In 1885 d'Indy was appointed joint secretary of the society. His ambition was to open up the society to non-French music and musicians. As a protégé of Franck he worked with his former teacher to establish a faction for change in the society. In 1886 he achieved his aims and Saint-Saëns and Bussine resigned. The first foreign composer whose work the society presented was Edvard Grieg. Franck refused the official title of president of the society, but when he died in 1890 d'Indy took the post. Under him, the new generation of French composers found the society increasingly conservative and less helpful to composers who did not follow the dogmatic compositional precepts taught by d'Indy at his music school, the Schola Cantorum de Paris.Duchesneau (2020), p. 6Latham, Alison (ed) "Schola Cantorum", The Oxford Companion to Music, Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 13 May 2021
