The 1808 Érard piano that Napoleon gifted to his second spouse, Marie-Louise, is on long-term mortgage from the Museum of Music Historical past to the Cobbe Assortment of historic devices exterior London.

Museum of Music Historical past

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Museum of Music Historical past

The 1808 Érard piano that Napoleon gifted to his second spouse, Marie-Louise, is on long-term mortgage from the Museum of Music Historical past to the Cobbe Assortment of historic devices exterior London.

Museum of Music Historical past

At transient, introspective moments in Ridley Scott’s pyrotechnics-heavy biopic Napoleon, a easy melody emerges from the fragile sound of an previous piano. It is greater than 200 years previous and as soon as belonged to the French emperor himself, who gifted it to his second spouse, Marie-Louise.

As we speak, the piano that when sat in Paris on the Tuileries palace finds its residence within the village of East Clandon exterior London on the Cobbe Assortment, on long-term mortgage from the Museum of Music Historical past. When London-based composer Martin Phipps discovered in regards to the instrument, he appeared for methods to include it into the movie’s rating.

“It was such a thrill being there and enjoying it,” Phipps informed Morning Version. “It is acquired a really explicit sound. Not a very fairly sound, which suited us very properly for our characterization, however it’s an attention-grabbing one, and it was simply so satisfying to get it into the rating.”

The piano is a so-called sq. mannequin that’s extra like an oblong field on legs. The physique is made out of mahogany and adorned with bronzes and verre églomisé, or reverse-painted and gilded glass.

Museum of Music Historical past

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Museum of Music Historical past

The piano is a so-called sq. mannequin that’s extra like an oblong field on legs. The physique is made out of mahogany and adorned with bronzes and verre églomisé, or reverse-painted and gilded glass.

Museum of Music Historical past

The rating mimics the movie’s portrayal of a really fallible French emperor, prey to lust, anger, ambition and devastating errors. The accordion additionally seems, with Phipps pointing to that instrument’s “tongue-in-cheek really feel.” Plucked devices loosen up different moments. And two choral teams — Ensemble Spartimu and Ensemble Organum with Jérôme Casalonga — carry out Corsican polyphonic chants, in a nod to Napoleon’s childhood on the island of Corsica.

“Ridley was actually clear from the beginning that he needed to have humor within the movie and to mirror that within the music, to have a lightness anyway, not take our central character too lethal critically,” Phipps defined.

There are 5.5 octaves on this piano as an alternative of the standard 7.25 on a contemporary instrument.

Museum of Music Historical past

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Museum of Music Historical past

There are 5.5 octaves on this piano as an alternative of the standard 7.25 on a contemporary instrument.

Museum of Music Historical past

Reaching for authenticity

The piano, accomplished by the Paris manufacturing unit of Érard Frères in 1808, headed two years later to the Tuileries Palace to rejoice the arrival of Napoleon’s younger musical bride Marie-Louise.

A so-called sq. mannequin, the form resembles an oblong field on legs, or a grand piano with out its tail. The physique is made out of mahogany and adorned with bronzes. The keywell options verre églomisé, or reverse-painted and gilded glass. There are 5.5 octaves as an alternative of the standard 7.25 on a contemporary piano.

The instrument has a much less damped sound than that of a contemporary piano. “Even when the dampers have fallen on the strings, you continue to hear resonance from the strings. So it is sort of a extra echoey sound,” defined music scholar Jim Parakilas, a professor emeritus of performing arts at Bates School.

Composer Martin Phipps, proper, seems on as orchestrator Andrew Skeet performs an 1808 piano as soon as owned by Napoleon for Ridley’s Scott biopic in regards to the French emperor.

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Composer Martin Phipps, proper, seems on as orchestrator Andrew Skeet performs an 1808 piano as soon as owned by Napoleon for Ridley’s Scott biopic in regards to the French emperor.

Darrel Alexander/White Bear PR

Piano maker Sébastien Érard made nice improvements on the instrument’s motion mechanism, making it a gorgeous proposition for a number of the best musicians of the period. Composers Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt all performed on Érard pianos.

The piano is heard briefly at two turning moments for the French emperor within the film. The primary time is on the finish of the Siege of Toulon, the place he was topped a navy genius. Napoleon is trying down at his horse, who was shot from beneath him.

“It is simply this very lonely, singular theme that then builds somewhat. Nevertheless it’s our first actual reference to him, and understanding of him and what he is able to,” Phipps stated. The theme reappears then steadily grows with a choir, broader instrumentation and electronics to achieve the climax of the rating.

Andrew Skeet performs a piano as soon as owned by Napoleon for the rating of Ridley Scott’s biopic Napoleon.

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Andrew Skeet performs a piano as soon as owned by Napoleon for the rating of Ridley Scott’s biopic Napoleon.

Darrel Alexander/White Bear PR

The piano seems a second time when Napoleon stands in his tent ready for the rain to cease simply earlier than the beginning of the Battle of Waterloo, which he misplaced. Right here, nonetheless, it serves as an accompaniment to the theme, an accompaniment later taken over by a contemporary piano, which makes the acoustic distinction extra tangible.

Phipps stated incorporating music performed on this historic piano itself “felt completely alongside the traces of what [Ridley Scott] talked about, in regards to the authenticity of getting one thing actual from the time.”

Scott’s inventive liberties within the movie, nonetheless, have fueled a lot debate, particularly in France, the place Napoleon nonetheless leaves a posh legacy, leaving such a big imprint that his taxidermied horse Vizir stands on the musée de l’Armée (Military Museum) in central Paris.

A stamp on the baseboard bears TH for the Tuileries imperial palace, surmounted by a crown and fleur-de-lis added throughout the reign of kings Louis XVIII, Charles X or Louis-Phillipe.

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A stamp on the baseboard bears TH for the Tuileries imperial palace, surmounted by a crown and fleur-de-lis added throughout the reign of kings Louis XVIII, Charles X or Louis-Phillipe.

Museum of Music Historical past

The movie exhibits Napoleon current when Marie-Antoinette was guillotined and later exhibits him blowing up the pyramids in Egypt — neither of which occurred. Joaquin Phoenix, who performs Napoleon, can also be 14 years older than Vanessa Kirby, who performs his first spouse Joséphine. However in reality, the one-time empress was six years older than the one-time emperor.

Ridley Scott, 86, ripped off the child gloves to cope with his critics, telling them to easily “get a life.” Phipps, nonetheless, notes that “you do not have to be correct to be truthful essentially, particularly in fictional drama.”

A stamp on the instrument seems to learn ML P, maybe signifying Marie-Louise de Parma, however there is no such thing as a proof the piano went to her in Parma after the empire collapsed.

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Museum of Music Historical past

A stamp on the instrument seems to learn ML P, maybe signifying Marie-Louise de Parma, however there is no such thing as a proof the piano went to her in Parma after the empire collapsed.

Museum of Music Historical past

Napoleon as lover of music

The room that holds the piano at the moment additionally options different devices from the interval, together with a sq. piano as soon as owned by Marie-Antoinette, earlier than her life was reduce quick on the guillotine. That instrument additionally got here from the store of Sébastien Érard, who had loved royal privileges and fled to England within the wake of the French Revolution.

Hypothesis stays over precisely what occurred to Napoleon’s piano between 1814 – when the emperor was pressured to abdicate following his failed invasion of Russia – and 1899 – when the piano was purchased again by Érard. A stamp on the instrument seems to learn ML P, maybe signifying Marie-Louise de Parma. However there is no such thing as a proof the piano went to her in Parma after the empire collapsed.

By 1900, the instrument was on show within the piano maker’s London showroom. In the end, pianist Oliver Davies (1938-2020) purchased the piano in 1964 for simply £15 (round $37 on the time, and price round 10 instances as a lot in at the moment’s currencies). In 2003, he based the Museum of Music Historical past, which now has a considerable assortment of greater than 70,000 artifacts unfold throughout 4 places in London and southeastern England.

The piano itself is not proven within the film, which makes no hyperlink between the music performed on the piano and the lady who truly performed it. Marie-Louise, a Habsburg princess from Austria and Marie-Antoinette’s great-niece, was an completed pianist in her personal proper.

Ensemble Organum singers document for Ridley Scott’s Napoleon at London’s AIR Studios in October 2022. They carried out a Corsican liturgy and polyphonic chants.

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Ensemble Organum singers document for Ridley Scott’s Napoleon at London’s AIR Studios in October 2022. They carried out a Corsican liturgy and polyphonic chants.

Darrel Alexander/White Bear PR

Napoleon was a music aficionado, however is alleged to have been unable to hold a tune or play an instrument. A historic anecdote tells of Napoleon grabbing cellist Jean-Louis Duport’s Stradivarius cello after a non-public recital on the Tuileries, sitting down and squeezing it between his spurred boots, leaving marks that may nonetheless be seen on the instrument at the moment.

Nonetheless, “he was very affected by music. He was very dedicated to music. He went to the opera on a regular basis. And so he cared rather a lot about music,” Parakilas stated.

Napoleon was additionally a up to date of Beethoven. Each males made an amazing influence on society in a fast-moving time. “Music was a part of that. The piano modified extra of their lifetimes than at every other time in historical past,” Parakilas added. “So this little instrument, this Érard sq. piano, represents a second of actually staggering change in the best way pianos had been made, designed, sounded, and the music that could possibly be made on them.”

The radio model of this story was edited by Ashley Westerman and produced by Kaity Kline. The digital model was edited by Treye Inexperienced.