hon la Vielleuse" was a three-act play with a text by Jean Nicolas Bouilly and J. Pain and music by Joseph-Denis Doche. The librettist Bouilly also wrote a libretto with the title "Léonore ou l'amour conjugal", which was translated into German by Joseph von Sonnleithner and set to music by Ludwig van Beethoven ("Fidelio"). Doche was at the vaudeville theatre in Paris since 1794 and from 1815 became the first conductor of the orchestra. Among his duties he had to compose airs for theatrical works as well as stage music. In 1801 the "Fanchon la Vielleuse" was performed for the first time at the Théâtre de Vaudeville and had a long-lasting success. The life and experiences of Fanchon were not entirely invented. A Savoyard girl, born in Paris in 1737, with the name of Françoise (called Fanchon) Chemin, later married as Mme. Menart, served as a model [fn]. The events in the life of this Fanchon Chemin were not adopted by the authors; the only things in common with the model lay in the names and their occupation as a hurdy-gurdy player.
The success of the "Fanchon la Vielleuse" gave rise to a great number of imitations in France and in Germany, where this production was known through August von Kotzebue. The musical "Fanchon das Leyermädchen" came into being after Kotzebue had seen J.H. Bouilly's and J. Pain's vaudeville in Paris in 1804. He was so enthused about it that he translated the libretto and gave it to Friedrich Heinrich Himmel, the head of the court band of Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, to provide the music for it. Presented
as early as the 16th of May 1804 for the first time in Berlin, this production had just as long-lasting success as the French original [fn]. The music consists of simple song themes; the noteworthy feature is the frequent use of uneven rhythms also seen in the French music for the hurdy-gurdy from the 18th century. [fn]
The same material appeared once again on the German stage, in Berlin 1854, in a musical "Muttersegen, oder die neue Fanchon"[translation JW: Mother's blessing, or the new Fanchon], with text by W.F. Riese (pseudonym W. Friedrich) after the French by Lemoins and the music by A. Schaffer [fn]. On account of these various productions the name 'Fanchon' became known in the 19th century beyond the borders of France, so that the hurdy-gurdy in Germany was characterized not only as a 'Bauernleier' or 'Bettlerleier' [translation JW: peasant or beggar's hurdy-gurdy], but also as a 'Fanchonleier'.
A plot similar to that of the "Fanchon" was employed by Gaetano Donizetti in his opera "Linda di Chamounix" first presented in 1842 at the Kärntnertor Theatre in Vienna. Linda is also a girl who comes from the Savoy, but here Linda does not make her living as a hurdy-gurdy player, but rather the country people who come with her from the village in Savoy to Paris earn their living thus.
The Fanchon of the theatre pieces was a virtuous maid who had nothing in common either with the life of Fanchon Chemin or with the girls who earned money by playing the hurdy-gurdy on the boulevards of Paris around the beginning of the 19th century. Among these were street girls who roamed about singing obscene couplets to the accompaniment of the hurdy-gurdy and sought to lure passers-by with the sharp sound of their instrument and by the character of the texts [fn].
Otherwise the theatrical pieces about 'Fanchon' had such great success that even outside the theatre a whole series of pieces for the hurdy-gurdy arose which for years secured for the instrument the attention of a greater segment of the public [fn]. The new hurdy-gurdy pieces, influenced by the Fanchon literature, belonged to the repertoire of the hurdy-gurdy players who lived in the cities as street and cafe musicians; little else is known about their music. Their repertoire however certainly did not originate from the folk music of the provinces. There the hurdy-gurdy was used especially as a dance instrument. In the hands of city players on the other hand it had only very little significance as a dance instrument. It was rather primarily used as