LIFE AND EDUCATION OF YOUNG SINGERS IN FRENCH MAITRISES OF THE XVII-XVIII CENTURIES

France of the Golden Age is considered as the most important and powerful monarchy of Europe that disseminated its cultural traditions in the neighboring countries; their echoes are also in Eastern Europe. Its music and musicians were tended to be imitated in England and Germany, in Bohemia and even Italy where the French instrumentalists had a proper greeting. Meanwhile only two institutions trained professional musicians right up to the revolution of 1789: these were professional corporations and church schools, so called Maitrises in which boys learnt to sing and participate in the divine services. The article is devoted to everyday life of the young musicians in the XVII-XVIII centuries in French Maitrises, which reached their prosperity in the era of Louis XIV and did not loose the high professional status during the next period. The choristers, who had left those schools, formed the important cultural group of the epoch and disseminated the aesthetic views in the third estate. The article contains the information on traditions of church schools, teachers, admission conditions, education, training of children-choristers; it also reveals some details of their life. The publishing material includes historical sources, documentary facts, references of the basic literature on the studied theme.