It was for a long time the corner-stone of the edifice of music in Paris.  But although it has always numbered in its ranks many illustrious and devoted professors—­among whom it recognised, a little late, the founder of the young French school, Cesar Franck—­and though the majority of artists who have made a name in French music have received its teaching, and the list of laureates of Rome who have come from its composition classes includes all the heads of the artistic movement to-day in all its diversity, and ranges from M. Massenet to M. Bruneau, and from M. Charpentier to M. Debussy—­in spite of all this, it is no secret that, since 1870, the official action with regard to the movement amounts to almost nothing; though we must at least do it justice, and say that it has not hindered it.[211]

[Footnote 211:  You must remember that I am speaking here of official action only; for there have always been masters among the Conservatoire teaching staff who have united a fine musical culture with a broad-minded and liberal spirit.  But the influence of these independent minds is, generally speaking, small; for they have not the disposing of academic successes; and when, by exception, they have a wide influence, like that of Cesar Franck, it is the result of personal work outside the Conservatoire—­work that is, as often as not, opposed to Conservatoire principles.]

But if the spirit of this academy has often destroyed the effect of the excellent teaching there, by making success in academic competitions the chief aim of the professors and their pupils, yet a certain freedom has always reigned in the institution.  And though this freedom is mainly the result of indifference, it has, however, permitted the more independent temperaments to develop in peace—­from Berlioz to M. Ravel.  One should be grateful for this.  But such virtues are too negative to give the Conservatoire a high place in the musical history of the Third Republic; and it is only lately, under the direction of M. Gabriel Faure, that it has endeavoured, not without difficulty, to get back its place at the head of French art, which it had lost, and which others had taken.

The Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire, founded in 1828 under the direction of Habeneck, has had its hour of glory in the musical history of Paris.  It was through this society that Beethoven’s greatness was revealed to France.[212] It was at the Conservatoire that the early important works of Berlioz were first given:  La Fantastique, Harold, and Romeo et Juliette.  It was there, nearer our own time, that Saint-Saens’s Symphonie avec Orgue and Cesar Franck’s Symphonie were played for the first time.  But for a long time the Conservatoire seemed to take its name too literally, and to restrict its sphere to that of a museum for classical music.