How did the Paris Conservatory use fugue as a tool for teaching composition?

At the Paris Conservatory, the fugue was utilized as a primary instrument of pedagogy to teach composition through the establishment of a specialized and strictly regulated style known as the fugue d’école ("school fugue").1

This academic approach to teaching composition began with Luigi Cherubini, who served as the director of the Conservatory and authored the influential treatise Cours de contrepoint et de fugue (1835). The fugue d’école method was subsequently maintained and developed by later instructors, including Théodore Dubois and André Gédalge. This rigorous, systematic training in contrapuntal technique became a hallmark of the institution's curriculum and has continued to influence the teaching of musical composition into the 21st century.12