A sheet of music from a hand written composition by Georges Bizet.

The Conservatoire is a free school of music established by the Convention Nationale of August 3, 1795. The collection, donated by Carlton Lake, consists of documents from 1795 to 1955, with particular strength in the middle third of the nineteenth century. Included are printed and manuscript records about the founding, organization and history of the Conservatoire from 1796 to 1903. There are files of exhibitions, expositions, festivals of music and the arts, juries and commissions from 1876 to 1890. In addition, there are records of sixty-three concerts sponsored by the Conservatoire from 1825 to 1892, including Liszt’s Beethoven memorial concert.

With files on teaching music, new instruments, musical theory, and composition, the Collection brings together two hundred documents from 1834 to 1897, relating to the Conservatoire and the Prix de Rome. The Conservatoire maintained provincial conservatories in Marseilles, Dijon and Lille, and these records are included. Correspondence from the files of the directors, 1838 to 1955, include those of Cherubini and Arnbroise Thomas as well as composers Respighi, Massenet and César Franck. Among eleven musical manuscripts written for competitions are original scores by Georges Bizet, Luigi Cherubini, Leo Delibes and Darius Milhaud.