François de FOSSA

François de Fossa was born into a recently ennobled family from Perpignan. His itinerary bears some resemblance to that of his contemporary Antoine de Lhoyer: intended for a military career, he was forced into exile by the French Revolution and did not join the army until the Restoration. He was appointed Chevalier (1825), then Officier (1839) of the Légion d’Honneur, and took part, notably, in the capture of Algiers in 1830. As with Lhoyer, Fossa’s time as an exile was of decisive importance in his musical experience. Having taken refuge in Spain – and, between 1798 and 1803, in Mexico (then still a Spanish possession) – he was among those musicians who accommodated the Iberian guitar style to French tastes under the July Monarchy. He also made a French translation of Dionisio Aguado’s guitar tutor, and it was through his efforts that Luigi Boccherini’s works for the instrument became known in France. According to his correspondence with his sister during his exile, it would appear that Fossa composed his first works with the aim of supplementing his small salary as a civil servant in the Ministry of the Indies in Madrid around 1808. Although the total published works of Fossa constitute a catalogue of just twenty-one titles for the guitar, violin and/or cello, the musicologist Matanya Ophee – to whom we owe the rediscovery of this virtuoso guitarist – remains cautious about estimating the true extent of his output, which may still be completed by publications without an opus number. In 2015, saying he was now too old to carry on with this work, Ophee encouraged young researchers to set out in search of this music.