by Lauren McLendon and Lisa Song

Introduction

As our plane landed at Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport, Lisa and I had a plan for our personal project; we wanted to study the street performers of Paris. The last time I had been in Paris was two summers ago, and I had fascinating memories of the dancers and puppeteers performing on the sidewalks and in the plazas.  For Lisa, she was interested in the mimes (as an MIT freshmen she had the chance to attend a show featuring Marcel Marceau and was hungry to see more). 

A painting of a mime performance at the Musée Carnavalet.

With this project in mind, we emerged on the streets of Paris to find that it was quite chilly and rather rainy.  Unfortunately, this is not ideal weather for street performers; so we descended into the Paris Metro where we found a different kind of performer: musicians.  Our original project goals quickly shifted, and we decided to observe these subway performers and try to attain a historical and cultural perspective on this kind of performing art.

What we saw

On the second day of our trip, we saw a man playing a guitar, singing along in French to a song with which we were not familiar.  By the end of our two weeks in Paris, we had seen several such men.  This wasn't all too different from the guitarists we have seen playing in the United States (ex. those at Harvard Square).

This was not the case, however, with the accordionists.  During our trip, we saw multiple men playing the accordion, an instrument tied to French culture.  Additionally, outside the Grand Palais, we ran into a man playing the clarinet.  This was the one woodwind that we observed during our trip, excluding the orchestra performances at the ballet. 

When we were in the Louvre Rivoli station, we heard Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" on violin, and we found the source when we turned the corner.  A woman, eyes closed as if completely absorbed in her art, played a piece from "Winter."  Both Lisa and I enjoyed her performance, and when she had finished, we gave her a few Euros.  As she thanked us, we complimented her work and asked why she was performing in the Metro.  She replied that she had a job teaching the violin in a few schools in Paris.  She added that she also did some private violin lessons; however, it just wasn't enough to make ends meet.  So, she also performs in the Metro stations.  She added that she truly loves performing.  This last statement was not surprising to us; we watched her begin to play "Spring," and we could see the passion radiate through her. 

Cité de la Musique

We visited Cité de la Musique, home of the Musée de la Musique to gain some background in the history of how the use of some of the instruments that we had seen in the Metro had evolved over time.  We learned that guitars were originally used in France by rich aristocratic amateurs. 

They were played during balls of the French court and were sometimes used to accompany singing and dancing beginning in 1670 during the reign of Louis XIV.  Many of these first guitars were ornately decorated to show off wealth. These elaborate instruments, which greatly contrast in appearance to the guitars that we saw in the Metro, were popular in France until the 18th century. 

When the guitar went out of style, the vielle (which we did not observe in the Metro but we did find highly interesting in the museum) became popular in high society. Before that, this instrument had been the preferred one for migrant musicians and beggars.  Its popularity, however was short lived and it went out of style  in the 19th century. 

The vielle.

The clarinet was created in 1715 and used as a solo instrument or an outdoor ensemble, much as we saw it used outside the Grand Palais.  By the 19th century, however, it had been fully integrated into the orchestra and was sometimes used with the piano. 

By this time (the 19th century), the guitar had come back in style with the bourgeoisies, and then was widely popularized throughout France.

Closing

Although our project did not go as planned, Lisa and I had a fabulous time listening to the music of the metro and gaining a background of the art that we were hearing.

A band playing in the Metro. The instruments featured bear an odd resemblance to the painting below from the Centre Pompidou.