micheline Banzet (first day): "Tannhüser, ov. (Wagner): Orchestre National of the Opera; "Mireille", abst. Act I (Gounod): Janette Vivalda, Christiane Gayraud, Madeleine Ignal, Christiane Jacquin; "Boris Godounov", abst. (Moussorgsky): Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire; choirs and artists of the Sofia National Opera, conduct. André Cluytens".

Conservatoire. Though the artistic resources are from Luxemburg, the program this time is 100% French: Rameau's Dardanus; Franck's Symphonic variations for piano and orchestra and Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé, Suite #2.

Among the soloists performing on Radio-Luxemburg at the beginning of the sixties, one could mention: Wilhelm Kempff, Monique Haas, Arthur Grumiaux, Aldo Ciccolini, Walter Ludwig, David Oïstrakh, Sansom François, Zino Francescatti, Janine Micheau, and also, for the thirtieth anniversary in 1961 of the creation of Radio-Luxemburg, virtuoso violinist Yehudi Menuhin.

Considered under the angle of the musical supply, the broadcasting decade 1955-1964 appears transitional. Instituted and consolidated by Henry Barraud, the permanent orchestras are more busy than ever. The classical musical activity shows an undisputable vitality, especially since "classical musical broadcasting" is not limited to ordering works, building programs and broadcasting the concerts and festival echoed by the specialized press. Young composers also produce experiments, in the department of the "musical illustrations" ruled by Henri Dutilleux until 1962 40 . This gathering of word and music, which aimed at shaping a new art of broadcasting is another way of bringing Euterpe's art on the waves. The emergence of an entirely musical station, with the unexpected fusion of technologies and experimental programs, is going to place the government radio in a situation of quasi monopoly as a sponsor providing classical music. The artistic and technical conditions are henceforth gathered to implement an ambitious musical policy, to impose music as a program in itself.

Parallel to this modernization of the public radio (embodied by the recent "round house" and the creation of the ORTF), the private stations relegate classical music to a position of minor importance. By monitoring the content and the modesty of the musical programs of Radio Monte-Carlo, Radio-Andorra, and even Radio Luxemburg, one understands that classical music, either commented, performed ot even subsidized, is then the domain of the government.

Many thanks to Gérard Hocmard for his help with the language issues.

A library of sound by Robert PROT

In 1954, Jean Tardieu created the Programme spécial in Frequency Modulation, following a demand of the RTF general direction, the directions of the technical department and the artistic department. This new type of program (94% music) aimed at setting into relief the sounding qualities of FM broadcasting. This daily program was a kind of permanent concert on the waves, where any genre of music was represented. [...] Jean-Marie Oberlin was, at Jean Tardieu's Club d'Essai, responsible for both the broadcasting choices and the production of the programs broadcasted by Paris-IV. He then appeared to be the one who would implement the musical program of the future France Musique station.

At the same time, he had begun to plan a sabbatical year, which would enable him to have a one-year stay at an American academic station. Jean Tardieu then called composer Marius Constant to install the new program. Eventually, Oberlin's American project didn't succeed and the Oberlin-Constant tandem gleefully launched the Special Program in Frequency Modulation. [...] At that time, the RTF was completing the rebuilding of its emitter network, threefourths of which had been ruined by the war. This was done without the help of the Government. Actually, the "broadcasting tax" paid by the listeners to hear the programs also feeds the investment, not only of the radio, but also of the television network. In 1954 like before the war, the radio is broadcasted in France essentially through a network of big emitters working on middle waves which are heavy energy consumers and are under growing competition from similar facilities abroad. The interferences (mainlyat night) between all these emitters are multiplying, while the number of frequencies of the Hertz spectrum is not unlimited. One can ask why the engineers did not immediately think of Frequency Modulation, known since 1936 and already well implemented in the US. But we know that in 1954 there were no French receivers equipped with a FM band on the market. We can therefore admit that it would have been ridiculous to start building such a network in 1944, when the priority for households was food and housing and not the replacement of their old radio sets.

On the contrary, Germany had been made to give up its middle wave frequencies in payment for war damages. For the German engineers, frequency modulation was the only possible solution. The German industry followed this lead, and was even ready to export its production towards France ten years later. But one can wonder what stopped the French manufacturers, since the implementation of this mode of exploitation had been decided. I still recall the meetings between Paul Gilson and the manufacturers' salesmen, especially Marc Boissinot, from the national Union of electronic manufacturers, where the debates hinged on the eternal egg and hen problem. The Union probably struggled to encourage its members to launch into this great, promising venture, even without any backing program. It was Paul Gilson, and all the RTF with him, who decided to begin emitting. The first French receivers appeared on the market several months later. All of them were built by Pathé Marconi.

The Program then was the important element. How could they persuade the listeners to buy a very performing radio receiver with the usual programs (Inter, National and Parisien), that were already received in comfortable conditions? Considering the features of the new process, music would evidently be the benefactor. An all-music program was then decided. Jean Tardieu launched the idea of a 99% musical program. This was a challenge, difficult to fulfill in the context of a rather talkative radio: the producers wanted to announce and comment the music that they broadcasted, and explain their choice. Anyway, at the beginning, everyone respected the challenge and Jean Tardieu eventually won his bet. […] Marius Constant had just received a Prix Italia for his work The Flute Player when he was asked by Jean Tardieu to take charge, with Jean-Marie Oberlin, of the music broadcasting of the new station. Beside the actual musical programs, of a demanding quality, some competition programs were launched by Claude Roland-Manuel, whose purpose was to retain the loyalty of the listeners and also to be able to record the audience figures. Winners won vinyl records, another novelty much sought after. The vinyl record was the other challenge of the new FM program: no 78-whorl records were to be played on this station to provide the listener with the best quality of reception. The studio located on the first floor of the Pierre Bourdan center, in the Auteuil district, had been equipped for this purpose with very sophisticated equipment, from the record player and the console to the microphones and amplification sets. The records companies soon brought their original recording tapes to the FM producers instead of their new vinyl records. This permitted to skip a stage of the reproduction chain, avoiding a loss of quality due to the record engraving.

Éliane Clancier, in the memoir she devoted to the Club d'Essai, precisely noticed the program schedules and also the contents of the broadcasting. She finds 85% of musical programs during the first year, while the Paris MF emitter worked every day from 6 to 11 pm. The spoken programs included an evening drama per year, and the reading, over three evenings a week from 10 to 11 pm, of a short novel (or a long novella), and finally a news report, specific to the program, including a sequence of listeners' mail […] Modern music, and the music that was more installed in the cultural habits were going to live together and gather around the special FM program a core of fervent listeners, all Parisian, due to the short range of the only emitter in activity. At that stage, those felt they belonged to a very select club, with the slight elitist flavor linked to the concept. Some of them came to the studio, at the Pierre Bourdan center, in order to meet the producers, others to theoffices on Rue de l'Université in order to vent their demands. I remember a very constant man who used to stay a long time in our club armchairs only to comment on his reactions about the program of the day before! One of my friends (I had known him in junior high school), a passionate music lover, largely flaunted our school relations partly for the same reason. He however was a faithful competitor in the quizzes launched by Claude Roland-Manuel, which permitted to win vinyl records. This period of settling in, with the enthusiasm linked to the venture, could not last forever. The RTF engineers and their counterparts, the big private manufacturers, were well aware of that. As always when action dominates, one hardly thinks to theorize, and leave written traces of the target aimed at. No one can find any published reflection on the novelty that frequency modulation in the France of the fifties represented. More surprisingly, the very year of the launching of FM, the Sociology of Broadcasting Music convention was held from October 27 th to 30 th 1954. None of the French attendants have expressed themselves on this issue. Musicologists like Jacques Chailley or Gisèle Brelet don't mention it. Even Jean Tardieu, when he opened the convention, didn't make any allusion to this other side of his activity, despite the fact he was the son of a female musician and a music lover. The only papers about the French FM were those of Robert Wangermée, Head of the Music Department of the Belgian radio and Lecturer at the University of Brussels, and the Swiss René Dovaz, Radio Geneva's manager.

Still, the Convention, which was prepared by the Center of radio and television studies, is a pure product of "n°37 rue de l'Universtité"! Were Oberlin and Constant in the room? Certainly, though none of them appears to have expressed themselves on the issue. In one of the final statements, René Dovaz recommends the subsidiary use of the modulated frequency. I do know that FM was in its infancy at the time, but it then brought clear and positive answers to the repeated calls of the conference delegates for a better welcoming of music on the radios. Of course, all of this could perfectly be explained, but it is a shame that there was no second congress, which could have highlighted FM as an answer to the musician's expectations. But it is easy to have Cleopatra's nose reshaped fifty years after! Jean Tardieu nevertheless had a clear view of his ambition for his station, as Jean-Marie Oberlin told Roger Pradalié: "Tardieu gladly mentioned this eighteenth century's novelist, who then imagined a world drenched with music, a world where music would burst out everywhere. The poet was dreaming. He also had a dreat for "his" station, as you've just said, for the building of a "library of sound" (such were his words) thanks to FM; not a collection of records, that often remain silent, but a technical facility that would have to be imagined (like the force-feeding of a computer by data), where anyone could at any time find a desired performance of music, the music needed, as we take and open a book in a library."

This daily program became France IV Haute Fidélité in 1960, then France Musique in 1963 and France Musiques at the dawn of the twenty first century. It indeed represents a kind of permanent concert on the waves, where all the musical genres are played. After 1960, Jean Tardieu was confirmed as France Musique manager, appointed Deputy Chief of the Research Department, and then artistic Counselor for the ORTF (Direction de la Radiodiffusion), a post he kept until he retired.

Wladimir Porché and Paul Gilson probably didn't suspect what Jean Tardieu would do with Frequency Modulation. Whatever the knowledge they had of the man, they only considered this appointment as the means of carrying out an experiment among others at the Radio and Tlevision Research Center. Jean Tardieu, however, was obsessed by music, and also poetry, and then carried out his program to the point of success it currently enjoys.

. Excerpts from the book by Robert PROT: Jean Tardieu et la nouvelle radio, Paris, L 'Harmattan, 2006, p. 17-27.

  22 " Let's mention, for example, a program with an impressive longevity: Vocal Art by Colette Désormières, and the more punctual productions by Lila-Maurice Amour (History of Music, in 1960); René Dumesnil (College of the waves, in the same year); M. Terrasse (Faces of music, in 1962 23 ); Claude Baignères and P.-A. Jolivet (The universal radiation of French music, in 1963). Among those instructive or didactic programs, one should underline that the Voyages of the musicians hosted by Myriam Soumagnac in 1960, which are also broadcasted on the "Frequency Modulation Program which, on March 20 th 1960, becomes France IV High Fidelity. 24 "

40

  Christophe Bennet, "Henri Dutilleux and the Department of Musical Illustrations ", in "Les Cahiers d'Histoire de la Radiodiffusion" #89, "The year 1956", July-September 2006, p. 157-161.

  […] Facing these technical improvements, the Paris-IV emitter looked paltry. On the other hand, some of the producers of the Club d'Essai had experienced the FM. Obviously, one had to accept the demise of the Parisian programs of the Club d'Essai, in other words of the Club d'Essai itself. According to the Service des Archives écrites de Radio France, the last afternoon was on Sunday March 27 th 1960. The written program published by the RTF for the week of March 27 th to April 2 nd 1960 announces the following broadcasting of the ultimate program on Paris IV: Edouard Kneusé, in his series Convergences, proposes works by Bartok performed by Quatuor Parrenin followed by an extract from Echec à Don Juan by Claude André Puget. Then pupils of the class of André Asselin, at the Conservatoire national de Musique, are performing Beethoven's Concerto for violin. André Almuró presents his performance of L'homme de la pampa, by Supervielle, with Daniel Sorano and Roger Blin. From 5.30 to 6 pm, the Petit Conservatoire de la Chanson, by Mirelle and Georges Godebert, ends the program. Henceforth, the Paris IV Club d'Essai will be mute.

The French version of this article could be read in : ChristopheBennet, 1925Bennet, -1975 : : Cinquante ans de musique classique à la radio (direction), Les Cahiers d'Histoire de la Radiodiffusion, Cahier thématique n°95, janvier-

mars 2008, 250 p.: http://cohira.fr/cahier_n_95_de_1925_a_1975_janvier_a_mars/

On Sunday November 6 th 1955, he, in a quarter of hour, presents Schubert and Liszt. Pianist Jean Doyen(1907- 1982), who was then a teacher at the Conservatory, knows the broadcasting studios of the capital quite well, since he's been performing there since 1931.

3 Scheduled at 10.15, the thirty-minute program of Saturday November 12 th 1955 is composed of excerpts from "Cavaliera rusticana" (Mascagni), with Germaine Cernay, Gaston Micheletti and Endrèze, who have been "strong values" for twenty years

! 4 Pierre Dellard, "The policy of the public service programs in 1960", in "Les Cahiers d'Histoire de la Radiodiffusion", #28, the year 1960, April 1991, p. 101-

102. 5 Scheduled from 11.30 to 12 am, the program of Saturday October 22 nd 1960 proposes "Mozart's new works in Salzburg in

1780." 6 Cf. the program "Do you like Boccherini?" of Saturday November 3 rd 1962 (

from 6 to 7 pm), when the first movement of his Concerto in D major for flute is broadcasted.7 Cf. Friday October 21 st 1960 (from 2.02 to 2.55 pm) when he respectively broadcasts the Overture of Egmont and the Concerto in D major for violin and

orchestra. 8 On Friday November 2 nd 1962 (when the slot is later, from 6 to 7 pm), he plays Introit and Kyrie from

his Requiem. 9 On Saturday November 12 th 1955, one can anyway hear the two orchestras, respectively from 11.18 to 12.05 a.m. (conductor Maurice-Paul Gaillot) and from 1.30 to 2.15 pm (with Marcel Mirotize

as conductor). 10 Interview of Henry Barraud by Pierre Dellard and Louis Courtinat, in « Les Cahiers d'Histoire de la Radiodiffusion", #43, the year 1964, December 1994-

February 1995, p. 180. 11 At 8.30 pm, Ferenc Fricsay conducts excerpts from Mozart

Entführung aus dem Seraglio. 12 Between 8.50 and 10.20 pm, this very good orchestra performs Tzigane for violin and orchestra (Ravel) and the Symphony in C majorthe Bear (Haydn), under conductor Carlos Chavez.

The program of Sunday May 24 th

is announced as: "Plaisir de la musique, a program by Alexis Roland-Manuel, hosted by N. Binant and the producer." For several years already, the guests of the program have no longer been announced in the newspapers.19 As usual, the orchestra is conducted by Gaston Poulet, while composer Gustave Samazeuilh hosts the program. He still will face the microphone of the RTF (this time on Haute Fidélité France IV) to analyze the concert on Sunday October 1962 (during the "Paris International Weeks"), when another Paris society will be honored: the Concerts Lamoureux orchestra, conducted this time by Manuel Rosenthal.20 On Sunday November 6 th 1955.21 On Wednesday October 19 th 1960.22 Pierre Dellard, "The policy of the broadcasting programs of the public service in 1960", in "Les Cahiers d'Histoire de laRadiodiffusion", #28, "the year 1960", April 1991, p. 101-102. 23 In November, he hosts a series of programs on great conductors, including three episodes dedicated to Arturo Toscanini.

For any question related to the technical situation of the emitters and receptors in frequency modulation, one should read: Jacques Chardonnier, "1960 -high fidelity?", in "Les Cahiers d'Histoire de laRadiodiffusion", #28, "the year 1960", April 1991, p. 34-41.

The following paragraphs owe much to: Julie Marchetti, "The History of France Musique. Or the evolution of the use of classical music on the radio, from the monopole to the concurrence of Radio Clasique", Master of Contemporary History, under the direction of Professor Pascal Griset, Sorbonne-Paris IV, September 2005.

On this topic, one can see the framed part entitled "A sounding libray" about Jean Tardieu and the Programme musical.

Robert Prot, "The Club d'Essai", in "Les Cahiers d'Histoire de laRadiodiffusion", #13-14, April 1986, p. 13- 19.

28 Jean-Louis Alibert : "The splitting line of the waves, France Musique", in "Réseaux",#52,March-April 1992, p. 28 [Mentioned by Julie Marchetti, op. cit

.] 29 Julie Marchetti, op. cit., p. 16. Robert Prot, who knew Jean Tardieu well, and dedicated a book to him, nuances this statement: "Tardieu, who was shy and reserved in current life, particularly watched the good spirit of his program, either at the Club d'Essai, or on FM. "Obviously, this attention didn't mean he was always monitoring a coworker like Marius, for whom he had deep respect and friendship (they had written a musical work in common)" [Interview on July 22 nd 2007].

This very year, Pierre Hiégel (one more time !) interviews Maria Callas in the Paris studio of the station, cf. the excellent website, very well illustrated by written and sounding archives: http://aquiradioandorra.free.fr [visit of July 2007] .

A SPRINKLING OF CLASSICAL MUSIC ON THE PRIVATE STATIONS

On the private stations, the flow of classical music is extremely weak. On Radio Monte-Carlo, the broadcasting of concerts is very exceptional and in fact an event. We could mention, in this vein, the relay of the "Lugano Concerts 1960". On Monday October 17 th 1960, the Monacan station grants a slot of one and half an hour to classical music! "Italian-Swiss Radio Orchestra, cond. Antal Dorati, with Maurice Gendrot, cellist: Suite #2 in B minor (Bach); Concerto for cello and orchestra (D. Kabalevski); Symphony #34 in C Major (Mozart)."

On Radio Andorra, the slots dedicated to classical music (or "grande musique") are very few, but much more regular, and even daily. As a matter of fact, those are short slots of records playing. The aesthetic is either accessible or Hispanic-oriented, as shown by these samplings picked up during the decade:

Wednesday September 19 th 1956, from 3.43 to 4.07 pm: L'Amour sorcier by Manuel de Falla Sunday April 17 th 1960, from 2.30 ro 2.45 pm: the Madrid Chamber Orchestra Monday October 9 th 1961, from 3 to 3.10 pm: waltzes by Tchaikovsky (a program followed by a broadcasting novella: "the Johann Strauss love affairs") Monday October 8 th 1962: from 2.30 to 2.45 pm: Porgy and Bess by Gershwin 39 Thursday October 3 rd 1963: "Classical Andora": Extracts from La Belle au Bois Dormant, ballet (Tchaikovsky), The Philharmonia Orchestra, cond. H. Von Karajan; "Waltz of the Flowers", from The Nutcracker (Tchaikovsky) and waltz from Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky), The Philharmonia Orchestra, H. Von Karajan. Friday May 22 nd 1964, from 4 pm to 4.25 pm: Don Quixote by G. Philip Telemann: Saidenberg Little Symphony, cond Daniel Saidenberg. On Radio-Luxemburg, which has its own orchestra, as we've already seen, a program on every Monday evening shows the artistic quintessence of the Grand-duché: "the musical hour by the grand orchestra of Radio-Luxemburg". The orchestra consists of 60 titular musicians, who can even reach the figure of 75 with the extras. It releases about fifty public concerts a year. Regarding our period, Henry Pensis remains at the helm as conductor. On November 7 th 1955, he chose to perform the Mozart's Concerto #23 for piano and orchestra with Renée Collinson as soloist, and Beethoven's Symphony #1.

After his death, in June 1958, the new permanent conductor was, until 1980, Louis de Froment. On Monday October 17 th 1960, a pianist is still sharing the limelight. That evening, the listeners can hear Janine Dacosta and the Chorale Mixte of the Luxemburg