Café concert
At the 18th century, one finds with the Boulevard of the Temple to Paris of the coffees - singing where also Bateleur S. occur After being moved under the arcades of the Palais Royal under the Révolution and having known difficult days under the Empire, these establishments join again with success under Louis-Philippe. It is however necessary to await the middle of this century so that this new phenomenon extends to all the provincial towns.
Definition
The CIF' conc as it familiarly is called (sometimes spelled caf' conç ) is, according to the Grand Larousse Dictionary of the XIXe century , at the same time a concert hall and a pub, joining together in its enclosure a public who pays in consumption the pleasure of hearing lovesongs, ditties or pieces of opera. However the café concert term and that of variety are close, even synonymous, today like yesterday, while at the same time the variety is a Anglicisme appeared at the end of the 19th century. According to Legrand-Chabrier, this new kind is the “coalition of all the spectacles which are not theater”, definition a contrario which reveals at the same time the heavy semantic blur on this innovation and the extreme diversity of the spectacles asserting itself like such: one finds there dramatic pieces of music, songs, sketches and alive tables, revue spectaculars with light effects and great use of the mechanization, the dances and acrobatics.
These definitions are however to moderate, because consumption can possibly disappear and one pays his place at the entry then. As for the formal aspect of the establishment, it approaches more and more the theater. The café concert term will be heard here in its broader expression, i.e. like an organizing bar of the musical Concert S in one of its rooms with more or less of regularity, and the variety will be defined like a room proposing of the varied spectacles (accommodating most of the tradition of the Cirque, for example) where the fact of outputting drinks became secondary.
Birth and assertion of the café concert (1800-1864)
During the Revolution, the abolition of the monopoly of the theaters allows starting from 1791 the opening of many theaters. Thus, the Coffee of Apollo is one of the first café concerts. In the popular pubs, peddlers occur. The traces of this activity are thin. But this freedom will not last since in 1807, the re-establishment of the theaters of privileges marks a stop with the wild and spontaneous development of CIF-conc'.
Between 1807 and 1849, only some establishments accommodate concerts regularly. Admittedly, of the keepers of a bar lyric spectacles without worrying about the payments organize punctually. This regulation normally prohibits any concert in a pub without obtaining from it an authorization of the prefect of police. The revolution of February 1848 goes, a time, to return to this leisure its freedom. But the ordinance of the November 17th 1849 renews preceding measurements prohibiting to give a spectacle in a pub without prior approval. It will allow a supervised development: 22 authorizations only are granted between 1849 and 1859 in Paris.
The regulation also sticks to organize the Colportage in order to prevent the diffusion of social songs. A Censure of the spectacles is also positioned back and one prohibits finally the goguettes (Nov. 1849) in the bars: all these payments will contribute to takeoff limited and organized phenomenon.
The beginning of the Années 1860 sees appearing construction new establishments: in 1860 the Alcazar of summer, then the Eldorado, the Scala, the Clock, Ambassadors: all are located on the expensive boulevards at the Baron Haussmann.
The apogee of the café concerts (1864-1896)
The café concerts leave the shade of the theaters, first of all with the abolition of the privileges of the theaters in 1864. Thus, the café concerts are released from the monitoring of the theater directors to fall under the supervision from the authorities from police force. The administration multiplies the decrees and lets spread this type of establishment.
It is the golden age of this leisure. It is diffused everywhere in France. Paris becomes the model of the European recreation. Paris is “the guinguette of Europe” according to Louis Sebastien Mercier. The period of the IIIe République will generalize this leisure.
Decline of the CIF' conc, resistance of the Variety (1896-1914)
The first competitor which will be essential in all the cities after 1896 is the Cinéma. For the majority, they are old café concerts or rooms of variety: the public seems filled with enthusiasm by these dark rooms, these films, these Documentaire S and current events strongly tinted of innovation. Since the cinema is dumb, the first spectacles are often decorated of a Orchestre. As, rather as an abrupt decline, it is about a slip of a leisure with another or a slow change. However, the variety and the growing influence of the Anglo-Saxon culture make it possible these establishments to resist the other modes. Moreover, the censure disappears slowly, the daily visa on the contents of the spectacles becomes weekly. The kind knows a new breath indisputably; in 1906 the censure disappears completely (it will reappear however during the First World War).
The café concert thus marks the emergence of a Popular culture which will first of all give the rich person tradition of the French song, but also of the variety and the cinema. The filiation of these various shapes of spectacle is easy to see so much by the courses of certain artists, who pass from the CIF' conc to the variety to the cinema, that by the places, old rooms CIF' conc becoming room of variety then dark room. These new shapes of popular and universal spectacles will have provided the foundations of the mass culture of the 20th century, characterized by the phenomenon of starisation, accentuated by the democratization of TSF and the cinema, and sometimes accompanied by a kind of standardization on a French scale and today on a worldwide scale.
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