Edouard Deldevez (May 31, 1817 - November 6, 1897)

Also known as Ernest or Ernst Deldevez, his full name was Edouard-Marie-Ernest Dendevez. He was born and died in Paris, France. He won many prizes as a violinist. He became part of a group of musicians centred on Jean Francois Sudre (1787 - 1864). They were attempting to develop a way an transmitting language through music. Sudre trained Deldevez and Charles Lasonneur to play and interpret his alphabet. A given note would represent a word or a letter of the alphabet. The trio troured France, answering questions from the audience using Sudre's violin. A military application quickly presented itself. A bugler on a battlefield could transmit orders to a regiment by playing an appropriate tune. This promising hypothesis came to nothing because the system was too vulnerable to wind and weather.

Clearly grasping at straws, Sudre then offered the military a set of musical cannons, but they declined the suggestion. In 1829 Sudre began to develop the system that is now known as the Do Re Mi method of notating music. In 1867 Deldevez published "Notation de la musique classique" . He wrote many other books and was awarded the Legion d'Honneur in 1874.

Today Deldevez is best known for writing the ballet "Paquita" (1846), originally in two acts. In 1881 Marius Petipa requested another act, this time written by Ludwig Minkus (b 1826). The life of Minkus is so poorly documented that he might have died any time between 1890 and 1917. The third act is now performed far more often than the first two, with the result that many people do not realise that Deldevez wrote "Paquita", not Minkus.