From Renaissance to Baroque: Change in Instruments and Instrumental Music in the Seventeenth Century [1 ed.] 0754604039, 9780754604037

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FROM RENAISSANCE TO BAROQUE

From Renaissance to Baroque Change in Instruments and Instrumental Music in the Seventeenth Century Proceedings of the National Early Music Association Conference held, in asscoiation with the Department of Music, University of York and the York Early Music Festival, at the University College of Ripon and York StJohn, York, 2-4 July 1999

Edited by

JONATHAN WAINWRIGHT University of York, UK PETER HOLMAN University of Leeds, UK

I~ ~~o~;~;n~~:up LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2005 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an iriforma business Copyright ©Jonathan Wainwright and Peter Holman 2005 Jonathan Wainwright and Peter Holman has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data National Early Music Association. Conference ( 1999 : University College of Ripon and York StJohn) From Renaissance to baroque : change in instruments and instrumental music in the seventeenth century: proceedings of the National Early Music Association Conference held, in association with the Department of Music, University of York and the York Early Music Festival, at the University College of Ripon and York StJohn. 2-4 July 1999 I. Musical instruments- History- 17th century- Congresses 2. Instrumental music17th century- History and criticism- Congresses I. Title 11. Wainwright, Jonathan Ill. Holman, Peter, 1946-- IV. University of York. Department of Music V. York Early Music Festival 784.1 '922'09032 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data National Early Music Association Conference. From Renaissance to baroque :change in instruments and instrumental music in the seventeenth century: proceedings of the National Early Music Association Conference held in association with the Department of Music, University of York and the York Early Music Festival, at the University College of Ripon and York StJohn. York, 2-4 July 1999 I edited by Jonathan Wainwright and Peter Holman. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 97R-0-7546-0403-7 (alk. paper) I. Musical instruments~ 17th century~History-Congresses. 2. Instrumental music~ 17th century~ History and criticism-Congresses. 1. Wainwright, Jonathan. II. Holman, Peter. 1946- 111. University of York. Dept. of Music. IV. York Musical Festival. V. Title. ML467.N 182004 784'.09'032~dc22

2004018342

ISBN 13:978-0-7546-0403-7 (hbk)

Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this book but points out that some imperfections from the original may be apparent.

Contents Preface Acknowledgements List ofIllustrations List of Tables and Figure List ofMusical Examples Notes on the Contributors

Vll

lX X

XlV XV

xvu

Introduction: From 'Renaissance' to 'Baroque'? Jonathan P. Wainwright 1

Baptiste's Hautbois: The Metamorphosis from Shawm to Hautboy in France, 1620-1670 Bruce Haynes

23

A Commentary on the Letter by Michel de La Barre Concerning the History of Musettes and Hautboys Marc Ecochard

47

3

The Woodwind Instruments of Richard Haka ( 1645/6-1705) Jan Bouterse

63

4

Bassta1s or Curtoons: The Search for a Transitional Fagott Graham Lyndon-Jones

73

5

The Iconographic Background to the Seventeenth-Century Recorder Anthony Rowland-Jones

87

2

6

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century Nancy Hadden

113

7

The Flute at Dresden: Ramifications for Eighteenth-Century Woodwind Performance in Germany Mary 0/eskiewicz

145

How did Seventeenth-Century English Violins Really Sound? Peter Trevelyan

167

8

From Renaissance to Baroque

VI

9

The Development of French Lute Style 1600-1650 Matthew Spring

10 The Early Air de Cour, the Theorbo, and the Continuo Principle in France Jonathan LeCocq 11

From Stops Organical to Stops of Variety: The English Organ from 1630 to 1730 Dominic G1rynn

173

191

211

12

Upgrading from Consorts to Orchestra at the Wiirttemberg Court Samantha Owens 227

13

From Violin Band to Orchestra Peter Holman

14 Organological Gruyere Jeremy Montagu

241 259

Workshop Reports

2

J.S. Bach's Actus tragicus: 'Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit' (BWV 106) Andrew Parrott

269

The French Baroque Orchestra: Lully, Charpentier, Couperin Graham Sadler

271

Bibliography Index

275 305

Preface The essays in this volume are reworkings of papers presented at the National Early Music Association conference held, in association with the Department of Music, University of York and the York Early Music Festival, at the University College of Ripon and York St John, in York on 2-4 July, 1999- together with two short reports on performance workshops that took place during the conference. That the volume has had a gestation period of five years is an embarrassment to the editors (both of whom use the well-used but valid excuse of the pressures of combining academic and performing careers), and it is therefore necessary to thank the contributors (particularly those who supplied their essays promptly and dealt with our editorial queries efficiently) and the publisher for keeping faith with the project. We are, however, confident that the volume is worth the wait! Historians of instruments and instrumental music have long recognized that there was a period of profound change in the seventeenth century, when the consorts or families of instruments developed during the Renaissance were replaced by the new models of the Baroque period. Yet the process is still poorly understood, in part because each instrument has traditionally been considered in isolation, and changes in design have rarely been related to changes in the way instruments were used, or what they played. The aim of the National Early Music Association conference was to bring specialists in particular instruments together with those interested in such topics as the early history of the orchestra, iconography, pitch and continuo practice. The conference, however, was not just attended by instrument makers and academics who had an interest in achieving a better understanding of the process, for the conference raised questions that any historically-aware performer ought to be asking about the performance of Baroque music. What sorts of instruments should be used? At what pitch? In which temperament? In what numbers and/or combinations? For this reason performers attended the conference and workshops, demonstrations and concerts were all part of the programme. The essays in this book - although wide-ranging in scope - cannot, of course, hope to be all-inclusive. It was not possible, for example, to cover every instrument and the nature of such conferences is that as many questions are raised as answered. Inevitably there are some small duplications between chapters: the editors have not attempted to remove these as the distinct approaches and occasional differences of opinion are considered valuable. There is no doubt, however, that the bringing together

viii

From Renaissance to Baroque

of instrument makers, performers and academics at the York conference has led to an important new perspective on the fascinating period of change from Renaissance to Baroque. Jonathan Wainwright Peter Holman

Pitch notation

The system used is a version of Helmholtz's: middle C is c', with octaves above as c", c"', etc. and octaves below as c, C, C', C", etc. Octaves are reckoned from C upwards. Italic type is used for specific pitches.

Acknowledgements The editors and the authors acknowledge with gratitude the help and cooperation of various bodies and individuals in the course of preparing this volume: Andrew Jones for preparing the musical examples. Andreas Wiese for permission to reproduce his photograph as Illustration 11.2. Martin Goetze for permission to reproduce his drawing as Illustration 11. I. Tom Haartsen for permission to reproduce his photograph as Illustration 5.6. The Musee des Beaux Arts, Lyon for permission to reproduce Illustration 5.9. The Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris for permission to reproduce Illustration 10.2. The Musee National du Chateau de Versailles for permission to reproduce Illustration 1.7. The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel for permission to reproduce Illustration 5.1. The Staatl. Museum, Schwerin for permission to reproduce Illustration 1.8. The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam for permission to reproduce Illustration 5.4. The Noortman Gallery, Maastricht and London for permission to reproduce Illustration 5.5. Gemeente Musea Delft, collection Stedelijk, Museum Het Prinsenhof for permission to reproduce Illustration 5.6. The Palazzo Pitti, Florence for permission to reproduce Illustrations 1.4 and 1.5. The Museo Borgogna, Vercelli for permission to reproduce Illustration 5.3. The Bodleian Library, Oxford for permission to reproduce Illustration 10.3. The Trustees of the National Gallery for permission to reproduce Illustrations 5.2 and 5.1 0. The Music Department at the University of York for a grant towards the music setting. Oxford University Press for permission to use tables and examples in Chapter 9 that first appeared in M. Spring, The Lute in Britain (OUP, 2001).

List of Illustrations 1.1

Michael Praetorius, Syntagma musicum (Wolfenbiittel, 1620), Plate 11 : shawms.

39

1.2

[Thomas] Blanchet: etching opposite title page to Pierre Borjon de Scellery, Traite de Ia musette, avec une nouvelle methode (Lyon, 1672).

40

Marin Mersenne, Harmonicorum instrumentorum (Paris, 1635), p. 84 and Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636-7), p. 295: detail of treble shawm showing reed without pirouette.

41

Panel F from the border of the Gobelin tapestry 'L'air' (from the series Les Elemens, after Charles LeBrun, 1664); 1669-c.1680. Palazzo Pitti, Florence (formerly Palazzo Pubblico, Siena).

42

1.5

Gobelin tapestry 'L' Air', Panel H.

43

1.6

Schematic drawing by Marc Ecochard of long-belled and short-belled protomorphic hautboys, based on the borders of the Gobelin tapestries.

44

Charles Le Brun: detail from cartoon (preparatory painting) for the Gobelin tapestry Les mois: avril ou le Chateau de Versailles, 1668-80. Musee National du Chateau de Versailles.

45

1.8

Pieter Comelisz van Slingeland: detail from 'Violin Player', 1677. Oil, 23.5 x 19 em. Staatl. Museum, Schwerin.

46

2.1

Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636-7), p. 306: the hautbois and musette de Poitou family of instruments.

58

2.2

Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universe/le (Paris, 1636-7), p. 295: Dessus and taille de grand hautbois.

59

2.3

Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636-7), p. 283: the cornemuse or chalemie.

60

2.4

Grands hautbois in D, constructed by Marc Ecochard.

61

3.1

The maker's mark ofHaka.

70

1.3

1.4

1.7

List of Illustrations 3.2

XI

I Schematic drawing of a Deutsche schalmei by Haka. II Schematic drawing of the oboe/shawm by Haka

(Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, inventory number Ea 20-x-1952). III Schematic drawing and cross section of the ivory sopranino recorder by Haka in Potsdam.

71

3.3

Schematic drawing of the traverso by Haka in the Ehrenfeld collection in Utrecht.

72

4.1

An instrument maker (possibly Denner) in his workshop: J.C. Weigel, copper engraving from Abbildung der GemeinNutzlichen Haupt-Stande (Regensburg, 1698).

78

4.2

Wing-joint of Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna no. 190.

79

4.3

Phillippe Galle, detail from Encomium musices (Antwerp, [c.1590]).

80

4.4

Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636-7), Proposition xxxii: Easson.

81

4.5

Nicolas de L 'Armessin, 'Habit de Musicien', Jardin des habits et metiers (late seventeenth century).

82

4.6

Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636--7), Proposition xxxii: two types of Fagot (a type of tenor curtal).

83

4.7

Tenors by Jacob Kraus (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, nos.120and 121).

84

4.8

Tenors by Jacob Kraus (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, nos. 120 and 121): detail.

85

4.9

From curta! to bassoon: I Curtal by Graham Lyndon-Jones. II Three-piece curtal based on Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna no. 190 by Graham Lyndon-Jones. III Gedackt curtal by Graham Lyndon-Jones, after J. Denner. IV Mersenne basson by Graham Lyndon-Jones. V Early Baroque bassoon by Barbara Stanley, after J.C. Denner, St. Petersburg.

86

5.1

Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629): Shepherd Flute Player ( 1621 ), Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel.

102

5.2

Johann Carl Loth (also known as Carlo Lotti) (1632-98): Mercury and Argus (c.1655-60), The National Gallery, London.

103

xii

From Renaissance to Baroque

5.3

Follower of Giorgione: Two Flute-Players, Museo Borgogna, Vercelli.

104

5.4

Govert Flinck (1615-60): Rembrandt as a Shepherd, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

105

5.5

Dir(c)k Hals (1591-1656): Merry Company (1625), Noortman Gallery, Maastricht and London.

106

5.6

Hendrick Cornelisz van der Vliet (1611/12-75): Portrait of the Vander Dussen Family (1640), Gemeente Musea Delft, collection Stedelijk, Museum Het Prinsenhof.

107

5.7

Pieter de Hooch (1629-84): The Duet (detail) (c.l680), private collection.

108

5.8

Pieter de Hooch (1629-84): A Woman with a Lute and a Man with a Flute (c.l680), private collection.

109

5.9

Simon Renard de StAndre (c.l613-77): Vanitas, Musee des Beaux Arts, Lyon.

110

5.10 Rembrandt (1606-69): Belshazzar's Feast (c.l635), The National Gallery, London.

Ill

6.1

Aurelio Virgiliano, 'II Dolcimelo': fingering chart for 'traversa'. 141

6.2

Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636-7), p. 241: 'Fluste d 'Allemand'. 142

6.3

Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636-7), pp. 313-14: fingering charts for g and d', 'fluste d'Allemand', and ford', 'fifre'.

143

10.1 Antoine Boesset, 'Mourons Tirsis', VII. Livre d'airs de cour a quatre et cinq parties (Paris, 1630), Basse-contre, f. 20v.

208

10.2 Pierre Guedron, 'Que n'estes vous', Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS Fr 9543, p. 128.

209

10.3 Charles Tessier, 'Non vous n'estes pas yeux', Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Mus. Sch. 0.237, f. 14v. 210 11.1 The Robert Dallam organ built for the chapel of Magdalen College, Oxford (c.1630): the Great now at Tewkesbury Abbey and the Chair at Stanford-on-Avon, Leicestershire, drawn as they would have been originally by Martin Goetze. 222 11.2 The Thomas Griffin organ made for St Helen Bishopsgate in the City of London ( 1743), restored to its original position in 1996.

223

List of Illustrations

xm

11.3 The consort organ made for Nicholas Le Strange at Hunstanton Hall in Norfolk (1630), now at St Luke's Smithfield, Virginia. 224 11.4 The chamber organ (c.1740) moved to Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire in 1756, with a case based on a design by Robert Adam.

225

List of Tables and Figure Tables

7.1

Musical Organizations of the Dresden Court.

149

7.2

The Bande Hautboisten (c.1696 to c.1707).

151

7.3

Summary ofP1ayers Denoted Flauteniste or Flutti, but not Flute Allemand.

151

7.4

Alphabetical Summary of Flautists- Titles and Pay to c.1741.

153

7.5

The Pohlnische Kapelle (Kleine Kammermusik).

154

7.6

The Orchestra and Musicians of the Bande Comoedianten (1709).

159

7.7

Salaries of Woodwind Players in the Orchestra, 1709.

161

7.8

Cammermusici (1718).

161

9.1

Principal Dutch and German Anthologies 1584-1625.

175

9.2

French Lute Publications

176

9.3

Cordes ava/ees and transitional tunings.

160~0.

12.1 T. SchwartzkopffandJ.G.C. Storl, Table Music 1717.

185 233

Figure

4.1

Curtal and bassoon bores compared.

77

List of Musical Examples 6.1

Aurelio Virgiliano, '11 Dolcimelo': Ricercare 6, 'right hand down' fingering patterns.

118

6.2

Aurelio Virgiliano, Ricercare 6: 'battaglia' passages.

123

6.3

Thoinot Arbeau, Orchesographie (Langres, 1588), pp. 44-6: passages from 'Tabulation for playing the fife in triple time'.

124

6.4

Passages from 'The flute and the droom' (section from The Battle) attributed to William Byrd.

125

6.5

Michael Praetorius, Syntagma musicum, val. 3 (1618, 2/1619), p. 156: clefs and modes for 'traversa or fiffari'.

126

6.6.

Tobias Michael, 'Wie lieblich sind auffden Bergen', bars 1-26. 132

6.7

Pierre Guedron, 'Su su Ia bergere', arr. by Marin Mersenne (Harmonie universelle, Paris, 1636-7, p. 244) for 'flustes d'Ailemande' (text added from the vocal setting).

137

Michel de La Barre, Pieces pour Ia flute traversiere avec Ia basse continue (Paris, 1702): 'La Therese' from Suite II, gavotte and double (plain and ornamented version shown together).

140

6.8

9.1

Comparison of the opening ofFrancisque's 'Galliarde faicte sur une volte de seu Perrichon' (Tresor, f. 13v, bars 1-12), and Van den Hove's 'Galiarda' based on John Dowland's 'Can She 179 Excuse' (Florida, f. 99, bars 1-11).

9.2

Nicolas Vallet, 'La Moresque': Le secret des muses: premier livre, no. 75, p. 84, bars 1-7.

181

9.3

John Dowland, Coranto: The Board Manuscript, f. 30, bars 1-20.

183

10.1 Pierre Guedron, 'He pourquoy?': a) Gabriel Bataille (ed.), Airs de differents autheurs, mis en tablature de luth (Paris, 1608), f. 22v; b) Pierre Guedron, Airs de cour aquatre & cinq parties (Paris, 1608), f. 46.

196

XVI

From Renaissance to Baroque

I 0.2 Pierre Guedron, 'Si jamais': a) Gabriel Bataille (ed.), Airs de differents autheurs, mis en tablature de luth ... Troisieme livre (Paris, 1611), f. 45v; b) Jean-Baptiste Besard (ed.), Thesaurus harmonicus (Cologne, 1603), f. 72v; c) Pierre Guedron, Airs de cour(t) (Paris, 1602 and 1608). 198 10.3 Charles Tessier, 'Non vous n'estes pas yeux': a) Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Mus. Sch. 0.237, f. 14v; b) Le premier livre de chansons et airs de court (London, 1597).

202

Notes on the Contributors Jan Bouterse completed his dissertation about Dutch woodwind instruments in January 2001; he collaborated with Rob van Acht on the catalogues of Dutch recorders (1991 ), double reed instruments (1997) and traversos and clarinets (forthcoming) of the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague (Netherlands). Jan Bouterse is a member of the Fellowship of Makers and Researchers of Historical Instruments and has written several articles for the FoMRHI Quarterly. Marc Ecochard is a hautboy player, musicologist and woodwind maker. As a musicologist, he has studied the oboes in Mersenne's Harmonie universelle and organized a conference on this subject at the International Early Double-Reed Symposium at Utrecht in 1994. He wrote the article 'Fingering' for the new edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and is working on the organological evolution of the oboe - in particular, the appearance of Baroque woodwinds in France in the midseventeenth century. As a woodwind maker, he has since 1984 made copies of various original hautboys. He specialized in the making of French lowpitch hautboys and recently made a reconstruction of an early hautboy depicted in French iconography of the 1660s. Dominic Gwynn is a professional organbuilder, making and restoring organs in partnership with Martin Goetze. He has published articles on the history of British organbuilding, and is currently engaged in research on the early English organ as a Leverhulme Fellow. Nancy Hadden, the Renaissance and Baroque flautist, began playing the flute at the age of six in Columbus, Ohio. In 1978 she moved to London after postgraduate studies in early music, joining the Julian Bream Consort in 1983 as Renaissance flautist. She directs Circa 1500, is a member of the Harp Consort and performs in regular partnership with gambist Erin Headley, harpsichordist Lucy Carolan and theorbist Lucas Harris. Her award-winning recordings span the centuries, from Sermisy chansons to Mozart flute quartets. Nancy Hadden teaches at the Guildhall School of Music in London. She is currently researching the Renaissance flute for a Ph.D. at Leeds University.

XVlll

From Renaissance to Baroque

Bruce Haynes began playing and making hautboys in the 1960s. In 1972, as an instructor in recorder at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, he introduced the hautboy as a regular subject in the Dutch curriculum. He has made numerous recordings, and has published some 40 articles on various aspects of the history of the oboe and on historical pitch standards (the latter was the subject of his Ph.D.) He recently finished two books, both for Oxford University Press, and he is currently at work on another for Yale University Press. Peter Holman has taught at many conservatories, universities, and summer schools in Britain, Europe and the USA, and is now Reader in Musicology at Leeds University. His interests include the early history of the violin family, instrumental ensemble music of the Renaissance and Baroque, and English music from about 1550 to 1850. He is the author of the prizewinning book Four and Twenty Fiddlers: The Violin at the English Court 1540-1690 (Oxford, 1993; 2/1995), a much-praised study of Purcell (Oxford, 1994), and a book in the Cambridge Music Handbook series on Dowland's Lachrimae (Cambridge, 1999). He is working at present on a study of the viola da gamba in eighteenth-century Britain. Jonathan Le Cocq is senior lecturer in music at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. He has researched and published on French music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and current issues in the philosophy and economics of music. He has been, amongst other things, cultural affairs correspondent for the journal Economic Affairs, and editor of the early music journal The Consort. He is active as a performer on lute and theorbo. Graham Lyndon-Jones started making historical instruments in 196 7, and established his St Albans workshop with Barbara Stanley five years later. He taught in the Musical Instrument Technology department in what is now the London Metropolitan University, and at the Breiteneich Summer School. He has visited all the major instrument collections, concentrating on measuring curtals and Renaissance flutes, but also anything else that seemed interesting at the time. Other activities include early dance, and other opportunities to dress up to play various instruments, including pipeand-tabor which, since 1962, has come in handy for Morris dancing with the St Albans' Morris Men. Jeremy Montagu has been involved in early music since the early 1950s, directing concerts with his own string orchestra as 'authentically' as was then practicable, playing with Musica Reservata and as a member of the Galpin Society. He has written many books and articles, from the second number of Early Music to the most recent, and elsewhere. He wrote all the instrument articles for the Oxford Illustrated Encyclopaedia of the Arts and

Notes on the Contributors

XIX

the Latham edition of the Oxford Companion to Music. He was curator of the Bate Collection and lecturer in the Oxford University Faculty of Music, 1981-95. Mary Oleskiewicz teaches music history and musicology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and previously served as Curator of Musical Instruments at the National Music Museum (Vermillion SO). She has published numerous articles on the flute and flute music in Early Music, Galpin Society Journal, Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, Bach Perspectives and elsewhere. An active performer, together with her duo partner David Schulenberg, she holds first prize in the National Flute Association's Baroque Flute Artist Competition, and has recorded chamber music by Quantz for Naxos and Hungaraton. Samantha Owens is a Lecturer at the School of Music, University of Queensland, in Australia. She is currently writing a book, Music at a German Baroque Court: the Wurttemberg Hojkapelle I677-1744, based on documentary evidence uncovered in the Stuttgart State Archives. Andrew Parrott is perhaps best known for his pioneering recordings of pre-classical repertory with the Taverner Consort, Choir and Players, which he founded in 1973. His appointments as Musical Director and Principal Conductor of both the London Mozart Players (2000) and the periodinstrument New York Collegium (2002) are witness to the breadth of his musical range, as are his numerous recordings which include Judith Weir's A Night at the Chinese Opera and music by John Tavener, Vladimir Godar and Arvo Part. He is co-editor of the New Oxford Book of Carols (1992) and author of The Essential Bach Choir (2000; Ger. trans., 2002). Anthony Rowland-Jones is an Honorary Fellow of Anglia Polytechnic University, Cambridge, where he retired from a career in university administration in 1984 (he was the first Registrar of the University of Essex). His publications include Recorder Technique (1959, rev. edn. 1986), and Playing Recorder Sonatas: Interpretation and Technique ( 1992) (both Oxford), and he was assistant editor and main contributor, including all iconographic material, for The Cambridge Companion to the Recorder (ed. J.M. Thomson, 1995). Since 1996 he has published some twenty articles on recorder iconography, and spoken at international conferences in Cambridge and Stockholm. Graham Sadler, Reader in Musicology at the University of Hull, has written numerous articles on the French Baroque and has edited music by Bouzignac, Charpentier, Brossard, Campra, Leclair and Rameau. He is coauthor of The New Grove French Baroque Masters ( 1986) and French Baroque Opera: a Reader (2000). His reconstruction of the original version

XX

From Renaissance to Baroque

of Rameau's Zoroastre (1749) was published in 2001 as part of the new Rameau Opera Omnia (Paris, Billaudot). Matthew Spring read music and history at Keele University and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he completed his D.Phil. on the Lute. He went on to study at the Royal College of Music and now follows parallel careers as performer and musicologist. Dr Spring is a senior lecturer at Bath Spa University College. Formerly he taught at London Guildhall University, where he held a Leverhulme Research Fellowship, and at Birmingham University. He is an expert on early instruments and is regularly invited to contribute articles to music journals and books. His History of the Lute in Britain was published by OUP in 2001, and his edition of the Balcarres Manuscript was published in 2003. He performs with a number of Early Music ensembles and has made a large number of recordings. Peter Trevelyan's serendipitous acquisition of the viola by William Baker inspired him to find out for himself about the maker by looking at original source material. He has also tracked down, and ultimately acquired, the five known surviving instruments, and arranged for their restoration. Discussions with interested and like-minded performers resulted in the formation of The Baker Collection, an ensemble to play the instruments. Jonathan P. Wainwright is Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of York. He has written extensively on early Baroque English and Italian music and his book Musical Patronage in Seventeenth-Century England was published by Ashgate in 1997. Dr Wainwright is editor of the Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle and is also active as a performer. From 1996 to 200 I he was Assistant Choir Trainer at York Minster where he directed the Girl Choristers. His recent recordings include 'Queen of Heavenly Virtue - Sacred Music for Queen Henrietta Maria', and Percy Whitlock's Organ Symphony and Francis Jackson's Concerto for Organ, Strings, Timpani and Celeste Op. 64. He has performed a number of times in Warsaw as guest conductor of the Polish choir Sine Nomine and the Baroque orchestra Concerto Polacca.

Introduction

From 'Renaissance' to 'Baroque'? Jonathan P. Wainwrighe

What do we mean by 'Renaissance' and 'Baroque'? Do these terms still have any relevance? Do the terms mean the same thing in organological study as they do in historiographical and musical-style study? My intention here is to present a few thoughts on the traditional construction of history relating to the late-sixteenth and early- to mid-seventeenth centuries and the change from the 'Renaissance' to the 'Baroque'. Period terms such as 'Renaissance' and 'Baroque' are part of 'a construction that is surely an artefact of writing music history, not a given about the historical world.' 2 We should also remember that, as definitions of historical periods, the terms are relatively recent additions to the musicologists' vocabulary: 'Renaissance' gained currency after August Wilhelm Ambros entitled the third volume of his history of music Geschichte der Musik im Zeitalter der Renaissance bis zu Palestrina (Breslau and Leipzig, 1868),3 and 'Baroque' perhaps not until 1919 when Curt Sachs applied the style principles of Heinrich Wolfflin's classic architectural study, Renaissance und Barock, to music. 4 'Baroque' had, however, been used in music criticism from as early as 1734: an anonymous writer described Rameau's opera Hippolyte et Aricie as 'du

2

4

I am grateful to Peter Holman and David Griffiths for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of this essay. L. Treitler, 'The Historiography of Music', inN. Cook and M. Everist (eds.), Rethinking Music (Oxford and New York, 1999), p. 359. Much could, of course, be written on the concept of the Renaissance as a period, but this is beyond the scope of my essay. Suffice to say that the term and concept of 'Renaissance' have, like 'Baroque', recently been subjected to critical appraisal. See, in particular, J.A. Owens, 'Music Historiography and the Definition of "Renaissance'", Notes, vol. 47 (1990-1), pp. 305-30 (p. 330: 'The decision to see the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as a unified period may well prove to have been the result of a historiographical accident'); and A. Kirkman, 'The Invention of the Cyclic Mass', Journal of the American Musicological Society, vol. 54 (200 I), pp. 1-4 7 (pp. 31--6, 'Ambros and the Question of a Musical "Renaissance"', in particular). C. Sachs, 'Barockmusik', Jahrbuch der Musikbibliothek Peters (1919), pp. 7-15; H. Wolffiin, Renaissance und Barock: eine Untersuchung uber Wesen und Entstehung des Barockstils in ltalien (Munich, 1888; Eng. trans. by K. Simon, London, 1964). See G. Stanley, 'Historiography, §3(iv): Since cl750: Periodization', in New Grove 2, vol. II, pp. 552-5, and C.V. Palisca, 'Baroque, §1: Etymology and Early Usage', in ibid., vol. 2, pp. 749-51.

2

From Renaissance to Baroque

barocque' and incoherent. 5 The term 'Baroque' probably stems from the French baroque which in tum derived from the Portuguese barroco, a word that refers to pearls that are irregular in shape and inferior in quality. The first hint of this etymology came in the writings of the French philosopher Noel-Antoine Pluche who, in 1746, used the word pejoratively to describe the violin playing of Jean-Pierre Guignon. 6 For P1uche, 'Musigue baroque' was characterized by its boldness of sound and empty agility, 7 and in 1768 Jean-Jacques Rousseau defined Baroque music as 'rough music ... whose harmony is confused, filled with modulations and dissonances, its notes hard and unnatural, the intonation difficult, and the movement constrained. ' 8 The term was also used in a derogatory sense in other disciplines, particularly in fine arts in reference to the architecture of midseventeenth-century Rome and its derivatives. When first used by literary critics and art critics of the eighteenth century, the term implied that seventeenth-century culture was somehow a debasement of Renaissance ideals. Since then the term has transmogrified in usage and is now used across disciplines not only as a stylistic but also as a periodic concept, even if the chronological limits and the definition of the term tend to differ from discipline to discipline. 9 Only in the late nineteenth century did the term 'Baroque' cease to be used in the pejorative sense of bizarre, irregular or extravagant. So, in musical terms, what does 'Baroque' actually mean? Is the term anything more than a convenient label for a vaguely defined chronological period (traditionally c.l600-1750)? Today music historians generally agree that, with the possible exception of the ever-present basso continuo, stylistic unifying features do not exist across the time-span but that, in the words of Claude Palisca, the period is 'unified and delimited more by an expressive ideal than by a consistent body of musical techniques.' 10 Palisca

6

7 8

9

10

Anon., 'Lettre de M*** a Mile*** sur J'origine de Ia musique', in Mercure de France (May 1734), pp. 868-70, following the premiere ofRameau's opera in Paris in October 1733; cited in Palisca, 'Baroque,§ 1', p. 749. Guignon is described as being able to 'wrest laboriously from the bottom of the sea some baroque pearls, when diamonds can be found on the surface of the earth'; N.-A. Pluche, Spectacle de Ia nature, vol. 7 (Paris, 1770), p. 103; cited in Palisca, 'Baroque, §1 ', p. 749. Pluche, Spectacle de Ia nature, vol. 7, p. 129; cited in Palisca, ibid. J.-J. Rousseau, 'Baroque', Dictionnaire de musique (Paris, 1768), p. 41; the translation is from A Complete Dictionary of Music ... Translated from the Original French of J.J. Rousseau. By William Waring (2nd edn., London, 1779), p. 30. For an examination of the term 'Baroque' in general historiographical terms, see E. Cochrane, 'The Transition from Renaissance to Baroque: The Case of Italian Historiography', History and Theory, vol. 19 (1980), pp. 21-38. It should also be noted that art historians have adopted a separate style period, 'Mannerism', to separate the High Renaissance from the Baroque. Musicologists have, generally, not been keen to adopt the term - the exception being R.M. Maniates, Mannen·sm in Italian Music and Culture, 1530---1630 (Manchester, 1979). See T. Carter, 'Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque?', in idem, Music in Late Renaissance & Early Baroque Italy (London, 1992), pp. 9-22. C.V. Palisca, Baroque Music (2ndedn., Englewood Cliffs, 1981), p. 6.

Introduction

3

is referring, of course, to the 'doctrine of the affections' (Ajfektenlehre), an aesthetic concept originally derived from Greek and Latin principles of rhetoric and oratory. Traditional style-based music history has tended to look to the 'innovations' that apparently took place in Italy around the year 1600 for the beginnings of the musical 'Baroque'. In order to attempt an evaluation of the term 'Baroque' in a musical context it is worth taking a critical look at these so-called 'innovations'. The 'new music' of the 'Baroque' is usually exemplified in music history by Caccini's Le nuove musiche ( 160 l/2), II but this collection is increasingly regarded not as something completely new and 'epoch-making' 12 but rather as a printed 'validation of practices that were cultivated br: amateurs and professionals throughout much of the sixteenth century'. 3 In light of the claims of novelty and invention that Caccini himself made in the famous preface, 14 it is easy to see why the publication was afforded such an important historical position and came to be regarded as a seminal source for the origins of some of the most important characteristics of 'Baroque' music. However, we should remember that such songs were actually nothing new for the published versions of frottolas, madrigals by Verdelot, and canzonettas of the 1580s and early 1590s all allowed for performance by solo voice with instrumental accompaniment. 15 Studies by Claude Palisca, Howard Mayer Brown, John Walter Hill and Tim Carter have, over the years, established a more realistic history of Florentine monody and have demonstrated that Caccini 's monodies were indebted to the sixteenth-century vi/lane /Ia, canzonetta and napolitana repertories as well as the long-standing tradition of arranging polyphonic madrigals for voice and lute. 16 Moreover, it should II

12 13

14

15 16

G. Caccini, Le nuove musiche (Florence, 1601 [1602]; facs.: New York, 1973 and Florence, 1983; modem edn.: H.W. Hitchcock (ed.), Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, vol. 9, Madison, 1970). As described by Oliver Strunk in his Source Readings in Music History (New York, 1950), p. 370. V.A. Coelho, 'The Players of Florentine Monody in Context and in History, and a Newly Recognized Source for Le nuove musiche', Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, vol. 9, no. I (2003) , abstract. For an annotated translation of the preface, see G. Caccini, Le nuove musiche, Hitchcock (ed.), pp. 43-56. See H.M. Brown, Instrumental Music Printed Before 1600: a Bibliography (Cambridge MA, 1965) for prints of polyphonic music arranged for solo voices and lute. C. Palisca, The Florentine Camerata: Documentary Studies and Translations (New Haven, 1989); idem, 'Vincenzo Galilei and Some Links Between Pseudo-Monody and Monody', Musical Quarterly, vol. 46 (1960), pp. 344--60; H.M. Brown, 'The Geography of Florentine Monody: Caccini at Home and Abroad', Early Music, vol. 9 (1981), pp. 147-68; J.W. Hill, 'Realized Continuo Accompaniments from Florence ca. 1600', Early Music, vol. 11 ( 1983 ), pp. 194-208; idem, Roman Monody, Cantata, and Opera from the Circles around Cardinal Montalto, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1997); T. Carter, 'On the Composition and Performance of Caccini's Le nuove musiche (1602)', Early Music, vol. 12 (1984), pp. 208-17; and idem, 'Giulio Caccini (1551-1618): New Facts, New Music', Studi musicali, vol. 16 (1987), pp. 13-31.

4

From Renaissance to Baroque

always be remembered that Caccini himself admitted that some of his songs had been composed as early as the mid-1580s. This all rather unsettles the traditional view - perhaps based on an over-reliance on print culture? - that P,Ut Caccini' s Le nuove musiche ( 1601 /2) at the forefront of the 'new age' . 17 Thus recent scholarly attention to the repertories of accompanied song, pseudo-monody and monody have tended to concentrate on the study of manuscripts dating from the last twenty years of the sixteenth century in attempts at formulating a better perspective of the evolving history. 18 In traditional music historiography, the other important signifier of the beginnings of the 'Baroque' is the invention of opera. 19 This is dated to 1597-8 when the poet Ottavio Rinuccini collaborated with the composers Jacopo Corsi and Jacopo Peri on the Florentine carnival production of Dafne (the music is lost except for fragments). 20 Rinuccini was inspired by this first venture to produce a new libretto, L 'Euridice, for the wedding festivities of Maria de' Medici and Henri IV of France in October 1600. The music was composed by Peri but the story of Giulio Caccini's muscling-in on the work of his arch-rival is well known: in the October 1600 performance Caccini' s pupils sang his music rather than Peri's; the race was then on to published the scores, a contest won by Caccini although his opera was not performed complete until 5 December 1602. 21 The traditional chronology ignores the contribution of Emilio de' Cavalieri whose sacred (or moral) opera, Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo, was performed in Rome in February 1600 and published in September of that year. (Music histories do not quite know how to treat this work, for it falls between two stools, oratorio and opera, and thus does not fit into the cosy compartmentalized construct of modem historiography.) It should also be noted that the Peri/Caccini L 'Euridice was not the main theatrical event at the wedding of Henri IV and Maria de' Medici in October 1600: this was Gabriella Chiabrera's ll rapimento di Cefalo with music mainly by Caccini (lost except for the sections published in Le nuove musiche), which was sung throughout and has a dramatic thread - so, as much an opera as the other works mentioned. 22 Again traditional historical construction tends to rely all too strongly on printed sources and - with obvious reason - on works that survive complete. It should also be remembered that the 1600 Florentine entertainments were not a success with the audience who 17

18 19 20

21 22

Caccini's Le nuove musiche was not even the first published book of solo songs: this was Domenico Maria Melli's Musiche ... per cantare net chittarone. clavicembalo, & altri instromenti whose dedication is dated 26 March 1602, three months before Caccini's volume appeared. See, for example, Coelho, 'The Players of Florentine Monody'. I acknowledge that the term 'opera' is anachronistic at this period but use it (rather than favo/a in musica, etc.) for convenience and consistency. See W.V. Porter, 'Peri and Corsi's Dafne: Some New Discoveries and Observations', Journal ofthe American Musicological Society, vol. 18 (1965), pp. 170-96. Caccini's L 'Euridice was published two months before Peri's, in December 1600. See T. Carter, 'Rediscovering// rapimento di Cefalo', Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, vol. 9, no. 1 (2003) .

Introduction

5

denounced the new recitative as boring, 'like the chanting of the passion' !23 Tim Carter notes that the 'course of early opera's history did not run smooth', 24 and it cannot be without significance that the wedding of Prince Cosima de' Medici to Maria Magdalena of Austria in 1608 was celebrated with a traditional comedy with intermedi (Michelangelo Buonarroti's II giudizio di Paride) rather than an opera. 25 In fact, an anachronistic opera-centric approach to the history of stage music does not represent the true picture, for it ignores the fact that opera was actually only one - and not even the chief- musico-dramatic genre of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Alongside the new operas there still existed - in some cases, flourished - the genres from which early opera derived some of its features: tragedies, comedies, tragicomedies, pastorals, balli and intermedi. Furthermore, as Silke Leopold has suggested, it is possible to view the earliest operas as representatives of already-existing dramatic genres that just happen to have sung dialogue. 26 Indeed, it is perhaps only fair to think of opera in the modem sense after it 'went public' in 1637; Lorenzo Bianconi, in particular, sees the introduction of public commercial opera in Venice as the true beginnings of an operatic culture that is still with us today. 27 The concentration on opera and the Florentine 'new music', however, runs the risk of presenting a simplified picture. A neat categorization of styles is not actually possible. This is demonstrated in the mixture of old and new compositional techniques that were available to composers in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The obvious example here and one which gives the opportunity to move from secular to sacred music - is Monteverdi's show-piece publication of 1610, Sanctissimae Virgini Missa ... ac vesperae... cum nonnullis sacris concentibus, where he uses a plethora of styles from old-style polyphony (Missa in illo tempore), through hybrid pieces which mix the 'new' and the 'old' (the Vespers music- response and doxology, five psalms, hymn and two Magnificatswhich include falsobordone, plainsong cantus firmus, polyphony, instrumental ritomellos, double-choir writing, sections of florid solo singing, and duets and trios all over a basso continuo) to the new-style motets or concerti placed after the psalms. 28 Furthermore, numerous pieces 23

24 25 26

27 28

Cavalieri's comment, concerning II rapimento di Cefalo, to the grand-ducal secretary, Marcello Accolti, in a postscript to a letter (probably that of 24 November 1600): Florence, Archivio di Stato, Archivio Mediceo del Principato, Filza 3622, ff. 398r-399r; translated in C.V. Palisca, 'Musical Asides in the Diplomatic Correspondence of Emilio de' Cavalieri', in idem, Studies in the History of Italian Music and Music Theory (Oxford, 1994), pp. 403-4. T. Carter, Monteverdi's Musical Theatre (New Haven and London, 2002), p. 46. See T. Carter, 'A Florentine Wedding of 1608', Acta Musicologica, vol. 55 (1983), pp. 89-107. S. Leopold, 'Die Anfange von Oper und die Probleme der Gattung', Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, vol. 9, no. l (2003) . See L. Bianconi, Music in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 161-89. It should be borne in mind that the understandable status achieved by the '161 0 Vespers' as a concert 'master work' in recent times may disguise the fact that the

6

From Renaissance to Baroque

of the period survive in different formats which no doubt represent the performance possibilities of the time. For example, solo songs by Caccini and his contemporaries appear as four-part madrigals in Pietro Maria Marsolo' s //seconda libro de' madrigali a quattro voci (Venice, 1614) and Caccini's famous 'Amarilli, mia bella' was published as a six-part setting a year before it appeared in Le nuove musiche. 29 Perhaps the most famous example of a piece that survives in different arrangements is Monteverdi's Lamento d'Arianna. The lament first appeared in his operaArianna in 1608 in a version for solo voice possibly with a polyphonic accompaniment provided by a consort of strings; 30 this version does not survive, but a fivevoice arrangement appeared in 1614 in the composer's II sesto libra de madrigali a cinque voci, and the well-known solo voice and basso continuo version was published in Venice in 1623. We also find traditional a cappella madrigals arranged for two or three voices and basso continuo. For example, a scorebook copied by Angelo Notari contains Monteverdi's 'Ecco Silvio' and 'Ch'io t'ami' (all sections) from the fifth book of madrigals (1605) arranged (presumably by Notari) for two sopranos and basso continuo. 1 Another group of madrigals from the 1605 book 'T'amo mia vita', 'Ahi com'a un vago sol' and 'Cruda Amarilli'- appear in a fragmentary set of parts, again copied by Notari, but are here labelled 'A tre voci' - although lacking, the third voice was presumably an optional bass which doubled the basso continuo. 32 These arrangements are skilful reworkings of the original five-part madrigals which involved a certain amount of recomposition to ensure that the voice-leading was satisfactory and the harmonies were complete, although Notari's task was made easier by the fact that many of the five-voice madrigals in Monteverdi's fifth collection is, in many ways, untypical of early-seventeenth-century publications of sacred music. The music in the collection, however, demonstrates the point I wish to make. For full details of the publication and its context see, J. Whenham, Monteverdi: Vespers (1610) (Cambridge, 1997) and J. Kurtzman, The Monteverdi Vespers of 1610: Music, Context, Performance (Oxford and New York, 1999). Peter Holman has noted that the way the instrumental parts are laid out in the 1610 publication undermines the concept of the collection as a 'work': '"Col nobilissimo esercito della vivuola": Monteverdi's String Writing', Early Music, vol. 21 (1993), pp. 584-5. 29 Unattributed in Ghirlanda di madrigali a sei voci (Antwerp, 1601), f. 4 in all partbooks (the quinto partbook has not survived); see T. Carter, 'Giulio Caccini's Amarilli, mia bella: Some Questions (and a Few Answers)', Journal of the Royal Musical Association, vol. 113 (1988), pp. 250-73. 30 See G. Tomlinson, Monteverdi and the End of the Renaissance (Oxford, 1987), pp. 138-9. Peter Holman has challenged Tomlinson's translation of 'viole' as 'viols', and suggested that the role of the 'viole' may have been to provide punctuating ritomellos rather than a polyphonic accompaniment to the voice: "'Col nobilissimo esercito della vivuola"', p. 578. 31 London, British Library, Add. MS 31,440, ff. 53v-59r and ff. 60v--63r respectively; see J.P. Wainwright, Musical Patronage in Seventeenth-Century England: Christopher, First Baron Hatton (1605-70) (Aidershot and Brookfield VT, 1997}, pp. 191-4 and 244-51. 32 Oxford, Christ Church, Mus. 878 and 880; for full details see Wainwright, Musical Patronage, pp. 160-77 and 405-14.

Introduction

7

book of madrigals include trio sections within the five-voice texture. John Whenham cites various precedents for Notari's arrangements, and gives a number of examples where sixteenth-century madrigals or canzonettas were arranged as duets or trios. 33 For example, Emanuel Adriaenssen's Pratum musicum (Antwerp, 1584) contains arrangements of madrigals and chansons by Lassus, Striggio, Ferretti and others, for two or three vocal parts (usually cantus and bassus), each with an intabulation for one or more lutes. Whenham notes that a number of similar arrangements were published in Italy, such as the collections of lute intabulations by Giovanni Antonio Terzi published in Venice in 1593 and 1599,34 and suggests that Notari's arrangements are a seventeenth-century remnant of this practice. 35 In the traditional historiography, related to both the 'new music' and early opera, is another 'innovation' of the period, the basso continuo - a fundamental feature of 'Baroque' music. But, again, an over-reliance on 'print culture' runs the risk of painting a distorted picture. Traditionally attention is always drawn to Lodovico da Viadana's Cento concerti ecc/esiastici... con il basso continuo per sonar nell 'organo (Venice, 1602). It is certainly important as it is one of the first publications of sacred music to include a figured basso continuo part, and the general principles of realization that Viadana sets out in his preface were to remain valid for the rest of the 'Baroque' ,36 but the vocal style of the concerti belongs more to the sixteenth than the seventeenth century. If, in order to cover gaps in the texture, the organist fills out the accompaniment with imitative parts in simulation of voices (as was probably expected), the sound world becomes that of the 'Renaissance'. We should remember that the idea of unaccompanied polyphony in the late sixteenth century is something of a myth, for voices were usually accompanied by the organ - the organist playing from either an 'organ score' or an unfigured bass part - and it was not uncommon for the organ to replace some of the voices. The earliest printed source to contain an unfigured bass part is apparently Placido Falconi's Introitus et Alleluia ... cum quinque vocibus (Venice, 1575), but the practice is very likely to be older (see below). Such performance practice was no doubt often born as much from necessity as from an aesthetic judgement: the organ helped keep the singers in tune and also covered for weak or missing voices (incompetence is not the sole prerogative of the present and performance situations, then as now, were not always ideal!) 37 A perfect demonstration 33

J. Whenham, Duet and Dialogue in the Age of Monteverdi (Ann Arbor, 1982), vol. I, p. 7 1. G.A. Terzi, lntavolatura di liutto, accomodata con diversi passagi per suonar in concerti a duoi liutti, et solo, libro primo (Venice, 1593); and idem, II secondo libro de intavolatura di liuto (Venice, 1599). 35 Whenham, Duet and Dialogue, vol. I, p. 72. 36 For a translation of the preface see 0. Strunk (ed.), Source Readings in Music History, rev. edn., ed. L. Treitler (New York and London, 1998), pp. 617-21. 37 In light of the delay between practice and print, Graham Dixon makes the point that Giovanni Francesco Anerio's arrangements of Masses by Palestrina (1614 and 1619) with added 'Bassus ad organum' parts should be seen as representing the 'accepted way 34

8

From Renaissance to Baroque

of the fact that printed music does not always represent performance practice is offered by the Concerti di Andrea, et di Gio[vanni] Gabrieli (Venice, 1587) and Giovanni Gabrieli's first Sacrae symphoniae (Venice, 1597). Both publications are in partbook format with all parts texted which, on the face of it, implies purely vocal performance. However, the extended ranges of some of the parts, particularly the low bass parts, would make performance by a voice most unlikely. In other words, it was accepted that instruments replaced or supported the voices. This performance practice is confirmed in the archival documentation at St Mark's, Venice. 38 It is also worth noting that the earliest use of unfigured basses appears to have been in polychoral music - presumably because it was difficult for organists to accompany works in a large number of parts from scores. 39 Perhaps the earliest example is the continuo part for Alessandro Striggio the elder's 40-part motet 'Ecce beatam lucem', for which the oldest surviving set of parts are in Zwickau and are dated 1587. 40 However, we know that the work was performed at the festivities marking the marriage of the Duke of Bavaria to Renee of Lorraine at Munich in 1568, and it may have been performed before that in Florence in 1561;41 it is likely that these earlier performances also included a continuo. A parallel case is Thomas Tallis's 40-part motet 'Spem in alium', a work that seems to have been written as a competitive response to Striggio's motet, possibly in 1571.42 of performing the music in Palestrina's own lifetime' as much as an 'updating of Palestrina to make his music acceptable in another era'; G. Dixon, 'The Performance of Palestrina: Some Questions, but Fewer Answers', Early Music, vol. 22 (1994), p. 671. 38 See D. Arnold, Giovanni Gabrieli and the Music of the Venetian High Renaissance (Oxford, 1979), pp. 82-7, 168-72, etc., and D. Bryant, 'Gabrieli, Giovanni', in New Grove 2, vol. 9, p. 392. For other performance practice issues at St Mark's, see D. Bryant, 'The "Cori Spezzati" of St. Mark's: Myth and Reality', Early Music History, vol. 1 (1981 ), pp. 165-86. Much can also be gleaned from Praetorius (Syntagma musicum, vol. 3: Syntagmatis musici tomus tertius: Termini musici (Wolfenbiittel, 1618, 211619) in particular) and the German sources of Giovanni Gabrieli's music, although caution must always be applied as the sources reflect German performance practice and many are of a later date than the music to which they refer. See, in particular, R. Charteris, 'The Performance of Giovanni Gabrieli's Vocal Works: Indications in the Early Sources', Music & Letters, vo!. 71 (1990), pp. 336--51; idem, 'The Performance of Giovanni Gabrieli's Vocal Works', Music & Letters, vol. 72 (1991), pp. 170-1; and idem, 'Newly Discovered Manuscript Parts and Annotations in a Copy of Giovanni Gabrieli's Symphoniae sacrae (1615)', Early Music, vol. 23 (1995), 487-96. 39 See P. Holman, '"Evenly, Softly, and Sweetly Acchording to All": The Organ Accompaniment of English Consort Music', in A. Ashbee and P. Holman (eds.), John Jenkins and his Time: Studies in English Consort Music (Oxford, 1996), pp. 360-1. 40 Zwickau, Ratsschulbibliothek Mus. 109, I; two folios of the continuo part containing the chronogram 'o DeVs aVXILIVM fer qVoqVe I ferre potes' are reproduced in I. Fenlon and H. Keyte, 'Memorialls of Great Skill: A Tale of Five Cities', Early Music, vol. 8 (1980), p. 331. Hugh Keyte's edition of Striggio's 'Ecce beatam lucem' is published by Mapa Mundi (London, 1980). 41 See Fenlon and Keyte, 'Memorialls of Great Skill', pp. 333-4. 42 T. Tallis, Spem in alium, P. Brett (ed.), (London, 1966); see also D. Stevens, 'A Songe of Fortie Parts, Made by Mr. Tallys', Early Music, vol. 10 (1982), pp. 171-81; J. Milsom, 'The Nonsuch Music Library', in C. Banks, A. Searle, and M. Turner (eds.),

Introduction

9

The earliest surviving source - an early seventeenth-century manuscript of the contrafactum 'Sing and Glorify' sung at the investiture of James I's eldest son, Henry, as Prince of Wales in 1610- has a 'through basse' part but, again, there is no reason to suppose that this was a later addition to the Elizabethan original. 43 Let us add one more common performance practice to an already complex situation: ornamentation. Often as not, polyphonic pieces - vocal and instrumental, sacred and secular - would be embellished. Ten instructional manuals of ornamentation survive from the sixteenth century - all were published in Italy and seven date from the last two decades of the century. The manuals outline the varying practices of adding improvised embellishments to the 'written' music and indicate that the degree of ornamentation increased in virtuosity towards the end of the sixteenth century. There is some debate about just how much choral ornamentation took place in sacred music (theorists such as Zarlino and Finck suggested that embellishments should only be added in one-to-a-part performances), but there can be little doubt that, at least in professional ensembles, it was far more widespread than modern performance practice would suggest. 44 Indeed, the 'pure' unaccompanied polyphony often heard today was probably not the norm in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. If a late-sixteenth-century polyphonic piece was subjected to all the performance-practice possibilities of the time - solo rather than multiple voices, the middle voices of the texture replaced altogether by the organ, and the melody highly ornamented - then we would tend today to class the resultant sound world as that of the 'Baroque' rather than the 'Renaissance' period. My point is that many 'Baroque' stylistic features were anticipated in improvised traditions and that it is dangerous to construct our history based only on the evidence of 'print culture'. Long-standing performance practices (extempore or pragmatic) worked their way into compositional processes and then into print. The resulting musical style was, of course, not to everyone's liking and the so-called Artusi-Monteverdi controversy (although relating to compositional method rather than performance practice) is perhaps the best demonstration of the conflict between the 'old' and 'new' outlook. As is well known, the Bolognese theorist Giovanni Maria Artusi criticized Monteverdi over his

43

44

Sundry Sorts of Music Books: Essays on the British Library Collections Presented to 0. W. Neighbour on his 70th Birthday (London, 1993), pp. 168-9; and I. Woodfield, '"Music of Forty Several Parts": A Song for the Creation of Princes', Performance Practice Review, vol. 7 (1994), pp. 54--ti4. London, British Library, Egerton MS 3512; see B. Schofield, 'The Manuscripts of Tallis's Forty-Part Motet', Musical Quarterly, vol. 37 (1951), pp. 176-83. The contrafactum has been recorded, with the voices doubled by cometts, sackbuts, dulcians and organs, by The Sixteen, directed by Harry Christopher; the disc also contains an a cappel/a version of 'Spem in alium' (Coro CORSACD 16016 and CORDVDl). For a full examination of this topic, see H.M. Brown, Embellishing Sixteenth-Century Music (Oxford and New York, 1976).

10

From Renaissance to Baroque

treatment of dissonances. 45 Monteverdi 'replied' that, if expressing the emotions of the text is important, then his musical style was valid and logical. 46 The claim that 'harmony is the servant of the words' became the rallying call for the so-called seconda pratica - in contrast to the implied prima pratica of the polyphonists where music was most important. Monteverdi promised to write a treatise in which he would expand on his ideas, but the practices and styles of composition developed at such a rate that a response became more and more difficult and, it seems, nothing was ever published. In light of the developing melody-bass/basso continuo style of composition, Monteverdi may even have come to rue his original definition of seconda pratica, or at least his claim that Cipriano de Rore was the first composer of the new practice. 47 In other words, theory failed to keep up with practice; at the time, Monteverdi's most telling exploration of his definition of 'second practice' was in his compositions: the fourth and fifth books of madrigals ( 1603 and 1605) and in his first opera, L 'Oifeo, premiered on 24 February 1607 for the Mantuan Accademia degli Invaghiti. The Artusi-Monteverdi debate would seem to support the traditional historiographical view of music c.l600 for it apparently indicates that there was a consensus that something important was happening in music. But was this really the case? Did the musicians of the age really think this or was it just a theorists' preoccupation? Perhaps modem writers have concentrated on the debate because it included the 'great composer' Monteverdi and also happens to accord so well with the traditional perceptions of style-change in music around the year 1600? Claude Palisca 45

46

47

G.M. Artusi, L 'Artusi overo Delle imperfettioni della moderna musica (Venice, 1600; facs.: Bologna, 1968); translated by 0. Strunk, revised by M. Murata in Strunk, Source Readings, rev. edn., pp. 526-34. Monteverdi was not mentioned by name but Artusi used examples from the madrigals 'Anima mia, perdona' (parts 1 and 2) and 'Cruda Amarilli' which were later published in Monteverdi's fourth and fifth books respectively (1603 and 1605). Monteverdi's only public response to Artusi was in the 'Studiosi lettori' of his II quinto libra de madrigali a cinque voci (Venice, 1605), translated by C. Palisca in 'The ArtusiMonteverdi Controversy', in D. Arnold and N. Fortune (eds.), The New Monteverdi Companion (London, 1985), pp. 151-2. This is reprinted in Strunk, Source Readings, pp. 536--44, where it is interlined with G.C. Monteverdi's explanation and defence of his brother published as 'Dichiaratione della lettera stampata nel quinto libro de' suoi madregali' in C. Monteverdi, Scherzi musicali a tre voci (Venice, 1607). For the Italian texts, see D. de' Paoli, Claudio Monteverdi: Lettere, dediche e prefazioni (Rome, 1973), pp. 391-2 and 394--407. For a full account of the controversy see C. Palisca, 'The Artusi-Monteverdi Controversy'; and T. Carter, 'Artusi, Monteverdi and the Poetics of Modem Music', and C.S. Brauner, 'The Seconda Pratica, or the Imperfections of the Composer's Voice', both in N.K. Baker and B.R. Hanning (eds.), Musical Humanism and its Legacy: Essays in Honor of Claude V. Palisca (Stuyvesant NY, 1992), pp. 171-94 and 195-212 respectively. Tim Carter has - tongue in cheek - suggested that we should even consider 'the notion of a terza pratica' when discussing Monteverdi's 'Baroque' output (such as the new triple-time arias); 'Afterword' to his revision of D. Arnold, Monteverdi, Master Musicians (London, 1990), p. 161.

Introduction

II

and Tim Carter have demonstrated that the Artusi-Monteverdi polemic can be seen as part of a wider humanistic discussion that had its origins in the Florentine debates of Bardi and Galilei dating back to the 1570s and 1580s.48 Furthermore Carter has shown, in his perceptive look at the concept of the late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century 'aria', that to some extent the traditional historiographical view is challenged by Vincenzo Giustiniani who, in his treatise 'Discorso sopra Ia musica' (1628), 49 'perceives as many continuities as discontinuities over the 1600s, and he attaches little weight to issues that figure prominently in modem accounts of the period'. 50 Of course Giustiniani had his own agenda (as do all writers- this one included!) and he was undoubtedly biased in favour of his patrons, Cardinal Montalto and the Barberini family, 51 but it offers an important perspective from an educated musical layman rather than a theorist, and a Roman - rather than the more usual Florentine - viewpoint. Giustiniani takes it for granted that solo song and polyphony coexisted throughout the period c.1575-1620 and suggests that modem composers had merely varied older styles 'with delightful ornaments [rather] than with fundamental and substantial artifice'. 52 Whereas Monteverdi proclaimed Cipriano de Rore to be the first composer of the seconda pratica, for Giustiniani the best exponents of the 'new style' were Marenzio and Giovanelli. This may be suggestive of Giustiniani's Roman bias but, as Tim Carter demonstrates, it is possible to show progressive compositional tendencies in Marenzio's three-part villanellas (five books printed between 1584 and 1587). 53 Again the historiographical obsession with the date 1600 is shown in a negative light - musical history can be, and has been, conceived in different ways. The deeper one looks, the more one comes to realize that there was not a substantial change in musical style around the year 1600. The date is really one of convenience and one given credence by the publication of certain works (Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo, the L 'Euridice scores, Le nuove musiche and Cento concerti ecclesiastici, in particular) that, by chance, ha~pened to be issued in close proximity to the beginning of the new century. 48

C.V. Palisca, 'Vincenzo Galilei's Counterpoint Treatise: A Code for the Seconda pratica', Journal of the American Musicological Society, vol. 9 (1956), pp. 81-96 (reprinted in idem, Studies in the History ofItalian Music and Music Theory, pp. 30-53); Carter, 'Artusi, Monteverdi and the Poetics of Modem Music', pp. 177-81). 49 Manuscript in Lucca, Archivio di Stato; trans. by C. MacCiintock, Hercole Bottrigari, 'II Desiderio ... ' [and] Vincenzo Giustiniani, 'Discorso sopra Ia musica ', American Institute of Musicology: Musicological Studies and Documents, vol. 9 ([Rome], 1962). 50 T. Carter, "'An Air New and Grateful to the Ear": The Concept of Aria in Late Renaissance and Early Baroque Italy', Music Analysis, vol. 12 (1993), pp. 127-45; quotation: p. 129. 51 See Hill, Roman Monody, Cantata, and Opera, vol. I, pp. 8-10 and 84-118. 52 Carter, 'Concept of Aria', p. 129. 53 Ibid., pp. 132-40. 54 It might be added that for the keyboard repertoire the date 1600 has never been regarded as particularly important as there were no significant changes in compositional or performance methods around the turn of the century.

12

From Renaissance to Baroque

Another problem of the traditional historiographical construct is that it often tends to be written from the perspective of Italian music. There is no doubt that, in terms of musical styles, many 'Baroque' innovations began in Italy (even if they, in reality, evolved slowly in terms of performance practice rather than appearing suddenly in print) and that other European countries were influenced, at different times and to different degrees, by musical ideas of Italian derivation. These influences were assimilated into the indigenous musical traditions in a complex manner related to social, political and cultural factors far beyond the scope of this essay. But does a degree of reliance on Italian innovations necessarily make those European musical cultures 'backward' or second best? Of course not! Such notions of historical progression are no longer acceptable and one of the advances in recent writings on music history has been the acceptance that so-called 'peripheral' European cultures should be assessed as much in relation to their own historical context and in terms of their own indigenous traditions as from an ltalianate perspective. One example must suffice. The word 'Baroque' is rarely used in relation to early-seventeenth-century English music and only begins to appear, usually without explanation, in studies of music of the Restoration period (1660 onwards). 55 This is because the date 1600 has no real significance in England and the traditional historiographical construct cannot be applied. The foremost composer at the time was the 'old-fashioned' William Byrd and English composers' predominant compositional method was 'Renaissance' polyphony. If we follow the traditional musico-historical method and look for Italianate 'progressive' elements, then the 'new style' was assimilated relatively late and rather haphazardly in England. Nicholas Lanier is generally credited with the introduction of true stile recitativo to England following visits to Italy between 1625 and 1628 (primarily to negotiate the purchase of paintings for Charles I from the Gonzaga collection at Mantua). Lanier's Hero and Leander includes true English recitative and - in traditional historiographical terms - must be considered as 'progressive'. Hero and Leander may or may not be the first example of English recitative, 56 but we should be aware that Italian monodies had been available in England from about 1610 onwards through publications such as Robert Dowland's Musical/ Banquet (London, 1610) and Angelo Notari's Prime musiche nuove (London, c.1613). 57 Although the precise relationship between Italian monody and the English declamatory style is difficult to assess due to the different characteristics of the Italian and 55

My 'Purcell and the English Baroque', in M. Burden (ed.), The Purcell Companion (London, 1995), pp. 21-37 is a good example: the word 'Baroque' appears only once in the chapter and its usage is not explained. 56 See McD. Emslie, 'Nicholas Lanier's Innovations in English Song', Music and Letters, vol. 41 (1960), pp. 13-27; V. Duckles, 'English Song and the Challenge of Italian Monody', in V. Duckles and F.B. Zimmerman (eds.), Words to Music (Los Angeles, 1967), pp. 3-42; and P. Walls, Music in the English Courtly Masque 1604-1640 (Oxford, 1996), pp. 86-103. 57 See I. Spink, 'Angelo Notari and his Prime musiche nuove', Monthly Musical Record, vol. 87 (1957), pp. 168-77, and Wainwright, Musical Patronage, pp. 162-5.

Introduction

13

English languages, monody must have provided the underlying principles for the development of an English recitative. 58 Sacred and devotional music in England, however, remained even more conservative in approach and showed little or no awareness of the so-called stile nuovo. The only publications to contain stile nuovo sacred compositions before the Commonwealth period were Walter Porter's Madrigales and Ayres (London, 1632i9 - a single sacred work, 'Praise the Lord'- and William Child's The First Set of Psalmes of III. Voyces Fittfor Private Chappells or Other Private Meetings with a Continual/ Base either for the Organ or Theorbo Newly Composed after the Italian Way (London, 1639). 60 It is noteworthy that as late as 1639 Child is describing his psalms as 'after the Italian Way' as if it was something unusual. The title of Child's publication also emphasizes the private nature of his music as if 'modern' Italianate music was considered best suited to private devotional meetings rather than public liturgy. With just a few exceptions the Anglican liturgical repertoire, as performed in cathedrals and the Chapel Royal, was extremely conservative. 61 This is reflected in the contents of John Barnard's First Book of Selected Church Musick (London, 1641): of 58

59

60

61

For a full examination of this issue, see P. Walls, 'The Origins of English Recitative', Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, vol. 110 (1983--4), pp. 25--40; I. Spink, English Song: Dowland to Purcell (London, 1974; rev. 1984), chapter 2: 'The New Men and the New Music', pp. 38-71; and Walls, Music in the English Courtly Masque, pp. 86-103. See I. Spink, 'Walter Porter and the Last Book of English Madrigals', Acta Musico/ogica, vol. 26 (1954), pp. 18-36; and idem, 'An Early English Strophic Cantata (Porter's Farewell)', Acta Musicologica, vol. 27 (1955), pp. 138--40. Spink stresses the progressive Italianate elements in Porter's Madrigales and Ayres. R. Thompson, 'George Jeffreys and the Stile Nuove in English Sacred Music: A New Date for his Autograph Score, British Library Add. MS 10338', Music & Letters, vol. 70 ( 1989), p. 318. Child's psalms, despite the title of the publication, are relatively conservative in approach with little obviously of 'the Italian Way'. Martin Peerson's Mottects or Grave Chamber Musique (London, 1630) is generally considered to contain the first example of a figured bass in an English published collection: the organ part consists of a two-part score (usually a duplication of the lowest and uppermost sounding vocal or instrumental part) with some figures added to the bass. However, the musical style relates more closely to the English consort-song tradition than it does to the Italian stile nuovo. Richard Dering's Latin motets, composed in the second and third decades of the seventeenth century, perhaps represent the earliest essays in the Italianate smallscale concertato style by an English composer. But the performance context of the motets in England was Queen Henrietta Maria's Roman Catholic Chapel and they cannot be seen as representative of mainstream English church music. The continued popularity of the motets as domestic devotional music throughout the Civil War and Commonwealth periods - leading to publication by John Playford in two volumes of Cantica sacra, 1662 and 1674 - is remarkable; see Wainwright, Musical Patronage, pp. 178-85. The exceptions include William Child's anthems 'Bow down thine ear' (4vv), '0 God, wherefore art thou absent' (4vv), 'Tum thou us' (verse anthem) and 'Woe is me' (4vv) which are 'successful essays in the stile nuovo'; and Child's Te Deum and Jubilate 'for Dr. Cosin' include stile concitato choral writing (see P. Je Huray, Music and the Reformation in England 1549-1660 (2nd edn., Cambridge, 1978), pp. 360-3).

14

From Renaissance to Baroque

the twenty-one composers represented in the ~ublication, nine were born before 1550 and none was born after 1600. 2 In the words of Robert Thompson, 'any composer who wrote liturgical works in the modem style before the Interregnum was swimming against a strong conservative tide. ' 63 Although it has been shown that some court-related circles were absolutely up to date and received music hot off the Italian presses, 64 English musical culture was not generally - in traditional historiographical terms - 'progressive'. English musical development was undoubtedly affected by the Civil War and Commonwealth. The focal point of English cultural life in the seventeenth century was the court and it was to the court that the country looked for the latest musical fashions. The system of manuscript and print dissemination produced by the court network - the web of contacts created by movement from the provinces to London of patrons and their households (including musicians) - was perfect for insuring the spread of up-to-date styles of composition and, had it not been for the Civil War and the Commonwealth years, 65 England would probably have assimilated Italianate compositional features far earlier. Thus in English music historiography the word 'Baroque' is usually reserved for the later part of the seventeenth century when a new wave of Italian influence, in the form of music by Carissimi and his contemporaries, infiltrated English musical culture. 66

62 63 64

65

66

It should be noted that Barnard purposely excluded works by living composers, but even so the conservative nature of the Anglican liturgical repertoire is revealed. Thompson, 'George Jeffreys and the Stile Nuove', p. 318. The most extensive pre-Civil War library of Italian music yet identified in England belonged to Christopher, First Baron Hatton (Charles I's Comptroller of Household at the Oxford Court, 1643-6); see Wainwright, Musical Patronage, passim. For the suggestion that Italian music from the Hatton collection was performed at the Roman Catholic services of Queen Henrietta Maria, see idem, 'Images of Virtue and War: Music in Civil War Oxford', in A. Ashbee (ed.), William Lawes (1602-1645): Essays on his Life, Times and Work (Aidershot and Brookfield VT, 1998), pp. 121-42. It should, however, be stressed that the Puritans were not opposed to music per se; see P. Scholes, The Puritans and Music in England and New England (London, 1934), passim. It is true that the musical profession suffered great hardships during the Commonwealth due to the disbandment of the main musical establishments - i.e. Court, Church of England, and theatres - but the Puritans did not object to domestic or devotional music. Cromwell had an organ at Hampton Court (removed from the chapel of Magdalen College, Oxford), employed the organist John Hingeston, and apparently enjoyed listening to Richard Dering's Latin motets. In fact Puritan rule positively aided the cultivation of domestic music and created a market that the publisher and bookseller John Playford successfully exploited. Although Carissimi's main influence in England was in the 1660s and 70s, some of his music was known as early as the 1640s: British Library, Evelyn MS 211 is a copy in an Italian hand of Carissimi's motet 'Si linguis hominum' which bears Evelyn's annotation, 'Coli: Evelynus: Romre April is: 11: 1645'. This corresponds with Evelyn's visit to Rome, 7 February- 4 May 1645; see E.S. de Beer (ed.), The Diary of John Evelyn (Oxford, 1955), vol. 2, pp. 355-91.

Introduction

15

Where is this critical look at the traditional historiographical construction actually leading? It is not moving inexorably towards suggesting that we should re-date the change from 'Renaissance' to 'Baroque' (indeed, I would rather counsel against the use of these terms altogether except perhaps in a very general sense), 67 but it is worth remembering that the preand post-1600 polarization is related to a study of musical style based primarily on printed sources. As we have seen, this construction of history has its problems and the picture is far more complex with many of the socalled 'Baroque' musical features anticipated in the sixteenth century (analogous to this is the fact that many 'Renaissance' features survived long after 1600). Also, as I demonstrated with my example of English seventeenth-century vocal music, the style-feature approach cannot necessarily be international in application. In a traditional Italian-centred style-based historiography, England could - in some respects - be said to have lagged behind the times, and the application of the 'Renaissance' and 'Baroque' terminology is problematic. However, so far I have been concerned primarily with vocal music: this may seem odd in an introduction to a book that is essentially about instruments and instrumental music! Traditionally the historiographical approach to music in the period of change from 'Renaissance' to 'Baroque' has always centred primarily on vocal music: this is not surprising given the central issue relating to the expression of the words and I am therefore unapologetic about my approach. It is possible though to produce an alternative historical construction relating to instruments and instrumental music and this is one of the primary concerns of this volume. One important element that is often missing from more traditional historical constructions is an examination of the transition from homogeneous selfcontained 'Renaissance' consorts (choir/vocal ensembles, consorts of viols, recorders, etc.) to 'Baroque' mixed ensembles that correspond in many wats to those of the present-day orchestral, choral and operatic traditions. 8 This aspect deserves attention and is, I suggest, just as important as the 'traditional' vocal/style elements mentioned above. It could be argued, for example, that the trend of specifying particular instruments and mixing them, as in the English mixed consort, was historically as important as the traditional changes such as the creation of opera and the development of monody (itself an aspect of the mixed ensemble phenomenon). A number of essays in this volume address the 67

68

I shall not suggest alternative terms! In some contexts, rather than use the ubiquitous 'Renaissance' and 'Baroque', it may be better for musicologists to adopt terms less related to style, such as the historians' all-embracing 'early modem'. However, this too can be problematic: 'modem' is a slippery term at the best of times and 'early modem' can imply a kind of teleology between the sixteenth and later centuries that may not be desirable; see L. Jordanova, History in Practice (London, 2000), pp. 124-3. For an assessment of the use of the word 'Baroque' in modem scholarship and a justification for its continued use, see R. Villari (ed.), Baroque Personae, trans. L.G. Cochrane (Chicago, 1995), pp. 1-3. This is, of course, bound up with the development of continuo practice for the addition of a chord instrument to any ensemble turns it into a mixed ensemble.

16

From Renaissance to Baroque

issue of when and why composers developed the practice of writing music specifically for particular instruments and specified them in the sources. If we examine English instrumental music in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, a different picture emerges from that painted above in relation to English vocal music. The English mixed consort69 was in advance of anything in Europe at the time, and it could be argued that it was the first modem instrumental ensemble in the sense that a corpus of music by a number of composers was created for a (relatively) fixed combination of instruments. The classic combination of 'unlike' instruments was treble viol or violin, tenor flute or recorder, bass viol, lute, cittem and bandora. Thomas Morley's First Booke of Consort Lessons (London, 1599; corrected and enlarged 2/1611) and Philip Rosseter's Lessons for Consort (London, 1609) contain the earliest printed music for this combination of instruments/0 but the same six-instrument mixed consort was used at an entertainment given in 1591 for the Queen by the Earl of Hertford at Elvetham in Hampshire: an anonymous chronicler mentions the performance of a 'song of sixe parts, with musicke of an exquisite consort, wherin was the Lute, Bandora, Base-violl, Citteme, Treble-violl, and flute' that 'so delighted her Majesty, that shee desired to ... hear it twise over' .71 This is an unequivocal mention of the mixed consort, but there may be a reference to this instrumental grouping as early as 1566 in relation to a play, Jocasta by George Gascoigne and Francis Kinwelmershe, in which a dumb-show was accompanied by 'a dolefull and strange noyse ofviolles, Cythren, Bandurion, and such like'. 72 1t seems that between c.l575 and c.1625 the word 'consort' was most commonly used to refer to mixed consorts rather than to ensembles of instruments of the same family, 73 so it may be that references to a 'consort' in other sixteenthcentury plays and aristocratic entertainments are actually allusions to the mixed consort. 74 Although the mixed consort was by no means the norm in England in the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, and ensembles of instruments of the same family generally played separately/ 5 there is no doubt that the 69 70

71

72

73 74 75

Also known as the broken consort, the English consort, or the consort of six. See T. Morley, The First Book of Consort Lessons, S. Beck (ed.) (New York, 1959), and I. Harwood, 'Rosseter's Lessons for Consort of 1609', Lute Society Journal, vol. 7 (1965),pp. 15-23. Anon., The Honorable Entertainment Given to the Queenes Majestie in Progresse, at Elvetham in Hampshire (London, 1591), p. [32]. J.M. Ward, 'Sprightly and Cheerful Musick: Notes on the Cittern, Gittern, and Guitar in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England', Lute Society Journal, vol. 21 (1979-81 ), p. 22. P. Holman, Four and Twenty Fiddlers: The Violin at the English Court 15401690 (Oxford, 2/1995), pp. 132-9, contains a survey of the mixed consort and its sources. See W. Edwards, 'The Sources of Elizabethan Consort Music' (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1974), vol. 1, pp. 36-57. See Holman, Four and Twenty Fiddlers, pp. 132-5. As late as 1636, Charles Butler wrote that 'The several kinds of Instruments ar[ e] commonly used severally by them selves: as a Set of Viols, a Set of Waits [shawms ], or the like: but sometimes, upon some special occasion, many of both Sorts ar[ e] moste

Introduction

17

mixed consort was important. Praetorius was enthusiastic about the 'Englisch Consort' 76 and the mixed consort was certainly influential on the Continent in the early seventeenth century (although the groups were made up of a great variety of instruments). Indeed, in this light, it may not be farfetched to link the mixed consort to the all-important development of the orchestra. As Peter Holman shows in his essay (pp. 241-57), a decisive moment in the development of the orchestra came when violin bands were first combined with wind instruments and this seems to have first happened early in the seventeenth century at the English and French courts. Furthermore, in the realm of keyboard music, England was also important: there is no doubt that Byrd and his followers led Europe in the development of a sophisticated keyboard idiom - one that profoundly influenced German and Netherlands composers for several generations. 77 The dissemination of English keyboard styles and techniques on the Continent was no doubt due to the presence of John Bull, Peter Philips and other Catholic recusants in the Netherlands. 78 Indeed, if instrumental music is the focus of the historical construction rather than vocal music, then England does not look quite so conservative in outlook. sweetly joined in Consort'; The Principles of Musik in Singing and Setting (London, 1636), p. 94. Syntagma musicum, vol. 3 (Wolfenbiittel, 211619), p. 5: 'ein Consort, ist Wenn et/iche Personen mit a//er/ey lnstrumenten, a/s Clavicymbe/ oder Grosspinnet, gross-Lyra, Doppelharff, Lauten, Theorben, Bandom, Penorcon, Zitteme, Viol de Gamba, einer kleinen Discant Geig, einer Querjloit oder Blockjloit, bissweilen auch einer stillen Posaun oder Racket zusammen in einer Compagny unnd Gesellschaft gar still, sanfft und /ieblich accordiren, unnd in anmutiger Symphonia mit einander zusammen stimmen.' (several persons with all sorts of instruments, such as clavicymbal or large spinet, large lyra, double harp, lute, theorbo, bandora, penorcon, cittern, viol de gamba, a small descant fiddle, a traverse flute or recorder, sometimes also a quiet sackbut or racket, sound together in one company and society ever so quietly, tenderly and lovely, and agree with each other in a graceful symphony.) Translation from E.H. Meyer, Early English Chamber Music: From the Middle Ages to Purcell (2nd rev. edn.: E.H. Meyer and D. Poulton (eds.), London, 1982), p. 143. 77 See A. Curtis, Swee/inck 's Keyboard Music: A Study of English Elements in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Composition (London and Leiden, 1969; 2/1972). 78 The recusant network may also explain the presence of works by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, the organist of the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Mu. 168, olim Mus. 32 G 29), thought to have been copied by the recusant Francis Tregian between 1609 and 1619. Concerning the ongoing debate about the copyist's identity, see E. Cole, 'In Search of Francis Tregian', Music & Letters, vol. 33 (1952), pp. 28-32; R.R. Thompson, 'The "Tregian" Manuscripts: A Study of their Compilation', British Library Journal, vol. 18 (1992), pp. 202-4; A. Cuneo, 'Francis Tregian the Younger: Musician, Collector and Humanist?', Music & Letters, vol. 76 (1995), pp. 401-2; R.R. Thompson, 'Francis Tregian the Younger as Music Copyist: a Legend and an Alternative View', Music & Letters, vol. 82 (2001), pp. 1-31; and D.J. Smith, 'A "Legend"? Francis Tregian the Younger as Music Copyist', Musical Times, vol. 143 (Summer 2002), pp. 7-20. 76

18

From Renaissance to Baroque

It seems to me that the terms 'Renaissance' and 'Baroque' have different meanings depending on the context, approach and agenda of that particular construction of history. 79 Most music histories are written from a chronological style-based perspective, but this is not the only possible historical construct. For example, between 1905 and 1922 Hermann Kretzschmar edited a series of volumes in which the division was not by historical period but by musical genres (oratorio, concerto, motet, etc.). 80 Any advantages that this system offered - such as being able to trace the continuity of a particular form at all stages of its development were far outweighed by the disadvantage of not being able to devote enough time to the cross-fertilization between forms; indeed, a division by genre is ultimately artificial. This may well be why Ernst Biicken's Handbuch der Musikwissenschaft (1927-34) had six volumes devoted to periods and four volumes covering different 'topics' (such as Catholic and Protestant church music, aesthetics, form, performance methods, etc.). 81 The majority of the essays in the present volume are written primarily from an organological viewpoint and, in terms of musical instruments, many of the important developments - in the context of these proceedings, the change from 'Renaissance' to 'Baroque' -take place not around 1600 but later in the seventeenth century. For example, Peter Holman demonstrates in his essay that the transition from Renaissance violin band to Baroque orchestra (if we use the term in the modem sense) was not complete until the 1680s and, as a number of the contributions to this volume show, various changes were made to instruments which made the tone suitable for use in the orchestra. Interestingly the promotion of the middle decades of the seventeenth century as an important turning point in the history of music corresponds closely with the historic phenomena characterized as the 'general crisis of the seventeenth century'. Numerous historical studies have described a period of unusual instability, and social, political, religious, economic, demographic and even climatological indicators have all been used to construct a picture of conflict in the first half of the seventeenth century. 82 The Thirty Years War was the most obvious political outcome of this crisis. However, periods of crisis are followed by ones of stability and, in 79

80 81 82

For a discussion of historical interpretation and objectivity, and of music history in the context of general philosophical thought, see D.J. Grout, 'Current Historiography and Music History', in H.S. Powers (ed.), Studies in Music History: Essays for Oliver Strunk (Princeton, 1968), pp. 23-40; see also, Treitler, 'The Historiography of Music'. A.F.H. Kretzschmar (ed.), Kleine Handbiicher der Musikgeschichte nach Gattungen, 10 vols. (Leipzig, 1905-22). E. Biicken (ed.), Handbuch der Musikwissenschaft, 10 vols. (Potsdam, 1927-34). For example: R. Mousnier, Les XV!e et XVI/e Siecles (Paris, 1954); T. Aston (ed.), Crisis in Europe (London, 1965); A.L. Moote, The Seventeenth Century: Europe in Ferment (Lexington MA, 1970); C. Wilson, The Transformation of Europe 1558-1640 (Berkeley, 1976); T.K. Rabb, The Struggle for Stability in Early Modern Europe (Oxford and New York, 1975); G. Parker and L.M. Smith (eds.), The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century (London and New York, 1978; rev. edn. 1997); G. Parker, Europe in Crisis 1598-1648 (Ithaca, 1979); and P.J. Coveney, 'An Early Modem Crisis?', Renaissance and Modern Studies, vol. 26 (1982), pp. 1-26.

Introduction

19

this historical construction, the date c.l650 becomes important: peace treaties lead to 'the birth of modern Europe' and science, literature and the visual arts are again able to flourish. 83 Could music be fitted into this paradigm? Alexander Silbiger has attempted to do just this in an essay that seeks to Rromote c.1650 rather than c.1600 as a critical date in the history of music. 84 The period c.1600-50 is characterized as 'individualistic and experimental', whereas the period following is shown to be remarkably stable in terms of musical styles regulated by 'rules and standards' .85 To exemplify this, Silbiger mentions the establishment, in the mid-seventeenth century, of specific genres based on distinct extended movements - in vocal music, the recitative-aria and set number structures of lateseventeenth-century opera, oratorio and cantata; and in instrumental music, the sonata, the suite, and the concerto - and the emergence, again midcentury, of a tonal system which allowed long-term modulation schemes within extended movements. Important too is the development of a recognizably modern orchestra (the subject of Peter Holman's essay). These developments coincide with the changes from 'Renaissance' to 'Baroque' instruments that are the subject of many of the essays in this volume. Silbiger then constructs a theory of how the transition between periods takes place - one not based on either theories of continuous teleological evolution or periodization, but on a 'paradigm' model used in recent histories of science. In this theory 'successive cycles, each terminated by a phase of growing instability, [lead] to a crisis and paradigm shift'. 86 So, for Silbiger 'the so-called early Baroque marked not so much the beginning of a new style as the crisis of an old one' .87 The author admits that the theory needs further refining and testing, but the new paradigm does appear to work well. For example, the problem in the 'old' historiography of presenting the beginnings of the Baroque as a primarily Italian phenomenon, and how to explain that the new style was accepted 'only gradually and much less dramatically' in the rest of Europe, is neatly explained by Silbiger: 'the impact of this Italian style on local traditions was itself a significant contributing factor to the instability and eventual crisis elsewhere. The resolution of the crisis and the emergence of the new paradigm seem, however, to have taken place throughout Europe at nearly the same time.' 88 We should also note that the organological studies presented in these proceedings do not conflict with this paradigm. 83 84

85 86 87 88

See Rabb, Struggle for Stability, passim.

A. Silbiger, 'Music and the Crisis of Seventeenth-Century Europe', in V. Coelho (ed.),

Music and Science in the Age of Galileo (Dordrecht, 1992), pp. 35--44; see also, L.F. Tagliavini, 'Symposium: Critical Years in European Musical History, 1640 -1660', in D. Cvetco (ed.), Report of the Tenth Congress of the International Musicological Society, Ljubljana 1967 (Kassel, 1970), pp. 115-58, and Bianconi, 'The "Crisis" of the Seventeenth Century', in Music in the Seventeenth Century, pp. 28-33. Silbiger quotes Palisca, Baroque Music, 2nd edn., p. 6. Silbiger, 'Music and the Crisis of Seventeenth-Century Europe', p. 38. Ibid., p. 44. Ibid., p. 42.

20

From Renaissance to Baroque

However, despite this expression of admiration for Silbiger's new paradigm, I state again that I do not wish necessarily to promote a general re-dating of the change from 'Renaissance' to 'Baroque'. As I have already said, all constructions of history have their own agenda and Silbiger's essay is no exception. The essay appeared in a book concerned as much with science as with music and the particular construction of music history, valid though it was in that interdisciplinary context, is not necessarily the only possible perspective. 89 As a demonstration of the different possible constructions of music history, it is worth observing that Lorenzo Bianconi also includes a section entitled 'The "Crisis" of the Seventeenth Century' in his Music in the Seventeenth Century. 90 However, Bianconi is primarily concerned with socio-historical and cultural aspects of the seventeenth century and he describes the crisis in terms of musical patronage, and the economic effects on music publication and dissemination. Both Silbiger's and Bianconi's approaches are, of course, valid - the fact that two musicologists look at a common topic from different angles, does not mean that either account is necessarily false or that one is better than the other. In this context, I like the possibility that the terms 'Renaissance' and 'Baroque'- if they must be used- mean different things to different people and that their usage depends on the context and approach of a particular study. 91 Only time will tell whether the terms 'Renaissance' and 'Baroque' continue to be applied in the history of music in the traditional pre- and post-1600 polarization. For the purposes of these proceedings, I would like to suggest that in organological study we are prepared to have a different interpretation of the terms and be ready to accept a different timescale in 89

9{)

91

Coelho (ed.), Music and Science in the Age of Gali/eo; the book was the result of an international conference (of the same title) organized by the Departments of Music and of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta in April 1989. (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 28-33. It is significant that Bianconi avoids the word 'Baroque' and prefers a more neutral chronological divide by century. The book originally appeared as II seicento, the fourth volume of the Societa Italiana di Musicologia's Storia della musica, and, perhaps unfortunately for Bianconi, the fact that the seventeenth century begins in 1600 does leave a residue of the traditional periodization structure. A music history could, equally successfully, be written for the periods c.l550-1650 or c.l650-1750. Such an approach is demonstrated in the New Oxford History of Music which covers 'The Age of Humanism, 1540-1630' (vol. 4, G. Abraham (ed.)) and 'Opera and Church Music 1630-1750' (vol. 5, A. Lewis and N. Fortune (eds.)). I am in agreement with Manuel Carlos de Brito's call for an alternative to a 'unified' history in 'the production of different and separate histories: of music aesthetics, of music theory, of composition techniques, of styles, of individual works, all of them with vague and remote links to the history of musical "functions", musical institutions, musical training and education, musical professions, performance, instruments, musical industries and musical markets, musical reception, all eventually linked by the thin and elusive thread of an hypothetical Zeitgeist'; 'Round Table IV: Historiography' [symposium report], in D. Greer, I. Rumbold and J. King (eds.), Musicology and Sister Disciplines: Past, Present, Future. Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of the International Musicological Society, London, 1997 (London, 2000), p. 23.

Introduction

21

this new perspective on the fascinating period of change from 'Renaissance' to 'Baroque'.

Chapter One

Baptiste's Hautbois: The Metamorphosis from Shawm to Hautboy in France, 1620-1670 Bruce Haynes 1

Introduction

In 1620, Michael Praetorius was still illustrating a traditional Discant Scha/meye, or treble shawm, of the type that had been perfected and maintained without basic change all over Europe for centuries (Illustration 1.1; for Illustrations see pp. 39-46). 2 But a half-century later, an instrument had materialized that showed, apparently for the first time, the physical attributes we now associate with the hautboy. 3 It appeared in an engraving by Blanchet that served as the frontispiece to Pierre Borjon de Scellery's book on the musette (1672) (Illustration 1.2).4 With these dates as reference points, we can presume that the new hautboy came into existence some time between the appearance of Praetorius's and Borjon's books, in the period between 1620 and 1670. This essay will attempt to outline that development.

3 4

I should like to dedicate this essay to the memory of Pepper, a cat who was very dear to me. It is a revised version of parts of my book The Eloquent Oboe: A History of the Hautboy, 1640 to 1760 (Oxford, 200 I). M. Praetorius, Theatrum instrumentorum seu sciagraphia (Wolfenbiittel, 1620): pictorial supplement to Syntagma musicum, part 2 (Wolfenbiittel, 1618; 2/1619). For a definition of the shawm, see A. Masci, 'Doppelrohrblattinstrumente: A. Europische lnstrumente', in L. Finscher (rev.), Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 2nd edn. (Kassel, 1995), vol. 2, p. 1351. The word 'hautboy' denotes the type of oboe used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that used cross-fingerings and had few keys. A portrait by David Teniers of the painter and his family in the Staatliche Museum, Berlin, shows an hautboy on a table. The original painting can be dated to 1645/6, while the hautboy is clearly from a later period. According to the museum (personal communication, October 1987), another signed version of the painting exists in London with a standing woman playing the lute; the hautboy was thus added later. A print by Jacques-Philippe LeBas based on this painting includes the hautboy. Since the print is dated c.l695, the painting must have been altered by this date.

24

From Renaissance to Baroque

Experiments with the Pirouette and Reed

Just 15 years after the appearance of Praetorius's book, evidence of a slow evolution towards the hautboy began appearing. Marin Mersenne, in his Harmonicorum instrumentorum of 1635, shows a picture of a treble shawm whose reed is without the usual pirouette (Illustration 1.3). 5 The significance of this is that it implies a change in the contact between the player and the reed. The pirouette was a piece of turned wood that projected beyond the end of the shawm and surrounded the lower part of the reed. Its upper surface was used to support the lips. 6 If a player used a pirouette, he was not obliged to control the reed completelr with his teeth and lips; without it, the embouchure took full responsibility. An instrument that used an independent embouchure could play higher and offer more control of dynamic and tonal nuance. At about the time Mersenne's book appeared, Pierre Trichet mentioned that the hautbois de Poitou was sometimes played 'en mettant l'anche dans la bouche' (by putting the reed in the mouth, presumably without the pirouette). 8 Also, where Praetorius gave his shawm a range of only an octave and a sixth, Mersenne's and Trichet's shawms of the 1630s or 40s went up two octaves, like the first hautboys; this extension upward implied a certain degree of embouchure control, with or without pirouette. The Protomorphic Hautboy

Early German and English sources tell us that the hautboy originated in France. This is indicated also by the instrument's name in all European languages; it seems to have been taken over directly or transliterated from the French hautbois (pronounced obwe). But finding a date for the appearance of the definitive hautboy is complicated by the fact that in

6

7

8

Another of Mersenne's engravings of a treble shawm, included with the whole family, does include a pirouette (1635), p. 88. Herbert Myers (personal communication, 17 November 1996) points out that the text that accompanies Mersenne's other engraving actually mentions the parallel nature of the pirouettes found on the tail/e and the dessus. The reed shown in Illustration 1.3 may therefore have been experimental. There are other seventeenth-century pictures of shawms with reeds but without pirouettes: - Tapestry 'Herminie chez les paysans', series TancrMe et Clorinde, after Michel Corneille I (second-half of seventeenth century). Chateau de Chateaudun. - Jan Steen, De Dansles, oil painting,(? c.l660). Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. - [? Fran~ois] Guerard, Le noble joiieur d'instrument, etching, (?1690s). Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris. The shawm reed did not vibrate freely in the mouth cavity, however, like those of oriental oboes that use a disk and whose reeds, made of rush or straw, are too delicate to vibrate when in direct contact with the lips. For a good summary of the historical evidence on pirouettes and shawm reeds, see H.W. Myers, 'The Practical Acoustics of Early Woodwinds' (DMA dissertation, Stanford University, 1981), pp. 104-14. F. Lesure (ed.), [Trichet, P.] 'Traite des instruments de musique', [Paris, Bibliotheque Ste-Genevieve 1070; c.1630-44), Annales musicologiques, vol. 3 (1955), p. 374.

Baptiste's Hautbois

25

France shawms and hautboys had the same name. Unlike in other countries, the hautboy developed step by step in France and was not suddenly introduced as a foreign import. A new name was not therefore necessary and both shawms and hautboys were called hautbois. Clues to dating the hautboy's development can be found in the works of Jean-Baptiste Lully who became Surintendant de Ia musique in France in 1661. Michel de La Barre suggested that Lully (nicknamed 'Baptiste') was the godfather of the new hautboy: ... his promotion meant the downfall of all the old instruments [the musette, the hautbois, the bagpipe, the cornett, the cromorne, and the sackbut] except the hautbois, thanks to the Philidors and Hotteterres, who spoiled so much wood and played so much music that they finally succeeded in rendering it usable in ensembles. From that time on, musettes were left to shepherds, and violins, recorders, theorbos, and viols took their place, for the transverse flute did not arrive until 9 later.

We can situate this date more precisely by using further information that La Barre supplied on the traverso: Philbert was the first to play it in France, and almost immediately afterwards, Descoteaux. The instrument was a great success with the King, and indeed everyone at court, and His Majesty caused two new positions to be created in the [ensemble called] Musettes de Poitou and conferred them on Philbert and Descoteaux ...

Court documents record that Philippe Rebille dit Philbert and Rene Pignon dit Descoteaux were both part of the Hautbois et musettes de Poitou by 166 7. 10 If La Barre's information is accurate, the traverso would have appeared in the mid-1660s. 11 And since La Barre put the traverso' s arrival later than that of the hautboy, some kind of usable hautboy must have predated the mid-1660s. It has long been thought that such an instrument 9

10

II

M. de La Barre, 'Memoire de M. de Ia Barre: sur les musettes et hautbois, etc.' [c.l740], Arch. Nat. Maison du Roi (0'.878); original text quoted in Marc Ecochard's essay (see pp. 47-8). M. Benoit, Musiques de cour: chapelle, chambre, ecurie, 1661-1733 (Paris, 1971), p. 18. R.T. Semmens, 'Woodwind Treatment in the Early Ballets of Jean-Baptiste Lully' (Master's dissertation, University of British Columbia., 1975), p. 134 suggested that a remodelled traverso took part in Lully's Ballet des muses in 1666. Blanchet's 1672 frontispiece (Illustration 1.2) shows a straight-sided transverse flute, but it may be a fifre. A carton (design) by Charles Le Brun for the baptism of the Dauphin, Louis de France, which took place on 24 March 1668 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, shows a onekeyed, three-piece traverso. This carton is reproduced in Benoit, Musiques de cour, plate 20.

26

From Renaissance to Baroque

was first heard in Lully's ballet L 'Amour rna lade of 1657. 12 La Barre wrote that the Philidors and Hotteterres eventually succeeded in rendering the hautbois 'propre pour les Concerts', suitable for ensembles. What kind of ensembles would he have meant? Shawms had traditionally been consort instruments, played as an independent family. Strings, like the Grande bande at the French court, also played as a closed consort. But it can be argued that the birth of the 'orchestra' was the moment when the two families, the shawms and the strings, began to be played in combination instead of in discrete groups. 13 Terminology may be relevant to this question. The French word concert as used by La Barre might be analogous to the English 'consort' of the early seventeenth century, which meant specifically mixed ensembles. 14 The Italian word concerto might also have had this meaning at the time. In that case, a piece in the Philidor Collection written for a grand bal entitled 'Concert a Louis XIII par les 24 Viollons et les 12 Grand hautbois ... 1627' 15 might also signify that the two groups played together. However, there are indications that, in these dances, the violins and shawms played in alternation rather than together: the clef usage associated with the two groups is consistently different, and the writing for strings is noticeably denser and more complex. 16 Further research on the way these words were used in the first two-thirds of the seventeenth century might yield interesting results. A certain amount of mixing and matching may have occurred among the Douze grand hautbois by the sixteenth century, as the ensemble's official title was Douze joueurs de violon, hautbois, saqueboutes et cornets. Benoit suggests that it was once divided into two groups of six players each, playing exclusively winds or strings. The strings would have disappeared by 1560. 17 This theory may be influenced by a twentieth-century assumption of instrument specialization, and it is quite possible that in the seventeenth century some or all of the members of the Douze grand hautbois played both shawms and violins. There is 12

This theory was first advanced by Prunieres, Les Ballets, vol. I, p. xxii in Les oeuvres completes (Paris, 1931 ), and there seems to be no reason to dispute it. See also R. Harris-Warrick, 'A Few Thoughts on Lully's Hautbois', Early Music, vol. 18 (1990), p. 98. 13 SeeN. Zaslaw, 'When is an Orchestra not an Orchestra', Early Music, vol. 16 (1988), 14 pp. 483-95. SeeP. Holman, Four and Twenty Fiddlers: The Violin at the English Court 1540-1690 (Oxford, 2/1995), pp. 131-2. 15 Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale de France MS Res. F. 494, pp. 1-24. This piece is published in D.J. Buch (ed.), Dance Music from the Ballets de Cour, 1575-1651: Historical Commentary, Source Study and Transcriptions from the Philidor Manuscripts (Stuyvesant NY, 1994), p. 32. Buch writes that 'other general references to the combination of winds and strings can be found as well.' The Hautbois have two pieces alone in the keys ofF and G major (one piece requires an eb1, with a range of c' to f'. It is interesting to see the name les 12 Grand hautbois used at this early date. 16 Jeremie Papasergio, personal communication, November 1999. Pieces for the two groups were in the same keys, however, so they were evidently at the same pitch. 17 Benoit, Musiques de cour, p. 220, citing H. Prunieres, 'La musique de Ia chambre et de l'ecurie sous le regne de Fran9ois I [1516-47]', L 'Annee musicale, vol. I (1911).

Baptiste 's Hautbois

27

considerable documentation of players switching between wind and string instruments until well into the eighteenth century. Many German courts maintained bands of doublers of this kind. 18 Lully began using a new form of hautbois in his ensemble, the Petite bande. in about 1657, but the instruments did not yet have the outward appearance of the hautboy in Blanchet's engraving of 1672 (Illustration 1.2). These new hautbois were transitional, and we know of them through the depictions made by Charles Le Brun, painter to the king and director of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. Le Brun included them in the designs of two tapestries for the royal Gobelin workshops in 1664, 'L'air' from the series Les Eif!mens and 'Le Printemps ou Versailles' from the series Les Saisons. The king may have seen these designs, as they were executed during the time he was regularly visiting LeBrun's studio. Le Brun used the same border for both the tapestries, and they consist of 'trophies' of many kinds of contemporary wind instruments, including nine hautbois of two different types. The clearest surviving version is the tapestry known as 'L'air' or the 'Arazzo Gobelin'; it is the first of several duplicates (tentures) based on the same model (Illustrations 1.4 and 1.5). 19 Some of the instruments are familiar, like the trumpets, drums, musettes, and recorders. The depictions are detailed and, to judge from the instruments already known, reasonably accurate. 20 There are two distinct forms of hautbois in the border. One model is black, with a relatively long bell; the other is of a light-coloured wood probably box - with a short bell. They correspond to the two types of hautbois that were in standard use in France by at least the 1630s,21 as described by Mersenne in his chapter on the grands hautbois (shawms): II faut remarquer qu'il y a deux sortes de Haut-bois qui sont en usage f!n France, a sr;avoir ceux de Poitou ... et ceux que I' on appelle simplement Haut-bois ... 22

I should say that there are two types of hautbois in use in France, namely those of Poitou [the hautbois de Poitou] ... and those that are called simply hautbois ...

The long-belled instruments resemble Mersenne's shawms (called simply hautbois) and the short-belled models look very much like his hautbois de 18

See Haynes, The Eloquent Oboe, pp. 164 and 166-68. A later notable instance was Pierre Philidor, who played hautboy and viol in the King's chamber. 19 LeBrun's original cartons are now lost, but copies of them survive in several different media. Besides the Gobelin tapestries (six surviving tentures of 'L' Air' and three of 'Le Printemps'), watercolours on vellum exist (by Bailly, 1672), as well as engravings (by LeClerc, 1670 and 1679). The tapestry 'L'Air' (made by the Lefebvre atelier in 166669; see M. Fenaille, Etat general des tapisseries de Ia manufacture des Gobelins (Paris, 1903), vol. 2, pp. 51-66) is in the Palazzo Pitti at Florence (formerly Siena, Palazzo Pubblico ), and is called there Allegoria dell 'Aria. 20 It is noteworthy that both this border and the other tapestry that shows a protomorphic hautboy (Illustration 1.7) have Versailles, the royal residence, as their subject. 21 I am grateful to Marc Ecochard for this insight. 22 M. Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636-7), p. 295.

28

From Renaissance to Baroque

Poitou (see Illustration 2.1 in Marc Ecochard's essay; p. 58). I call both these instruments 'protomorphic hautboys'. The two models of protomorphic hautboy differ in acoustic length (the distance from the top of the instrument to the middle of hole 6), with a length-ratio difference of about 1:1.329, not very different from the relation between later treble and tenor hautboys. Theoretically, absolute lengths might be deduced by comparing control instruments in the borders (cometts and musettes), but the lengths of all these types of instrument are so inconsistent that no absolute conclusions on their lengths can be drawn. If anything, they indicate that the long-belled type was at A+ 1, or a semi tone above a'= 440 Hz, about a'= 464 Hz. Both types of protomorphic hautboy represent a mixture of elements of shawm and hautboy (see Illustration 1.6). Traditional shawm-like elements are the fontanelle (the barrel around the keys) and the long bell. Hautboy characteristics include: 1. Complex turning on the upper part of the top joint (finial on the longbelled model, finial and baluster on the short-belled model). 2. Separation to a new joint between the hands (on the long-belled model). 3. A bell lip (apparently on the long-belled model only). 4. A great-key on the long-belled model (absent on the treble shawm). 5. A shorter bell than the shawm on both models. 6. A reed without pirouette (on the short-belled model; no reeds are visible on the long-belled model). 7. Twin holes for 4 (on both) and 6 (on the short-belled model). On both types, the tone hole centre has been lowered; in other words, the six finger holes have descended longitudinally along the bore. Only a single pair of resonance holes appears to be present. Neither instrument yet has the small-key (used to play E~ on a C-instrument), although the twin 6th holes on the short-belled instrument would have produced the required note (Illustrations 1.4 and 1.5). Somewhat later (1668-80), Le Brun designed another tapestry, Les mois: avril ou le Chateau de Versailles, that portrays another protomorphic hautboy of the dark, long-belled type (Illustration 1. 7), but apparently larger than those shown in the Gobelin tapestry 'L'air'. The instrument is leaning on a balustrade together with a cromorne. 23 Protomorphic hautboys can be seen in other pictures made in the decades between 1660 and 1680. A clearly recognizable short-belled model appears in a painting by Slingeland dated 1677 (Illustration 1.8). 24 23

On the cromorne (which is not a 'krummhom'), see B. Haynes, 'New Light on Some

French Relatives of the Hautboy in the 17th and Early 18th Centuries: The Cromome, Hautbois de Poitou and Chalumeau Simple', in N. Delius (ed.), Sine Musica Nulla Vita: Festschrift Hermann Moeck (Celie, 1997), pp. 257-70. 24 Both are shown in another Gobelin tapestry produced by Le Blond between 1701 and January 1703 called 'L'air ou Junon', which may have borrowed its borders from the earlier examples. The longer, short-belled model is also shown in:

Baptiste's Hautbois

29

It would be surpnsmg if many (indeed, any) protomorphic hautboys survived. Not only were they made relatively early, they were used for scarcely a generation, after which they were superseded. It is unlikely that more than a few of them were ever made (less than a dozen would have served the Douze grands hautbois). The 'two hautboys, one old and the other in a different pitch' that Jacques Philidor left when he died in 1708 may have been relics from these days. 25 Even if instruments currently survive from before 1670, our limited understanding of their physical attributes has as yet prevented us from recognizing them. 26 Similarities between the long-belled protomorphic hautboy and the Baroque Schalmey, a late form of shawm (the so-called Deutsche schalmey) 27 suggest they are closely related if not identical. More will probably be learned about these mid-seventeenth-century hautbois by studying Baroque Schalmeys, over 30 of which survive.

Reasons for 'Improving' the Shawm The idea that the hautboy was an 'improved' shawm was a seventeenthcentury one. Partially confirming La Barre's description of how most ofthe older traditional winds had been supplanted, James Talbot wrote in c.l6839: - F. Cheveau, title page to Lully's Alceste (engraving), 1674. Reproduced in Concerto, vol. 120 (February 1997), p. 15. - Etienne Gantrel (after Louis Le Roux), Sainte Cecile concertant avec cinq anges. Engraving (second half of seventeenth century). Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, Cabinet des Estampes. Reproduced in A.P. de Mirimonde, Sainte-Cecile. Metamorphoses d'un theme musical (Geneva, 1974), p. 117. - Title page to Chambonnieres's Pieces de Clavessin, Jollain, Paris, 1670. - Anthony Leemans, Stilleben mit Musikinstrumenten (?oil painting), 1664. Germanisches National-Museum, Nuremberg (Gm 1215). - Comelis Vermeulen (after Mignard), Al/egorie de Ia musique (engraving), original Mignard c.1665. Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, Cabinet des Estarnpes. Reproduced in A.P. de Mirimonde, L 'Jconographie musicale sous les rois Bourbons (Paris, 1975), fig. 19. 25 '2 hautbois, dont l'un vieux et !'autre de ton different.' N. Dufourcq and M. Benoit, 'Les musiciens de Versailles a travers les minutes notariales de Lamy versees aux Archives departementales de Seine-et-Oise: 1661-1733', Recherches, vol. 3 (1963), p. 195; M. Benoit and N. Dufourcq, 'Les musiciens de Versailles d'apres les minutes du Bailliage de Versailles conservees aux Archives departementales de Seine-et-Oise: 1661-1733 ', Recherches, vol. 6 ( 1966 ), p. 206. 26 Surviving instruments that are clearly early are the Dupuis (Berlin 2933) and an instrument that was formerly at the Paris Conservatoire, depicted inN. Dufourcq (ed.), La musique des origines a nos jours (Paris, 1946), p. 41 (the latter resembles a longmodel protomorphic hautboy). 27 On this instrument, see B. Haynes, "'Sweeter than Hautbois": Towards a Conception of the Schalmey of the Baroque Period', Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, vol. 26 (2000), pp. 57-82.

30

From Renaissance to Baroque The present Hautbois not 40 years old & an improvement of the great French hautbois [i.e. Mersenne's grand hautbois] which is like our Weights[= shawm]_2 8

In what way did musicians of the late seventeenth century see the hautboy as an improvement on the shawm? The shawm had reached a steady form probably by the fifteenth century, and the bugs had long since been worked out of it (as much as they can be on a woodwind) by the end of the sixteenth century. As Smith wrote: Among all the early woodwinds, the family of shawms employs perhaps the most ingenious and sophisticated method for improving 9 stability through the acoustics of its bell design?

The shawm in itself had no need of 'improvement'. What changed was the context in which it functioned, so that what it could do well was marginalized in the music of the seventeenth century. By the beginning of that century, it was being used less and less frequently. It was this situation that led mid-seventeenth-century makers to replace the quite satisfactory design of the shawm with an experiment that eventually stabilized in the form of the hautboy. What was demanded of the shawm by the mid-seventeenth century and what it could not do without changing its form - was to express affections. The hautboy was modelled on the new singer of monodic music, a singer who performed le nuove musiche developed by composers like Caccini and Monteverdi with great success in the generation that preceded the shawm's transformation. Monody drew on a polarity between the bass and the vocal line, and the music was used - even abused - for the sake of the text. In a different way, the French composers of chamber airs of the next generation, starting with Pierre de Niert (c.l597-1682), also reflected the new idea of expressing personal emotions in dramatic ways. These new developments are exemplified in Michel Lambert's Airs published in 1660, and codified in a remarkable book by Benigne de Bacilly that appeared in 1668 entitled Remarques curieuses sur !'art de bien chanter. 30 Both these works (significantly I believe) appeared in France in the same decade as the definitive model of hautboy. It was no accident that vocal obbligatos were the hautboy's first solo medium, exploring the instrument's expressive potential as an individual 'voice'. This was the hautboy's strong suit, and the reason it had been created: to express the emotional force of texts, to 'speak' by bringing out the meanings of words, to evoke and convey affections, to move listeners. This new 'speaking' 28 29 30

See A. Baines (ed.), 'James Talbot's Manuscript' [Oxford, Christ Church Mus. 1187], Galpin Society Journal, voi.J ( 1948), pp. 9-26. D.H. Smith, Reed Design for Early Woodwinds (Bloomington, 1992), p. 29. Facs.: Geneva, 1971; Eng. trans. by A.B. Caswell, A Commentary upon the Proper Art (){Singing (New York, 1968).

Baptiste's Hautbois

31

instrument, the 'eloquent oboe'- as Mattheson put ie 1 -was developed in a period when speech was the operative metaphor for music making. Shawms had been better at something else; the prototypical consort instruments, they could lay down a compelling swathe of sound rather than a single line. The new 'eloquent' hautboy was developed specifically for use in Lully's theatre music, so it was expected to be a kind of wind parallel to the violin, able to blend with other instruments and use a two-octave range centred on the usual notes of the violin, with easy scales inC- and D-major. There was evidently no way to extend the shawm's range to the extent of the violin's; two octaves and perhaps another second were the physical limit of the hautboy for most of its career. An hautboy starting on g like the violin would have played only to g" or possibly to a", so it made more sense to make the lowest note c', extending upward to c"'. Of this range, Banister wrote in 1695: And whereas most other single Wind-Instruments (especially the Flute) go so very high, for want of the lower Notes, that it is impossible to play upon them in Consort with the Violin, &c. The Hautboy is free from this defect, and may be play'd upon in Consort, . h out transposmg . or a d vancmg . the K ey. 32 wit

Thus range was an important issue, and when we consider range, we must also consider absolute pitch. Mersenne's grand hautbois was apparently pitched like shawms everywhere else in Europe at A+l (about a'= 464Hz); the acoustic length he gave the treble member was 276.7 mm, in the same range as surviving hautboys probably at A+ 1. 33 Its six-fingered note would thus presumably have sounded at about modem f. 34 In order for the new protomorphic hautboy to match the violin's range, this note needed to sound ad' in the pitch of Lully's ensemble, the Petite bande. There are indications (discussed below) that this group was still at A+l, so d' would have 31

'Gleichsam redcnde': J. Mattheson, Das neu-eroffnete Orchestre (Hamburg, 1713),

32

p. 268.

33

34

1. Banister Jr. [ascr.], The Sprightly Companion (London, 1695; facs.: P. Hedrick (ed.), Ohio, 1984), 'To the Reader'. The recorder and traverso may have been designed with higher ranges in order to be better heard, as they were softer than the hautboy. See Haynes, The Eloquent Oboe, p. 92. The total length Mersenne gave for the treble shawm was 2 pieds = 648 mrn. This is a little shorter than the total length of the treble shawm Praetorius depicts at 653 mrn. See H.W. Myers, 'Praetorius's Pitch: Some Revelations of the Theutrum lnstrumentorum', in S.A. Carter (ed.), Perspectives in Early Brass Scholarship: Proceedings of the 1995 International Historic Brass Symposium, Amherst, 1995 (Stuyvesant NY, 1997), p. 43, note 30; Myers remarked that this was about 'the same length as trebles I have measured in Brussels (at 653 and 654 mrn).' Praetorius called the seven-fingered note d', which at A+ I sounded about modern eb' (see B. Haynes, 'Pitch Standards in the Baroque and Classical Periods' (Ph.D. dissertation, Universitc de Montreal, 1995), Section 5-1. The six-fingered note a tone above this would thus have sounded at about f.

32

From Renaissance to Baroque

equalled modem e!/. This would have been a tone below the grand hautbois at f. The shorter model of protomorphic hautboy thus probably ended up sounding a second lower than the treble grand hautbois. A change of that magnitude could have provided the impetus for a new design. How the Hautboy Differed from the Shawm

Giving up subtleties of design that had been worked out over centuries was a move that would not have been adopted without a purpose, and redesigning the instrument would not have been easy. In order to achieve a softer sound that blended with the violin and matched its range, the makers who developed the new hautboy shortened the bell, repositioned and reduced the size of the tone holes, and narrowed the reed. On the basis of present evidence, it does not appear that they altered the treble shawm's approximate bore dimensions. The rejection of the pirouette implied the use of a different reed shape. According to Smith the ideal shape of a shawm reed is squat and fanshaped, with a relatively narrow throat (which allows overblowing) but a wide tip. The wide tip stabilized the low notes and cross-fingered notes, and produced a sound that was loud and bright. Smith writes: A reed with a rapidly flaring shape is extremely sensitive to the amount of lip damping by the player. This becomes very apparent when one tries to play a treble shawm without a pirouette, using a fanshaped reed. It is actually difficult for the embouchure to remain in one place on the reed, and pitch becomes erratic ... When the pirouette is added to the set up, it actually becomes part of the embouchure and positions the lips in their normal playing position on the reed, making the instrument feel comfortable and easily manageable. 35

Thus, if the pirouette did in fact begin to be abandoned (as indicated by Mersenne and Trichet), the reeds being used on shawms in the latter part of Louis XIII's reign probably had less flare towards the tip, being consequently softer and duller in sound. These were characteristics that were advantageous to the new hautboy. As far as changes to the bore, Hailperin reported in a comparative study of sample instruments that: 35

Smith, Reed Design for Early Woodwinds, p. 26; see his fig. 1.9a.

Baptiste's Hautbois

33

It is clear that the oboe bores fall neatly within the range of the descant shawm bores, and that the conicity of the main bore of both types of instruments is remarkably similar. .. In fact if one considers the bell as being acoustically a separate part of the instrument, it is 36 hard to nail down any difference in the bore of shawms and oboes.

Thus radical changes to the bore were probably not part of this evolution. 37 The long bell of the treble shawm had acted as a very effective stabilizer of the notes of the lower register through cooperative resonances with the vent holes. But the hautboy represented a categorical rejection of this lower bore extension. The hautboy's bell was less than a quarter of the instrument's total length. In this way, it was closer to a pommer (the alto shawm) which was rather an exception among the shawms in this respect, 38 with a bell only roughly two-fifths of the instrument's total length, and with only two resonance holes. 39 By 1664, the two models of protomorphic hautboy shown in the Gobelin tapestry 'L'air' both had shorter bell proportions than even the pommer. Two radical changes probably intended to lower pitch were repositioning the tone hole centre further from the reed (i.e., lower) and reducing the diameter of the tone holes. Placing a tone hole of the same diameter lower on the bore produced a lower-pitched note, and of course making it smaller had the same effect. Diminishing the size of the tone holes caused the tone to be less stable, 40 softer, and darker, all changes that helped the new hautboy. A gentler sound blended rather than stood out. The reduction in stability also helped with register shifts (which on the hautboy were produced without 'speakers' like the thumb hole on the recorder). The technology for keys was already in place. Shawms had used articulated open-standing keys to extend the natural reach of the fingers. The pommer's great-key was taken over on the protomorphic hautboys (see Illustrations 1.4 and 1.5). The hautboy's small-key for H, when it came, resembled the simple close-standing side keys of the bellows-blown musette, an instrument that by Borjon's time (1672) sometimes had 11 keys. 41 The smaller tone holes of the hautboy made cross-fingering especially effective. Cross-fingering involved lowering the pitch of a simple fingering 36

P. Hailperin, 'Some Technical Remarks on the Shawm and Baroque Oboe' (Diploma thesis, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, 1970), p. 15. 37 Marc Ecochard (personal communication, 1996) has also noticed the similarity of the bores of french treble shawms to early hautboys_ 38 See Smith, Reed Design for Early Woodwinds, p. 146, note 39. 39 The hautboy had other superficial resemblances to the pommer: it took over the great key, and sounded only a tone higher in pitch (the six-fingered note on the alto shawm was about modern ab, which would have been a whole step below the new hautboy at A-2, whose lowest c' would have sounded modem bb). 40 See Myers, 'Practical Acoustics of Early Woodwinds', p. 16. 41 On the musette, keys were used relatively early because its 'closed' finger technique did not allow cross-fingerings.

34

From Renaissance to Baroque

by closing one or more holes immediately below the first open hole. The B produced by closing the first hole could be lowered to a BP, for instance, by also closing hole 3. 42 As more and more tonalities came into use, crossfingerings were regularly called for, and their use became a definitive factor in the instrument's technique and sound. On the hautboy, there was more difference in timbre between natural and cross-fingered notes than on the shawm because the tone holes were smaller and because the hautboy lacked the shawm' s long bell. 43 Protomorphic hautboys were an intermediate stage, and it is only partly clear which of these changes they incorporated and which came with the next stage (that is, with the instrument that eventually established itself as the Baroque hautboy). This is one of several reasons why Marc Ecochard's reconstructions of the long-belled protomorphic hautboy are interesting. It is clear that the pirouette was no longer a part of the protomorphic hautboy. Several other changes were yet to come, however, including a shortened bell, the addition of the small-key, and further complexities in turning profile. The tone-holes may also have been further reduced in diameter. If we accept the theory (mooted below) that protomorphic hautboys were at A+ 1, then they would have been lowered in pitch another minor third, since the definitive hautboy ended up (earlier or later) sounding a six-finger d' at A-2 (about a'= 390 Hz, which came to be called Ton d 'Opera). That was a full major fourth below Mersenne's grand hautbois. To redesign the protomorphic hautboy to satisfy these conditions was a challenge worthy of the talents of a master instrument maker. The Years 1664 to 1670

Several woodwind makers are known to have been at work in Paris in the mid-seventeenth century, all members of the Hotteterre famiJ.i'. The key figure was Jean (Jehan) (3) Hotteterre ('pere', c.1605-1690/2). His career spans the critical period between the appearance of Mersenne's books and the first documentation of the definitive hautboy. Jean Hotteterre was a master turner at the time of his marriage in 1628, and was a 'Maitre faiseur d'instr.' (that is, he probably ran his own workshop) by 1646. He was an active player, and a member of the Hautbois et musettes de Poitou from 1650. His grandson Jacques (le Romain) attributed improvements to the drones of the musette to him. By the 1670s, he was highly regarded as an instrument maker. Borjon wrote that he was: 42

43 44

Cross-fmgering worked well with smaller tone holes because the first open hole had to be of small diameter in relation to the bore to be able to alter the pitch enough to be usable. SeeM. Ecochard and B. Haynes, 'Fingering §III, 1: Wind instruments with side holes', in New Grove 2, vol. 8, pp. 851-5. Herbert Myers, personal communication, 17 November 1996. For a discussion oflowerbore resonances, see Smith, Reed Design for Early Woodwinds, pp. 29 et seq. There were numerous members of the Hotteterre family with the same names (there are five 'Jean Hotteterres', for example). In ambiguous cases, I use the geneaological numbers in W. Waterhouse, The New Langwilllndex (London, 1993), p. 182.

Baptiste's Hautbois un homme unique pour Ia construction de toutes sortes d'instruments de bois, d'yvoire et d'ebeine, comme sont les musettes, flutes, flageolets, haubois, cromomes; et mesme pour faire des accords parfaits de tous ces mesme 45 instruments.

35

unique as a maker of all kinds of wooden, ivory, and ebony instruments, such as musettes, flutes, flageolets, hautboys, and cromomes. He is also known for making such instruments perfectly in tune.

According to Borjon, Hotteterre had two sons who were also makers: Ses fils ne luy cedent en rien pour Ia pratique de cet art.

His sons are in no way inferior to him in the practice of this art.

Hotteterre's elder son Jean (8) was murdered by a colleague in 1667. 46 The younger, Martin (c.1640-1712, later a celebrated player), was living and working with his father in 1658.47 La Barre wrote (as cited above) that it was the 'Filidors' and 'Hautteterres' who had redesigned the hautbois. Of members of the Danican Philidor family active at the time, two might have been involved: Michel (the Danican who Louis XIII called a 'second Filidori', thus conferring the name 'Philidor' on the family) and Jean (c.l620-79). No instruments with either name are known to survive. 48 These makers were closely involved with about two dozen hautbois players active at court and in the city of Paris in the critical decades of the 1650s and 60s when the instrument was undergoing major changes. Some or all of these players would have been involved in experiments, acting as consultants or guinea pigs. There are indications that there was one year that was critical in this process: 1664. It was in this year that Jean Hotteterre was appointed to the Douze grands hautbois, and that exactly half of the veteran players in this ensemble left it. The same year saw five members of the Cromornes et trompettes marines (another court ensemble of Hautbois) leave service. 1664 was also the year that the earliest of Lully's 'Trios de la chambre' was written (LWV 35). 49 45 46 47

48

49

P. B01jon de Sce11ery [ascr.], Traite de Ia musette, avec une nouvelle methode (Lyon, 1672), p. 38. See T. Giannini, 'Hotteterre', New Grove 2, vol. II, p. 752. Jean's brother Nicolas (4) (d. 1693) and his son Nicolas Jr (10) (b. c.1636, d. 1694) were also active makers. They opened their workshop about 1660 and by 1682 were settled in Versailles. An inventory at the death of the younger Nicolas (10) listed tools for making wind instruments such as recorders, flageolets, and bassoons. Waterhouse, New Langwil/ Index, p. 183. A 'Filidor' is listed in Du Pradel 1692 as 'Maitre pour le Jeu et pour Ia Fabrique des Instruments a Vent' (cited in Waterhouse, New Langwill Index, p. 301). This could have been Jacques Philidor, who left at his death in 1708 'outils servans a faire des instruments de simphonie' (Dufourcq and Benoit, 'Les musiciens de Versailles', p. 195). It is of course possible that the Philidors worked with the Hotteterres as consultants rather than makers. H. Schneider, Chrono/ogisch-thematisches Verzeichnis siimtlicher Werke von JeanBaptiste Lu/ly (Tutzing, 1981 ). Some (perhaps all) of this music was written for

36

From Renaissance to Baroque

1664 is remarkable for another reason. After the production of Les plaisirs de /'isle enchantee in May, Lully seems to have stopped using hautboys in his dramatic productions for several years. He had apparently called for them in eight pieces between 1657 and 1664. 50 But between 1664 and 1670 he produced 14 large-scale ballets and comedie-ballets; some of them called for flutes, but none give any indication of the use of the hautboy. We do not in fact hear of the instrument again until the production of Le bourgeois gentilhomme in 1670. The fragmentary state of surviving Lully sources makes it difficult to draw definite conclusions on this basis alone, but the regular mention of hautbois again after 1670 (now in four rather than five parts) suggests that the instrument had been purposely omitted from court performances for these six years. Whether the new model had appeared by 1664 and players were learning to use it, or whether it was being developed in the years following the performance of Les plaisirs de /'isle enchantee, Lully seems deliberately to have allowed his hautbois players a grace period, in which they were given a chance to work on the design of the new instrument and the technique of playing it. There is a possible motive for this change. It was in this same year, 1664, that Lully first began working with the Grande bande (the Vingtquatre violons). Prior to that time, Lully's own ensemble was the Petite bande or Petits violons. It is possible that the amalgamation of these two groups involved reconciling their different pitches. This is suggested by the performing materials for Cavalli's opera Ercole amante, which was produced in Paris two years earlier in 1662. Lully (who at that time had not yet consolidated his power) was asked to write instrumental ballets, or entractes 51 that were interspersed throughout the opera, as well as a Ballet des sept planetes that followed it. It is curious that Lully's entractes were systematically and consistently notated a minor third below each of the pieces they followed in Cavalli's opera (C-A, g-e, etc.). The logical explanation for this difference in key is that Lully's pieces were played by another ensemble pitched a minor third above the opera orchestra. The only plausible combination of pitches at this spacing would have been A-2 and A+l. It is possible that Lully performed his entractes with the Petite bande, while the opera itself was played by the Vingt-quatre violons, directed by Cavalli. 52 Indeed, several later compositions by Lully included the two ensembles playing in conjunction (one on the stage, the other in the pit, for example). This could explain the difference in pitch: the Vingt-quatre would have been at A-2 for the sake of the singers in the opera, while the Petite bande, hautboys; the '9 Trios' in the collection were written for the Mousquetaires in 1667 for performance out of doors at Fontainebleau (Hugo Reyne, personal communication), and may have been demonstration pieces for the new design of hautboy. It was also in 1664 that Le Brun produced the design for the borders of the Gobelin tapestries showing the two models ofprotomorphic hautboy. 50 See Haynes, The Eloquent Oboe, p. 57. 51 LWV 17: 1-12. 52 There was certainly space enough for the two bands in the cavernous theatre built by Vigarani in the Tuileries.

Baptiste's Hautbois

37

playing instrumental dances without voice, were still at the traditional court pitch called Ton d'Ecurie (A+ 1, the pitch of shawms and presumably of the protomorphic hautboys Lully used with the Petite bande). This theory awaits further evidence to confirm it, but if true, it suggets that when the two ensembles began to merge in 1664 and were both accompanying singers, the Petite bande would have had some major refitting to do to come down to the low pitch. The string instruments might well have been Italian, in which case they had probably been built at north-Italian pitch (A+ 1); in any case, they would probably have been replaced. As for the hautboys, the change of pitch may have precipitated the process of redesign that appears to have taken place at the time. By 1668, the Abbe de Pure may have been describing the new developments when he wrote: Les Haut-bois ont un chant plus eleve, & de Ia maniere dont on en Joiie maintenant chez le Roy, & a Paris, il y auroit peu de choses a en desirer. 11 font les cadences aussi Justes, les tremblements aussi doux, & les diminutions aussi regulieres que les voix les mieux instruites, & que les instruments les plus parfaits. Nous en avons mesme veu le succez sur les tres, & en certaines Entrees particulieres: Je ne doute point quils ne fissent un merveilleux effet dans une Pastoralle. Mais on ne f:Jeut Jamais s'ausseurer sur le vent, l'halene manque, les poulmons sepaisissent, l'estomac se fatigue, & enfin on sent une notable difference de Ia fin & des commencemens, & on n 'y trouve plus 54 de Justesse.

Hautbois make a stately sound, and, played as they are nowadays at the Court and in Paris, leave little to be desired. They make cadences as well in tune, trills as sweet, and diminutions as regular as the best-instructed voice and the most perfect instrument. We have seen their success on stage, and in certain specific scenes. I have no doubt they would produce a marvellous effect in a Pastorale. But [unlike the musettes, with hautboys] it is never possible to be certain of the wind supply; the breath fails, the lungs thicken, the diaphragm 55 tires, and finally a noticeable difference is evident between the end and the beginning; good intonation can no longer be found.

Pure's description is of an instrument not yet well-known, and one that may not yet have been fully mastered by its players. In 1672 Lully became head of the Acadernie Royale de Musique, or Opera. In that same year, Blanchet's engraving appeared in Botjon's musette tutor; this is the first documentation of the hautboy's existence in its definitive form. But Botjon's text, and that of Pure just quoted, imply that the hautboy was by then already known. Robert Cambert had used hautbois in two productions in 1671, his pastoral Pornone (described at the 53 54 55

Pure is comparing hautboys to musettes, which are supplied with wind through a bag filled by bellows. Abbe M. de Pure, Idees des spectacles anciens et nouveaux (Paris, 1668), p. 274. Transcription kindly provided by Giovanni Caviglia. Literally 'the stomach'.

38

From Renaissance to Baroque

time as the 'first French opera to appear on the stage') and Les peines et les plaisirs de I 'amour. And a year before Pomone, Lully had once again included the hautboy in Le bourgeois gentilhomme, produced at Chambord in 1670. This piece may thus represent the court debut of the new design of hautboy, developed in the preceding six years. The military debut of the new model may have occurred in the same year, with the Marche du Regiment du Roy, 'faite par M. de Lully l'an 1670' (this is the oldest dated piece in the Philidor Manuscript56 ).

Conclusions The wind instruments that were being used at the end of the seventeenth century were all products of more or less radical redesigns and recombinations of earlier types. To arrive at its late-seventeenth-century form, the new hautboy had gone through a gradual metamorphosis intended to tum it into a Baroque instrument (that is, one that played solos and 'spoke' the affections). It was also required to perform as a wind equivalent of the violin in the 'orchestra', a new kind of ensemble that combined winds and strings, encouraged and developed by Lully and Louis XIV. From 1620, when it was still described as a classic shawm, the hautbois appears to have proceeded through four stages: 1. By the mid-1630s, the pirouette began to be abandoned and the reed altered correspondingly. 2. By the late 1650s, it was in transitional protomorphic form and was playing together with strings. 3. From 1664 to 1670, it was at least partially withdrawn from Lully's performances while it was further developed. 4. In 1670, it emerged with all the physical attributes of the definitive hautboy. 56

That is, the Partition de plusieurs marches: Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS Res. F. 671.

Baptiste's Hautbois

39

:z

..

Illus. 1.1

Michael Praetorius, Syntagma musicum (Wolfenbtittel, 1620), Plate 11: shawms.

40

Illus. 1.2

From Renaissance to Baroque

[Thomas] Blanchet: etching opposite title page to Pierre Bmjon de Scellery, Traite de Ia musette, avec une nouvelle methode (Lyon, 1672).

Baptiste's Hautbois

Illus. 1.3

41

Marin Mersenne, Harmonicorum instrumentorum (Paris, 1635), p. 84 and Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636--7), p. 295: detail of treble shawm showing reed without pirouette.

42

Illus. 1.4

From Renaissance to Baroque

Panel F from the border of the Gobelin tapestry 'L'air' (from the series Les Elemens, after Charles LeBrun, 1664); 1669c.1680. Palazzo Pitti, Florence (formerly Palazzo Pubblico, Siena) (reproduced with permission).

Baptiste's Hautbois

Illus. 1.5

Gobelin tapestry permission).

43

'L' Air', Panel H (reproduced with

44

From Renaissance to Baroque

0 0

0

0

0 0

0 0

00

0

0 00

Illus. 1.6

Schematic drawing by Marc Ecochard of long-belled and short-belled protomorphic hautboys, based on the borders of the Gobelin tapestries.

Baptiste's Hautbois

Illus. 1.7

45

Charles Le Brun: detail from cartoon (preparatory painting) for the Gobelin tapestry Les mois: avril ou le Chateau de Versailles, 1668-80. Musee National du Chateau de Versailles (reproduced with permission).

Illus. 1.8

Pieter Comelisz van Slingeland: detail from 'Violin Player', 1677. Oil, 23.5 x 19 em. Staatl. Museum, Schwerin (reproduced with permission).

Chapter Two

A Commentary on the Letter by Michel de La Barre Concerning the History of Musettes and Hautboys Marc Ecochard

Memoire de M. de La Barre sur les musettes et haubois Lettre adressee a Monsieur de Villiers, a I' Hotel de La Monnoye a Paris On trouve dans les archives de Ia Chambre des comptes quatre charges de haubois et musettes de Poitou, de Ia creation du Roy Jean. Dans ces terns parbare au moins pour les arts, et sur tout pour Ia musique, on ne connoisoit d'autres istrumens que Ia musette, le haubols, Ia comemuse, le comet, le cromome et le cacbouc [saqueboute?]; ce demier estoit une espece de comemuse, mais bien plus grand; tous ces instrumens estoient bons pour rejouir Jes paysans et pour leurs dances, quoy qu'ils s'acordassent tres mal, premierement par !'ignorance de ceux qui en jouuent, et par le deffaut meme des instrument. Du vivent de Fran~ois premier, on commen~a a se decrasser sur la musique; un nommez Ducoroy, valet de chambre de sa maieste et maitre de musique de sa chapelle, fut le premier et le seul qui en fit de belle pour ce terns Ia; il voulut se servir de ces instrumens, mais il ne put jamais. On fut oblige de faire venir des violons du Milanois. Apn!s sa mort, Ia musique retomba dans le barbare, et elle y est restee a tres peu pres, jusques au tams de

In the archives of the chamber of finance, one finds four places with the title Hautbois et musettes de Poitou, created by King John. During those uncivilized times, at least for the arts, and especially for music, the only instruments they knew were the musette, the hautboy, the bagpipe, the comett, the crumhom and the 'cacbouc' [sackbut?]; the latter was a sort of bagpipe, but much longer; all these instruments were good enough for the entertainment of peasants and for their dances, although they were not well in tune, first because of the ignorance of the people who played them, and also because of the defects of the instruments themselves. When King Francis I was alive, music began to pull itself together; a certain Du Caurroy, a servant of his Majesty and a music master of his Chapel was the first and only one to produce fine music at that time; he wanted to use these instruments, but, because of their quality, he never managed to. They had to bring violins from the region of Milan. After his death, music returned to its former uncivilized state, and

48

From Renaissance to Baroque

Louis quatorse, sous le celebre raygne ou tous les arts on este portez a leur perfection, Ia musique a brille infiniment. Le Camus, Boisset, Dembris et Lambert ont estez les premiers a faire des airs qui exprimassent les parolles, mais sur tout le celebre Luly; on peut dire que on devroit I' apeller I' apollon de Ia France, mais son elevation fit Ia chute totalle de tous les entiens istrumens, a 1'exception du haubois, grace aux Filidor et Hautteterre, lesquels ont tant gate de bois et soutenus de Ia musique, qu'ils sont enfin parvenus a le rendre propre pour les concerts. De ces terns Ia, on laissa Ia musette au bergers, les violons, les flutes douces, les theorbes et les violes prirent leur place, car Ia flute traverssiere n'est venue qu'apres. C'est Philbert qui en ajouer le premier en France, et puis presque dans le meme terns, Descoteaux; le roy ausibien que toute sa cour, a qui cet istrument plut infiniment, adiouta deux charges aux quatres musettes de Poitou, et les donna a Philbert et Descoteaux, et ils m' ont dit plusieurs fois que le roy leurs avoit dit en les leur donnant qu'il souhaitoit fort que les six musettes fuessent metamorphoses en flutes traversieres, qu'amoins elles seroient utiles, au lieu que les musettes n'estoient propre qu'a faire dansser les paisanes. Voila, Monsieur, tout ce que j'ay lu et ce que j'ay ouy dire touchant Ia musette. Je souhaite qu'il soit assez bien ecrit pour que vous puissiez !'entendre. Je n'ay pu faire mieux; ce n'est point mon metier d'ecrire; je joue de Ia flute a votre tres humble service. Je suis tres parfaitement, Monsieur, votre tres humble et tres obeissant serviteur. Delabarre

remained more or less in this condition until the time of Louis XIV, under whose reign all the arts have been brought to their perfection, and music has become particularly brilliant. Le Camus, Boesset, Dembris and Lambert were the first to make airs that gave expression to the words, but above all [there was] the famous Lully; he could be called the Apollo of France, although his promotion meant the downfall of all the old instruments except the hautboy, thanks to the Philidors and Hotteterres, who spoiled so much wood and played so much music that they finally succeeded in rendering it usable in ensembles. From that time on, musettes were left to shepherds, and violins, recorders, theorboes, and viols took their place, for the transverse flute did not arrive until later. Philbert was the first to play it in France, and almost immediately afterwards, Descoteaux. The instrument was a great success with the king and indeed everyone at court, and His Majesty caused two new positions to be created in the [ensemble called] Musettes de Poitou and conferred them on Philbert and Descoteaux, and they told me several times that the king had told them as he conferred these positions on them, that he firmly wished that the six musette positions would be transformed into transverse flute positions. Then they would be useful, since musettes were only appropriate to accompany the dances of peasant girls. That, Sir, is all I have read and heard about the musette. I wish it were written well enough for you to understand it. I could do no better; it is not my job to write; I play the flute at your humble service. I am completely, Sir, your most humble and obedient servant. De La Barre

Commentary on the Letter by Michel de La Barre

49

This document is to be found in the Papiers du Grand Ecuyer, a division of the Secretariat de Ia Maison du Roy. 1 It was first brought to light by J.-G. Prod'homme in 1912 and published in its original French by Marcelle Benoit. 2 The document, known as 'Memoire de M. de La Barre sur les musettes et hautbois', is a letter sent to 'Monsieur de Villiers, a l'Hotel de la Monnoye a Paris'. The letter is undated but was probably written c.l740, considerably later than the period, between 1650 and 1680, that saw important changes in woodwind making. Michel de La Barre, born c.l675, knew and worked with the main protagonists of this story. With his colleague Jacques Hotteterre, he belonged to the generation that immediately followed the period of technical revolution in French woodwinds. As a transverse flute player, he studied with the first French flautist, Philibert Rebille, and also with Rene Pignon dit Descoteaux, both mentioned in the letter. La Barre made his career at the court as Musicien de Ia chambre at the Academie Royale, and as a musician to important aristocratic figures like the Marquis de Villiers. He is apparently portrayed in the famous painting by Andre Bouys (previously attributed to Robert Toumieres): Les Ordinaires de Ia Musique du Roy. 3 He died on 15 March 1745.4 The purpose of La Barre's letter is to inform his patron, the Marquis de Villiers, about the history of musettes and hautboys. In fact, La Barre speaks not only of oboes and related instruments, but also of his own instrument, the transverse flute. In addition, he relates the instruments to their social, historical and political context. The letter, written in a concise and unsophisticated style, clearly portrays the main steps that were involved in the replacement of the traditional set of Renaissance instruments - played throughout French society -by highly sophisticated instruments made exclusively for 'art music' at court and in aristocratic circles. The old instruments, he says, were left to the peasants, the hautbois being the only exception. The way La Barre describes it, this appears to be a real revolution in the fields of artistic sensibility, music and instrument making. Along with this revolution, La Barre shows a change in the social function of the instruments.

1 2

4

Paris, Archives Nationa1es, Serie 0 1• 878, no. 240. J.-G. Prod'homme (ed.), Ecrits de musiciens (Xve-XVJI!e siecles) (Paris, 1912); M. Benoit, Musiques de cour: chapelle, chambre, ecurie, 1661-1733 (Paris, 1971), p. 455. London, National Gallery (reproduced as fig. 2 in J.M. Bowers, 'La Barre, Michel de', in New Grove 2, vol. 14, p. 80) with a copy in Dijon Museum. The standing musician holding a transverse flute and looking at the music on the table is Michel de La Barre. Both Philipp Bate and Bruce Haynes have independently noted (in personal communications) that the standing figure resembles Jacques Hotteterre le Romain as portrayed in his Principes de Ia flute traversiere (Paris, 1707). See Bowers, 'La Barre', pp. 79-81.

50

From Renaissance to Baroque

A New Social Function for the Instruments

Like most people at that time, La Barre, a 'modem' court musician, deeply despised earlier times, and the old-fashioned instruments and music: 'During those uncivilized times at least for the arts, and especially for music, the only instruments they knew were the musette, the hautboy, the bagpipe, the comett, the crumhom and the sackbut. .. they were not well in tune, first because of the ignorance of the people who played them, and also because of the defects of the instruments themselves.' This contemptuous attitude underscores the division that prevailed at the beginning of the seventeenth century between those whom Mersenne called 'the ordinary musicians' (les musiciens ordinaires), 5 organized in brotherhoods and guilds and retaining traditional instruments, and court musicians playing art music and the new instruments. It is worth noting that the development of the French Baroque occurs in middle-class and aristocratic circles in towns and at the court. The rural and popular world had no part in this movement. There is in fact a close relationship between the appearance of a new musical style, the instruments played, and the social and political function of the music. La Barre states clearly that the old woodwinds - and especially the musette - were left to the peasants and that they were replaced at court by violins, viols, recorders, and theorboes; the only old woodwind instrument that, through adaptation, was able to survive was the hautbois. 'From that time on, musettes were left to shepherds, and violins, recorders, theorboes, and viols took their place ... '. These transformations happened gradually. They first affected strings and keyboard instruments as early as the reign of Louis XIII, and were consistent with a new fashion for the lute and the viol - used for accompanying air de cour. La Barre noted this distinction and at the same time gave a nice definition of air de cour: 'Le Camus, Boesset, Dembris and Lambert were the first to make airs which gave expression to the words'. In Harmonie universelle, published in 1636-7, Marin Mersenne describes the old French viol, which was being replaced at the time by the new six-string viol from England. 6 These stylistic and organological innovations, coming mainly from abroad (Italy and England), were immediately and eagerly adopted by the town and the court; in the field of woodwind instruments, however, this process of innovation was much slower. Woodwinds, and especially bagpipes and oboes, were associated primarily with the rural majority of the population, still almost impervious to foreign influences; besides which they were made by the peasants themselves or by guilds of instruments makers and musicians who were working in strongly established traditions. At the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV, the guilds of menetriers (guilds of musicians and instrument makers), and especially the Confrerie de St-Julien-des-Menetriers in Paris, were still powerful enough to resist the increased influence of court music and the academies of dance and music. Thus modifications were only 5 6

M. Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636--7; facs.: Paris, 1963), p. 189. Ibid., pp. 190-4.

Commentary on the Letter by Michel de La Barre

51

gradually, made to woodwind instruments by the players and makers of the Grande Ecurie and the conservative nature of the musical brotherhoods and guilds (confn!ries de musiciens et nJenestrandises) was therefore reflected in the organization of the Grande Ecurie. The whole range of instruments represented by the nu!netriers, such as violins, grands hautbois (shawms), hautbois and musettes de Poitou, formed the basic structure of the Grande Ecurie and the various instrumental groups that were established at the time of Francis I. One of these groups, the Violons, hautbois, sacqueboutes et cornets, faithfully reproduced- although with a larger number of musicians (twelve instead of six or eight) - the composition of the traditional wind ensemble that could be found everywhere in France. The Violons, hautbois, sacqueboutes et cornets, although consisting exclusively of oboes and bassoons since the 1670s, kept this title into the eighteenth century; t\Jereafter they were entitled the Douze grands hautbois de Ia Grande Ecurie. The resistance to change was broken only by the strong individual will of Lully, acting as the agent of Louis XIV' s aesthetic and political projects. In his own inimitable style, La Barre describes the importance of both Louis XIV and Lully: 'After [Francis I's] death music returned to its former uncivilized state, and remained more or less in this condition until the time of Louis XIV, under whose reign all the arts have been brought to their perfection, and music has become particularly brilliant. .. above all the famous Lully; he could be called the Apollo of France, although his promotion meant the downfall of all the old instruments ... '. This last sentence refers to the replacement of the old woodwind instruments at court, but not to their suppression throughout the country. The musette, the grand hautbois, the hautbois de Poitou, the sackbut and the comett (in the form of the serpent) continued to be played in rural France with very few morphological changes until the beginning of the nineteenth century, after which, with sociological and economical changes in the rural world, they were preserved only in folk and traditional music. The Historical Background: Italian Influence

La Barre's historical account begins with the creation of four places in the Hautbois et Musettes de Poitou by 'King John'. La Barre is presumably referring to John II 'le Bon' (the brave) who reigned in France from 1350 until 1364. His historical concept, however, was extraordinarily limited and he made only one exception to his general contempt for 'those uncivilized times' and their people: this is Du Caurroy who 'was the first and only one to produce fine music at that time'. Indeed, Eustache Du Caurroy (15491609) was the only musician before the seventeenth century to enjoy a serious reputation among later musicians. Marin Mersenne said of him: 'Du Caurroy emporte le prix pour la grande harmonie de sa composition et de son riche contrepoint. .. Tous les compositeurs de France le tiennent pour leur maitre' (Du Caurroy is superior in the great harmony of his composition and for the wealth of his counterpoint... Every composer in

52

From Renaissance to Baroque

France honours him as their master.) 7 Mersenne also included a 'Pie Jesu' of Du Caurroy in the Harmonie universelle. It is worth noting that Du Caurroy was master of the Chapel of Henri IV rather than of Francis I as stated by La Barre. King Henry IV created the position of Surintendant de Ia musique for Du Caurroy; as such, he was one of the direct predecessors ofLully. The Italian influence on French music was not understood by La Barre as a stylistic issue, but only as a replacement of obsolete instruments by new violins. 'They had to bring violins from the region of Milan' no doubt refers to the Italian musicians and artists who came to France under Francis I and his successors during the second part of the sixteenth century. The region of Milan (and Piedmont) was famous for its dancers and violinists; in 1554, the Marechal de Brissac, French governor of Piedmont, is said to have sent a violin band directed by the famous Baldassare de Belgioioso (Balthasar de Beaujoyeux) to Queen Catherine de Medici. 8 The fact that La Barre describes the first wave of Italian artistic immigration and not the second, which happened during the regency of Anne d' Autriche under the influence of Mazarin, reflects clearly the ambiguity of the French attitude, and especially that of the young Louis XIV and his court, towards Italy and the Italian musicians protected by Mazarin. The king and his entourage of courtiers were fascinated by Italian musicians, singers, architects and painters, but at the same time were a little frightened of their ways. In this context we can mention the misadventures of Cavalli, Vigarani and the architect Bernini in France. To celebrate the king's wedding, Mazarin ordered Vigarani to construct the sumptuous Tuileries theatre for the performance of Cavalli's Ercole amante but the job was deliberately bungled by French workmen. Cavalli's opera, conceived as the quintessential expression of the new style, was a failure, except for the entrees composed by Lully. 9 Cavalli, like Bernini and the other Italians imported by Mazarin, did not fit into Louis XIV's vision of the monarchy. They were given golden handshakes and Lully took their place. La Barre, unaware of the Italian influence on music and the arts at the beginning of Louis's reign, repeated the officially correct political story designed to con~rm a new royal absolutism and an exclusively French conception of mUSIC.

La Barre therefore emphasized the two basic elements of French Baroque music: a) the air de cour and b) Lully. The Air de Cour

'Le Camus, Boesset, Dembris and Lambert were the first to make airs that gave expression to the words' is a concise way of describing the passage from the polyphony of the French 'chanson' to the solo air accompanied by continuo. 7 8 9

Mersenne, Harmonie universel/e, p. 61. J.R. Anthony, French Baroque Music from Beaujoyeulx to Rameau (2nd rev. edn., 1978, London}, p. 11. P. Beaussant, Lully ou le musicien du solei! (Paris, 1992}, p. 232.

Commentary on the Letter by Michel de La Barre

53

Lully

At the beginning of Louis XIV's reign, Lulli conveniently lost his Italian 'i', replacing it with the French 'y'. Lully understood that the young Louis XIV, with whom he became close, represented the new power in France. He and the young king did everything necessary to put music at the service of royal glory. Lully's work was in fact a form of political publicity and propaganda. Lully was clever enough to maintain the traditional structures of court music and simply add them to his own ensemble which carried a new style and new instruments. To the Vingt-quatre violons, still attached to the old brotherhood of StJulien, he superimposed his own twelve Petits violons, accountable only to him. Musical positions at court were defined by the kind of instrument played; for the woodwinds, these posts still carried the titles of instruments they had had more than a century before: the Douze grands hautbois were still called the Violons, hautbois, sacqueboutes et cornets. Like Lully, Louis XIV did not change the titles but encouraged the use of new instruments. The introduction of the new hautboy occurred inside the existing structures, and followed a process described by La Barre for the transverse flute. Two existing positions of the old Hautbois et musettes de Poitou were conferred upon Philibert Rebille and Rene Pignon dit Descoteaux, in order to give the new transverse flute official status at court, along with the Hautbois et musettes de Poitou. 10 Lully's aim was to bring together in the same ensemble instruments that had previously been played separately. This is the meaning of the phrase: 'his promotion meant the downfall of all the old instruments except the hautboy, thanks to the Philidors and Hotteterres, who spoiled so much wood and played so much music that they finally succeeded in rendering it usable in ensembles.' In French, La Barre used the term concerts which, in the language of the seventeenth century, also meant a piece of music played together and the action of playing in an ensemble. But what sort of ensemble is La Barre referring to when he speaks of this hautboy 'that they finally succeeded in rendering ... usable in ensembles'? Is this ensemble the woodwind consort common at that time for which the grand hautbois (shawm) was perfectly adapted, or the new consort of strings with basso 10

Rene Pignon dit Descoteaux and Philibert Rebille were first mentioned in l'Etat des officiers de Ia Maison du Roy in 1667 (see Benoit, Musiques de cour, pp. 17-18), as substitutes to vacant places in the Hautbois et Musettes de Poitou: 'Franr;ois Pignon Descoutteaux (demeure a Laval: son filz [Rene Pignon dit Descoteaux] joue a sa place avec les musettes; Jean-Louis Brunet (dans le Prieure de St Berthellemy; !edit JeanLouis est filz de Jean Brunet, et il n'a point de certificat). Philebert Rebille est receu a sa place. Nota: point d'employ' (Frant;ois Pignon Descoutteaux (lives in Laval: his son [Rene Pignon dit Descoteaux] plays instead of him with the musettes); Jean-Louis Brunet (in the Priory of St Berthellemy; the aforesaid Jean-Louis is the son of Jean Brunet and he has no certificate). Philebert Rebille is recognized instead of him. Note: no employment'). This quotation confirms La Barre's statement concerning the use of two Hautbois et Musettes de Poitou positions for both transverse flute players. During the same year, 1667, 'le Sieur Philbert' (Philebert Rebille) is cited as 'Joueur de flutte ordinaire du Cabinet, in Comptes de Ia Maison du Roy. Menus Plaisirs and was appointed twice for 400 It (livres tournai) (Benoit, ibid., p. 19).

54

From Renaissance to Baroque

continuo to which the transformed hautboy was to be added? The French word concerts probably has the meaning of 'mixed' consorts (strings and woodwind) equivalent to the English 'consort'. 11 In any case, it is clear from this text that the transformation of the hautboy by the 'Philidors and Hotteterres' had enabled this instrument to be combined with different families of instruments. It was therefore the first woodwind instrument to be added to the violin band to form what would later be called the 'orchestra' . 12 Who were the Philidors and Hotteterres 'who spoiled so much wood ... '? Judging from the probable period of these events (roughly between 1643- the death of Louis XIII- and 1670), it seems likely that the 'Philidors' are Michel Danican (who lived untill659 and was the preferred hautboist of Louis XIII - the king himself gave him the surname Filidori), and two members of his immediate family: Jean and Andre Danican dit Philidor who had the titles of Joueurs de fifres and cromornes. The Hotteterres were probably Jean Hotteterre, a famous musette maker, his brother Nicolas (died in 1693), and Nicolas's son of the same name (dit I' Aine, the elder). The Instruments

La Barre's letter is entitled 'Memo ire sur les musettes et haubois'. Both instruments are immediately associated with a popular and peasant context: 'During those uncivilized times ... the only instruments they knew were the musette, the hautboy, the bagpipe, the cornett, the crumhom and the sackbut ... all these instruments were good enough for the entertainment of peasants and for their dances'. La Barre's list of wind instruments accurately reflects the instrumentation of French popular and traditional wind ensembles and these ipstruments were also represented at the court in the groups of the Grande Ecurie: Hautbois et musettes de Poitou, Joueurs de violons, hautbois, sacqueboutes et cornets, and Cromornes et trompettes marines. For more background on the instruments La Barre briefly described, we can refer to Marin Mersenne. In his Harmonie universelle Mersenne gave a fairly complete framework of the woodwind instruments in use at that time in France; like La Barre, Mersenne distinguished three closely associated types of reed instruments: 1. The musette, i.e. the musette de Poitou, which was a bagpipe with one drone. The chanter of this instrument, with its fontanelle, was called the hautbois de Poitou. The hautbois and musette de Poitou together formed a complete family of instruments with a treble (dessus), using both the II 12

See P. Holman, Four and Twenty Fiddlers: The Violin at the English Court 1540-1690 (Oxford, 2/1995), pp. 131-2. SeeN. Zaslaw, 'When is an Orchestra not an Orchestra', Early Music, vol. 16 (1988), pp. 483-95.

Commentary on the Letter by Michel de La Barre

55

musette de Poitou and the hautbois de Poitou, a tenor size (taille), and a bass (Illustration 2.1; for Illustrations see pp. 58-61 ). 2. The hautbois itself, or grand hautbois as it was called by Mersenne; it was always a specific type of uncapped double reed instrument, similar in shape to the European shawm (Illustration 2.2). 3. The cornemuse, called chalemie by Mersenne, which is a bagpipe with two drones played at the court at the same time as the musette until the 1660s (Illustration 2.3).

In French, the relationship between the word hautbois and the bagpipe had more than one dimension. As we have already noted, apart from the grand hautbois, the oboe family in France included a wide range of bagpipes and capped reed instruments. All these instruments could be played in two ways: first, in the way they were originally conceived with the windbag and the cap, and second, with the reed of the chanter directly between the lips. At the moment the player pulled the chanter out of the bag or the cap and played it with his own embouchure, this chanter became an hautbois. There existed, in other words, both a semantic and an organological meaning of the word hautbois: 'to play the oboe' could refer to a way of playing (to play 'a Ia oboe', or 'oboe-way') as well as to the act of playing a specific instrument, the hautbois. It is, for this reason, that the seventeenth-century French hautbois and its evolution cannot be studied separately from contemporary bagpipes and capped reed instruments. A second division is superimposed on the categories of instruments defined above, which is based on the overall lengths and registers of instruments. Each family of instruments was divided into two consorts (jeux in French), based on the theoretical length of the bass of each consort, 4 or 8 feet. Like the recorder family, oboes were thus divided into grand et petit jeu (big and small consort), corresponding, as Mersenne wrote, to 'le petit et le grand jeu des orgues' .13 When he writes on hautbois, Mersenne implies a similar division into two consorts. The title of the chapter is: 'How to explain the figure, the range, the fingerings, the tuning and the use of the grands Haut-bois' and he immediately states: 'It should be said that there are two sorts of Haut-bois used in France, which are those de Poitou, whose form I will give in the 32nd chapter, and those that are simply called Haut-bois, whose shape is similar to the grandes flutes douces ou d 'A ngleterre.' 14 Mersenne called the hautbois 'grand hautbois', just as he called recorders 'grandes flutes douces', because they both belonged to the grand jeu. He described the dessus (treble) and its taille (tenor)1 the bass of the grand hautbois was the basse de hautbois and the basson. 5 In France, the 13 14 15

Mersenne, Harmonie universel/e, p. 238. Ibid., p. 295. Mersenne makes a distinction between the basse de hautbois, which is a long, straight bass of the grand hautbois, and the bassoon (basson) which is in the same register as the basse de hautbois but placed in the family of fagots by Mersenne (ibid., pp. 297-300). For more details on the bassoons in Mersenne's Harmonie universe/le, seeR. Semmens,

56

From Renaissance to Baroque

grand hautbois or hautbois was the only instrument of the oboe family that was conceived for playing with the reed directly controlled by the embouchure and without bag or reed cap. The hautbois de Poitou, on the other hand, was related to the petit jeu; as noted above, it also consisted of three sizes. This division into consorts was still valid in the early Baroque period, and was marked by consistent morphological and tuning differences. The main morphological characteristic that distinguished the hautbois and the hautbois de Poitou was the length and shape of the bell. The characteristics of both instruments (indeed, of both consorts) were gradually adapted and transformed. Protomorphic hautboys kept elements of the grand hautbois and the hautbois de Poitou, as demonstrated by Bruce Haynes in Chapter One. In my opinion, considering the name employed by La Barre, the nature of the hautbois 'that they finally succeeded in rendering usable in ensembles' was probably an adaptation of the grand hautbois, therefore with a long bell. The iconography detailed by Bruce Haynes will help us to fix the shape of this new 'protomorphic' hautboy which may have been in use at the court from the beginning of the 1650s until the middle of the 1670s. Considering these dates, it is unlikely that La Barre would have written about the three-keyed French hautboy, which was only known from the middle of the 1670s. We can deduce from La Barre's letter that the new 'protomorphic' hautboy appeared before the new transverse flute as La Barre states: 'for the transverse flute did not arrive until later'. The appearance of the transverse flute at court is therefore assigned by La Barre to the appointment of Descoteaux and Rebille as flute players in place of two hautbois et musettes de Poitou and, as was noted above, this could date from the year 1667. Was the transverse flute already equipped with an Eflat key at that time? The engraving which represents a shepherd playing a three-keyed hautboy in the frontispiece of the Bmjon de Scellery method for the musette is dated 1672 (see Illustration 1.2, p. 40); this could be a clue for the date of the appearance of the E-flat key on the transverse flute and the hautboy. With the adaptation of this device on both instruments, the transformation of the Mersenne 'grand hautbois' and the Renaissance transverse flute into Baroque instruments was achieved. The pictures studied by Bruce Haynes (borders of the Arazzo Gobelin tapestry 'I' Air' and the cartoon 'Avril ou chateau de Versailles' by Lebrun - see Chapter One), along with the measurements of a shawm-like instrument preserved in the Metropolitan Museum in New York 16 that shows striking similarities to the grand hautbois depicted in the Arazzo Gobelin borders, has enabled a reconstruction of this 'protomorphic' hautboy. Keeping the outer shape of the Gobelin and Lebrun instrument, I adapted and transposed the bore characteristics and acoustic lengths of the Metropolitan Museum instrument. The result was a one-keyed grand

16

'The Bassoons in Marin Mersenne's Harmonie universelle (1636)', Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, vol. 10 (1984), pp. 22-31. The measurements of this instrument were made by the hautboist Taka Kitizato.

Commentary on the Letter by Michel de La Barre

57

hautbois tuned in D with six tone holes closed that played the diatonic major scale of D major in natural fingering and was tuned close to the intervals of a mean tone temperament. Depending on the reed set-up, the pitch of the instrument can vary from 392 Hz to 400 Hz. The reed was made following the indications of the Talbot Manuscript (as discussed recently by Bruce Haynes). 17 Two such instrument are shown in 111ustration 2.4. Apart from details of decoration, both grands hautbois are identical and were conceived as a pair of woodwinds able to play in ensembles.

17

B. Haynes, 'A Reconstruction of Talbot's Hautboy Reed', Galpin Society Journal, vol. 53 (2000), pp. 78-86; see also A. Baines (ed.), 'James Talbot's Manuscript', Galpin Society Journal, vol.l ( 1948), pp. 9-26.

From Renaissance to Baroque

58

Illus. 2.1

Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636--7), p. 306: the hautbois and musette de Poitou family of instruments.

Commentary on the Letter by Michel de La Barre

Illus. 2.2

59

Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636-7), p. 295: Dessus and taille de grand hautbois.

60

Illus. 2.3

From Renaissance to Baroque

Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636-7), p. 283: the comemuse or chalemie.

Commentary on the Letter by Michel de La Barre

Illus. 2.4

Grands hautbois in D, constructed by Marc Ecochard.

61

Chapter Three

The Woodwind Instruments of Richard Haka (1645/6-1705) Jan Bouterse

Introduction

During my research into Dutch Baroque woodwind instruments and their makers, I have examined about 250 instruments, most of them dating from the end of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth centuries. One of the most renowned woodwind makers of the time was Richard Haka (b. London 1645/6; d. Amsterdam 1705). 1 Haka, one of the first professional woodwind makers (fluitenmaker) in Amsterdam, was a versatile craftsman who made recorders, traversos, oboes and bassoons, and at least 38 instruments with his stamp have survived (see Illustration 3.1; for Illustrations see pp. 70-2). A number of Haka's pupils also became important woodwind makers: Coenraad Rijkel (1664-1726), Abraham van Aardenberg (1672-1717) and Jan Steenbergen (1676-after 1728). 2 Important issues to be examined in this essay include the place of Haka's training as a woodwind maker and the relationship between him and the makers (and their instruments) from other countries. The Origins of Baroque Woodwind Instruments It is often assumed that the new types of recorders, traversos and double-

reed instruments were invented in France in the second half of the seventeenth century by members of the Hotteterre and Philidor families or their circle. 3 Among other characteristics, the new instruments had several joints, elaborate turned profiles, bores with more strongly tapered conical sections, and new keys. They replaced the older type of woodwinds, which

2

His father, Thomas Hakay, married in London in 1635. The family moved to Amsterdam in or before 1652. See L.G. Langwill, 'Haka, Richard', in New Grove 2, vol. 10, pp. 683-4. See R.J.M. van Acht, 'Dutch Wind-Instruments, 1670-1820', Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse muziekgeschiedenis, vol. 38 (1988), pp. 99-112. For the history of the makers of the first Baroque woodwind instruments in France see T. Giannini, Great Flute Makers of France: The Lot and Godfroy Families, 1650-1900 (London, 1993).

64

From Renaissance to Baroque

were made in only one or two joints, with much more simply turned profiles and bores. We do not know much about the Hotteterres' inventions- about their processes of thinking, trying and making prototypes - and not many instruments by members of the family are preserved; it is also difficult to date these instruments. 4 It seems that several members of the Hotteterre family were makers of woodwind instruments and produced instruments well into the eighteenth century. 5 Various makers' marks with the Hotteterre name exist but, so far as the writer is aware, it is not completely clear which maker's marks belong to which member of the family. However, it is obvious that the new woodwind instruments became popular in a short time, not only in France, but also in other European countries. Before the end of the seventeenth century woodwind makers in Germany and the Netherlands began to make instruments in the French style and we see in the Netherlands an introduction of French names- or partly French names - for the instruments: hautbois, bass on, jluit travers, flu it does (Fr. flute douce). In 1696 the famous German woodwind maker Johann Christoph Denner asked the town council of Nuremberg for permission to make oboes and recorders in the new French style. 6 In Amsterdam, Richard Haka did not have to ask permission because woodwind making was a free trade there and he was already making the new types of oboes and recorders by 1685. 7 Haka's father was a rotting brander, i.e. a walking stick maker, and it is possible that Haka learned the skill of wood turning from his father. It is not known, however, where Richard Haka acquired his knowledge of musical instrument making. Indeed, no names of Amsterdam woodwind makers are known from the first half or the middle of the seventeenth century; this is in contrast to cities such as Nuremberg (where makers include members of the Schnitzer family, Herbst, and Kynsecker), London (with members of the Bassano family) and some places in France, such as Paris (with Blanchet Duchesne and Le Vache). 8 However, there are some indications that there were woodwind makers active in the Netherlands before Haka began his work: in some Dutch paintings from the middle of the seventeenth century, recorders can be seen with the outline of the same type of scroll (around the stamp) that Haka used. Examples include Vanitas with Flowers (1668) by Maria van Oosterwijck (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna); Vanitas (still life, n.d.) by Evert Collier (Museum 4

6 7

8

See the lists of instruments of the Hotteterres and other makers in P.T. Young, 4900 Historical Woodwind Instruments (London, 1993). For the Hotteterre family tree and biographical details of important members of the family, see T. Giannini, 'Hotteterre', in New Grove 2, vol. II, pp. 752-7. See E. Nickel, Der Holzblasinstrumentenbau in der freien Reichsstadt Nurnberg (Nuremberg, 1971), pp. 203-5. See J. Bouterse, 'Communication about Richard Haka's Specification of the Delivery of 40 Woodwind Instruments to Sweden in 1685', Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, vol. 30 (2000), pp. 243-50. For information about these makers, see W. Waterhouse, The New Langwill Index (London, 1993).

The Woodwind lnstrnments of Richard Haka (I 64516-1705)

65

Lakenhal, Leiden); and Allegory on the Death of Admiral Maarten Tromp (after 1653) by Pieter Steenwijk (Museum Lakenhal, Leiden). 9 Haka's Early Recorders

Haka is particularly interesting because he is one of the few makers who produced instruments in the old style (for example, recorders in one joint) and in the new Baroque style (such as recorders in all sizes from - in modem terminology- sopranino to bass). Even if Haka did not invent the new style himself, he had to cope with the techniques and problems involved in making the new instruments. Two recorders in the old style with the Haka stamp survive, perhaps because they are both made of ivory: a descant (soprano) in Edinburgh (Edinburgh University, Russell Collection of Historical Musical Instruments) and a sopranino in Potsdam (Bezirksmuseum fiir Geschichte; see Illustration 3.2, drawing III). 10 Neither instrument is in playing condition, but by comparing the dimensions of the instruments with other recorders and by making copies it was possible to ascertain that the pitch for both instruments was about a' = 440 Hz, which is about a semi tone higher than the pitch of a'= 410-15 Hz found for most of the recorders Haka made in the Baroque style. Both ivory Haka recorders have a conical bore, gradually narrowing from the block to the lower end, but not so strongly as on later Baroque descant recorders by the same maker. Baroque fingerings (such as described by Hotteterre le Romain) 11 can be used on both instruments, but on the descant the third register is then slightly flat. However, the b" (fingering 01) could be overblown to the b"' (01) by increasing breath pressure and opening the thumb-hole slightly. An even better fingering for the b"', however, is 01456; this fingering is described by the Dutch organist Van Blankenburgh in his book (c.1654) about how to play the hand-jluit (i.e. the early descant recorder). 12 Information concerning the development of the recorder between 1500 and the end of the seventeenth century is difficult to come by. Drawings and descriptions are not as detailed as one would wish and information about the pitch and the fingerings is very rare and never complete. In order to discover more about a particular instrument, one has to make a copy in the hope that the outcome is a good representation of the original. Also, the definitive book on the early recorder - with information about sizes and 9

See J. Bouterse, 'Nederlandse houtblaasinstrumenten en hun bouwers, 1660-1760' (Ph.D. dissertation, Universiteit Utrecht, 2001), p. 175. Both paintings from the Museum Lakenhal in Leiden are included in the dissertation (which is published on CD10 ROM). Before 1928 this instrument was in the Germanisches Nationa1museum in Nuremberg. 11 J.M. Hotteterre, Principes de Ia flute traversiere (Paris, 1707); facs. of Amsterdam, 1728 edn. (Kassel, 1973), pp. 34-9 and Appendix. 12 Q.G. van Blankenburgh, Onderwyzinge hoemen aile de toonen en halve toonen, die meest gebruyckelyck zyn, op de handtjluyt zal konnen t'eenemael zuyver blaezen (Amsterdam, [c.1654]).

From Renaissance to Baroque

68 Haka's Oboes

I believe that the invention of the Baroque oboe (the hautbois) was even more important and revolutionary than the development of the Baroque traverso. The sound of the new oboe must have been a real surprise: it was softer and was able to blend with other instruments far better than the old shawms. The hautbois was a versatile instrument: it was perfect with stringed instruments in orchestral and chamber music, but could also be used in military woodwind bands. Haka also made double-reed instruments of a type called Deutsche schalmei (see Illustration 3.2, drawing 1). 18 These instruments, with their narrow bores and small finger holes, have about the same pitch and same soft sound as the Baroque oboes by Haka, and both types of instruments were made by him at the same period. The recently discovered inventory from 1685 of a delivery of 40 woodwind instruments by Richard Haka to Sweden mentions both teutsche schalmeijen andfranse haubois in various sizes and pitches. 19 Anthony Baines suggested that the Deutsche schalmei was the German woodwind makers' answer to the French hautbois, but he also states that the instrument came too late to play an important role in the music of that time (i.e. the late seventeenth century). 20 I am in agreement with Baines: the Deutsche schalmei was perhaps a little easier to play than the oboe, but was not versatile enough. 21 Rather than comparing Deutsche schalmeien with oboes, there are more interesting differences to note between Haka's short and long oboes. It is quite clear that Haka made his oboes in C in two sizes - the shorter instruments being about a semitone sharper in pitch than the longer instruments. In fact, as with Haka's early ivo&' recorders, the shorter oboes appear to be pitched at about a'= 440 Hz. 2 Two of the short oboes are 18

19 20 21

22

Haka's Deutsche schalmeien can be seen in several museums with major collections of musical instruments, such as The Hague, Netherlands; Vermillion SD, USA; New Haven CT, USA; Copenhagen, Denmark; Stockholm, Sweden; Berlin, Germany; St. Petersburg, Russia and Hamamatsu, Japan. See R. van Acht, J. Bouterse and P. Dont, Dutch Double Reed Instruments of the 17th and 18th Centuries (Laaber, 1997), pp. 250-2. Concerning the name and other aspects of the Deutsche Schalmei, see S.E. Thompson, 'Deutsche Schalmei: A Question of Terminology', Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, vol. 25 (1999), pp. 31--60, and B. Haynes, '"Sweeter than Hautbois": Towards a Conception of the Schalmey of the Baroque Period', Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, vol. 26 (2000), pp. 57-82. See also Bruce Haynes's essay (pp. 23--46). See Bouterse, 'Communication about Richard Haka's Specification', pp. 245--6. A. Baines and M. Kirnbauer, 'Shawm', in New Grove 2, vol. 23, p. 235, and A. Baines, Woodwind Instruments and their History (London, 1957), p. 285. For full details on Haka's Deutsche schalmeien, see Thompson, 'Deutsche Schalmei', and J. Bouterse, 'The Deutsche Schalmeien of Richard Haka', Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, vol. 25 (1999), pp. 61-94. There are several problems in establishing the pitch of historical double-reed instruments. One of them is that for historical oboes and bassoons made before 1750, staples are seldom preserved and reeds never survive. Modern players of Baroque oboes have rather diverging ideas about the best size and combination of those reeds and staples, resulting in a quite different way of playing and in pitches which can vary over

The Woodwind lnstmments of Richard Haka (164516-1705)

69

made of expensive materials: ebony, ivory and silver, and have some interesting details not found on the longer instruments. 23 Unfortunately there is no way of knowing if these two short oboes by Haka are early instruments made in a period before there was a consensus about the shape of some details. A third short oboe is preserved in the Musikmuseet, the museum of musical instruments in Stockholm, in Sweden. This instrument, which is also pitched at about a'= 440 Hz, is made of boxwood with brass mounts and has the much more traditional shape and profile of the common Baroque oboe, such as found on the longer instruments of Haka. A fourth oboe by Haka, in the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague (inventory number Ea 20-x-1952), is very interesting because this instrument is completely different from all other double-reed instruments. It is made in three joints, but the bell is very short and wide, without tuning holes and no lip at the lower end of the bore. There is one key for the c' covered by a silver fontanelle; there are no keys for the 0#/B. The third and fourth tone holes are single, so it is necessary to use a forked fingering in order to play, for example, the G#/M. The real surprise is the thumb-hole- the same as on a recorder. The thumb-hole is clearly used for overblowing for an indentation is visible caused by the nail of a player who put his thumb across the hole. The bore and the tone holes are very wide, the pitch appears again to be close to a' = 440 Hz and, compared with Haka's Baroque oboes and those of other makers in the same collection, a loud sound can be produced. 24 See Illustration 3.2, drawing II. This oboe is the only instrument of its kind to have survived, but there is a picture of a similar instrument painted on one of the organ shutters in the Westerkerk in Amsterdam. This was painted between 1680 and 1690 by Gerard de Lairesse at about the same time that Haka was working in his house very close to the Westerkerk. 25 The instrument on the organ shutter may indicate that this type of oboe was not just a one-off experiment by Haka, but was one of a number of such instruments. However, the idea of an oboe with a thumb-hole and a short bell was short-lived and did not have a wide distribution.

23

24 25

50 cents or more for a particular instrument. However, by comparing the outcomes of a playing session on one oboe with another, it is possible to give some statements about the relative pitch and other qualities. That is why, in the case of Haka, it is possible to say that his shorter oboes are made to be played at a pitch about a semitone sharper than his longer instruments (such as his oboe Ea 6-1952 in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands). One of the oboes is preserved in the collection of the oboist Han de Vries (Amsterdam); the other one is now in a private collection in Japan. Han de Vries's instrument is depicted in P.T. Young, Loan Exhibition of Historic Double Reed Instruments (University of Victoria, Victoria, 1988), instrument no. 7; the bell of this instrument is very short and it has only one tuning hole rather than the usual two. See the description and photographs of this instrument in Acht, Bouterse and Dont, Dutch Double Reed Instruments, pp. 122-7. The paintings on the organ shutters are reproduced in E. Legene, 'A Foolish Passion for Sweet Harmony', in E. Buijsen and L.P. Grijp (eds.), The Hoogsteder Exhibition of Music and Painting in the Golden Age (The Hague, 1994), p. 96; the oboe is the instrument at the right-hand lower corner of the right organ shutter.

70

From Renaissance to Baroque

Conclusion What is Haka' s importance in the development of the new woodwind instruments? Was Haka one of the inventors trained in France in La Couture?26 There is no evidence to support this theory. It is more likely that Haka became acquainted with the new French instruments that were brought to the Netherlands by French and other musicians, and copied these instruments in pitches that were in use in the Netherlands. It is possible that Haka was influenced by some early prototypes of the French instruments and that Haka's traverso and the traverso in Assisi may be seen as a link to French prototypes that are now lost. But most interesting of all are Haka's double-reed instruments. It is tempting to suggest that his oboes pitched at a' = 440 Hz are his oldest instruments because of some of their exceptional details. 27 Haka' s longer oboes are not so conspicuous and are similar to the oboes of other Dutch woodwind makers. But it must also be said that these longer oboes with their lower pitch are easier to play and have a much better sound than the short instruments. Perhaps that is why, at the end of the seventeenth century, the longer woodwind instruments completely superseded the shorter ones.

Illus. 3.1

26

27

The maker's mark of Haka. The jleur de lis below the name is also used by other Dutch woodwind makers (e.g. Willem Beukers and Van Heerde) and can be found on most ofHaka's instruments.

'La Couture' refers to La Couture-Boussey, a village about 90 km west of Paris, where at least 17 woodwind makers of the Hotteterre family were born and worked; see Waterhouse, The New Langwilllndex, pp. 182-4. I am not suggesting that Haka's oboes predate the instruments of his French colleagues. However, some of Haka's oboes are likely to be older than the oldest surviving French Baroque oboes. The problem is that, although several Baroque recorders and traversos by members of the Hotteterre family and other early French woodwind makers survive, hardly any double-reed instruments remain.

The Woodwind Instntments of Richard Haka (164516---1705)

71

11/o+b Illus. 3.2

I - Schematic drawing of a Deutsche schalmei by Haka, complete with the small peg at the lower end of the flare of the bell, which was likely used to lock up a pirouette with reed in the bore of the bell when the instrument was not in use. Total length of the instrument: c.620 mm. II - Schematic drawing of the oboelshawm by Haka (Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, inventory number Ea 20-x-1952). The cross section of the upper joint shows the finial cup at the top and the thumb-hole. The instrument is made in three joints; the short bell has no resonance holes. Total length of the instrument: 523 mm. III- Schematic drawing and cross section of the ivory sopranino recorder by Haka in Potsdam. This is one ofthe few recorders in one joint on which hole 7 is drilled only once (at the right side, allowing the instrument to be played with the right hand under). The recorder is lacking thejleur de lis under the maker's mark. Total length of the instrument: 249 mm.

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Illus. 3.3

Schematic drawing of the traverso by Haka in the Ehrenfeld collection in Utrecht. The cross section of the head shows us that there is no cap at the upper end, but instead Haka turned some ornamental rings. The position and size of the cork are not exact.

Chapter Four

Basstals or Curtoons: The Search for a Transitional Fagott Graham Lyndon-Jones

The English language over the years has employed the terms 'bassoon' and 'curtal', while in other tongues there has been a wide variety of names for the archetypalfagatta or fagott. Definitions are not always free of arbitrary criteria, but let us begin with the curtal or dulcian: 1 a down-and-up onepiece double-reed woodwind instrument, with its lowest note a fourth below the seven-finger note. The bassoon descends a tone lower than this and differs in that it is constructed in several pieces or joints which fit together. However, there are exceptions, such as some multi-jointed examples that have a downward extension of only a fourth. We must also bear in mind that, although we usually regard the Baroque period as beginning around 1600, many instruments were still based firmly on Renaissance designs well into the seventeenth century. Also, in many languages, what we now regard as Baroque nomenclature had actually been adopted in the sixteenth century and some early names lived on into the transitional period and beyond. Few instruments have been found so far which possess features of both curtal and bassoon, and not many artistic representations either. We know now what we mean by these two terms, but must bear in mind that they, and many others, were not so specific in former times. It is indeed doubtful whether there were any words used for what we might now regard as a transitional form. In the evolutionary process of instrument design the established name of the earlier form is often retained, sometimes with the addition of an adjective. An example is Eisel's use in 1738 of the macaronic 'Teutsche Basson' for the curtal. He says, in Musicus autodidaktus, that they are no longer in use, but nevertheless gives a The term 'dulcian', and its numerous variant spellings, was used in many German language documents and publications, and in modem times has gained favour, particularly in the USA. 'Curtal' was used in England from the late sixteenth century to the early eighteenth for both the dulcian and the bassoon, but I have always preferred the term 'curta!' for the transitional fagott. See M. Kilbey, Curta/, Dulcian, Bajon: A History of the Precursor of the Bassoon (St Albans, 2002), esp. pp. II and 118 et seq.

74

From Renaissance to Baroque

fingering chart. 2 The two instruments are defined by F.E. Niedt in Die Musicalische Handleitung: 'Dulcian: ein teutscher Fagott - Fagotto: frantzosisch Basson'. 3 We need to establish definitions for the steady states before and after the transition. The distinguishing features of the curta) are: 1. It is in 'one piece', even if not of one-piece construction, having a simple functional design. 2. The bass size has Cas the lowest note. 3. There are normally two keys, for F and E or D, the mechanism being protected by box-like covers, perforated with a decorative fontanelle. The distinguishing features of the Baroque bassoon are: 1. It has four joints: wing, boot, long and bell (the term 'butt' should be reserved for the lower end and should really not be used for the whole boot joint). The presence of tenons afforded makers the opportunity to give ornamental style to the reinforcing bulges and metal mounts. 2. The lowest note is Bb'. 3. There are therefore three keys, the mechanism being visible. For definition purposes it is better to avoid the other possible parameters, such as left- or right-handedness, pitch, shape of crook, and the method of mounting keywork. However, these should be given consideration when examining surviving instruments and pictures. In many places both forms, curtal and bassoon, co-existed without any transitional versions, the latter being sometimes called the French bassoon. But it does not seem to have been associated with the 'French Revolution' at La Couture where the Hotteterres had their workshop. German bassoon makers adopted the styles of ornamental turnery used on oboes, recorders and flutes after about 1700. This was in contrast to the austere functional outward form of Renaissance woodwinds whose wall thickness is fairly constant except where keywork is fixed. An example is the foot of a keyless recorder, which expands and is but an exaggerated image of what is happening in the bore. The well-known engraving, Illustration 4.1 (for Illustrations see pp. 78-86), is probably intended to show Jacob Denner in his workshop with finished instruments all around him. He is working on an open curtal, with a covered or gedackt curtal on the floor, and a very knobbly bassoon leaning against the bench. Thus we have here evidence of a transitional period at least in Nuremberg, where there must still have been some demand for the earlier form ofjagott. The five surviving curtals by Denner are all gedackt, and they have a different upbore to that of typical earlier open-topped curtals. There is no increase in conicity towards the bell, and this is much the same as the bore in bassoons by the Denners 2

J.P. Eisel, Musicus autodidaktus (Erfurt, 1738), p. 104; cited in L.G. Langwill, The Bassoon and Contrabassoon (London, 1965), pp. 35 and 47. F.E. Niedt, Die Musicalische Handleitung, vol. 2 (Hamburg, 1706; 211721), trans. P.L. Poulin and I.C. Taylor as The Musical Guide (Oxford, 1989), p. 149.

Basstals or Curtoons: The Search for a Transitional Fagott

75

(Fig. 4.1; see p. 77). The type of late gedackt curtals with this feature is perhaps a candidate for consideration as a transitional form. However, there can be no doubt about the instrument in Vienna. 4 Pitch considerations may have been responsible for its large size, and also its three-piece construction. It has wing, boot and long joints. The wing is 'wingless', not at all bassoon-like, being symmetrical about a longitudinal plane (Illustration 4.2). The lower key, forD, is for the left thumb, and this is bassoon-like. An instrument of this type is depicted in an engraving from Phillippe Galle's Encomium musices of c.1590 (Illustration 4.3). 5 A requirement for bassoons to play a whole tone lower, possibly at short notice, may have led to the design of the basson described by Mersenne in Harmonie universelle. 6 A bass curta! would do the job playing in G (seven holes closed for G), but would not now descend to C. A long chimney with a key for the left thumb could be stuck onto a sawn-off curta!. Later a flat prototype based on this could well have led to the basson (Illustration 4.4). The boot is long and contains both groups of finger holes. There is a short 'winglet', and a very long cylindrical bell piece, looking rather like the funnel of an early steam engine. A bassoon based on this idea would play in F and therefore now have a low Bl/. There are four keys all with curtal-style covers, the left thumb working keys for C and B//. As with some later Baroque bassoons, this note can be made to be sharp, so that B' and A' can be obtained by lipping the large reeds used at that time. Such an instrument must have been in general use, even if only in Paris, for it to have been deemed suitable for inclusion in Mersenne's book with 'universelle' in the title, and for the old curta! to have been left out. Its existence is supported by illustrations elsewhere, but they do not show detail of the boot and the keys (see Illustration 4.5). In fact Mersenne considered the basson sufficiently important to give measurements, albeit with two vastly differing diagrams. One gives layout details, the other being an accurate depiction of form. He gives a similar treatment to the instrument he calls fagot (Illustration 4.6). 7 This is simply a tenor version, but lacks the equivalent of the lowest note of the basson, descending only to G (Mersenne gives no note pitches, but they are easily inferred from his measurements). His diagrams show two forms, one with a big bell, the other with an integral short bell. The former is a two-piece instrument, the bell piece being perhaps mostly for show, and to copy the style of the basson. However, the key s¥stems are different, probably in order to produce a good fingered Bb. I have studied a number of instruments of this general type by I. Kraus. 9 Some of his tenors have the 4 6

9

Kunsthoristiches Museum, Vienna, no. 190. P. Galle, Encomium musices (Antwerp, (c.l590]). M. Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636--7; trans. R.E. Chapman, The Hague, 1957), pp. 372-6. Mersenne's etymology of the term 'fagot' is unconvincing. See G. Lyndon-Jones and P. Harris, 'Reconstructing Mersenne's Easson and Fagot', FoMRHI Quarterly, 64 (1991), comm. 1048, pp. 9-19. Including the two held in the Bayerisches National Museum in Munich. See W. Waterhouse, The New Langwill Index (London, 1993), p. 215.

76

From Renaissance to Baroque

full standard Baroque key system, giving low F. They are Denner-like in ornamental style, and would therefore appear to date from c.1700 (see Illustration 4.7). There is a problem here: an 'I: Kraus' mark (see Illustration 4.8) of similar design is found on a pair of clarinettes d'amour. These were not in vogue until the end of the eighteenth century, so perhaps there was a succession of 'I. Krauses'? Surviving 'tenoroons' by other makers are not so abundant. We do know that there was a fashion for 'fagottissimo' music in Wiirttemberg in the 1720s. As Samantha Owens has described in her essay (see pp. 227-40), this band involved up to eight bassoons, some of which were small sizes. The two extant trebles by Jacob Denner were probably intended for this sort of whole consort ensemble. Musical establishments with their ongoing requirements, changes of fashion, fortune and pitch, often in competition with neighbouring courts, upgraded their instrumental holdings from time to time, avoiding any transitional models, which were far from universal and were short-lived. Monasteries and cathedrals were more conservative. In Jaca Cathedral, in north-east Spain, the surviving collection of curtals and bassoons suggests that a replacement curta! was obtained in the late nineteenth century, being superseded soon afterwards by a French bassoon thereby missing out not only any transitional stage but several other possibilities in bassoon evolution. This evidence seems to indicate that the bassoon was at the vanguard of the changes in woodwind design, and may have triggered them, inspiring the French woodwind makers in the 1660s. Perhaps because it had already been 'invented', there is no evidence that the Hotteterres ever made a bassoon! Three further examples of 'hybrid' forms may here be cited. In Leipzig's Musikinstrumenten Museum there is a bassoon by I.F. Roth. It is unique (as far as I know) in having the same arrangement of keys for the right thumb as a curtal. That means that the left thumb has just the one key for Bl/, E being obtained with the right thumb key. The Oberosterreichisches Landesmuseum in Linz has a bassoon by J. Denner (no. 129), which has a short finial instead of a normal bell, and therefore only descends to C. But it has, absurdly, a key for B/J'! It may have been originally supplied as a complete bassoon, and perhaps met with a nasty accident in the monastery at Wilhering. Finally, in Madrid in the Museo Nacional de Antropologia is an unsigned three-piece instrument with the flared bell of a curtal. It has Baroque-style saddle-mounted keys, including one for Gl/, which may have been added at a later date. 10 I suggest therefore that these few non-standard fagotts are freak forms, but that they definitely existed in certain places independently of each other. They may, however, have contributed to, and led finally to the Baroque bassoon. It is to be hoped that more early Baroque bassoons will be found to be added to the transitional types identified here (see Illustration 4.9). However, I rather suspect that they will remain the most elusive of transitional woodwind instruments. 10

Illustrated in Kilbey, Curta!, Dulcian, Baj6n, p. 231.

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Curtal and bassoon bores compared: ·-·-·-·-· Gedackt Curtal (Oberosterreichisches Landesmuseum, Linz, no. 126) · · · · · · · Open-Top Curtal (Musee Instrumental du Conservatoire de Musique, Brussels, no. 988) ·-·-·-·-·-· Gedackt Curtal (J.C. Denner: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, no. 125) ············· Gedackt Curtal (J.C. Denner: Landesfurstliche Burg, Merano, no. 6844) Bassoon (J.C. Denner: St Petersburg)

78

Illus. 4.1

From Renaissance to Baroque

An instrument maker (possibly Denner) in his workshop: J.C. Weigel, copper engraving from Abbildung der GemeinNiitzlichen Haupt-Stiinde (Regensburg, 1698).

3I Ill us. 4.2

FULL. Sr2~

-! FULl. SIZE

Wing-joint ofKunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, no. 190; seeM. Kilbey, Curta[, Dulcian, Baj6n: A History of the Precursors of the Bassoon (St Albans, 2002), pp. 249-50.

80

Ill us. 4.3

From Renaissance to Baroque

Phillippe Galle, detail from Encomium musices (Antwerp, [c.l590]).

Basstals or Curtoons: The Search for a Transitional Fagott

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Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636-7), Proposition xxxii: Basson.

82

lllus. 4.5

From Renaissance to Baroque

Nicolas deL' Armessin, 'Habit de Musicien', Jardin des habits et metiers (late seventeenth century).

Basstals or Curtoons: The Search for a Transitional Fagott

83

l1

Illus.4.6

Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636---7), Proposition xxxii: two types of Fagot (a type of tenor curtal).

84

Illus. 4.7

From Renaissance to Baroque

Tenors by Jacob Kraus (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, nos. 120 and 121), photograph by Graham LyndonJones.

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Ill us. 4.8

Tenors by Jacob Kraus (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, nos. 120 and 121): detail; photograph by Graham Lyndon-Jones.

From Renaissance to Baroque

86

I

Illus. 4.9

II

III

IV

v

From curtal to bassoon: I Curtal by Graham Lyndon-Jones. II Three-piece curtal based on Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, no. 190 by Graham Lyndon-Jones. III Gedackt curtal by Graham Lyndon-Jones, after J. Denner. IV Mersenne basson by Graham Lyndon-Jones. V Early Baroque bassoon by Barbara Stanley, after J.C. Denner, St. Petersburg. Photograph by Graham Lyndon-Jones.

Chapter Five

The Iconographic Background to the Seventeenth-Century Recorder Anthony Rowland-Jones

Iconography is particularly significant in the history of the recorder in the seventeenth century. At the York Conference, the subject was presented by Professor Eva Legene of Indiana University and by Anthony RowlandJones. The two speakers illustrated their material with an abundance of slides - too many for reproduction in this publication. Legene discussed the various pastoral aspects of recorder iconography, which have many parallels in Baroque music. She concentrated on the work of the influential group of Utrecht artists who modelled their paintings on those of Caravaggio, and on pastoral elements in the contents of the compositions of the Utrecht carilloneur and recorder player, Jacob van Eyck, which were published as Der jluyten lust-hof in several editions from 1646 to 1654. Rowland-Jones discussed other aspects of recorder iconography, but since the Conference has followed up the relationship between points made by Legene and the early pastoral ballets of Lully. This research has been incorporated into the following essay, covering, with Professor Legene's agreement, the presentations ofboth speakers. A consideration of 'The Recorder in the Seventeenth Century' needs to acknowledge the book of that title, published as the Proceedings of the International Recorder Symposium held in Utrecht in 1993 and edited by David Lasocki. This was the first serious full-scale study of a subject of considerable and wide-ranging interest, so much so that even with as many as 14 contributions to the symposium the subject was far from exhausted. In his summary, Lasocki indicated some gaps in scholarship still to be filled, and there are certainly more. This essay falls into the latter category: it considers the effect upon the fluctuating fortunes of the recorder in the seventeenth century and of its multitudinous manifestations in late Renaissance and Baroque art. 1 In his Recorder Iconography website (http://www.iinet.net.au/-nickl/art.html or, in North America, http://classicalmus.hispeed.com/nickl/art.html), Nicholas S. Lander of Perth, Australia, lists over 4000 representations of the recorder, or possible recorders, in

88

From Renaissance to Baroque

Although 1t 1s rare before the late sixteenth century to find music in which specific melody instruments are designated, both van Heyghen and Howard Mayer Brown 2 are, like other scholars, in no doubt that the mixed ensembles so frequently seen in Renaissance paintings (for example, voice, recorder or flute, a plucked string instrument and one or more bowed string instruments), as well as whole consorts of flutes and of recorders, drew a substantial part of their repertoire from vocal sources, both secular and sacred, to the extent that the chanson, a vocal form, became the canzona, an instrumental one. The Tudor monarchs, and James I, employed full consorts both of recorders and flutes. The surviving music used by the royal wind consorts is presumably representative of that used by them at their required daily attendance; it is mainly entertainment music including madrigal arrangements and dance pieces, though the music for actual dancing would generally have been played by violins. 3 Considerable caution needs to be exercised in attempting to derive information about prevailing performance practices from pictures. 4 It is, for example, beyond doubt that consorts of instruments of the same kind were widely played in the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth century, but they are rarely depicted in works of art. These consorts, especially the wind instrument groups such as recorders, flutes, shawms and the comett and sackbut ensembles, were regarded as the domain of professional musicians employed by courts or by municipalities as waits, as were violin consorts 5 and to a lesser extent viol consorts. Artists of the period are unlikely to have been commissioned to paint servants, so the iconography is weighted heavily towards upper-class music-making. Throughout the seventeenth century, these works of art, 6 as well as literary sources, 7 suggest that the

2

3 4

6

7

art ranging over a thousand years, of which the majority come from sixteenth- and, especially, seventeenth-century sources. P. van Heyghen, 'The Recorder in Italian Music, 1600-1670', in D. Lasocki (ed.), The Recorder in the Seventeenth Century: Proceedings of the International Recorder Symposium (Utrecht, 1995), pp. 3-63; H.M. Brown, 'The Recorder in the Middle Ages and Renaissance', in J.M. Thomson and A. Rowland-Jones (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to the Recorder (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 1-25 (see especially p. 18). See D. Lasocki with R. Prior, The Bassanos: Venetian Musicians and Instrument Makers in England, 1531-1665 (Aldershot, 1995), pp. 151-5 and 199-209. This is particularly the case with the many seventeenth-century paintings which have Vaniias themes, and those with a multiplicity of instruments symbolizing 'Hearing'. The extent to which apparently straightforward 'concert scenes' may also be symbolic is well brought out in I. Fenlon, 'Music in Italian Renaissance Painting', in T. Knighton and D. Fallows (eds.), Companion to Medieval & Renaissance Music (London, 1992), pp. 189-209. SeeP. Holman, Four and Twenty Fiddlers: The Violin at the English Court I 540-1690 (Oxford, 2/1995), passim. One such group of paintings showing upper-class music-making, in which symbolism is not an issue, is discussed in A. Rowland-Jones, 'Some Iconographic Evidence on Small Ensembles in Mid-16th-Century Venice', Early Music Performer, issue 10 (August 2002), pp. 4-13. For the most complete compendium of literary references to the recorder in English, see Nicholas Lander at http://www.iinet.net.au/-nickVquotes.htrnl.

The Iconographic Background to the Seventeenth-Century Recorder

89

recorder was the most fashionable wind instrument for upper-class amateurs, 8 being easier to articulate and play in tune than the transverse flute. Sylvestro di Ganassi dal Fontego's recorder treatise Opera intitulata Fontegara (Venice, 1535) would not have been published without a market for its sale, which must have been mainly to amateurs aspiring to emulate the skills of professional wind-players and singers, especially in decorative improvisation. Van Heyghen traces the use of recorders for spectacular and special occasions in the courts of Florence and Mantua, and in the scuole grandi in Venice, in which gifted virtuosi members may have taken part as amateurs. He also refers to recorders as special-occasion instruments in Vienna and at the episcopal court in Kromefiz, where, as at Salzburg, the repertoire included a handful of pieces designating recorders in chamber or entertainment music. 9 Van Heyghen's lists of pieces specifying recorders, many of them of short duration and often in pastoral contexts, do not seem in themselves to amount to a body of music significant enough to ensure the ongoing survival of the instrument. Of the 19 items listed in his Table I, 10 13 belong to the first quarter of the seventeenth century, with only six in the remaining period. In 1667, Samuel Pepys, a man with great curiosity and considerable musical interests and living in a city renowned for its music, heard recorders for the first time in his life. 11 Yet only eleven years later, another diarist, John Evelyn, said that the flute douce was 'in much demand for accompanying the voice.' 12 It seems probable that by the middle decades of the seventeenth century the use of the recorder had declined considerably, even amongst amateur players; if there were amateur recorder players in London in the early 1660s Pepys apparently did not know of them. Of the 17 surviving recorders of the 'early Baroque' 8

9 10 11

12

See, for example, A. Rowland-Jones, 'Early 16th-century Brussels Tapestries of the Virtues and Vices, and their Implications for Recorder Performance Practice', Early Music Peiformer, issue 1 (January 1999), pp. 7-II. In these tapestries indulgence in dancing and playing music, especially with recorders, makes mankind vulnerable to the onslaught of the Seven Deadly Sins and the wrathful sword of Righteousness. Van Heyghen, 'The Recorder in Italian Music, 1600-1670', pp. 10 and 32-4. Ibid., p. 55: 'Italian collections between 1600 and 1670 that include assigned recorder parts'. S. Pepys, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, R.C. Latham and W. Matthews (eds.), (London, 1970--83), vol. 9, pp. 93-4: February 27, 1667/8 and later entries. At a revival of Massinger and Dekker's play The Virgin Martyr (see footnote 42), Pepys was deeply impressed by the (to him) new sound of the recorders playing 'the wind-musique when the angel comes down'. On the introduction of the Baroque flute and recorder into England, see D. Lasocki, 'Professional Recorder Players in England, 1540-1740' (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Iowa, 1983); idem, 'The French Hautboy in England, 16721730', Early Music, vol. 16 (1988), pp. 339-57; and B. Haynes, The Eloquent Oboe: A History of the Hautboy from 1640 to 1760 (Oxford, 2001), pp. 145-8. J. Evelyn, The Diary of John Evelyn, E.S. de Beer (ed.), (Oxford, 1955), vol. 4, pp. 186--7:20 November, 1679.

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type which Legene listed in the Utrecht Symposium Proceedings, 13 only one can be dated to the mid-seventeenth century. All the others are earlier or later. How was it that the recorder did survive, and emerge from an apparent period of doldrums in the mid-seventeenth century into a 'golden age' in late Baroque music? There are three possible reasons, and this essay will concentrate on the third. These reasons are: 1. The continued cultivation of the recorder by upper-class amateur players, despite certain problems. 2. Its remodelling by the Hotteterres and others to meet the changing musical requirements of the later Baroque period. 3. Its unusually wide range of associations, both symbolic and other, which are well illustrated in iconographic sources. The passionate extremes of the seconda pratica style with its vocal affetti do not suit the calm tones and limited dynamic range of the recorder, and this restricted the extent to which vocal music could effectively still be used as the basis of the recorder player's repertoire. And because of the wide range of its parts, especially the bass, much fine seventeenth-century viol consort music does not transpose comfortably to recorders. Composers began to write more idiomatically for particular instruments, notably the violin, composing music less easily adaptable to other instrumentation. However, there was an increase in the amount of music published for fourto six-part instrumental ensembles, especially by composers working in Germany, 14 mainly intradas, pavans, almans, and other dance forms, sometimes arranged as suites as in those by Pueurl. 15 Church vocal music continued to be written in prima pratica style, and gravely contrapuntal instrumental fantasias did not always exceed the compass of recorders indeed a few may have been written with recorders in mind. 16 Although recorders played a minor part in actual masque performances, 17 Courtly Masquing Ayres were arranged in 1621 by John Adson in five parts for 'violins, consorts [i.e. mixed ensembles] and comets' , 18 a phrase suggesting adaptability. Furthermore, the alto recorder in G (jlautino, or jlauto) was 13

14 15

16

17 18

E. Legene, 'The Early Baroque Recorder', in D. Lasocki (ed.), The Recorder in the Seventeenth Century: Proceedings of the International Recorder Symposium (Utrecht, 1995), Table l, pp. 108-9. For example, Brade and Simpson; and Altenburg, Demantius, Franck, Hassler, Haussmann, Praetorius, Scheidt, Schein and Staden. P. Pueurl, Newe Padouanen, Intrada, Diintz unnd Galliarda, a 4 (Nuremberg, 1611). See Lasocki, The Bassanos, pp. 199-20 l. A further reason why there is so little music specifically for recorders in the early seventeenth century is that professional players performed on other instruments as well, so that the recorder was just one option among several. See P. Walls, Music in the English Courtly Masque 1604-1640 (Oxford, 1996), pp. 148-54 and 173--4, and Lasocki, The Bassanos, pp. !55 and 203. Ed. P. Walls, (London, 1975-6): a playing edition of these 18 five-part pieces, three in five parts 'for comets and sackbuts', and ten six-part pieces for which Adson gives no instrumentation.

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specified as a solo instrument in enough Venetian seconda pratica canzonas and sonatas 19 for skilful recorder players to have validation, if any were needed, to attempt a wider range of such music written for either violin or cornett (until even that instrument became rarely designated), or which were marked simply canto, and, later, in French Baroque music, dessus. 20 There is no reason to suppose that any shortage of repertoire affected amateur music-making in the mid-seventeenth century. Rather its extent, particularly in Holland (see Illustration 5.6; for Illustrations see pp. 102-11) and Germany, could perhaps have helped to sustain the continuity of the recorder, even at a time when professional recorder playing may have been at a low ebb for lack of well-paid performance occasions. The resources needed for princely courts and other bodies to indulge in the kind of lavish spectacles in celebration of some event which called for recorders among a vast array of instrumentation were depleted in the seventeenth century by civil strife and warfare, and by devastating plagues which eroded commercial activity - for example, in Venice in 1630. Moreover, musical taste seems to have tired of diversity in orchestration, preferring the leaner sounds of violins and bass instruments to support the vocal dominance of the seconda pratica - compare the scoring of Monteverdi's L 'Orfeo (1607) with that of Venetian public operas later in the century. Nevertheless, the recorder might ultimately have suffered the same fate as the cornett if it had not been redesigned to meet the needs of music at the court of Louis XIV. Unfortunately, no original Hotteterre-design instruments from the 1660-70 period, or any contemporary definitive and dated representations of them in art, have yet been found which would provide firm evidence as to when this remodelling took place, but, as this essay postulates, circumstantial evidence from Lully's music suggests that it might have been in the late 1660s. The 'Baroque' (strictly 'late Baroque') recorder - with its fashionable bulges to protect its two joints, and a redesigned bore, cylindrical at the head and tapering down the body favoured the production of high notes, with changes in tone and focusing of sound that enabled it to be played, usually in pairs, on equal terms with violins. Late Baroque recorders have shallower and wider windways than Renaissance recorders, offering more resistance to breath input and therefore inducing a higher breath pressure. It is interesting that cornetts found no place in Lully's orchestra, which basically consisted of the violin band and the oboes and bassoons of the 19 20

Van Heyghen, 'The Recorder in Italian Music, 1600-1670', pp. 13-16 and 56-7. The amateur recorder player Adriana van der Bergh, to whom Paulus Matthysz dedicated the second volume of his collections for amateur musicians, 't Uitnemend Kabinet (Amsterdam, 1649), performed 'difficult music' by Merola, Buonamente and Uccellini; see A. Rowland-Jones, 'The Baroque Chamber-Music Repertoire', in The Cambridge Companion to the Recorder, pp. 74--90, and van Heyghen, 'The Recorder in Italian Music, 1600-1670', pp. 17-19. Dutch recorder amateurs must also have been inspired by the 'artful and charming embellishments' in the variations on well-known melodies played on the hand-jluyt by Jacob van Eyck, published in Der jluyten lust-hof (Amsterdam, 1646; 2/1654).

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Ecurie, with other instruments only being used for special occasions.

Recorders, and sometimes flutes, usually played by oboists, would feature in pastoral, love21 and sleep22 scenes. Martial trumpets and hunting horns were brought in for their own special occasions. Cornetts had no such external associations; and, not being sustained by the enthusiasm of amateur players, had by mid-century, it seems, lost their solo role and were used primarily in town bands and for supporting church choirs. In the midseventeenth century cornetts and sackbuts, like recorders, were probably in greater use for entertainment music in the imperial, princely and archiepiscopal courts of the Austrian Empire than they were elsewhere. Later, J.S. Bach used cornetts in eleven of his cantatas, but mainly to support chorales. While it would not have been difficult to make lowerpitched cornetts to be in tune with French organs, the cornett requires exceptional skill and experience for playing at a high standard. But it posed no problem for oboists to switch to recorders in order to play the fairly simple music written for those special occasions where their sounds were needed in the theatre music of Lully and of other composers, such as Purcell. It seems unlikely that the survival of the recorder in the midseventeenth century can be accounted for primarily by its cultivation among amateur players. It was rather more the continuing effect of its pastoral and other non-musical associations. The iconographic associations of the recorder are probably more varied and complex, and sometimes even contradictory, than they are for any other instruments. This is due to the extraordinary diversity of their origins. Shepherds in their lonely occupation have over centuries, even millennia, made reed or whistle pipes to amuse themselves and to keep their flocks aware of their presence. Instruments made from animals, such as ductflutes and bagpipes, were thought to express the souls of the departed beasts. Pipe-playing shepherds may be found in Roman mosaics and murals, in Byzantine representations of the Annunciation to the Shepherds, and in numerous nativity scenes by Medieval and Renaissance artists. The recorder gradually became a member of the duct-flute family which was best known to artists and their patrons, so during the Renaissance shepherds are frequently shown with instruments which are recognizably recorders. In churches not affected by iconoclasm, shepherds playing pipes or recorders remained familiar in Baroque-period nativity scenes, and recorders also appear in representations of soft music associated with the Virgin Mary - especially in images of the Virgin and Child, the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin, and the Rest on the Flight to Egypt, where angels make music for the Holy Family. With the increasing 21

22

The Prelude pour /'Amour introducing Lully's Le triomphe de /'Amour (LWV 59; 1681) is scored for a four-part ensemble of transverse flutes and tenor, basset bass, and contrabass recorders. LVW = H. Schneider, Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis siimt/icher Werke von Jean-Baptiste Lully (Tutzing, 1981 ). Lully's use of recorders for his elaborate sommeils is described by Adrienne Simpson in 'The Orchestral Recorder', in The Cambridge Companion to the Recorder, pp. 94-5. The most celebrated and extended example is in Act 3, scene iv of Atys (L WV 52; 1676).

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interest in genre scenes, paintings of shepherds playing pipes or recorders achieved a measure of popularity, 23 especially in Holland where the Utrecht Caravaggists such as Jan van Bijlert, Gerard van Honthorst, Paulus Moreelse and Hendrick Terbrugghen painted half-lengths of young shepherds and shepherdesses (Illustration 5.1). 24 The recorder as an attribute of a shepherd also featured in seventeenthcentury paintings of scenes from Classical mythology, such as Apollo and the shepherd Marsyas, Mercury disguised as a shepherd and Argus (Illustration 5.2). This last subject appealed not only because it was one of Ovid's best stories in Metamorphoses (Book 1), but because it conveyed a moralizing message: do not allow yourself to be deceived by honeyed words and trickery. The photographic collection of the Warburg Institute at London University, which is catalogued by iconographic subjects, has some 200 illustrations under the heading 'Mercury and Argus', of which 78, mainly from the seventeenth century, 25 show Mercury playing an instrument to lull Argus to sleep. Twenty of the instruments cannot be identified, but of the remaining 58, 34 (60%) are, or appear to be, recorders. This is in spite of the fact that Ovid's account clearly states that Mercury's newly invented instrument is a syrinx. 26 Also, Mercury, though both the god of skill in music and a patron of shepherds, is never shown in Classical art playing a lowly duct-flute. This instrumental metamorphosis confirms how strongly perceived the recorder had become as a prime attribute of a shepherd, and it also establishes the link between the recorder and sleep. That Lully was well aware of this acquired Classical basis of recorder symbolism is shown in Act 3, scene ii of Persee (LWV 60; 1682) where Mercury puts the Gorgons to sleep with the sounds of 'deux flutes douces et deux violons'. Additionally, of course, the sound of this combination of instruments was highly effective in its special context. The pastoral iconography of the recorder was much influenced by the idealization of a carefree shepherd's life - carefree that is except for the heart-pangs of unrequited love - cultivated by Theocritus in his Idylls and by Virgil in his Eclogues. It was reinforced in the sixteenth century by the publication of Sannazzaro's Arcadia in 1504 and later works by Guarini, Ariosto, Tasso, and, in England, Spenser and Sidney. Of some seventy slides shown by Legene at the York Conference over one-half represented pastoral Arcadians rather than real shepherds. 27 A follower of Giorgione portrayed in half-lengths two shepherds, one with a leather jerkin and a 23

24 25 26

27

This interest is matched by the proliferation of pastoral songs and country dances in printed collections published in London by John Playford and others, and the large number of pastoral tunes used by van Eyck in his recorder variations. For the rising mercantile classes the cities were to live and work in, and the countryside for relaxation. A. MeN. Kettering, The Dutch Arcadia: Pastoral Art and its Audience in the Dutch Golden Age (Montclair NJ and Woodbridge, 1983), pp. 33-62. By, for example, Bloemart, Cantarini, Claude, Jordaens, Mola, Poussin, Rembrandt, Salvator Rosa, Rubens and Velasquez. Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book I, at ll. 675, 684, 688, 691 and, especially, 711-12. Only eight of the Warburg Institute illustrations show Mercury with panpipes. See Kettering, Dutch Arcadia, pp. 63-82.

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From Renaissance to Baroque

chipped handmade duct-flute, and the other an androgenous patrician as a pretend shepherd with a recorder that looks as though it could have been obtained from one of the best makers in Venice (Illustration 5.3). The painting is devoid of any communication between its two subjects - even their recorders face away from each other. The fashion for pastoral pretence, which flourished until the time of the French Revolution, induced artists themselves to pose as shepherds with recorders to indicate their social status. 28 Rembrandt had both himself and his wife portrayed by his pupil Govert Flinck in the guise of a shepherd and a shepherdess, although there is no evidence to suggest that Rembrandt actually played the recorder (lllustration 5.4). Another of his pupils, Jacob Backer (1608-51), painted himself in the same manner. 29 The pastoral tradition, with its amorous shepherds and nymphs and lecherous satyrs, fuelled the association of the recorder with sensual indulgence and love. Howard Mayer Brown has shown that, during the Renaissance, the main role of the recorder was to participate in courtly entertainment, and that this included chansons and madrigals with Petrarchian and often pastoral texts; 30 sometimes the texts were scurrilous, as shown in Pieter Pourbus's An Allegorical Love-Feast (1557) in the Wallace Collection, London. 31 The recorder's erotic associations derive primarily, however, from its phallic shape and from its soft and ingratiating sounds. In Nicholas Brady's text for Purcell's 1692 Ode for St Cecilia's Day, the recorder, which inspires 'wanton heat and loose desire', is referred to as 'the am'rous flute', and in Handel's Alexander's Feast to words by Dryden it is two recorders that 'kindle soft desire'. As a direct-blown wind instrument, touched by the lips and fingers, it is hardly surprising that recorders featured in brothel and tavern scenes, often entitled Merry Company. Such paintings, by Dirk Hals and others (Illustration 5.5), were ostensibly intended as warnings against 28 29

Kettering, Dutch Arcadia, pp. 77-8. Self-portraits at Leeuwarden, and at The Hague, where Backer's painting of children as musical shepherdesses may also be found. Sometimes these pastoral portraits are of whole families- a line of work likely to give an artist plentiful commissions. 30 In the chapter referred to in footnote 2, Brown has drawn upon a variety of pictorial and written evidence, and he illustrates (p. 12) a pair of overdoor panels from mid-sixteenthcentury Venice entitled Musique Champetre now in the Hotel Lallemant (Musee de Berry) at Bourges. In one, three patrician ladies and a man sing from partbooks where the music, although not actually legible, seems to be of a madrigalian type, and in the other, a similar quartet in the same setting play recorder, lute, harpsichord and bass viol. Brown conjectures, quite reasonably, that they may be playing the same music (p. 10). Reference should also be made to H.C. Slim, Painting Music in the Sixteenth Century (Aidershot, 2002) where pictures with legible music are discussed. Five of these associate the recorder with madrigalian music with texts relating to love (pp. Vlll 247-8 and 248-51, XI 389-406, XVI 155-67 and XVIII 327-31 - the first two are seventeenth-century paintings). 31 For a full analysis of the recorder symbolism of this picture see A. Rowland-Jones, 'The Iconography of Two (or Three) Recorders', The Recorder Magazine, vol. 17 (1997), pp. 12-17, 48-52 and 88-92, and idem, 'The Recorder and Marriage', The Recorder Magazine, vol. 19 (1999), pp. 3-7.

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the profligacy indulged in by the Prodigal Son, and against worldly pleasures in general. Overtly erotic representations of the recorder may be found among the works of Titian, Rembrandt, Watteau and even Sir Joshua Reynolds, and many lesser artists in between. In some contrast, recorders symbolize the transience of earthly loves and pleasures in many of the Vanitas still lifes that were so popular throughout the seventeenth century (see Illustration 5.9). Two or more instruments played together create harmony. Family groups had themselves painted with musical instruments, being those commonly played by amateurs and therefore including recorders, to express harmony within the family; good examBles are de Hooch's Family Music ( 1665) in the Cleveland Museum of Art, and, with recorders alone, another Delft family shown as Illustration 5.6. In his later Amsterdam period, de Hooch painted married couples with the husband holding (but not usually playing!) a recorder, and his wife a lute; these instruments could have been studio props - see Illustrations 5. 7 and 5.8. 33 The two instruments ('flute' = recorder) were linked by Dryden in the text for his 1687 A Song for St Cecilia's Day, 'From harmony, from heav'nly harmony', with a convenient rhyme: The soft complaining flute In dying notes discovers The woes of hopeless lovers Whose dirge is whisper'd by the warbling lute.

In Giovanni Battista Draghi's setting the voice is accompanied by two recorders and continuo. The iconography of two recorders played together in harmony has a further source in the tradition of a double pipe being presented to a bride at her marriage. 34 The marriage symbolism of two pipes or recorders was understood throughout Western Europe. In Renaissance art it can be traced from Cossa (in The Triumph of Venus fresco referred to in footnote 33) to Titian, especially in his final version of The Three Ages of Man in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, as well as Raphael (St Cecilia at Bologna), Veronese (La Musica in the Doge's Palace, Venice) and Pourbus, and, in the seventeenth century, in varying symbolic meanings, to Hendrick Pot, Rubens and Molenaer, as well as in some Vanitas pictures such as that by Simon Renard de St Andre at Lyon shown in Illustration 5.9. 35 In Nicholas Lander's internet compilation 'Literary and Theatrical 32

33

34 35

Sec Thomson and Rowland-Jones (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to the Recorder, plate 23A. The lute's symbolism of pregnancy and regeneration is used to great effect in Francesco dell Cossa's fresco (1470) in the Salone dei Mesi in the Schifanoia Palace, Ferrara, in the April panel, The Triumph of Venus. See F. Guizzi, 'Visual Message and Music in Cultures with Oral Tradition', Imago musicae, vol. 7 (1990), pp. 7-23. For accounts of the recorder symbolism in all these pictures, see Rowland-Jones, 'Iconography of Two (or Three) Recorders', and idem, 'Recorder and Marriage'.

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From Renaissance to Baroque

References to the Recorder' / 6 some 15 seventeenth-century references from English sources refer to the recorder's association with love and marriage, usually in stage directions calling for recorders or instrumental accompaniments to songs. Seven are in plays published between 1619 and 1638; then - not surprisingly - there is a gap, until The Marriage of Ariadne and Bacchus (1674), the lost music for which was mainly by the French emigre Robert Cambert. In the libretto, a stage direction calls for recorders, along with oboes and violins, to accompany singing and dancing. In the last two decades of the seventeenth century the recorder is shown in Lander's listings to have been associated with at least eight marriage or love situations in London theatre music - enough to indicate its rehabilitation within this context. John Manifold analysed the use of recorders in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama as follows: 'Death and mourning in seven plays; hearses and coffins in five; temples or churches in five; prayers in four; gods and goddesses in person in two; resurrections, portents and miracles in six' .37 This list is striking because it never relates either to the recorder's pastoral traditions, nor to sensual indulgence, love and marriage. The usage described by Manifold derives from the otherworldly sound of recorders in ensemble, an effect partly caused by the ghostly difference tones created by higher-pitched recorders playing together. This type of symbolism was used spectacularly by Rembrandt in his Belshazzar's Feast (1635-9) in the National Gallery, London. At the top right, from where the writing on the wall cannot be seen, a spectral recorder player, who alone provides the entertainment music for this most indulgent and sacrilegious of occasions, plays on, while, to general consternation below him, a supernatural hand prophesies the imminent death of Belshazzar (Illustration 5.1 0). This, however, is rather an isolated example, and the association of the recorder with death and afterlife, as well as with the inexorable passage of time required for it to give discourse to its music, is perpetuated by many Vanitas pictures, including those painted in England by Dutch visiting artists such as Evert Collier and Cornelis van der Meulen. A recorder crossed with a shawm appears with skulls and other emblems of transience and death over a doorway on the west side of the Westerkerk in Amsterdam; this portal was originally an entrance to a cemetery. Manifold's analysis gives a false impression, though through no fault of his own. The association of pastoralism with recorders was certainly in place in the sixteenth century in literature and music, as well as, to a considerable degree, in art; painting and music were seen at the time as different expressions of the same creative impulse. 38 Lander's compilations of literary references gives instances of direct connections between recorders and shepherds from Sidney (entry under 1578-9, The Lady of May), Spenser (1579, The Shepheardes Calender) and Thomas Nashe (1592, Summers Last Will and Testament). Moreover, if 'still music' means 36

http://www.iinet.net.au/-nickVquotes.html.

37

J. Manifold, The Music in English Drama: From Shakespeare to Purcell (London,

38

1956), p. 70. See A. Rowland-Jones, Playing Recorder Sonatas (Oxford, 1992), p. 177, note 42.

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'Still music of records' as it does in the stage direction at Act 5, scene i of The Two Noble Kinsmen, a play belonging to the Shakespeare apocrypha, Shakespeare himself was aware of the recorder's associations with both marriage and sleep. 'Still music' is specified in that most pastoral of Shakespeare's plays, As You Like It, at the entrance of Hymen in Act 5, scene iv; and in A Midsummer-Night's Dream at Act 4, scene i, 'musick still' is directed when Titania calls for music 'such as charmeth sleep'. Both these occasions, as Christopher Welch points out, have supernatural overtones. 39 That the link between the pastoral and the recorder was as firmly established in music as well as in art, and in Italy as well as in England, is exemplified by Monteverdi's use of recorders in the pastoral opening acts of L 'Orfeo. 40 Nevertheless, the earlier seventeenth-century entries in the Lander list are dominated by references to the supernatural, to death and funerals, and to sacrifices. Pepys's diary entry for February 27, 1667/841 suggests that during the Restoration period this association of the supernatural with recorders, still as frequent as pastoral and amorous associations, was due to the revival of pre-Civil War plays during a period when there was a dearth of newly written stage works. Although theatres were closed during the Commonwealth, the chest containing musical instrument props must have survived, including the recorders needed for playing 'the choice celestial music' with its 'ravishing sounds' re~uired by the text of Massinger and Dekker's The Virgin Martyr (1622). It seems rather unlikely that the King's Playhouse obtained new recorders for this production, and that the newly designed French recorders were available in London as early as 1667; indeed, they may not even have existed by then. Purcell rarely used recorders in contexts without extra-musical associations, and his perception of the instrument took in both the shepherd/pastoral/love group of associations, and sleep, all of which he would have been familiar with through knowing at least some of Lully's theatre music, including Atys, and the supernatural/ceremonial/death group of associations inherited from early seventeenth-century drama. Alan Davis analyses Purcell's use of the instrument in terms of its symbolism, showing how two or more associations are combined in one occasion, as in 39 40

41

42

C. Welch, Six Lectures on the Recorder (Oxford, 1911), pp. 131-2. See van Heyghen, 'The Recorder in Italian Music, 1600-1670', pp. 5-8, for a full consideration of the recorder's role in music of this period. Van Heyghen mentions Monteverdi's use of two sizes of 'flautino', a sopranino recorder with the lowest note g" and a pair of alto recorders in g', in the pastoral acts in L 'Orfeo (see also his tabulations at pp. 56 and 62). Additionally, he points out that Monteverdi called for '2 Flauti' (also altos in g) in a short section of the 'Quia respexit' in the Magnificat a 7 in his 1610 Vespers. Here the key word is 'beatem', an instance of the association of the soft sound of recorders with prayer and 'blessedness', a symbolism linked with the recorder's associations with the supernatural. See also Nancy Hadden's essay, pp. 121-2. See footnote 11. Act 5, scene ii. There is a full discussion of the music in the play and its effect on Pepys in Welch, Six Lectures on the Recorder, pp. 132-44.

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From Renaissance to Baroque

Rembrandt's Belshazzar's Feast. 43 J.S. Bach uses the recorder in his cantatas in very much the same way. 44 Until 1646, when he was 14, Lully was brought up in Florence,45 and he must have experienced the impact of the artistic treasures of that city, perhaps noticing the musical instruments used symbolically in early Baroque church decoration. In Paris and Versailles he was surrounded by the finest French art of the time. But in France, as much as in Italy, the ensembles used in dramatic works were then dominated by violins. Recorders were used, generally in four parts, only for scenes with shepherds, and then just for a few bars of ritournelle; and they needed support from the strings, especially in the open air. In Lully's earliest ballet music there is no mention of 'flutes' (that is, recorders) 46 being used, but in 1658 at the Deuzieme Entree in his Ballet Royal d'Alcidiane (LWV 9), a stage direction in the livret reads 'Trois Bergers & autant de Bergeres de cette heureuse Contree, que Ia douceur de la Solitude & !'amour ont reduits a cette vie Champestre, font avec plusieurs autres un Concert Rustique, auquel un Choeur de Flustes & de plusieurs autres instruments respondent. ' 47 (Three shepherds and the same number of shepherdesses from this happy country, who have taken up this pastoral life for its sweetness of solitude and love, sing, along with several others, in a rustic concert, to which an ensemble of recorders and several other instruments respond.) It seems that Lully felt the need for recorders for scenes with shepherds, even though they were tonally weak. The Ballet des arts (L WV 18), performed at the Palais Royal in Paris in January 1663, includes an unsupported 'Ritoumelle de flustes a 4. Parties' for treble, tenor, basset 43 44

A. Davis, 'Purcell and the Recorder', The Recorder Magazine, vol. 16 (1996), pp. 9-15. For example, associations with funerals and the flight of the soul to heaven in Cantatas 106 and 161, a sleep episode in Cantata 81, and, the best known of all recorder pastoral arias, 'Schafe konnen sicher weiden' (Sheep may safely graze) in Cantata 208. 45 See J. de La Gorce, 'Lully's Tuscan Family', in J.H. Heyer (ed.), Lully Studies (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 1-14, especially p. 6. 46 Lully refers to recorders as FlUtes, or FlUtes douces, and to transverse flutes as Flutes d'A/lemagne. A comprehensive account of these instruments is in J. Eppelsheim, Das Orchester in den Werken Jean-Baptiste Lullys, no. 7 in the series Munchener Veroffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte (Tutzing, 1961), pp. 64-97. 47 H. Prunieres (ed.), J.-B. Lully: Les oeuvres completes (Paris, 1930- ), ballets ii, p. 28 of the facsimile of the livret. The instrumental music for the 'six shepherds' (pp. 99-105) is unusually extended - an Air Rondeau, another Air, and a Gavotte. The listing in the livret of a number of wind players, including three members of the Hotteterre family ('Les Sieurs Obterre le pere, Obterre fils aisne, Obterre le Cadet'), as taking part in the 'Derniere Entree- Concert champestre de l'Espoux' in the rustic wedding conclusion of Lully's Ballet de /'amour malade (LWV 8; Prunieres, J.-B. Lully, Ballets i, p. 42, and see also his Introduction p. XXII), strongly suggests that flutes and/or oboes were used on that earlier occasion (17 January 1657). Unfortunately no instrumentation is specified in the sources of the music itself. If recorders had been used, the association would not only have been with pastoral life but also with marriage. The possibility that recorders were used is increased by the listing of the same members of the Hotteterre family in the livret (p. 29) of Alcidiane (L WV 9) a year later (14 February 1658) where 'Flustes' are stipulated.

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99

bass and contrabass recorders, 48 an ensemble which would have been swamped if violins had been added. But, performed indoors, the sound would have been not only clearly audible, but unusual and effective - an example of the young Lully experimenting with recorders to enrich his orchestral palette. In Les plaisirs de I 'ile enchantee (L WV 22), given at Versailles in May 1664, Lully requires a stage machinery tree to arise 'charge de seize Faunes, dont les huit jouerent de Ia flute et les autres du violon avec un concert le plus agreable du monde. ' 49 (on which there are sixteen Fauns, of whom eight play recorders and the others violins, to provide the most delightful concert in the world.) George Dandin (LWV 38), performed at Versailles in July 1668, contains an 'Air pour les Bergers' in which for the first time in Lully's music the normal pitch ensemble of recorders play on their own, for it is marked 'Joue altemativement par les Violons et les Flutes'. Moreover the violins (meaning, of course, the violin famild generally) are in five parts, while the recorders play only in three parts. 5 The recorder players on this occasion included 'Jean et Martin Hottere'. It is tempting to conjecture that the Hotteterres' newly designed recorders, which, by requiring a stronger breath-pressure, were better able to balance with the violins and to play in the open air, were here being tried out by Lully for the first time. To have doubled them with violins would have reduced the impact their new sounds must have made on those present at that occasion. Certainly, his use of recorders two years later in La grotte de Versailles (LWV 39) is innovative; perhaps recollecting Mercury and Argus, Lully writes his first known sommeil with recorders. It is of unusual length, containing two 'Ritoumelles pour les flutes', one in five parts and the other (a long piece) in three, within a solo and trio vocal section; it is played while Caliste is sleeping. In neither of these do the recorders need the support of violins. Altogether Lully designates recorders on 39 occasions, but, as the sources do not generally indicate instrumentation, they may have been employed at other times. He uses them to particular effect in Alceste (L WV 50; 1674) and in Psyche (LWV 56; 1678). Act 3, scene v of Alceste is headed 'POMPE FUNEBRE'. After a chorus of 'Femmes affligees' and 'Hommes desolez', there is a ritournelle for two recorders and continuo (note this use of the trio-sonata texture). Then 'Un homme desole' sings, and at the second line of his text the two recorders enter again and accompany him. This long scene ends with the full choir as well as with the recorders and violin band. Near the end of this tragedie-lyrique (only Lully's second of the kind) there is a touch of genius. Alceste has been rescued from Hades, and the chorus sings 'Triomphez'; then suddenly, just for four bars, the recorders reappear on their own in a 'Trio de Flutes', no longer presaging death. Perhaps Lully thought of them as the soul of 48 49 50

Basset and contrabass recorders are referred to by Lully as Petite Basse de FlUtes and Grande Basse de Flutes. See Eppelsheim, Das Orchester Lullys, pp. 80~93. Prunieres, J.-B. Lully, comedies-ballets ii, p. 63; see alsop. 9. As there were four players, the lowest part was probably doubled. See Prunieres, J.-B. Lully, comedies-ballets ii, pp. 155~ 7. The instrumental reprise of the following Air (p. 159) is scored for flutes and violins playing together.

100

From Renaissance to Baroque

Alceste returned to life. The 'Concerts lugubres' and 'Pompe funebre' of Act 1, scene iv of Psyche give rise to the following stage direction: Une Troupe de Personnes desolees viennent vers Ia Montagne deplorer Ia disgrace de Psyche. Leurs plaintes sont exprimes par une Femme et par deux Hommes affligez. Ils sont suivis de six Personnes qui jouent de Ia Flute, et de huit autres qui portent des Flambeaux semblabes a ceux dont les Anciens se servoient dans les Pompes funebres.

A group of distressed people come towards the mountain to express their grief for the disgraced Psyche. Their sorrows are voiced by a grieving woman and two men. They are followed by six persons playing recorders, and eight others carrying torches of the kind that were used in Antiquity in funeral rites.

Act 3 of Lully's unfinished opera Achille et Polixene (LWV 74; 1687), completed by his collaborator Pascal Collasse, has recorders celebrating the hero's forthcoming nuptuals, thus consolidating the full range of recorder imagery in French music by the end of the seventeenth century. Charpentier uses both recorders and flutes in pastoral contexts, and his own Les plaisirs de Versailles (H 480i 1 from the early 1680s includes two treble (alto) recorders. In funereal mode, he uses a contrabass recorder in his Supplicatio pro defunctis (H 328; 1681-2); there is a sommeil with recorders and muted strings in his dramatic motet ('oratorio') Judicium Salomonis (H 422) of 1702; and in his opera Medee (H 491; 1694) recorders accompany 'Amour'. It seems that Carissimi (1605-74), the most influential of mid-seventeenth-century Italian composers, with whom Charpentier studied and upon whom he modelled his music, never wrote for recorders, even in his pastoral cantatas. Yet, developing an even more inspired instrumentation than that of Lully, Charpentier wrote for recorders prolifically within his vocal compositions. Princely courts in many parts of Europe, including Italy (Caserta, for example), emulated the artistic splendours of Versailles, and to some extent -allowing for indigenous traditions and styles- the music of Lully. In his Table 1, van Heyghen found the recorder specified in only three pieces of Italian music between 1650 and 1670,52 but in the remaining decades of the seventeenth century the recorder gradually became re-established. Recorders can be found with some frequency in the music of Alessandro Scarlatti, particularly in his pastoral cantatas. In England during the 1670s the new recorders would have replaced the pre-Hotteterre types in stage music generally, for example in John Blow's masque Venus and Adonis and in Dryden's Albion and Albanius set by Grabu in 1685. In these works the recorders represent love, but their use gradually covered the whole range of symbolic associations from earlier English drama, as Purcell's theatre works and odes show. 51

52

H = H.W. Hitchcock, Les oeuvres de Marc-Antoine Charpentier: catalogue raisonne (Paris, 1982). Van Heyghen, 'The Recorder in Italian Music, 1600-1670', p. 55.

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Although Lully and Purcell nearly always used recorders in associative contexts, the next generation of composers, including Alessandro Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Charpentier, Lalande, Daniel Purcell and his cosmopolitan contemporaries in London, and then Handel and Telemann, no longer treated the recorder only as a 'special-occasion' instrument linked to evocative texts. While there is no dearth of pastoral music with recorders in this later period, nor of music with other recorder associations, the many sonatas written for amateurs, and the concertos calling for the skills of professionals or quasi-professionals such as Vivaldi's Pieta girls, are rarely inspired by the instrument's symbolic associations. The recorder's iconography demonstrates more than a simple pare.llelism between art and music, 53 for it could well have contributed to the general perception of the recorder by musicians, their patrons and their audiences; pastoral music may sometimes have been performed in rooms decorated with pastoral scenes. The recorder's wide-ranging symbolism in works of art, by influencing how the instrument was perceived, probably played a significant part in bringing the recorder back into use in the music of the late Baroque. Without it, the recorder might never have been remodelled for use in Lully's orchestra, and Purcell, Handel, Telemann and J.S. Bach might never have written its special music. 53

There are of course associations in art which have little or no parallels in music, and vice versa. Recorders feature with other instruments in allegories of air, and of hearing. In this latter context, birds also appear, but the imitation of birdsong is one of the most frequent uses for the smaller recorders in music. William Williams even wrote a 'Sonata in immitation of Birds' for two recorders and basso continuo, the last of a set of six triosonatas published in 1703 by Hare and Walsh (T. Dart (ed.), London, 1959). For a summary of the full range of the recorder's symbolism, see A. Rowland-Jones, 'A Concise Guide to Recorder Iconography', The Recorder Magazine, vol. 22 (2002), pp. 47-51.

102

Illus. 5.1

From Renaissance to Baroque

Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629): Shepherd Flute Player (1621), Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel (reproduced with permission).

The Iconographic Background to the Seventeenth-Century Recorder

Ill us. 5.2

103

Johann Carl Loth (also known as Carlo Lotti as he worked in Italy) (1632-98): Mercury and Argus (c.1655-60), The National Gallery, London (courtesy of the Trustees of the National Gallery).

104

Illus. 5.3

From Renaissance to Baroque

Follower of Giorgione: Two Flute-Players, Museo Borgogna, Vercelli (photographed and reproduced with permission).

The Iconographic Background to the Seventeenth-Century Recorder

Illus. 5.4

105

Govert Flinck (1615-60): Rembrandt as a Shepherd, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (reproduced with permission).

Illus. 5.5

Dir(c)k Hals (1591-1656): Merry Company (1625), Noortman Gallery, Maastricht and London (reproduced with permission).

Illus. 5.6

Hendrick Comelisz van der Vliet (1611/12-75): Portrait of the Vander Dussen Family (1640), Gemeente Musea Delft, collection Stedelijk, Museum Het Prinsenhof, photograph by Tom Haartsen (reproduced with permission).

108

Illus. 5.7

From Renaissance to Baroque

Pieter de Hooch (1629-84): The Duet (detail) (c.1680), private collection (reproduced with permission).

The Iconographic Background to the Seventeenth-Century Recorder

Illus. 5.8

109

Pieter de Hooch (1629-84): A Woman with a Lute and a Man with a Flute (c.l680), private collection (reproduced with permission).

110

Illus. 5.9

From Renaissance to Baroque

Simon Renard de StAndre (c.l613-77): Vanitas, Musee des Beaux Arts, Lyon. The two recorders are placed side by side and in the same direction as in a double pipe, symbolizing marriage. But they are crossed, which signifies that marriage, as all else, is cut short by death. The Vanitas theme is emphasized by the skull, the bubbles, the broken and spilt wine glass, the tattered music, and the missing first finger-hole on the upper recorder, making it musically unplayable.

Illus. 5.10

Rembrandt (1606-69): Belshazzar's Feast (c.1635), The National Gallery, London (courtesy of the Trustees of the National Gallery).

Chapter Six

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century Nancy Hadden

Introduction

The use of the so-called 'Renaissance' transverse flute in art music is well documented in theoretical writings, iconography and music from the early sixteenth to the late seventeenth centuries. The instrument was used widely both in flute consorts and as a solo instrument in mixed ensembles, and at certain times and places was considered of equal importance to the recorder, violin and comett. Yet today the Renaissance flute does not enjoy anything like the popularity of its Baroque counterpart. It is sometimes difficult to make sense of what the treatises tell us, and to match the information with surviving music. Perhaps because of this, the modem literature on Renaissance flute playing is not extensive. 1 This essay will focus on the music written for the flute during the first half of the seventeenth century, before the development of the wholly new 'Baroque' flute. From my perspective as a performer, it has been particularly fascinating to focus on this period in order to re-evaluate the role and and nature of the Renaissance flute in the seventeenth century, and to try to answer the question: why did the flute play a more significant role in Italy and especially Germany than it seems to have done in France during the period c.1600-60?

Important studies are A. Smith, 'Die Renaissancequerflote und ihre Musik', Basler Jahrbuchfur historische Musikpraxis, vol. 2 (1978), pp. 9-76; H.M. Brown, 'Notes (and Transposing Notes) on the Transverse Flute in the Early Sixteenth Century', Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, vol. 12 (1986), pp. 5-39; F. Puglisi, The Renaissance Transverse Flutes in Italy (Florence, 1995); and J.M. Bowers, '"Flaiiste traverseinne" and "Flute d' Allemagne": the Flute in France from the late Middle Ages up through 1702 ', Recherches sur fa musique fran{:aise classique, vol. 19 ( 1979), pp. 7-50. Bowers's examination of primary source materials from seventeenth-century French treatises, archival documents and iconography has been invaluable in the preparation of this essay.

From Renaissance to Baroque

114

The Sixteenth Century

The instrument first appeared m sixteenth-century German sources, with clear military associations: 1. Sebastian Virdung, Musica getutscht (Basel, 1511 ), depicts a solitary Schwegel or Zwerchpfeife.Z 2. The Triumphs of Maximilian /, Hans Burgkmair (c.1518); 3 a group of three fifers play on horseback, with field drums. The instruments are all the same tenor size, but one player has a case for different sizes of instruments attached to his belt. 3. Urs Graf (1523), pen and ink drawing of four rather comical 'landsknecht' playing a consort of flutes in three sizes, treble, two tenors and bass. 4 4. The so-called 'Swiss pair' of transverse flute and drum is well documented in Augsburg and other cities playing for dancing, processionals and military exercises. 5 The earliest treatise that documents the flute as a civilian instrument is Martin Agricola's Musica instrumentalis Deudsch (Wittenburg, 1529, revised 1545), written for schoolboys and other amateur players. 6 He gives fingerings for three sizes of Schweizerpfeifen: a bass in G, a tenor/alto in D and a treble in A. Agricola goes to some trouble to explain how the flute consort could transpose by a fourth or a fifth 'to play vocal music on flutes', but says that the transposition by an octave (that is, playing an octave higher than written) is 'the most natural'. He recommends choosing the transposition which is the 'most comfortable'. He also documents the use of breath vibrato, 'zittemdem winde', for playing the flute. 7 2 3

4

5

6

7

Facs.: K.W. Niemoller (ed.), (Kassel, 1970). See R. Damman, 'Die Musik im Triumphzug Maximilians I', Archiv for Musikwissenschaft, vol. 36 ( 1974), pp. 245-89 for reproductions of the woodcuts with musical instruments. Drawing K.l 08, Kupferstichkabinett, Offentliche Kunstsammlung, Basle; reproduced in A. Powell, The Flute (Harvard, 2002), p. 28. See K. Polk, German Instrumental Music of the Late Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 41 and 101-2 for information about the Swiss pair. There are numerous pictures: one example of a Swiss pair playing for dancers is reproduced in Powell, The Flute, p. 37. Facs. of 1529 edn.: Hildesheim, 1969; pseudo-facsimile of 1545 edn.: R. Eitner (ed.), Publikation alterer praktischer un theoretischer Musikwerke, vol. 24: 20 (Leipzig, 1896); Eng. trans. of both editions by W. Hettrick, The 'Musica Instrumentalis Deudsch ' of Martin Agricola: A Treatise on Musical Instruments, 1529 and 1545 (Cambridge, 1994). This is not the only documentation for vibrato on the Renaissance flute. A letter written in Cremona in 1582 regarding the construction of the organ there asks that there be a 'tremolo' stop in imitation of the 'fifferi o traverse', to make the harmony more languid and sweet. The letter is quoted in G. Cesari, La Musica in Cremona nella second meta del secolo XVI (Milano, 1939), pp. xvi-xvii.

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

115

In the same year as Agricola's first treatise a consort of 'quattro flauti all'Aiemana' is documented in Ferrara playing during a banquet given in the presence of Isabella d'Este and others. 8 And in Paris in 1533 the earliest music for flute consort, Vingt et sept chansons musicales a quatre parties, was published by Attaingnant, with nine pieces suited to the transverse flute marked 'A', others for recorder consort marked 'B', and pieces for both marked 'AB'. 9 So we have in the first decades of the sixteenth century significant musical 'events' in the history of Renaissance flute playing. During the second half of the sixteenth century several more instruction books appeared: Philibert Jambe de Fer, Epitome musical (Lyons, 1556); a lost tablature book by Simon Gorlier (Lyons, 1558); Lodovico Zacconi, Prattica di musica (Venice, 1592); and Aurelio Virgiliano, '11 Dolcimelo' (c.l600). 10 Inventories, court and church records, iconography and music document the flute's regular participation in chamber, church and spectacle. The Seventeenth Century It is widely believed that after about 100 years' presence in most of the major musical centres of Europe, the transverse flute disappeared in the early seventeenth century and was virtually unplayed until its re-emergence about 1680 as an entirely new 'Baroque' instrument. The following is typical: The transverse flute seems to have gone into a temporary decline in the first half of the seventeenth century, for it could not compete with other instruments in playing in the new expressive style ... no solo or chamber music seems to have been composed 1 especially for the instrument during the entire 17th century.

While it is true that wind instruments such as the flute and recorder did not have a large presence in the seventeenth century, there were strong areas of participation, and, contrary to the statement above, there was a substantial 8 9

10

11

Christofaro Di Messisbugo, Banchetti (Venice, 1529; facs. of 1557 edn., Bologna, 1982), p. 19. Facs. pub. by A1amire (Peer, 1986); 'B' and 'AB' pieces are edited by Bernard Thomas, London Pro Musica (1977); an edition of the nine 'A' pieces for 'flute dallemant', edited with an extended preface on the performance of these pieces by Nancy Hadden, Zephyrus Music, is forthcoming. Attaingnant published a second collection of flute and recorder consorts, Chansons musicales (Paris, 1533); only the superius partbook is extant. A collection of duos for transverse flutes published by Attaingnant is lost; see H.M. Brown, Instrumental Music Printed Before 1600: a Bibliography (Cambridge MA, 1965), 1533 2. Jambe de Fer, facs.: F. Lesure (ed.), Annales musicologiques, vol. 6 (1958--63), pp. 341-86; Zacconi, facs.: Bologna, 1967; Virgiliano, manuscript in Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale, facs.: M. Castellani (ed.), (Florence, 1979). H.M. Brown, 'Flute', in S. Sadie (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, lst edn. (London, 1980), vol. 6, pp. 672 and 678. Brown revised his opinion in New Grove 2, vol. 9, pp. 36-7.

116

From Renaissance to Baroque

amount of music written specifically for the flute between c.1600 and c.l650. 12 The term 'Renaissance flute' is used here to denote the keyless, cylindrical flute as distinct from the one-keyed conically bored Baroque flute which did not come into general use until the 1680s. That the Renaissance flute could and did play 'in the new expressive style' can be shown by looking at surviving music from seventeenthcentury Italy and Germany, where the flute is an equal partner to the violin and voice. In the examples which will be discussed below, the flute is often associated with texts of a pastoral or amorous character or, in the case of sacred music, with intense or intimate spiritual texts. Italian diminution manuals indicate that the 'traversa' (also called pifaro, jifaro or fifo/a) participated equally with the flauto, violino and cornetto in playing virtuoso 'passaggi'. The seventeenth-century Italian humanist Giovanni Battista Doni praised the 'pifaro' for the 'liveliness' (vivacita) of its sound (pifaro normally refers to shawm but could mean transverse flute in some north Italian sources). 13 Virgiliano, writing in c.l600, composed ten 'ricercari' to be played interchangeably on traverso, flauto, violino, cornetto, and the practice is echoed by Antonio Brunelli in his diminution practice book Varii essercitii ... per esercitio di cornetti, traverse, flauti, viole, violini... (Florence, 1614). 14 Francesco Rognoni Taeggio mentions both the piffaro and the fifo/a in his introductory paragraph on wind instruments: 'il piffaro infino a quindeci voci, et Ia Diana ne havera piu, la fifola infino a diecotto voci'. Here the piffaro, with its range of 'fifteen notes, being the instrument shunned by Diana', is surely the shawm, while the fifo/a is the transverse flute with 'eighteen notes' .15 The Instrument- Then and Now Original Instruments

Flutes were remarkably consistent in their basic design for over 100 years, as may be seen in surviving instruments from c.1501-1630. It is thus possible to outline some important features present on virtually all surviving Renaissance flutes: 16 12

Smith, 'Die Renaissancequerflote' is a catalogue of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century works for the Renaissance flute. Some additional seventeenth-century pieces not included by Smith will be discussed later in this essay. 13 G.B. Doni, Annotazione sopra il compendia (Rome, 1640), vol. 2, p. 338, quoted in P. van Heyghen, 'The Recorder in Italian Music, 1600-1670', in D. Lasocki (ed.), The 14

15 16

Recorder in the Seventeenth Century: Proceedings of the International Recorder Symposium, Utrecht 1993 (Utrecht, 1995), pp. 39--40. Modem edn. and trans. by Richard Erig (Zurich, 1977).

Selva di varii passaggi secondo l'uso moderno (Milan, 1620; facs.: Bologna, 1977), part 2, p. 2. See F. Puglisi, 'A Survey of Renaissance Flutes', Galpin Society Journal, vol. 41 (1988), pp. 67-82.

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

117

1. As with other Renaissance instruments, flutes were made in several sizes to play in consorts, with a treble in a', tenor in d', and bass in g. 2. One-piece construction for trebles and tenors (basses were in two pieces); keyless with thin walls. Tenors weigh between 90-170 grams depending on wood and length. 3. Cylindrical interior bore with subtle external tapering between the mouth hole and bottom finger hole to control sound emission at each finger hole. 4. Small finger holes and embouchure hole with dramatic undercutting (enlarging of the finger holes in the interior of the bore). 5. Pitch lower than a'= 440 Hz, with the largest 'cluster' of instruments around a' = 407 Hz. This is a whole tone lower than most surviving recorders and cometts. 17 Why Has There Not Been a Revival of the Renaissance Flute?

The revival of the Renaissance flute depends on the availability of good modern copies. Only a few specialist makers have constructed instruments modelled closely on originals that, with historical fingerings, can produce clear and responsive sounds over a two-and-a-half octave range, althou~h there is no shortage of exquisite originals with these characteristics. 8 Renaissance flutes have thus been passed over by players who have not had experience with original instruments and consider the modem copies to be inferior versions of the Baroque flute. Some makers have tried to 'improve' on original features, making instruments with conical bores, with larger finger and embouchure holes and not enough undercutting. These flutes have a stronger bottom octave but a limited upper range and less flexibility of tone than original instruments. The altered bore allows a" to be fingered as on the Baroque flute (12), whereas the original fingering charts invariably show 12/456. The original fingering produces a note which is too sharp in pitch, and thus there is a marked step between a rather too flat g" and a difference in tone quality that can be compared to a singer's chest voice for g" and head voice from a". Embouchure and breath adjustments are needed to play the a" in tune, a technique dealt with by Philibert Jambe de Fer: 'vent doux et bien couvert' (play this note softly and well-covered). 19 The embouchure and breath manipulations he mentions, which it is suggested should be interpreted as using a quiet and well-directed air stream with the lower lip coming forward to cover a substantial portion of the mouth hole, are 17 18 19

See B. Haynes, A History of Performing Pitch: The Story of ''A " (Lanham MD, 2002), p. 383. For a player's view and discussion of some original instruments, seeN. Hadden, 'The Flutes ofthe Accademia Filarmonica, Verona', Musick, vol. 9, no. 4 (1988), pp. 7-ll. See his fingering chart for a bass 'fleustes d'alleman' in g in F. Lesure, 'L 'Epitome musical de Philibert Jambe de Fer (1556)', Annates musicologiques, vol. 6 (1958-()3), pp. 341-86.

From Renaissance to Baroque

118

attainable with practice. 20 The 'right hand down' fingering system is a brilliant one, as it not only applies to a" but also to bl/' (13456), c"' (3456 or 456), and d"' (23456). The tone quality in this 'head voice' register is flexible, as it is in singing, and allows stepwise patterns of passaggi in 'flat' modes (i.e. transposed modes with a B flat in the key signature) to be handled with ease. An example of the fingering system at work is Virgiliano's Ricercare 6 per traversa.

'~ 1

r r r F r r rrrrrrr r EL

-&~ 2 rrrfr Ex. 6.1

r f r rrrrr r r 1

Aurelio Virgiliano, '11 Dolcimelo': Ricercare 6, 'right hand down' fingering patterns.

Further Observations on Playing Characteristics and Techniques

The soft bottom octave was not much used. The tenor instrument is credited by most writers with a range of up to nineteen notes (sounding d'a"1, with fifteen21'natural' tones and the four highest notes achievable by 'skilled players' . By comparison, the Baroque flute favours a rich-toned lower register and is rarely required to play above d"'. 22 Tone quality and intonation must be radically corrected through embouchure, finger shading and breath control. It is difficult to tune flutes while they are being made because compromises are necessary between optimum finger placement and reachable finger holes. Original Renaissance flutes approximate the quarter-comma mean-tone temperament. Even so, some notes are too flat and require extreme upward adjustment; j#'', fingered 1234, is the worst at 21 cents flat (this fingering can, in fact, also produce a perfectly good f1. Some modern copies have enlarged fifth holes to bring up the pitch off#'' but this coarsens the tone and makesfo"s impossibly sharp. The e//' is fingered by half-shading the bottom hole. This fingering is shown in all of Agricola's fingering charts, fingered 12345+half6. A good instrument will produce a clear soft note with practice. The ell" is no problem, fingered 12346. The German sacred pieces by Schutz, Schein and Michael, the French chansons of Attaingnant, and the English consort repertoire require both e//' and e//" (many through the application of musica ficta). Agricola's fingerings for g#' and g#'' include 12+half3, while Jambe 20 21 22

Some modem makers' fingering charts offer 12+half3/456 for a a". This avoids the need for embouchure control over the pitch but sacrifices any notion of flexible tone. Agricola, Jambe de Fer, Virgiliano and Praetorius agree on this. J.J. Quantz likens the tone of the Baroque flute to an alto voice in his Versuch (Berlin, I 752), p. 50.

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

119

de Fer gives 1235+half6 for b on a bass flute. Zacconi recommends that 'skilled players' on flutes and other wind instruments use the technique of slightly covering and uncovering holes for controlling tone quality and tuning: cometts, flutes ('fifari '), recorders, curtals, comamusas and others that sound by means of bores and holes are those instruments that have a stable sound, which after the sound is made, cannot be altered except by the skill and talent of the player ... by covering and uncovering a little of those holes and bores ... they help in such a manner that they accommodate themselves as best as pOSSl'bl e. 23

This technique is useful for bringing/#'' (fingered 1234) up to pitch and for improving the tone quality of notes in the extreme high register. The Music Where Was the Flute Played?

The transverse flute moved with ease from battlefield to church to dance floor to court chamber. In the sixteenth century it can be documented in virtually every form of music, with other winds, strings and voices, playing chansons, madrigals, airs, motets, solo diminutions, and dances, in Italy, Germany, England and France. In the seventeenth century the picture alters somewhat. In England the flute consort continued to serve in the King's Music during the reigns of James I and Charles I, although no specific flute consort music survives. 24 However, the so-called 'consort of six', formed by 1580, remained popular in the first decades of the seventeenth century. A substantial amount of music survives for this ensemble, and it represents the only specific English repertoire to include the Renaissance flute. The line-up of violin or treble viol, flute or recorder, bass viol, lute, bandora and cittem performed arrangements of Renaissance madrigals, lute songs and dances by Dowland, Allison, Batchelor, Morley and others. In this repertoire the violin played the soprano melodic line. The flute played alto/tenor parts notated in C2 or C3 clefs but transposing to sound an octave higher, forming an equal partnership as a descant to the violin and lute. 25 23 24

25

L. Zacconi, Prattica di musica (Venice, 1592), Part I, f. 214; translation in K.T. Meyer, The Crumhorn: Its History, Design, Repertory and Technique (Ann Arbor, 1983), p. 22. See A. Ashbee (ed.), Records of English Court Music, iii: 1625-1649 (Snodland, 1988), iv: 1603-1625 (Snodland, 1991), v: 1625-1714 (Aldershot, 1991), vi: 1558-1603 (Aldershot, 1992), vii: 1485-1558 (Aldershot, 1993), viii: 1485-1714 (Aldershot, 1995), passim for court records of musicians including the flutes between 1509-1635. Only 'Joyne Handes' from Thomas Morley's The First Booke of Consort Lessons (London, 1599; corrected and enlarged 2/1611) is notated in a G2 clef, necessitating

120

From Renaissance to Baroque

The information on the transverse flute in France during the period 1600-60 comes from a single source, Marin Mersenne's Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636-7). Mersenne's detailed discussion features fingering charts and an air de cour arranged for flute consort a4. 26 This source will be discussed later in an attempt to understand why the instrument we have come to think of as quintessentially French was relatively obscure and little used. The Renaissance flute seems to have been played more in Italy and especially in Germany during the seventeenth century. As I hope to show, this is because German composers continued to use the contrapuntal polyphonic style of the late Italian Renaissance, where the flute, along with other 'Renaissance' winds such as comett and recorder, was able to contribute a voice in multi-choir motets of Praetorius and Schutz and in more 'affective' chamber works of Schutz, Schein and Michael.

26

performance at written pitch, or possibly even by a tenor recorder. In the so-called 'Matthew Holmes' partbooks (Cambridge, University Library MSS Dd.3.18, Dd.l4.24, Dd.5.20-21, c.1595), the flute was replaced by a tenor recorder and notated in G2. Variant readings between flute and recorder parts, mostly to do with downward octave shifts in the recorder parts, show that the recorder was playing at written pitch and that the parts were carefully reworked. There is no evidence for the use of a bass flute here. Not only were bass parts not normally notated in C2 or C3 clefs, but, in general in Renaissance music, instruments were allocated according to function, so bass instruments were not used to play inner parts. I am grateful to Peter Holman for discussions on this point. Pierre Trichet's treatise 'Traite des instruments de musique' (Paris, Bibliotheque SteGenevieve 1070; c.l630-44) mentions the 'flute allemande' in passing; see F. Lesure (ed.), 'Traite des instruments de musique', Annates musicologiques, vol. 3 (1955), pp. 283-387 and vol. 4 (1956), pp. 175-248.

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

121

Italy Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

'Magnificat' a7, Sanctissimae Virgini ... vesperae (Venice, 161 0) 27 A pair of flutes (the first labelled 'fifara' but the second 'pifara') play in thirds in a short passage at the words 'quia respexit humilitatem' (for he hath regarded the low estate). 28 The text, from Luke ii.48, continues 'ancillae suae' (of his handmaiden) with trombones, and 'ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent' (for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed), scored for cometts and violins, then recorders. The flute was an equal partner to the comett, violin and recorder at this time in Italy, as shown in contemporary diminution manuals? 9 Used by Monteverdi, with its own particular 'voice', the flute highlights a particular moment of this intimate spiritual text and is used in conjunction with other instruments for colour. 30 Clef: G2/G2 31 (the G2 clef signals the use of chiavette, a system of vocal notation that suggests downward transposition, probably in this case down a fourth, flutes sounding up a fifth) 32 Range: g'-f'/g'-g" (transposed, d'-c"/d'-d') Mode: g (transposed, d) 'A quest'olmo' a6, Concerto. Settimo libro de madrigali (Venice, 1619). 33 This pastoral madrigal is the only secular piece of vocal music in Italy with parts assigned to flutes. Scored for six voices with two violins and basso continuo for most of the piece, Monteverdi replaced the violins with a pair of 'flautini o fifari' (small recorders or transverse flutes) for eighteen bars at the erotic climax of Giovanni Battista Marino's 'sonnetto boschereccio'. 27

28

29

30 31

32

33

Performing score: J. Kurtzman (ed.), Claudio Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine: Vespers (/610) (Oxford, 1999), pp. 145-200. The designation 'pifara' is likely to be a printing error for 'fifara' for the second part surely refers to the transverse flute and not to the shawm. One can assume that both parts are meant for soft transverse flutes at this point in the text. See also J. Kurtzman, The Monteverdi Vespers of 1610: Music, Context, Performance (Oxford, 1999), pp. 417-18. See Brunelli, Virgiliano, Dalla Casa and Rognoni (who also includes the sackbut as a virtuoso 'bastarda' instrument). A somewhat different interpretation is given by van Heyghen, 'The Recorder in Italian Music', pp. 7-9. Clefs and ranges in the following discussion refer to flute parts unless otherwise stated. On chiavette and downward transposition, see J. Kurtzman, 'Tones, Modes, Clefs and Pitch in Roman Cyclic Magnificats of the 16th Century', Early Music, vol. 22 (1994), pp. 641-64; A. Parrott, 'Transposition in Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610: An Aberration Defended', Early Music, vol. 12 (1984), pp. 490--516; Kurtzman, The Monteverdi Vespers, pp. 404-11; and R. Bowers, ·An "Aberration" Reviewed: The Reconciliation oflnconsistent Clef-Systems in Monteverdi's Mass and Vespers of 1610', Early Music, vol. 31 (2003), pp. 527-38. G.F. Malipiero (ed.), Claudio Monteverdi: Tutte le opere, vol. 7 (Asolo, 2/1965), pp. 14-34.

122

From Renaissance to Baroque

Flutes and recorders had long been symbols of love and sex. Here the flutes contribute to the pastoral intimacy, perhaps lending an antique flavour as well. Gary Tomlinson calls this a 'retrospective work' which 'looks back to the pastoral sorrows of Book VI' and 'breathes a nostalgic pastoral ethos ..3 4 The solo bass voice interrupts the dancing villanelle-style chorus to deliver his impassioned 'all'hor che Ia mia Clori tutt'in dono se stessa el cor mi diede el cor, el cor mi diede' (then my Cloris gave herself to me completely and also her heart as a gift) while the flutes answer in playful counterpoint. As in the Vespers, the flute clefs are G2, suggesting a downward transposition for this piece. 35 Clef: G2/G2 (chiavette) Range: g'-e"/c-e" (transposed d'-b'/g-b') Mode: C (transposed G) Aurelio Virgiliano, '/l Dolcimelo' (c./600/ 6

To find out how the flute was played in Italy around the tum of the seventeenth century we can tum to a number of diminution manuals that mention the instrument in passing and offer 'generic' examples of ornamented madrigals and chansons playable on various wind and string instruments. For more specific information, the manuscript treatise by Aurelio Virgiliano offers fingering and transposition charts for the 'traversa'. The treatise is unfortunately incomplete, with blank pages where fingering charts for various instruments are not filled in; the 'modi da sonar le traverse' is on one of the few completed pages. (See Illustration 6.1; for Illustrations see pp. 141-3.) His fingering chart for an instrument with a nineteen-note range from d'-a" agrees with other sources for tenor flute, the instrument which seems to have been most in use. Virgiliano does not bother with notes outside the 'cantus mollis', a Dorian scale with B~. The clefs and instructions to the right of the fingerings elucidate the practice of transposing by a fourth or a fifth, the same transpositions described by Agricola/ 7 by using a combination of clefs and fingerings. Ten 'ricercari', written in an ornate hand, are playable on 'flauto, cometto, violino, traversa et simili', in C 1 and C4 clefs, with ranges of gg". Only one piece, Ricercare 6, gives the 'traversa' as the first choice. While it may be reading more than was intended into his instructions, I suggest that this piece was considered by Virgiliano to be particularly well suited to the flute. It is in the minor mode (g Dorian), with a range of d'-d" (performed an octave higher than written pitch), thus using a modest range and not the most extreme notes. Triple rhythm 'battaglia' elements point to the transverse flute's military associations: 34

G. Tomlinson, Monteverdi and the End of the Renaissance (Oxford, 1987), pp. 166--7. P. van Heyghen has investigated the subject of transposition and related cleffing, see footnote 13. 36 See footnote 10. 37 Agricola, Musica instrumentalis Deudsch, see footnote 6. 35

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

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The musical prototype for flute battle pieces (and indeed the only writtenout example of how military flutes improvised) is to be found in Thoinot Arbeau's Orchesographie (1589), a dance treatise where soldiers and military music are briefly discussed. 38 When soldiers approach the enemy, to join battle they close ranks to form a solid mass. The drummer beats crotchets accompanied by one or two fifers ... [the fife is] a little transverse flute with six holes, used by Germans and Swiss, who improvise to please themselves, keeping in time with the drum. 39

Comparing Arbeau's tabulations to Virgiliano's more artful composition, one can see similar materials used, including dotted rhythms and the running six-note quaver figure:

38 39

English translation by Mary Stewart Evans (New York, 2/1967). Ibid., pp. 37-39.

From Renaissance to Baroque

124

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Thoinot Arbeau, Orchesographie (Langres, 1588), pp. 44-6: passages from 'Tabulation for playing the fife in triple time'.

A further example of military flute music is to be found in an Elizabethan keyboard piece by William Byrd, 'The flute and the droom' .40 Like the Arbeau and Virgiliano pieces it is in triple time. So many of the musical details are the same (compare Arbeau, Example 6.3 a.b.c.d. with Byrd, Example 6.4 a.b.c.d.) that it seems likely that Byrd was consciously copying a recognized idiom:

40

A section from The Battle; in A. Brown (ed.), William Byrd: Keyboard Music II, Musica Britannica, vol. 28 (London, 1971; rev. 2/1976), no. 94.

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

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Passages from 'The flute and the droom' (section from The Battle) attributed to William Byrd.

We can therefore assume that flute players in battle 'improvised' stock musical phrases such as these. The military associations of the traversa are, I suggest, part of the flute's 'amour' mystique (Mars with his spear is, after all, the illicit lover of Venus). We have seen that Italian music for the flute ranges from moments of extreme tenderness to mock-battle aggressiveness.

Germany Michael Praetorius ( 15 71-1621)

Praetorius's detailed suggestions for the instrumentation of large-scale motets suggests that Italian music and musical practices were adopted in Germany at the tum of the seventeenth century. He recommends the 'querflote' or 'fiffaro', either in a consort of mixed instruments or as a whole consort in motets by Giovanni Gabrieli, Orlande de Lassus, Claudio Merulo, Hans Leo Hassler, and for his own works. 41 He demonstrates the clef combinations and modes most suited to flute consorts in Syntagma . 42 mUSICUm:

41

42

Listed in Smith, 'Die Renaissancequerflote', Table V, pp. 70-1. Facs.: Kassel, 1958. English translation of volume 2 by D.Z. Crookes (Oxford, 1986, 2/1991 ); the section on instruments has been translated by Harold Blumenfeld (New York, 2/1962).

126

From Renaissance to Baroque

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Michael Praetorius, Syntagma musicum, vol. 3 (1618, 2/1619), p. 156: clefs and modes for 'traversa or fiffari'.

The repertory referred to above, primarily the Venetian polychoral motet, uses flutes for colour and brilliance rather than for their expressive possibilities. Praetorius states that flutes always play an octave higher than written and recommends that sometimes it should play two octaves higher when playing a tenor part in a large concerted piece where otherwise it would not be heard. 43 Heinrich Schutz (1585-1672)

Schutz was familiar not only with Praetorius's recommendations but also with Venetian practices which he learned while studying with Gabrieli. Schutz scored for flute in four large-scale motets (see below), three early works dating from the second decade of the seventeenth century and another from 1640-50, where the flute is used for colour among other winds, voices and strings. One other motet by Schutz employs flutes, not in large-scale polyphony but in intimate chamber music: 'Anima mea liquefacta est I Adjuro vos, filiae Hierusalem', SWV 263-4,44 which was published in Symphoniae sacrae (1629) during Schutz's second stay in Italy. 45 Scored for two tenors and a pair of 'fiffari' (or 'comettini' as alternatives), it is unique in Schutz's output. The range and technical demands are modest, but the expressive demands are clear in his choice of a pair of flutes to accompany the erotic, spiritual love poetry from The Song of Songs. Monteverdi's madrigal 'A quest'olmo' may have been the secular model for this pairing of flutes that weaves expressive counterpoint with the vocal lines: 'My soul failed when he spake, I called him but he 43 44

45

Music by Praetorius that specifies flutes is discussed in my forthcoming Ph.D. dissertation (University of Leeds). SWV = W. Bittinger (ed.), Schutz-Werke-Verzeichnis: kleine Ausgabe (Kassel, 1960). R. Gerber (ed.), Heinrich Schutz: Neue Ausgabe siimtlicher Werke, Band 13: Symphoniae sacrae I I I 629 (Kassel, 1957), 60-71.

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

127

gave me no answer. His lips are like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. I charge you, 0 daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, tell him that I am sick with love.' Here we see Schiitz composing in a most 'affective' style, which combines Italianate rhetorical delivery of text with contrapuntal instrumental writing. This style prevailed in Germany throughout the seventeenth century and was the model for the cantatas and passions of J.S. Bach. 'Siehe, wie fein und lieblich ists', Der 133. Psalm (Leipzig, 1619), SWV 48 (Wedding concerto) Scoring: SSATB; Cantus 1: 'cometto muto o violino'; Cantus II: 'violino o traversa'i Bass: 'violone o fagott'; be Clef: Cl 6 Range:a-g" Mode: g Text: Psalms cxxxiii 'Jauchzet dem Herm, aile Welt', Psalmen Davids Op. 2 (Dresden, 1619), SWV47 Scoring: four choirs. Flute in choir I as follows: Tenor: 'traversa e cometto'; Bass: 'fagott'; be Clef: Cl Range: c'-e" Mode: G Text: Psalms c 'Veni, sancte Spiritus' (Kassel, c.l614), SWV 475 Scoring: four choirs. Flute in choir IV as follows: Cantus 1: 'violin o cometto'; Cantus II: 'traversa o cornetto'; Bass: 'violone'; be Clef: C2 Range: d'-e" Mode: G Text: sequence for Pentecost 'Vater Abraham, erbarme dich mein' (Dialogus divites Epulonis cum Abrahamo) (Dresden, c.1640-50), SWV 477 Scoring: SSATB; Cantus 1: 'violino' alternating with 'traversa'; Cantus II: 'violino' alternating with 'traversa'; Bass: 'violone'; be Clefs: Cl Range: a '-g" Mode: various Text: Luke xvi.24-31 46

Clefs and ranges in this and the following examples are those in original transverse flute parts.

128

From Renaissance to Baroque

'Anima mea liquefacta est I Adjuro vos, filiae Hierusalem', Symphoniae sacrae Op. 6 (Venice, 1629), SWV 263--4 Scoring: TT; 'fiffara o comettino I'; 'fiffara o comettino II'; be Clefs: Cl/Cl Ranges: c'-e/l'/a-e!/' (to be played 8va) Mode: d Text: Song of Songs v.6, 13, 8 Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630)

All of Schein's works with flute come from a single collection, the Opel/a nova, ander Theil, geistlicher Concerten, published in 1626 while he was director of music at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. 47 The seven pieces which include flute are not large concerted works but chamber motets in four or five parts. The flute always plays 'Cantus II'. It is clear from the written range of c'-f' that the flute is meant to play an octave higher than notated, making a descant above the violin's 'Cantus 1'. The pieces can be grouped by instrumentation: 1. Pieces for solo tenor, violin, flute and basso continuo: '0 Maria, gebenedeiet bist du' a4 Scoring: Cantus 1: 'violino'; Cantus II: 'traversa'; Tenor: 'voce'; Bass ('instrumento'): 'trombone o fagotto'; be: organ Clef: Cl Range: c'-f' Text: Luke i.42-5 'Siehe, das ist mein Knecht' a4 Scoring: Cantus 1: 'violino'; Cantus II: 'traversa'; Tenor: 'voce'; Bass ('instromento'): 'fagot o trombone'; be: organ Clef: Cl Range: Bb-f' (with written ell and e//') Mode: g Text: Isaiah xlii.l--4 2. Pieces for solo tenor, violin and flute, with added trombone part: 'Also heilig ist der Tag' a5 Scoring: Cantus 1: 'violino'; Cantus II: 'traversa'; Cantus III: 'trombone'; Tenor: 'voce'; Bass ('instrumento'): 'fagotto'; be: organ Clef: Cl Range: d'-f' Mode: g Text: Johann Spangenberg, 1545 47

A. Priifer (ed.), J.H. Schein: Neue Ausgabe siirntlicher Werke, vols. 5-7: Opel/a Nova (Leipzig, 1914-23).

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

129

'Uns ist ein Kind geboren' a5 Scoring: Cantus 1: 'violino'; Cantus II: 'traversa'; Alto: 'trombone'; Tenor: 'voce'; Bass ('instromento'): 'fagotto'; be: organ Clef: Cl Range: c'-f' Mode:g Text: Isaiah ix.6-7 3. Pieces with voices on all the parts: 'Selig sind, die da geistlich ann sind' a5 Scoring: Cantus 1: 'voce e cometto'; Cantus II: 'voce e traversa'; Alto: 'voce e trombone'; Tenor: 'voce e trombone'; Bass ('instromento'): 'voce·e trombone'; be: organ Clef: Cl Range: d'-el/' Mode: g Text: Matthew v.3-12 (The Sermon on the Mount) 'Vater unser, der du bist im Himmel' a5 Scoring: Cantus I: 'violino, cometto e voce'; Cantus II: 'traversa, cometto e voce'; Alto: 'viola, trombone e voce'; Tenor: 'viola, trombone e voce'; Bass: 'violone, trombone e voce'; be: organ Clef: Cl Range: c'-d" Mode: g Text: Matthew vi.9-13 (The Lord's Prayer) 'Mach dich auf, werde Licht, Zion' a4 Scoring: Cantus I: 'violin, cometto e voce, flauto'; Cantus II: 'voce e traversa'; Alto: 'trombone e voce'; Bass: 'fagotto, trombone, e voce'; be: organ Clef: Cl Range:f-f' Mode: g Text: Isaiah lx.l-3 Schein's motet texts are mostly well-known Biblical passages. The small forces of Group 1 (voice, violin, flute and basso continuo) seem appropriate for the gentle and joyful texts relating to Mary, preceding the Magnificat, and foretelling the birth of Jesus. Group 2, enriched by the addition of the trombone, hails the power of redemption through Jesus. Group 3 includes the 'Sermon on the Mount' and 'Lord's Prayer', both texts expressing the deepest spiritual outpourings of Christ himself. The scoring of voices doubled by a wind ensemble of comett, three trombones and flute is certainly unusual, while the 'Lord's Prayer' is the richest scoring of all, doubling singers on I, III, IV and V with a string instrument as well as a comett or trombone, while voice II is doubled by both

130

From Renaissance to Baroque

'traversa' and 'cornetto' in the sections marked 'Sinfonia' and 'Capella' ('Concert' sections are for voices alone). 'Mach dich auf, while scored for a large number of instruments, uses them in alternation with solo voices and tutti choir. The texture is thus transparent and ever changing, like the light and darkness of the text. In all of Schein's output he expects the flute to play regularly in the third octave as an equal partner to the violin and voice in the trio sonata textures, or to balance a powerful consort of voices, cornetts and sackbuts. The Italian practices brought first to Germany by Praetorius and carried into northern churches by Schutz seem to have inspired Schein as well. Tobias Michael (1592-1657)

Tobias Michael succeeded Schein as director of music at the Thomaskirche, Leipzig. He took up his duties in 1631. Although he held this prestigious position for over twenty years, he is almost completely unknown today. His main output is contained in Musicalischer Seelenlust, erster Theil (Leipzig, 1634-5) and Musica/ischer See/en-Lust ander Theil (Leipzig, 1637). The first volume is for five voices with basso continuo, and the second is scored for voices and a variety of instruments in a style much like those of Schein. The following pieces include the Renaissance flute: 48 'Das ist ein kostlich Ding' Scoring: 'cantus', 'traversa', be Clef: Cl Range: c'- ell' Mode: F Text: Psalms xcii.l-4 Set for solo soprano with solo flute obbligato and basso continuo, this is apparently the only example of this scoring in German sacred music before the cantatas of J.S. Bach. As in the Schein pieces for flute, the part is notated in Cl clef, in F, with a range of c'-eb". Again, as in Schein's parts, the bottom note c' makes it clear that the part is to be played up an octave. 'Wo der Herr nicht das Haus bauet' Scoring: 5vv, 'violino', 'flauto', 'traversa', two 'trombone', 'faggott', organ Clef: Cl Range: c'- e"' (j'" occurs once, when doubling the voice) Mode: F Text: Psalms cxxvii This setting is an extended concerto of over 200 bars. It opens with a 'Sinfonia' for 'flauto', 'traversa', two 'trombone', and 'fagott'. These instruments (plus violin later doubling flauto/voice I) alternate with the voices in solo 'concerti' and tutti 'capella' sections. This is a rare example 48

I am grateful to Paul O'Dette for bringing this collection to my attention.

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

131

of flute and recorder being used in the same piece, although the recorder is primarily used to double the singer in tutti sections and the flute and recorder do not play together. 49 The other settings which include flute are among the most tender and beautiful of all Biblical texts. Michael has set both for the rather delicate scoring of violin, traversa, soprano and tenor, with 'fagott' or 'trombone grosso' and organ. 'Kommet her zu mir' Scoring: Cantus 1: 'violino'; Cantus II: 'traversa'; Alto: 'voce'; Tenor: 'voce'; Bass: 'fagott', organ Clef: Cl Mode: F (with m) Range: c'-e" Text: Matthew xi.28-30 The piece is scored for duo textures, either the two voices answered by the two instruments, or a voice and instrument together. Michael reserves the tutti texture for the final bars of the piece. An interesting feature is that Michael has carefully notated optional diminutions for the voices in several places. These are rather old-fashioned, in the style of the late sixteenthcentury Italians such as Dalla Casa. Still, it is of interest that he bothered to write them at all and it suggests that these Italian passaggi, examples of which are found in Praetorius' s writings, still had currency in midseventeenth-century Germany. The instrumental parts are not ornamented perhaps the vocal diminutions are meant to suggest similar treatment by the flute and violin. 'Wie lieblich sind auff den Bergen' Scoring: Cantus I: 'violino'; Cantus II: 'traversa'; Alto: 'voce'; Tenor: 'voce'; Bass: 'trombone grosso', organ Clef: Cl Range: c'-d" Mode: F (with m) Text: Isaiah Iii. 7-8 This is perhaps the most beautiful piece of all, with its expressive chromatic opening for the soprano alone with basso continuo. The repetition and word painting of upward scales for 'Bergen' (mountains) heightens the effect, as does the triple repetition, inviting tender echoes, of the music for 'die Fusse der Boten' (are the feet of the messenger). At the words 'die da Friede verki.indigen' (that bringeth good tidings), the instruments join as the music changes to a joyful triple metre. (See Example 6.6.) The flute and violin take up the chromatic opening theme 49

Surviving flutes and recorders seem to have been at incompatible pitches; surviving flutes are invariably at a lower pitch, often more than a tone, than surviving recorders, and for that matter, cometts. Questions of pitch and transposition of all instruments from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries have been exhaustively covered in Haynes, A History ofPerforming Pitch.

From Renaissance to Baroque

132

again at bar 90. After vocal duets answered by the instruments, Michael again reserves the tutti texture for the final verse of text, 'for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.'

Wie lieb-lich sind,

wie

lieb - lich sind,

wie

lieb - lich sind.

wie

be

lieb - lich

sind auff den

gen, auff den

Ber

Ber

gen,

auff den

be

gen,

die Fus-se der Bo

-

ten, der

Bo - ten, der

Bo - ten.

be

violin& traversa

fl

J.))r:JJ.lliJJiJ

J I

OJ

I

I

r"'1

I I

I ioo,i

I I

fl voce I OJ

die

da Frie -de ver- kUn - di - gen

Frie-de ver-kiln - di - gen

die

etc.

fl

voce II

..,

Die

da

da

be

Ex.6.6. Tobias Michael, 'Wie lieblich sind auff den Bergen', bars 1-26.

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

133

'Gott schweige doch nicht also' Scoring: 5vv, 'traverso' 1/II, 'trombone', 'fagott', organ Clef: Cl Range: c'- el/'1 c'-d" Mode: F Text: Psalms lxxxiii.l-4 The German liking for florid counterpoint was ideally suited to the capabilities of the Renaissance flute, and Schutz, Schein and Michael continued to write for its clear 'soprano' voice as a partner to the violin, comett, recorder and singers. Further research has yielded only one more seventeenth-century German composer who may have written for the transverse flute, Michael's successor at Leipzig, Sebastian Kniipfer. 50 The specific tradition of flute playing thus seems to have survived particularly in Leipzig. Kniipfer's 'Ach Herr, strafe mich nicht in deinem Zorn' (Psalms vi) is scored for five voices, with 'clarino' IIII, 'traverse' I/11, 'tamburi', 'violino' 1/II, 'violette' IIII, 'fagotto', 'organo'. I have only had access to the modem edition/' notated in full score with two flats in the key signature, where the ranges of the flute parts are el/-g" and g-b/J'. C minor is not a particularly good key for flutes, the parts are uncharacteristic in range (at 4-foot pitch the tessitura of flute I is very high) and the passagework is awkwardly chromatic. The editor of the modem edition has indicated that the manuscript parts were copied in 1700, 24 years after Kniipfer's death and well after the emergence of the one-keyed Baroque flute. Further investigation needs to be done on the music, players and circumstances in Leipzig and other north German cities (the Hamburg opera, for example, has yet to be investigated) to determine the extent of use of the transverse flute up to the time of J.S. Bach.

50

D.P. Walker and P. Walker, German Sacred Polyphonic Vocal Music between Schutz and Bach: Sources and Critical Editions (Warren MI, 1992) lists sources and critical editions of German sacred music for three or more voices between 1648 and c.1700. While this is a major source of information, it is unfortunate that the original terms 'flauto', which invariably refers to the recorder in this period, and 'traversa' as used by Knupfer and others to designate the transverse flute, have been translated as 'flute' by the authors. Most of the 'flute' pieces listed are in fact for recorders. New Grove 2 (vol. 27, p. 201) lists Matthias Weckmann's dialogue 'Gegriisset seyst du' as requiring transverse flutes, but the parts are labelled 'flauti' (recorders). The confusion between flutes and recorders in early sources is discussed in detail in my forthcoming Ph.D. dissertation (University of Leeds). 51 H. Kretzschmar (ed.), Denkmiiler deutscher Tonkunst, vols. 58-9 (Leipzig, 1918; rev. 2/Wiesbaden and Graz, 1957), pp. 60-90, which is edited from Berlin, Staatsbibliothek MS 11780, where the flute parts are marked 'traverso'. Another copy exists in Dresden, Sachsische Landesbibliothek Mus. MS 1825-E-50 I, where the flute parts are marked 'flauto'.

From Renaissance to Baroque

134

France

French music for flute is disappointingly scarce at this period. A rather more useful assessment of its use may be gained from written documents and iconography, extensively researched by Jane Bowers. 52 I suggest that we can also be helped in our quest by looking at some of the evidence for the later Baroque flute to help piece together a picture of seventeenthcentury French flute playing. Marin Mersenne states that the flute was a consort instrument in his Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636-7). As a solo instrument it does not seem to feature until the emergence of the 'new' Baroque flute c.1670. With the emergence of the 'affective' style of music developed in France by Jean-Baptiste Lully in the mid-seventeenth century, the Renaissance flute fell into disuse (as did most of the Renaissance wind instruments) because it was unable to produce the subtleties of tone quality and ornamentation required. Theoretical Writings and Instruments

Marin Mersenne is virtually the only source of information about the Renaissance flute in France. Harmonie universel/e (Paris, 1636-7) contains a good deal of information even if it is somewhat confusing and misleading. 53 Mersenne's explanation of the 'figure, estendue, & la tablature de la Fluste d' Allemand, & du Fifre' begins with an illustration of 'l'une des meilleures Flustes du monde' (one of the best flutes in the world), which shows itself to be a rather oddly warped keyless cylindrical flute made in one piece, with some ornamental turning and carving at the head and foot ends (see Illustration 6.2). The flute illustrated in his drawing is a consort instrument: he says that it plays the 'dessus dans les parties', and that 'the eyes participate in the pleasure of the ears' because the flute is 'ordinarily made of wood, one which is of a beautiful colour and can be polished', and there are also some of 'crystal, glass and ebony'. This is no peasant instrument! He goes on to say that a consort of flutes plays at 'ton de chapelle'- at this time a very low pitch. 54 Two fingering charts for flutes are notated at sounding pitches of g and d'. He points out that the tablature for the flute also serves for the fife, as the fife is not a different instrument except that it speaks more loudly ('parle plus fort') and with a livelier ('plus vif) and more piercing sound ('plus esclatans') because it is shorter and narrower. This means that the fife was higher in pitch than 'ton de chapelle'. Mersenne comments that ordinarily one does not play all the parts of music on the fife, as one does with the 'fluste d' Allemand', which was a consort instrument. (See Illustration 6.3.) 52 53

54

See Bowers, 'F1aiiste traverseinne', passim. Facs.: F. Lesure (ed.), Paris, 1965. English translation of the book on instruments by R.E. Chapman (The Hague, 1957). Bruce Haynes (A History of Performing Pitch, pp. 97-8) has shown this pitch to be between a'= 370Hz and a'= 392Hz.

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

135

Mersenne's flutes have a range of nineteen notes, a G major scale of gd"' for the bass g flute and a scale with F# and q from d'-a"' for the tenor d' flute. Mersenne's 'fifre' chart gives the same fingerings as for the d' tenor, but with only a two-octave range from d'-d"'. Low-pitched tenor flutes respond more freely in the third octave than higher-pitched instruments; modem copies at a'= 440 Hz and a'= 460 Hz bear this out. So it makes sense that the 'fifre' would have a more restricted range. Mersenne's fingerings are a bit odd. He seems to have used a rather haphazard notation, using both circles and dashes to indicate a closed hole. This has given rise to confusion by modem writers. But rather than indicating some sort of 'hybrid' or 'transitional' instrument, as some writers have suggested, I believe that all the fingerings can be explained as 'Renaissance' fingerings for a cylindrical-bore flute. For example, the d' tenor's a" has two different fingerings: the downward scale shows the usual 12456, while the upward a" is an overblown d', 123456, a 'falsetto' tone which is too sharp. Both fingerings need quite a lot of help by the player's breath, fingers and embouchure, a technique described l 00 years earlier by both Jambe de Fer and Zacconi. The G major scale for the bass is unusual, as is the lack of an Fq fingering for the tenor. So the scales shown are limited and somewhat eccentric, but do not make the case for a new design of flute. Engravings by Robert Bonnart from the second half of the seventeenth century corroborate Mersenne's statement that the 'flute d'Allemagne' and the 'fifre' are essentially the same. Bonnart depicts the 'fluted' Allemagne' in the com~any of a lute and tympanum, and the 'fifre' as a solitary instrument. Other than the greater length and the ornamental turnings of the 'flute d' Allemagne', it looks the same as the 'fifre', both being cylindrical and keyless. Bowers thinks that the 'aristocratic' flute may have been badly drawn and is probably a Baroque flute, 56 but judging from the exquisite details of the costumes, the lute and the tympanum, I think that the drawings are accurate; besides which, the turnings on the lower end are too far away from the little finger to be connected to a foot joint with its key. Verses accompanying the engravings refer to the charms of 'I' Amour' and playing 'en concert', or a 'mixed' ensemble: here the flute is accompanied by tympanum and lute. In this period, as in the sixteenth century, music for flute would no doubt have been drawn from chansons and other vocal airs, and dance music. A rustic fifer 'plays all day long on his solitary instrument to relieve the melancholy caused by love', while a soldier, on the other hand, plays 'melodious airs' on his 'fifre' during ~eace time, and in war 'brings the troops together by playing with the drum'. 7 Mersenne and Bonnart show that the 'Renaissance' flute in both its forms was played by aristocratic amateurs and as a rustic or soldier's fife. There was anyway a thriving 'peasant cult' amongst aristocratic musicians 55 56 57

The Bonnart engravings are reproduced in A. Powell, The Flute, p. 64; Bowers, 'Flaiiste traverseinne', p. 31; and L. Girard, La Flute (Paris, 1949), p. 143, plate 18. Bowers, 'Flaiiste traverseinne', p. 34. The verses are printed in Bowers, 'Flaiiste traverseinne', p. 32.

136

From Renaissance to Baroque

of the seventeenth-century French court, seen in their avid use of musettes, hurdy-gurdies, guitars and the like, and a fondness for rustic dances such as the musette, tambourin and bouree. The old-fashioned flute may have fitted into this category. The Music

The sole example of seventeenth century French music for Renaissance flutes is the 'Air de Cour pour les Flustes d'AIIemand', 'Su su Ia bergere' by Pierre Guedron (1570-1620). It is an expressive miniature of pastoral simplicity. 58 What sort of flute consort could have performed this piece? The music is notated in high clefs, G2, C2, C3, F3 (so-called chiavette), which suggests that Mersenne published it at a pitch suitable for flute consort of bass in g and three tenors in d'. If this is true, the superius part plays up to the stratospheric a"' in bar 5 of Example 6.7. (Van Eyck's version of 'Su su Ia bergere', see footnote 58, omits this quaver a"', substituting a g"' crotchet on beat three.) Pierre Attaingnant notated his arrangements of chansons for flute consort using high clefs in his Vingt et sept chansons musicales (Paris, 1533). The recorder pieces in the same collection are notated in 'normal' clef combinations ofCl, C3, C4, F4. 59 Guedron's air de cour is typical of the genre, with its uncomplicated homophonic texture for four voices, and lilting irregular text accents showing the influence of musique mesuree. These airs were popular for flutes throughout the seventeenth century and well into the eighteenth. The famous flautist Philbert (163 9-after March 1717) was said to have played 'sweet songs of Lambert' and his colleague Descoteaux delighted Louis XIV with 'petits airs tendres' .60 Jacques Martin Hotteterre even arranged a number of 'airs de cour' by Lambert, Boesset, Lully and others, adorning the 'ancient airs' as he called them on the title page of his Airs et brunettes (Paris, 1721 ), with his own richly ornamented 'doubles'. Writing in 1666, but using what he calls the 'passionate airs' of Guedron, Boesset and other early seventeenth-century composers' music as examples, Benigne de Bacilly describes the curious fact that singers improvised elaborate vocal ornaments, but that instrumentalists did not indulge in these complicated 'diminutions':

58

59 60

Mersenne prints the piece without text; M. Mersenne, Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636-7), p. 244. Jacob van Eyck includes this piece with some easy diminutions for flute or recorder as 'La Bergere', in Der jluyten lust-hof (Amsterdam, 2/1654; facs.: Amsterdam, n.d.), p. 9. Discussed further by Nancy Hadden, Nine Chansons for Transverse Flutes, Zephyrus Music, forthcoming. Bowers, 'Fiaiiste traverseinne', pp. 37-8.

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

137

• ·-------

: --~-,r--f=t=r r1

Ex. 6.7

Pierre Guedron, 'Su su Ia bergere', arr. by Marin Mersenne (Harmonie universelle, Paris, 1636-7, p. 244) for 'flustes d' Allemande' (text added from the vocal setting).

Since instrumental music is characterized by a greater degree of melodic simplicity than vocal music, any difficult passage is 61 immediately labelled as 'vocal style' .

Bacilly goes further with this discussion: There are certain short airs ... such as gavottes, sarabandes and minuets ... it is almost obligatory to perform these little songs in a natural manner. .. They will not have the tenderness which makes them so appealing if they are sung in too profound a manner. 61

B. de Bacilly, Remarques curieuses sur I 'art de bien chanter (Paris, 1668; Eng. trans. by A. Caswell, as A Commentary upon the Proper Art of Singing, New York, 1968), p. 46_ All references are to the English translation.

138

From Renaissance to Baroque

Singers may take liberties, often slowing the tempo to give time to the ornaments. This is especially true for gavottes, which demand a greater degree of expression and tenderness. It is unfair to criticize this as being undanceable ... if this were the intention of the singer, then his function would be no more than that of a viol. .. this observation applies to certain gavottes, in which it is permissible not only to slow down the meter but even to alter it to provide additional time for the use of vocal ornaments ... but not to alter a minuet or a sarabande to such an extent that it b~!omes a song in free meter, as is usually implied by the term 'air'.

Bacilly's instructions for French vocal ornaments, which he says were 'never printed' in the music, include the 'port de voix', 'cadence', 'tremblement', 'tremblement etouffe', 'passionner', and 'accent' .63 We know these same ornaments from later instrumental sources of the late seventeenth to the early eighteenth century, such as the viol music of Marin Marais, the harpsichord suites of Franc;ois Couperin, and flute suites by Michel de La Barre, Jacques Martin Hotteterre and Pierre Philidor. But, during the emergence of the Baroque style in France, the ornaments were not codified or written down, and they seem to have been the province of singers. La Barre (c.1675-1743), himself a virtuoso flautist, suggested that the flute was unable to play in the new style that was developing in French music around the mid-century. He wrote that Lully's elevation meant the 'downfall of all the old [wind] instruments', and that this was the reason why Hotteterre and others set about developing instruments that were 'suitable for concerts'. The transverse flute was among the last to be perfected. 64 The Renaissance flute was not well equipped to perform in the new French style of Lully. Its fingering system and tone, favouring the upper octave, suited Renaissance passaggi and the smooth vocal style of the Italian Renaissance. The Renaissance flute could not 'speak' in that particular French Baroque 'sighing' manner, which Bacilly describes in vocal terms as 'monosyllables which seem to require that you stop short, such as "Qui", "Non", "Va" and other similar ones, where the performer should cut short the word and place a rest after it, or before it. ' 65 The flute before its redesign played 'petit airs' such as the one suggested by Mersenne (see above), but was unable to venture into the expressive territories that Bacilly describes. To understand how far the flute travelled before a new manner of playing was perfected for it, we must look at the first published solos ever to appear for the Baroque flute, published in 1702 but undoubtedly circulating some years earlier. These are Michel de La Barre's Pieces pour 62 63

64 65

Ibid., pp. 48-9. Ibid., p. 64. The origins of many of these ornaments are in fact Italian; see the vocal ornament tables in Francesco Rognoni Taeggio, Selve de varii passaggi secondo (Milan, 1620; facs.: Bologna, 1977). See Marc Ecochard's essay (pp. 47-8) for La Barre's original text. Baccilly, 'Remarques', p. 55.

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

139

Ia flute traversiere avec Ia basse continue (Paris, 1702). In the 'Avertissement' to players, La Barre defends his new style of music for the flute: These pieces are for the most part of a character so singular and so different from the idea which went before, of pieces which are suited to the transverse flute, that I resolved only to perform them myself; but the solicitations of those who heard them played, and the faults which slipped in to some copies and which surprised me finally made me decide to print them. And as these pieces are the first which have been made for this sort of flute, I am obliged to 66 give some information to those who wish to play them.

La Barre goes on to explain when and how to perform the ornaments found in his music, including the 'liaison' (to indicate when not to fill in an interval), 'port de voix', 'couler', 'battement', and 'tremblement'. Only the 'tremblement' is described with a symbol, 'marked by a cross'. The tone of his explanations indicate that he is describing an unfamiliar practice to potential players. What could be 'of a character so singular and so different' from the idea of what flutes played before? The Pieces are ordered in suites of preludes, airs and dances decorated with numerous ornaments. Perhaps most 'singular' are the gavottes with 'doubles', 'La Therese' (Suite II) and 'La Corine' (Suite IV). The gavottes are straightforward enough, but the 'doubles' must surely be performed as Bacilly prescribes, 'slowing the tempo to give time to the ornaments', in order 'to make the pieces more expressive and tender'. (See Example 6.8 below.) Remembering Bacilly's remarks of 1666 (see pp. 137-8), singers were expected to perform dance music with artful use of rubato and ornamentation, while instrumentalists, whose function it was to accompany dancers, were not permitted such liberties. We are thus reminded that the expressive 'complicated' style was first of all a vocal one. La Barre's exquisitely ornamented flute solos in a 'vocal' style new to flute playing a daring departure from simple dances and 'petits airs' - were made possible by the transformation of the instrument. At the time of Bacilly's writing, the light soprano Renaissance flute was undergoing a drastic transformation, to emerge during La Barre's youth as a throaty contralto, especially suited to expressing the most tender and charming of Baroque passions. 66

Translation by Nancy Hadden.

From Renaissance to Baroque

140

+

+

6

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

•' Ex. 6.8

+

+

+

+

• 3

Michel de La Barre, Pieces pour Ia flute traversiere avec Ia basse continue (Paris, 1702): 'La Therese' from Suite II, gavotte and

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

Illus. 6.1

Aurelio Virgiliano, 'traversa'.

141

'II Dolcimelo': fingering chart for

142

Illus. 6.2

From Renaissance to Baroque

Marin Mersenne, Hannonie universelle (Paris, 1636-7), p. 241: 'Fluste d'Allemand'.

The Renaissance Flute in the Seventeenth Century

143

:~iliilliiilliiJ=

1=!-eoooooeoooooeeeaoe

' ' :: ::I

--1 I

;I ;I I

Illus. 6.3

I

I

I I

eeee e

90999

I

I I

I I

I

I

~

I

I

Q

:

I

I

I

I I I I

I

I

I

I II II ~I I I

I I

I

I I

.....

I : I

Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universel/e (Paris, 1636-7), pp. 313-14: fingering charts for g and d', 'fluste d'Allemand', and ford', 'fifre'.

Chapter Seven

The Flute at Dresden: Ramifications for Eighteenth-Century Woodwind Performance in Germany Mary Oleskiewicz

The origins of the one-keyed flute that emerged in France around 1685, and which was soon after imported to other parts of Europe, remain uncertain. The legend that the Hotteterres were single-handedly responsible for transforming it from a simple cylindrical flute is no longer tenable, yet scholarship has still to fill in the missing links. What has long been clear, however, is that a physical metamorphosis of the flute took place in the last decades of the seventeenth century, and that this revolution in flute construction came to pass only after similar changes had been applied successfully to the oboe and recorder. Yet the manner in which this instrument spread to the rest of Europe has been largely unexamined. This essay will document the instrument's transmission to, and cultivation in, Germany via the Saxon court of Dresden. The well-known group portrait traditionally referred to as La Barre and Musicians is one of the best depictions of the style of flute built in France at the turn of the seventeenth century. Recently re-attributed to Andre Bouys, the painting, dated to approximately 1705, depicts three conical transverse flutes made in three pieces with six open finger holes and one key and having long, ornate caps of double-serpentine construction. 1 The musicians are unidentified; however, the player standing in the centre is justifiably believed to be the virtuoso French court flautist and composer Michel de La Barre (c.1675-1745), one of whose publications is also shown in the painting. This period witnessed the first publications of music specifically for the transverse flute (from 1702),2 as well as the first beginner's treatises (from 1707) on how to play the instrumene - both of

2

3

On the attribution and other aspects of the painting (including a full-colour reproduction), see M. Oleskiewicz, 'The Hole Truth and Nothing but the Truth: The Resolution of a Problem in Flute Iconography', Early Music, vol. 29 (2001), pp. 56-9. M. de La Barre, Pieces pour Ia flute traversiere, avec Ia basse continue (Paris, 1702; J.M. Bowers (ed.), Paris, 1978). J.M. Hotteterre Ie Romain, Principes de Ia flute traversiere, ouflute d'Allemagne, de Ia flute a bee, ou flute douce, et du haut-bois (Paris, 1707; 7/1741; repr. as Methode pour

146

From Renaissance to Baroque

which attest to the popularity of the flute in France. Moreover, from 1709 at least one German court had begun to import French-speaking virtuoso players of similar three-piece transverse instruments. 4 The earliest information that is believed to link the origins of the Baroque transverse flute to France and the French court is anecdotal and can be traced to La Barre's Memoire of c.l740. 5 La Barre credits the Hotteterres and the Philidors with the transformation of the oboe, but nowhere does he specifically mention the flute in this connection; in fact, he merely indicates in passing that the flute arrived later. 6 La Barre's attribution of the new oboe to these French makers was repeated about twelve years later by the German flautist and theorist Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773), who seems to have been acquainted with the same oral tradition. 7 But Quantz also attributed the invention of the one-keyed flute to the French: he repeated La Barre's claim that the seventeenthcentury French court musician Philippe Rebille dit Philbert (1639-c.1717) was the first to play the flute in France, followed by Rene Pignon dit Descoteaux (c.l655-1728). According to La Barre, the transverse flute 'was a great success with the king and indeed everyone at court, and His Majesty caused two new positions to be created in [the ensemble called] the Musettes de Poitou and conferred them on Philbert and Descoteaux'. It has been suggested that, based on La Barre's testimony, we can fix the date by which the transverse flute made its debut at the French court as the year in which Rebille was appointed to the King's ensemble, the apprendre ajouer en tres peu de terns de Ia flute traversiere, Paris, c.1765; Eng. trans. 4

6

7

1968, 211983). The names of Flemish or Belgian players (among others) frequently were normalized with French spellings in German court documents, obscuring their national origins. M. de La Barre, 'Memo ire de M. de Ia Barre: sur les musettes et hautbois, etc.', Arch. Nat. Maison du Roi (0'.878). See Marc Ecochard's essay (pp. 47-8) for a complete transcription and translation of the document. 'mais sur tout le celebre Luly; on peut dire que on devroit J'apeller l'apollon de Ia France, mais son elevation fit Ia chute totalle de tous Jes entiens istrumens, a I' exception du haubois, grace aux Filidor et Hautteterre, lesquels ont tant gate de bois et soutenus de Ia musique, qu'ils sont enfin parvenus ale rendre propre pour les concerts. De ces terns Ia, on laissa Ia musette au bergers, les violons, les flutes douces, les theorbes et les violes prirent leur place, car Ia flute traverssiere n'est venue qu'apres. C'est Philbert [Rebeille] qui en a jouer le premier en France, et puis presque dans le meme terns, [Pignon] Descoteaux .... ' Versuch einer Anweisung die Flote traversiere zu spielen (Berlin, 1752), chapter I, paras. 4-6. Quantz's language suggests that he wrote on the basis of hearsay or mere speculation: 'The French, by the addition of a key, were the first to make the instrument more serviceable than it had been previously among the Germans ... The exact time when this improvement was made, and who its originator was, cannot be fixed with certainty, although I have spared no pains to discover reliable answers. In all probability the improvement was made less than a century ago; it was, no doubt, undertaken in France at the same time that the shawm was developed into the oboe, and the bombard into the bassoon.' English translation by E.R. Reilly, On Playing the Flute (2nd edn., Boston, 2001), p. 30.

The Flute at Dresden

147

Hautbois et musettes de Poitou - that is, by 1667. 8 But La Barre clearly exaggerated, because Philbert's post was not newly created for him; rather he was hi reg to fill the post hautbois, musette, jlutte du Poitou ordinaire de Ia Grande Ecurie that had been left vacant by Jean-Louis Brunet. 9 Further, Philbert was called 'joueur de flutte ordinaire du cabinet du Roy' or 'flutte', a designation that normally meant recorder and thus in no way specifies when he began to play the transverse instrument. 10 La Barre's account was written about 43 years after the supposed events occurred; he was born in c .16 75 and therefore was not present during these events. His account is thus based on oral tradition. During the first decade of the eighteenth century, the importation of French-speaking virtuoso flautists and their instruments to the court of Dresden came not only from France, but also Belgium and the Netherlands. This influx of players occurred earlier than has been generally acknowledged, and the evidence points to the court of Dresden as the source from which a distinctive German style of flute playing sprang. Dresden was the cradle and catalyst for the creation of a distinctly German culture of flute playing whose impact lasted to the end of the eighteenth century. In German-speaking lands as elsewhere, the transverse flute had been played alongside the recorder from at least the sixteenth century. During the seventeenth century, however, the transverse flute was largely superseded by the recorder in German-speaking countries, as well as in the musical establishments of Italy and Britain. Only with the spread of French music and French-speaking players and their instruments, at the very end of the seventeenth century, did the now-transformed transverse flute begin a resurgence in Germany, leading to the innovations in design, performance practice, and compositional style that are exemplified by the instruments, writings, and music of the first German flute virtuoso: Johann Joachim Quantz. Born in 1697, Quantz spent the first half of his career at the court of Saxony in Dresden before joining the Prussian court of Frederick the Great, whom he provided with hundreds of flute sonatas and concertos as well as many of his distinctively fashioned flutes. 11 A number of the instruments 8 9

10

II

This idea has been most recently propounded by Bruce Haynes, The Eloquent Oboe: A History of the Hautboy, 1640 to 1760 (Oxford, 2001), p. 16. J.M. Bowers, 'The French Flute School from 1700--1760' (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1971), p. 16, citing R. Cotte, 'Philbert', in F. Blume (ed.), Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, vol. 10 (Kassel, 1962), col. 1189. J.M. Bowers, 'New Light on the Development of the Transverse Flute between about 1650 and about 1770', Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, vol. 3 ( 1977), p. 12. The original court documents are cited in M. Benoit, Musiques de cour: chapelle, chambre, ecurie, 1661-1733 (Paris, 1971), pp. 19, 64, 100, and 114. For the performance practice and characteristics of instruments built by Quantz, see M. Oleskiewicz, 'The Flutes of Quantz: Their Construction and Performing Practice', Galpin Society Journal, vol. 52 (2000), pp. 201-20 (audio examples at http://www. music.ed.ac.uk/euchmi/galpin/gwjk.html). See also M. Oleskiewicz, Quantz Flute Sonatas, CD recording on the Naxos label (HNH International 8.555064), released January 2003.

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From Renaissance to Baroque

that he made for King Frederick survive in good states of preservation, 12 as does the large repertory of music that he wrote for his royal patrons first at Dresden and later at Berlin. Neither the relationships between Quantz's instruments and those of his predecessors, nor the distinctive features of Quantz's own flutes, have been fully appreciated, in part because few builders today make faithful copies of his instruments, in part because few players follow his detailed performance instructions with respect to embouchure, articulation, tuning - that is, pitch and temperament - and other aspects of performance. Quantz's instruments differ in significant ways from the one-keyed flutes of his contemporaries, requiring a distinctive approach to many details of tone production, intonation, and other aspects of technique and interpretation. The presence of a second key and the resulting differences in fingering are only the most obvious distinctions. Others include a more conical bore that renders the low register quite strong but very high notes less accessible unless one compensates, as Quantz instructs, through special adjustments to one's embouchure. Modem builders have frequently modified their copies of Quantz's instruments in order to make them playable without the use of unfamiliar techniques, and at a higher pitch level than they were intended to play, thereby vitiating some of the most distinctive features of these extraordinary flutes. Although distinctive and highly original, Quantz's flutes, flute music, and performing practice were products of the unique musical culture that flourished at Dresden during the early years of the century. This culture not only shaped Quantz and his music but also strongly influenced other composers who worked in Saxony, notably Telemann and J.S. Bach. Its impact on the music of J.S. Bach is apparent in that composer's gradually increasing appreciation of the capabilities of the transverse flute over the course of his career, culminating in several compositions that may well have been intended specifically for Quantz's instruments. The political and cultural atmosphere of Saxony and its capital city Dresden underwent a complete transformation at the end of the seventeenth century as a result of the successful aspiration to the crown of Poland by the ruling elector of Saxony. The Lutheran court musical establishment previously presided over by Heinrich Schutz, the electoral Kapelle, was converted to a Roman Catholic institution organized along the lines of the contemporary Habsburg and French musical establishments. This took place during the long reign of Friedrich August I (ruled 1694-1733), who was elected king of Poland as Augustus II in 1697. The Dresden court musical establishment was henceforth known as the Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Kapelle. Although its numerous musicians on occasion provided sacred music for Catholic worship in the Elector-King's royal chapels in Warsaw and Dresden, their principal duties were in opera and other theatrical genres and in chamber music. Among the musicians was a 12

A catalogue and provenance of the surviving flutes by and attributed to Quantz is found in M. Oleskiewicz, 'A Museum, a World War, and a Rediscovery: Flutes by Quantz and Others in the Hohenzollem Museum', Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, vol. 24 (1998), pp. 107-45.

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growing number of woodwind specialists, including several specifically designated as flautists. Table 7.1 outlines the ensembles established at Dresden from 1696/7. Table 7.1: Musical Organizations of the Dresden Court Churfiirstliche Kapelle (Electoral Kapel/e). Main musical establishment of Saxon court until 1697; included sacred, secular, and chamber music; wind choir included 'Schalmei', 'Cornetti', 'Fagott'. Konigliche Pohlnische und Churfiirstliche Siichsische Kapelle (Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Kapelle, 1698- ). Replaced old Churforstliche Kapelle and its players under August II; responsible for secular and Catholic sacred music in Dresden and especially Poland until establishment of the Pohlnische Kapelle in 1716. Bande Hautboisten (established 1696, to c.1707). Band of wind players from Vienna hired to join lnstrumentiste und Churfiirstliche Kammermusik. The band played for opera, theatre, baiiet, and other occasions. Pohlnische Kapelle I Kleine Kammermusik (Polnische Kapelle, 1716--33). Consisted of 12 new appointments (strings and winds) to travel to and from Poland with the court and relieve Hojkapelle of this duty, cutting travel expenses. Bande Franzoesischer Comodianten und Orchestra (French theatre troupe and orchestra, 1709-33). Permanent French troupe hired to replace travelling theatre and baJlet companies that had been present from 1699. Protestantische Sch/oflkapelle (Protestant chapel, established 1697). Members included players from the old Churfiirstliche Kapelle to supply modest Protestant sacred music. ltalianisches Schauspiel (Italian theatre, established under Tomasso Ristori, 1715--32). Performed commedia dell 'arte, comic operas, and intermezzi. Italian opera (cultivated under Lotti, 1717-19; and Hasse, 1731--63). Italian musicians performed sacred Catholic music and opera; from 1733 dismissal of all French troupes (except ballet) under the new elector, Augustus III).

As part of his expansion of the court's instrumental resources, the elector engaged a band of Hautboisten during a visit to Vienna from June to December, 1696. The term Hautbois!, as employed in the court archives, was generally associated with various woodwind instruments used in military regiments, including flutes. For example, Johann Jacob Bach (Johann Sebastian's older brother), who joined the military band of Charles XII of Sweden, was and is always described as an oboist, but he also studied transverse flute with Pierre Gabriel Buffardin (c.1690-1768), who would later become the Dresden court's principal flautist. 13 The term seems 13

Cf. A. Protz, 'Zu Johann Sebastian Bachs "Capriccio sopra Ia lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo'", Die Musiliforschung, vol. 10 (1957), p. 407. Protz observes that the term Hautboist was used for all military musicians.

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From Renaissance to Baroque

to have derived from the practice of the Lullian orchestra, where it could include not only oboes of various sizes but also bassoons, recorders, transverse flutes, and even bagpipes (musettes) and hurdy-gurdies (vielles). 14 The term could also denote, on an individual basis, players of the French oboe. According to an archival document of 1696, entitled 'Musici von Wien kommen 1696', the band comprised an international roster of musicians, among them players from Austria. The document lists the players' names, instruments, and salaries; each would receive 400 Taler annually. 15 Other court records refer to the group as the 'famous [beriihmte] Hautboisten'; their duties included performing in operas, ballets, and the theatre, and on other occasions as needed. Table 7.2 presents the names of the players. 16 The Viennese band of Hautboisten at this time included five members actually designated as Hautbois. Three of the five were brothers, two of whom also played trumpet. 17 Additionally, there were five Flutti or flautists, two Fagottisten, and one additional musician who played both flute and Fagott. Four of the six jlutti (or Flautenisten, as they were sometimes called) were Frenchspeakers (see Table 7.3). In 1697, four (not six) players from this Viennese Bande Hautboisten were singled out jointly as Flautenisten or, alternatively, Flutti. By 1698, only two of the players called Flautenisten remained in service: the French(?) players Charles Henrion and Jean Baptiste Henrion (also spelled Henrien in both cases). After a collective dismissal of the Kapelle in 1707 due to the economic strains of war, the only members of the entire ensemble to reappear in court rosters are Jean Baptiste Henri on and Charles Henri on ( 1709), who are now named as Hautbois (see the French Bande below). 18 14

15

16

17 18

According toN. Zaslaw, 'Lully's Orchestra', in J. de La Gorce and H. Schneider (eds.), Jean-Baptiste Lully: Actes du colloque I Kongressbericht Saint-Germain-en-LayeHeidelberg 1987 (Laaber, 1990), p. 549. Dresden, Siichsische Hauptstaatsarchiv, Loc. Oberhofmarschallamt Kill 8; Notificationes, Befehle und Verordnungen betrl: Die teutsche Hof-Capelle, ltal: Musici und Opern- und Comoedien-Haus- Bediente von Anno 1681-1697, (vol. 8) ff. 315r-316r. This information appears without indication of source in Haynes, The Eloquent Oboe, p. 454, in a list of Dresden players. In fact I presented this information in the course of the York conference as an extract from chapter one of my dissertation, 'Quantz and the Flute at Dresden: his Instruments, his Repertory and their Significance for the Versuch and the Bach Circle' (Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 1999). G.A. Ristori also appears as an oboist on Haynes' list, but in actuality, court documents show that Ristori was a composer and keyboard player. In 1717 he was hired as a composer of Italian music for the Italian Schauspiel (and thus for its orchestra, the Polish Kapelle). Ristori officially replaced Petzold as chamber organist (and clavecinist) in 1733 and received subsequent promotions in 1746 as Church Composer and in 1750 Vice Kapellmeister. Dresden, Siichsische Hauptstaatsarchiv, Loc. 32623/Gen. 221 (1703-1723), Der Konigl[iche] Poln[ische] Kapelle von Musici Besoldungsriickstiinde, f. 6. The outbreak of the Great Northern War (1700) with Charles XII of Sweden and his series of successes in Poland forced Elector Friedrich August I of Saxony to make peace at Altranstiidt in 1707. The war had prevented the payment of the court musicians'

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Table 7.2: The Bande Hautboisten (c.1696 to c.1707) Director und Cammer Organist Johann Christoph Schmidt Hautbois! und Trompeter 19 Tobias Gresle Johann Wolfgang Gres1e Christian Gresle Hautbois! Anton Schwaiberger20 Nicolaus Delveaux

Flutti (also designated Flautenisten) Jean Baptiste Henrien Charles Steinberg Charles Henrien Loran Philipert Fagottist und Fluttist Michael Angelo Valzania

Fagottist Ferdinant Gresle Tobias Hennig (also Basson; Violist und Premier von der Band Hautboisten)

Table 7.3: Summary of Players Denoted Flauteniste or Flutti, but not Flute Alleman~ 1 Jean Baptist Henrion: Flutti, Hautboiste, Hauth: 2do, Flauteniste (from 1696); 300 Taler; originally member of the 'Viennese' Bande Hautboisten, later entered Hojkapelle. Charles Henrion: Flutti, Flauteniste, Violist, Cammer Musicus, Hautboiste, Hautbois premier (1696-?); 300 Taler; originally member of the 'Viennese' Bande Hautbois/en, later entered Hofkapelle. Charles Steinberg: Flutti, Violist, Cammer Musicus, Hautboiste ( 1696-1707); member 'Viennese' Bande Hautbois/en. Michael Ange(lo)Valzania: Fagottist und Fluttist (1696-8); member 'Viennese' Bande Hautbois/en. Loran and Philipert (no surname]: Flutti (1696); members of 'Viennese' Bande Hautboisten. Christian Weigelt: Flauteniste, Hautbois ( 1711-33); 150-200 Taler; member of the Hojkapelle.

19

20

21

salaries during the period and led to a mass dismissal in 1707. Many of the musicians were not rehired. Payment was eventually made up to them in wine. Also, Griisel, Grassel. Also, Schweiberger. Italics, here and in subsequent tables, denote a title as quoted from court records. The titles and pay are summarized from numerous court documents. For detailed references, see Oleskiewicz, 'Quantz and the Flute at Dresden', pp. 64-7.

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From Renaissance to Baroque

Yet, in court pay lists, the term Flautenist continued to denote certain other players in the Dresden Hojkapelle through the first two decades of the eighteenth century, where, in every case, the Flautenisten are named alongside players specified as Hautbois or Flute allemande. It is clear, however, that the Flautenisten must have been of lower stature, for they are consistently kept distinct from and are considerably less well paid than players of the transverse flute and first oboe. The hierarchy of musicians in the court's Pohlnische Kapel/e, or Kleine Kammermusik, an ensemble of lesser status, was also organized according to the same instrument-related status: the principal (and only) flautist at its formation in 1718 was the highest paid musician, just below that of the Director (also the principal violinist). Whether recorders or transverse flutes, the instruments that the Flautenisten in the court's ensemble played at this time were presumably the types developed during the late seventeenth century, which were cultivated in close association with the court and theatrical music of Louis XIV under the direction of Lully. Although no transverse flute played at Dresden is known to survive or is even identified by maker in any extant document, we can surmise that these were conical, three-piece, one-keyed flutes of perhaps French or Dutch origin, possibly styled with ivory turnings of double-serpentine construction. In fact, in his essay, Quantz reports that 'the Germans reacquired [the transverse flute from France] about fifty or sixty years ago [i.e., c. 1692 to 1702] in its improved form, that is, with a single key. ' 22 He adds that four-piece flutes (which appear in general to have borne a less ornate style of cap and turnings) first appeared in Germany in about 1722. 23 Thus, it was with the earlier three-piece style instruments, their repertory, their low pitch, and their playing practices that Quantz began his serious study of the transverse flute in 1718 in Dresden. These flutes and their associated musical practices were to inform his Versuch in large part. From Quantz's account, we can conclude that the earliest Dresden players, Jean-Baptiste D'Huisse, Le Cont le pere, Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin and Johann Martin Blochwitz (see Table 7.4), as well as the court's Flautenisten, also continued to use such instruments, at least into the 1720s. Accordingly, undated works such as Blochwitz's solos, published for violin or oboe 'but especially for the transverse flute', were also evidently conceived for the three-piece instrument. 24 Copies of Blockwitz's publication were sold in Dresden, Leipzig, and Nuremberg, and the preface to the print - which claims that there is a paucity of music for flute - seems 22 23

24

Quantz, Versuch, chap.!, para. 7. In para. 9, he explains that this type of flute was divided in three parts. Ibid., chap.!, para. 9. He reports that 'about thirty years ago ... the long middle piece with six holes was divided into two parts'; this date also coincides with the dating Quantz gives for the invention of the c-foot, an additional modification of which he disapproved. The set of pieces was entitled Sechtzig Arlen, eingetheilet in funfftehn suitten vor Violino oder Hautbois absonderlich aber vor Flute traversiere nebst Basse Continue (Freiberg, n.d.).

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to indicate an early date of publication that is further confirmed by the style of the music. Quantz's earliest sonatas were also undoubtedly conceived for such an instrument. 25 Table 7.4: Alphabetical Summary of Flautists- Titles and Pay to c.1741 26 Pierre Gabriel Buffardin: Fluteur, Fluti Allemande, Flute Allemande, Fluttravers, Cammermusico, etc. (1713-49); 500-1000 Taler; principal flautist of the Hojkapelle and Cammermusik. Johann Martin Blochwitz: Hautbois, Flute Allemande, Flut-travers, Flaut. ( 1711-44, from 1720 begins to be described as transverse flautist); 200--300 Taler; oboist and secondary flautist in the Hojkapelle and Cammermusik. Jean Cadet: Flute Allemande und Easson; Bassist, Easson, Hautbois (1714-33); flautist and bassoonist in the Hojkapelle. Le Cont le pere: Flute Allemande (1709); 250 Taler; flautist in the Hojkapelle. 27 (Jean Baptiste) D'Huisse: Flute Allemande; Premier Hautbois und Flute allemande (1709-14); 400 Taler; flautist in the Hojkapelle. Johann Nicolaus Friese: [Flautist], Hautboist in the Pohlnische Kapelle; 200 Taler; replaced by Johann Joachim Quantz. Johann Joachim Quantz: [Hautbois], Flut-travers (1718-41 ); 150--800 Taler; oboist and first flautist in the Pohlnische Kapelle, after 1728 second flautist in the Hojkapelle and Cammermusik. Georg Zarth: 28 Violiniste [played both violin and transverse flute] (1733-4); violinist and flautist in the Pohlnische Kapelle.

At the time ofQuantz's arrival in Dresden in 1716, the court music was about to undergo another major reorganization. A new body, the Pohlnische Kapelle or Kleine Kammermusik (small chamber music), was established in 1716 to relieve the larger Hojkapelle or Grosse Kammermusik of its duties in Poland. The musicians of the Pohlnische Kapelle performed for courtly entertainments, including French ballet and 25

A collection of 20 sonatas, including many of Quantz's earliest solo sonatas, is preserved in a late eighteenth-century copy in an unidentified hand: Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Mus. MS 18 020, entitled 'Sonate a Flauto Traverso Solo e Cembalo Da Gio: Gioacchino Quantz'. It includes QV 1:146; 1:163; 1:15; 1:37a; 1:57; 1:95; 1:125; 1:147; 1:171; 1:17, 1:24; 1:71; 1:86; 1:116; 1:151; 1:173; 1:5a; 1:58a; 1:84; 1:121 (as catalogued in H. Augsbach, Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der Werke von Johann Joachim Quantz: Quantz-Werkeverzeichnis (QV) (Stuttgart, 1997)). For a discussion of these works, see Oleskiewicz, 'Quantz and the Flute at Dresden', 26 pp. 166-96. All titles and pay are summarized from numerous Dresden court pay records preserved in the Hauptstaatsarchiv, Dresden. For detailed citations, see Oleskiewicz, 'Quantz and the Flute at Dresden', pp. 60-4. 27 Also, Duce. 28 Also, Czarth.

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From Renaissance to Baroque

comedies and Italian commedia dell 'arte. Twelve new posttions were created for this new and distinct Pohlnische Kapelle. According to Moritz Fi.irstenau, they comprised five designated as violinists, one oboe, two horns, three Fagottisten, and a Contrabassist (see Table 7.5(a)). 29 Some explanation of Tables 7.5(a) and 7.5(b) is necessary here. The first part of the table names the 12 positions created, as given by Fi.irstenau. The second part lists the names from an actual paylist from 1718 that Fiirstenau does not discuss. 30 Information about the instruments played by each member is not given in the paylist (this information is supplied in brackets). 31 At first glance the court documents appear to be inconsistent in their terminology. The term Violinist could mean Instrumentalist in the general sense, but it often was used to designate string players, which seems to be the case here. The term Contrabass is! apparently indicated a player of the Contrabasson, for the first player who filled the position in 1718 is designated as such in the paylist of 1725 (see Table 7.5(b)). By extension, the term Bassist seems to have designated players of the Easson and (or) Fagott. Two players listed in the paylist of 1718 (Paschek and Simon) are named elsewhere as both Bassist and Hautbois, while a third (Seydal) is given elsewhere as a player of Fagott. Of the players hired, those three are - by process of elimination - the only musicians who could have filled the three new positions designated as Fagottisten (see Table 7.5(a)). Thus, the twelve players shown in the paylist appear to equal the number and types of positions created, with the exception of Bluhme, who played lute, and apparently took one of the four positions intended for Violinisten. The remaining three were filled by players of violin, as was the premier von der Musique, as Schultze is named in 1725.

Table 7.5: The Pohlnische Kapelle (Kleine Kammermusik) (a) In 1718 Positions created at the ensemble's inception: 1 premier [Violinist] 4 Violinisten 1 Hautbois 2 Waldhomisten 3 Fagottisten 1 Contrabassist 29

30 31

Zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters am Hofe zu Dresden (Dresden, 1861-2; repr., Leipzig, 1979), vol. 2, p. 20. Fiirstenau, who had direct access to court documents, tends to normalize instrument names and indiscriminately uses the term Fagott to indicate Easson and Fagott where court records make a distinction. Dresden, Sachsische Hauptstaatsarchiv, Loc. 3521, vol. 3, Pohlnische Generai-CassaSachsenAo 1718-1723, f. 10. Bracketed information (not original to this paylist) indicates the players' actual instruments or titles as given in numerous other court documents, discussed in detail in Oleskiewicz, 'Quantz and the Flute at Dresden'. That the oboist [J.N.] Friese also played transverse flute is mentioned solely in Quantz's autobiography.

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(Table 7.5, continued) Actual paylist of musicians (amounts in Taler): Heinrich Schultze, 200 [Violinist, Premier Musicus, Premier de l'orguestre] Johann Nicolaus Friese, 200 [Flautist, Hautboist] Christian Friedrich Friese, 200 [Violinist] Daniel Hasse, 200 [Contrabassist] Gottfried Grossmann, 130 [Waldhomist] Johann Ktihntzel, 130 [Waldhomist] Christian Paschek, 126 [Hautboist, Bassist] Johann Bluhme, 126 [Lute] Matthias Siegmund Koehler 126 [Violinist] Michael Simon, 126 [Fagottist] Christian Seydal, 126 [Hautboist, Bassist] Carl Anton Schauer, 126 [Violinist]

(b) 1725 Actual pay list of musicians: Heinrich Schultze, Premier von der Musique [alt. Violinist] Mathias Siegm[ und] Koehler, Violinist Carl Schauer, Violinist Philipp Troyer, Violinist Gottfried Grol3mann, Violinist [Waldhomist] Johann Ktihntzel, Violinist [Waldhomist] [Michael] Simon, Violinist [Fagottist] Christian-Fr[iedrich] Friese, Violinist Daniel Hasse, Contrabasson (sic) [Contrabassist] Johann Bluhme, Bassist[= Lute] Sebastian Reimel, Bassist[= Violoncello?]

It was in 1718 that Johann Joachim Quantz made his entrance into Dresden court employment via this ensemble, which he says still lacked an oboist. 32 But he reports that his competitive spirit and lack of experience on that instrument (his main instrument having been the violin up to this point) forced him quickly to take up the transverse flute, which until then he had practised only on the side. As Quantz put it, 'on this instrument I did not 32

Quantz's account appears to contradict information in the court archives. Table 7.5(a) shows a full roster of twelve musicians, including several identified elsewhere as 'Hautboist'. Quantz, however, reported that in March 1718 eleven players had been hired and, since an Hautboist was still lacking, his name was suggested. And although Quantz was indeed hired, his name is not part of this pay list. It is possible that Quantz filled an immediate vacancy left by one of the original Hautboiste, Paschek or Seydel, both apparently bassoonists; neither player is named after 1718. Quantz further claimed that he and all of the ensemble's members were hired with a yearly salary of 150 Taler, which is erroneous. This may have been his own starting salary, but all members were not paid equally (see Table 7.5(a)). His salary was raised to 216 Taler in 1721.

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From Renaissance to Baroque

have to fear any special resistance from my colleagues, particularly since the current flautist, Friese, who had no great inclination toward music, willingly allowed me to take the chair of the first flautist. ' 33 Friese apparently left the ensemble altogether, for his name does not reappear. Quantz's name does not appear in the Pohlnische Kape/le's roster in 1725 34 (see Table 7.5(b)) as he was away on a European study tour that began in 1724. The roster of musicians thus numbers only eleven and an oboist is lacking. Surely there is a more interesting story lurking behind Quantz's oddly uninformative account. We can only guess that this flautist, whose full identity as Johann Nicholas Friese can be ascertained from court documents, 35 was an indifferent player, unaware of or incapable of the innovations in playing technique and instrument design that evidently interested Buffardin, who since 1715 had been installed as the principal transverse flautist of the Hojkape/le (the larger, more elite of the two court ensembles). The Dutch flautist Anton Mahaut later credited Buffardin with the invention of both the foot register and the moveable screw cork, which are used to correct the tuning. 36 Although these contributions were comparatively modest innovations beside the extra key and the tuning slide that Quantz eventually incorporated into his own flutes, they are indications of Buffardin's serious concern with intonation and with the physical development of the instrument, two preoccupations that Quantz was to share. The concern with pure intonation must have been conditioned by the stringent requirements of playing in the Dresden Hojkape/le, by many accounts the leading ensemble in Europe. The ensemble's repertory included pieces in keys as remote as E-flat minor, and transverse flutes, oboes, and violins were frequently called upon to play in unison, octaves, or parallel thirds in a wide variety of tonalities. Given the tradition of ensemble unanimity inherited from Lully and introduced at Dresden by the court's concertmaster, Jean-Baptiste Volumier [Wolumyer], it is unlikely that any impurities in intonation would have been tolerated. 33

34

35

36

'wei! ich hierauf, unter der Gesellschaft wo ich war, eben keinen sonderlichen Widerstand zu befiirchten hatte: urn so vie! mehr, da der bisherige Flotenist Friese, dessen groBte Neigung eben nicht auf die Musik gieng, mir den ersten Platz bey diesem Instrumente freywillig abtrat.' From Quantz, 'Herrn Johann Joachim Quantzens Lebenslauf, von ihrn selbst entworfen', in F.W. Marpurg, Historisch-kritische Beytriige zur Aufnahme der Musik, vol. I (Berlin, 1755; repr., Hildesheim, 1970), pp. 208-9; the English translation is (with modifications) by Paul Nett!, 'The Life of Herr Johann Joachim Quantz, as Sketched by Himself, in his Forgotten Musicians (New York, 1951), pp. 288-9. Dresden, Siichsische Hauptstaatsarchiv, Loc. 383, Die Bande Franzosischer Comoedianten und Orchester betrf. Anno. 1721-1733 (vol. 2), ff. 122r-122v. Dresden, Sachsisches Hauptstaatsarchive, Loc. 907, Die Italiaenische Comoedianten betr. Ao 1715-1717, 1725, 1732-1734, 1737, 1749, 1754-1756 (vol.l); Loc. 1386: Ordres du Roi a Volmar 1720-1728 (vol. 2); Loc. 3521: Pohlnische General-Cassa Sachen Ao 1718. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23., (vol. 4) p. 10. A. Mahaut, Nieuwe manier om binnen korten tyd op de dwarsfluit te /eeren speelen I Nouvelle Methode pour apprendre en peu de terns a jouer de Ia flute traversiere (Amsterdam, [c.! 759]), p. 2.

The Flute at Dresden

!57

Quantz also wrote that he spent four months playing nothing but what he called 'quick pieces' with Buffardin. 37 This suggests intense concentration on the type of virtuoso passagework so characteristic of the Venetian concertos that at the time were sweeping Europe. The fundamental influence of these concertos is evident throughout ~uantz's works as well as in the one extant concerto attributed to Buffardin. 3 This is despite what would appear to have been the essentially French orientation of their instruments and performance technique. Among Quantz's early works are numerous trio sonatas, six quartets, and several group concertos in the Italian style composed and performed at Dresden; in these works the solo transverse flute often plays as an equal partner with a solo violin. 39 Such writing is far from the occasional flute solos in the French repertory, where the flutes rarely compete with a virtuoso violin soloist. Quantz's flutes were to retain the low pitch and strong low register of the French Baroque flute, but in addition they are suitable for passagework and rapid shifts of tessitura. These capabilities, standard features in the Italian violin repertory, are already required in his Dresden flute works of the 1720s. Thus, although his instruments and many aspects of his technique, such as the approach to ornaments and articulation described in his Versuch, were fundamentally French and in direct line with the tradition described earlier in the century by Hotteterre, his Dresden experience led him to seek ways to enable his instrument for Italianate virtuoso music as well. 40 The predominantly French taste of Augustus II was reflected in his court's cultivation of French theatre and ballet, which included a permanent French theatrical troupe active from 1709 until its dismissal in 1733 by his successor, Augustus III. In her examination of French personnel and influence at court, Ortrun Landmann described the scoring of French theatrical and instrumental music performed by the Hojkapelle but offered no direct evidence about the relationship between the instrumentarium and 37

38

39

40

Quantz, 'Lebenslauf', p. 209; trans. in Nett!, Forgotten Musicians, p. 289. Buffardin's affinity for fast passagework is evidenced by certain flute solos in concerted works by Dresden composers, particularly those by Heinichen, as well as in a flute concerto attributed to him; see footnote 38. Schwerin, Mecklenburgische Landesbibliothek, Mus. 1253: Concerto in E minor for flute, strings, and continuo (H. Augsbach (ed.), Leipzig, 1984). RISM gives the title wrapper as: 'Concerto a 5. I Flaute Traverse I Violino primo I Violino secundo I Viola I col I Basso continuo I di Sign. Bifardin.' On the discovery of six lost quartets by Quantz for flute, violin, viola, and continuo, see M. Oleskiewicz, 'Quantz's Quatours and other Works Newly Discovered', Early Music, vol. 31 (2003), pp. 484-504. A study and edition of relevant trios is presented in M. Oleskiewicz (ed.), Johann Joachim Quantz: Seven Trio Sonatas, Recent Researches in Music of the Baroque Era, vol. 111 (Middleton WI, 200 I). Quantz's 'Solfeggi', a pedagogical manuscript that excerpts many of his own works, provide numerous directives for (and examples of) applying articulation patterns described in the Versuch. In the above-cited edition, Johann Joachim Quantz: Seven Trio Sonatas, two such trios excerpted in the 'Solfeggi' are published in full, together with a transcription and discussion of the articulation patterns.

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From Renaissance to Baroque

the French repertoire performed by the orchestra. 41 However, unpublished archival documents relating to the music for the French theatre at Dresden lend some insights in this connection. The Orchestra, as the ensemble is designated from 1709 in the archives of the French theatre, employed many of the same musicians as the Hojkapelle. Volumier led the ensemble as violinist and dancing master and instituted, for the first time in Dresden, the French manner of uniform bowing introduced by Lully. The members of the Hojkape/le available to the French theatre numbered 32, including several composers. The terminology found in the archives on this point is, incidentally, of some relevance to Bach studies. Much later, in the letter of 1733 to Augustus III that accompanied his submission of the B-Minor Missa, J.S. Bach wrote that he was willing to compose 'music for the church as well as for the orchestra. ' 42 Thus, Bach would have known that, at Dresden, the term Orchestra could signify an ensemble including singers and dancers as well as players that performed theatrical, operatic, and other secular genres (including music for the theatre). Many of these same performers were also responsible for the performance of sacred music. In fact, the instrumentalists of the Pohlnische Kapelle were also sometimes collectively referred to as an Orguestre, and theatrical music formed part of the ensemble's principal duties. Bach, undoubtedly aware of the term's general meaning in Dresden, nevertheless seems to have used it to emphasize his interest and ability to compose in a variety of secular genres for instruments, with or without voices. 43 Records in the archives suggest that the Orchestra, from the outset, included a typically French five-part string ensemble. Table 7.6 gives a personnel list from 1709. The ensemble had from one to two players per part, among which were one or two first violins, including the concertmaster, two second violins, and violists, whose players were designated variously as Haute contre, Tai/le, and also simply Braccist or Violist. Violists could (and did) double on violin, thereby increasing the 41

42 43

See 0. Landmann, 'Franzosische Elemente in der Musikpraxis des 18. Jahrhunderts am Dresdener Hof, in Der Einfluss der franzosischen Musik auf die Komponisten der ersten Halfte des 18. Jahrhunderts: Konferenzbericht der IX. Wissenschaftlichen Arbeitstagung, Blankenburg/Harz, 26. Juni bis 28. Juni 1981, Studien zur Auffiihrungspraxis und Interpretation von Instrumentalmusik des 18. Jahrhunderts, vol. 16 (Blankenburg/Harz, 1982), pp. 48-56. H.T. David and A. Mendel (eds.), C. Wolff (rev.), The New Bach Reader (New York, 1998), p. 158. A fuller exploration of this subject was given in the author's unpublished paper 'For the Church as well as the Orchestra: Bach and the Dresden Orchestra, 1700-1740', presented at the Bach Colloquium at Harvard University, 28 April, 2001. Previous writings on the subject, for example R. Marshall, 'Bach's Orchestre', Early Music, vol. 13 (1985), pp. 176-9 and J. Rifkin, 'Bach's Orchestre', Early Music, vol. 14 (1986), pp. 566--7, do not consider how the term 'orchestra' was used in Dresden court archival documents. As a result, Rifkin, in particular, downplays Bach's possible ambitions for composing opera.

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strength of their numbers when needed. 44 There were also two players of the violoncell and a player of the contre basse. The winds comprised two flutes allemandes, four oboists, and two players of the basson. In addition, there were two tiorba players and one or two organists. Table 7.6: The Orchestra and Musicians of the 45 Bande Comoedianten (1709) Volumier, Concertmeister [Carlo] Fiorelli, Compositore di Camera [alt. first violin] Stephan Ried [?] (first violin?) Adam Rybitzky, Sec[ondo] Violino Lotti, Secondo Violino Joh[ann] George Lehneil3, Haute contre [alt. Violetta] Johann Heinrich Praetorius, Haute contre Christian Rother, Taille 44

45

Evidence of this is found in a set of parts that transmits specific players' names for a Dresden court performance of Telemann's Concerto in E minor, TWV 52:e4 (Kross 2V.e), Dlb. Mus. 2392-0-56. The concerto is scored for two concertato violins, ripieno strings (with the later addition of first and second ripieno oboes), and basso continuo. Sixteen parts survive; of these, performers' names appear only on the thirteen string and continuo parts copied by Johann Wolffgang Schmidt (see 0. Landmann, Die TelemannQuellen der Siichsischen Landesbibliothek: Handschriften und zeitgenossische Druckausgaben seiner Werke (Dresden, 1983), pp. 123-4). The remaining three parts by other copyists appear to be additions for subsequent performance(s), and it would appear that at least a first oboe part is missing. Only surnames appear on the parts. I have identified each player more precisely through numerous paylists and other Dresden court documents dating from c.l690 to c.l733. The names of[Jean-Baptiste] Volumier and [Carlo] Fiorelli appear on the first and second concertato violin parts. The ripieno violin parts name court violinists (Johann Friedrich] Lotti, [Adam] Rybitzky, [Francesco?] D'Hu [Hunt?], and [Simon] le Gros, all of whom are regularly called violinists in court documents. However, two viola players (called Bracciste in documents from this date) are also named on the ripieno violin parts: [Gottfried] Herring and [Hans George] Lehneis, who otherwise played the Haute contre or violetta part. A third Bracciste, [Johann Heinrich] Praetorius, who also played Haute contre, is named on the viola part. The violoncello ripieno parts were played by two court 'cellists: La France [le fils] and [Daniel] Hennig. Two basso parts (both figured) name Selencka [= Jan Dismas Zelenka, a contrabassist] and [Christian] Pezold, a player of organ and clavecin. Several of the above players left court service after 1717 and the presence at court of several others cannot be documented before about that date, indicating that the parts must have been used by 1717 or shortly before. Dresden, Sachsische Hauptstaatsarchiv, Loc. 383, Die Sande Franzosischer Comoedianten und Orchester betrf. anno 1703, 1708-12, 1714-20 (vol. 1), ff. l!Or-lllr. Table 7.6 differs in some details from information offered by 0. Landmann, 'The Dresden Hofkapelle during the Lifetime of Johann Sebastian Bach', Early Music, vol. 17 (1989), p. 21 (Table I). In addition, Landmann does not give information about the players of the Bande Hautboisten (see Table 7.2, above), active during the early years of Augustus I's Hojkapelle.

From Renaissance to Baroque

160 (Table 7.6 continued)

Christian Golde, Taille Michael Pezschmann, Braccista Gottfried Herring, Contre Basse Daniel Henning, Violoncell La France le Fils, Violoncell, Notista, Instrument Diener D'Huisse [=Jean Baptiste Duce], Flute Allemande LeConte le Bere [= Pere], Flute alemande Charles Henrion, Hautbois pr[emier] Charle Richter, Hautbois pr[emier] Jean Bapt[iste] Henrion, Hautb[bois] 2do Christian Reche, Hautb[bois] 2do Anthon Rybitzky, Easson Le Conte le Fils, Easson Cosmovsky od[er] Luparini, Organista e Compos[itore] di Chiesa Christian Pezold, Organ: e Compos[itore] di Camera Gottfried Bentley, Tiorbista Francesco Arigoni, Tiorbista

At its inception in 1709, of the orchestra's two players of transverse flutes, the principal Jean Baptiste D'Huisse (later standardized to D'Uce or Duce), probably from what is now Belgium, was already at this early date the highest paid among the court's woodwind players (see Table 7.7). D'Huisse's annual salary was 400 thalers, second only to Volumier's 1200 thalers and Fiorelli's 600. The only players with a salary equal to D'Huisse were two keyboardists, Cosmovsky and Pezold, both of whom also served as court composers. Neither D'Huisse nor the second flautist appears to have doubled on other instruments. Both flautists appear to have been hired in 1709 expressly to play for the French theatre. D'Huisse, for example, was contracted along with Volumier (who was Flemish but raised in Versailles) and the 'dance musician' DeBarc. Although D'Huisse was dismissed in 1714, he was quickly replaced by Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin, who was not only a member of the Hojkapelle until 1749 but who also held the title Cammer Musicus and thus held a place among the court's elite instrumentalists (see Table 7.8). With a starting salary of 500 thalers and an ending salary of 800 thalers, Buffardin remained the most highly paid wind player (and one of the best paid instrumentalists) in the Hojkapelle for the duration of his tenure.

The Flute at Dresden

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Table 7.7: Salaries of Woodwind Players in the Orchestra, 1709 Taler:

Name and instrument:

400 300 300 300 250 250

Jean Baptiste D'Uce [alt. D'Huisse] Flute Allemande Charles Henrion, Hautbois pr[emier] Charle Richter, Hautbois pr[emier] Jean Bapt: Henrion, Hautb[ois]: 2do Christian Roger, Hautb[ois]: 2do LeConte le Pere, Flute Allemande

Table 7.8: Cammermusici (1718) 46 I. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. II.

Concertmeister W oulmyer [Volumier] Pantaleon Hebenstreit I Lautenist Weiss Primo Violini[st] Pisendel I Violoncello Rossi I Premier Hautbois Richter I Flute Allemande Buffardin I Secondo Violino, [Carl Joseph] Rhein I Hautbois Blockwitz I Violetta Lehnei/3 I Basson Bohme

The repertory performed by the French theatre troupe, most of whose actors and actresses could, according to the archival records, sing and (or) dance, must have reflected the latest theatre productions with ballet performed in France at the court of Louis XIV. Volumier was also responsible for composing ballet music, and the theatre repertory may well have included comic musical theatre works by composers such as Lully. However, the court enjoyed a resident composer of French music, Louis Andre, who provided music to numerous divertissements by the playwright Jean Poisson. Andre's music does not survive, but the Sachsische Landesbibliothek still holds manuscript copies of parts for overtures and arrangements in the form of instrumental suites from nearly all of Jean46

Dresden, Sachsische Hauptstaatsarchiv, Loc. 383, Die Bande Franzosischer Comoedianten und Orchester betrf. anno 1703, 1708-1712, 1714--1720 (vol. 1), ff. 222r-222v. The document, dated 23 August 1718, contains a list of the Cammer Musici who escorted the crown prince to Vienna on his visit to meet his fiancee, the Habsburg Archduchess Maria Josepha.

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From Renaissance to Baroque

Baptiste Lully's theatrical works. 47 According to a later report by Johann Christoph Gottsched, the 'best French Trauerspiele' were given in the new opera house in Dresden from 1725 to 1733.48 Some ofthe works excerpted in the Dresden suites contain pastoral pieces that call for 'Flutes d' Allemagne' or 'Tailles ou Flutes d' Allemagne' 49 - especially in numbers for nymphs and shepherds. The suites and overtures performed by the Hojkapelle before 1733 also included works by Campra, Collasse, Destouches, Marais, Mouret, Rameau, and Rebel. That these works made an impression on Quantz is suggested by his mention of them in his autobiography and in the Versuch. I have already alluded to the problem of flute terminology at Dresden, where the terms flauto and flauti occur ubiquitously in archival documents and in musical scores and parts. In the contemporary music of J.S. Bach, we can be fairly certain that the word flauto, when used without the adjoining word traverso and in combination with the French violin clef, means some type of recorder. But the term flauto is used in Dresden manuscripts both with and without the French violin clef and, moreover, it appears in both very early and later manuscripts, autographs as well as copies in various hands. There is no specific mention of players of the flute allemande at Dresden earlier than in 1709. But given the presence previously of Flautenisten whose instruments are not specified, as well as the presence of transverse flute types at court earlier in the seventeenth century, 50 neither recorder nor transverse flute can be ruled out for individual works performed during the first quarter of the century without careful analysis of each part. And although no instrumentalist in Dresden is ever specifically named a player of the recorder, that is, of the flute a bee or flute douce, its presence is documented by the two recorder parts in an 47

48

49 50

As demonstrated in M. Oleskiewicz, 'Transformative Reception: Lully and Handel at the Dresden Court', unpublished paper presented at the National Convention of the American Musicological Society, Dallas, 15 November, 2001. M. Fiirstenau, Beitriige zur Geschichte der Koniglich Siichsischen musikalischen Kapelle (Dresden, 1849), p. 156, presumably referring to passages in J.C. Gottsched, Versuch einer Critische Dichtkunst (Leipzig, 4/1751; repr. 1962). 'Tailles' here refers to one of the violas, used to accompany flutes in Lully. In 1593 the following types of flutes were at hand (transverse flutes are distinguished from recorders by the term Querpfeiffen [cross flutes]): 1 GroBe Flott ( 1 large flute = large recorder?}, 6 Rohrflotten (6 recorders), Zwei neue Futter mit Querpfeiffen in einem 7, im anderen 5 (two new cases with transverse flutes, in one 7, in another 5), Eine Futter alte Querpfeiffen, darinnen 4 pfeiffen (a case of old transverse flutes, containing four flutes), 5 Flotten mit 3 Lochern (5 flutes with three [tone?] holes, the latter presumably for playing pipe and tabor). This list is derived from an inventory of instruments in the court's Instrumentenkammer, which also included many sizes of trombones, violas da gamba, krummhorns, cornettos, shawms, sorduns, timpani, dulcians, and a large number of violins (descant, alto, tenor, bass). It appears in Fiirstenau, Beitriige zur Geschichte der Koniglich Siichsischen musikalischen Kapelle, p. 41. A facsimile of the original document appears in H. Schnoor, Dresden: Vierhundert Jahre Deutsche Musik Kultur (Dresden, [c.1948]), pp. 104-5.

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early group concerto by Telemann performed at court, to cite just one example. 5 1 The use of the French violin clef and a consistently high tessitura that includes f" are clear signals that the parts were probably intended for the recorder. On the other hand, the title wrapper for a French Ouverture in D major by Telemann mentions no flutes, but its performance material, copied by the violinist Pisendel and another Dresden scribe, includes parts notated in treble clef for 'Flauto Primo' and 'Flauto 2cto, .52 The ranges of these parts, from d' to c"', clearly indicate transverse flutes. On the last leaf of the flute parts stands the first movement from an Overture in F major, which calls for an equally flute-like range of d' to d"'. After examining hundreds of scores and parts used by the Dresden court musicians, I have concluded that, with few exceptions, the word jlauto in scores and parts of works by resident Dresden composers is most often an abbreviation for flauto traverso, particularly in operas, sacred music, and large orchestral works. When a composer desired the recorder, he usually called for it quite specifically, using such a term asjlute abee. Clearly, then, the transverse flute had become at a relatively early date one of the principal woodwind instruments at Dresden, in distinction to the situation in Italy, Britain, and elsewhere in Germany. Although it eventually became a popular amateur instrument, during the early eighteenth century it was the province of a small number of professional specialists, many of them imported from France or the Low Countries. Its cultivation by Quantz and even by King Frederick the Great must be understood in that light. Frederick's personal cultivation of the flute, although eventually imitated by fashionable amateurs at Berlin and elsewhere, must have originated as a byproduct of his almost obsessive interest in opera and theatre during his early years, when it was fuelled by visits to and contacts with Dresden musicians, of whom Quantz was only one of many. Quantz's treatise, his flutes, and his compositions similarly reflect a very serious cultivation of the instrument as a virtuoso medium equal to the violin or, as Quantz emphasizes, the voice. Moreover, his almost scientific pursuit of technical perfection in such areas as intonation and performance is in keeping with the Enlightenment emphasis on the systematic analysis and improvement of professional and technical devices and methods. To what degree the early Dresden interest in the transverse flute was shared elsewhere in Germany is uncertain. Telemann included a flute part in the third (TWV 42:G 1) of the six early trio sonatas published with a dedication to the Dresden musician Franc;ois La Riche and, as noted above, Blochwitz himself published early works for the instrument. But published works tended to be for amateurs, and a truer idea of how professional 51

52

Concerto in B-flat for two recorders, two oboes, strings (1 violin, 2 violas), and continuo, TWV 54:82, in Dresden, Siichsische Landesbibliothek Mus. 2392-0-29. Suite in D, TWV 55:020 and Overture from the Suite in F, TWV 55:Fl0 in Dresden, Siichsische Landesbibliothek Mus. 2392-N-5. The scoring, as arranged by Johann Georg Pisendel, includes strings, two flutes, two oboes, two parts labelled bassono, and continuo.

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From Renaissance to Baroque

musicians understood the instrument and its capabilities must be derived from other sources. As is well known, J.S. Bach was at first quite cautious in his use of the transverse flute, and in one or two instances, such as the church cantata 'Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben?' BWV 8 of 1724, he seems to have had to re-assign an overly ambitious flute part to recorder or violin. More confident use of the instrument is evident in later works, such as the secular cantata 'Auf, schmettemde Tone' BWV 207a, one of the works in honour of the Saxon court, which includes an aria with three flutes. By the 1740s, when he apparently composed his E-major solo sonata for the Berlin court official Michael Fredersdorf, he may well have been writing with Quantz's flutes specifically in mind. Certainly the virtuoso trio sonata from The Musical Offering is eminently suited to such flutes. 53 Those aspects of Quantz's flutes that shed light on performance are consequences of the essentially French background to transverse flute playing at Dresden. Quantz's preferred pitch, and the pitch at which his original instruments play best, was the low French chamber pitch of the late seventeenth century, which remained in use in Berlin court chamber music into the second half of the eighteenth century. 54 His temperament system was based on the nine-part division of the whole tone described in theoretical writings by Andreas Sorge and Georg Philipp Telemann and was thus by no means peculiar to his own instruments. The ideal of vocal sonority and large round tone of his flutes, especially in the low register, was a legacy of the French tradition; Dresden flute parts by Zelenka, Hasse, and others rarely ascend above d"'. The same is true of Quantz's ensemble works, although at least one concerto (QV 5:234) and many of his unaccompanied capricci (etude-like works) ascend occasionally to high a"', a note likewise called for once in Bach's partita for unaccompanied flute. Quantz's highly rational system of articulation, which he described in great detail in his Versuch, must also be counted as a product of his French background. Although he describes its use primarily in Italian-style scalar and arpeggiated passagework, the basic system is that of Hotteterre, who similarly prescribes the use of several syllables that are pronounced at the tip of the tongue in order to create several distinct degrees or levels of articulation for individual notes. One must suppose that the fundamentals 53

54

For a detailed examination of the relationship between Quantz's flutes and J.S. Bach's music, see M. Oleskiewicz, 'The Trio in Bach's Musical Offering: A Salute to Frederick's Tastes and Quantz's Flutes?', in D. Schulenberg (ed.), Bach Perspectives: Volume Four (Lincoln NE, 1999), pp. 79-110. Earlier studies, such as R.L. Marshall, 'J.S. Bach's Compositions for Solo Flute', Journal of the American Musicological Society, vol. 32 (1979), pp. 463-98, and D. Lasocki and A. Powell, 'Bach and the Flute: the Players, the Instruments, the Music', Early Music, vol. 23 (1995), pp. 9-29, have failed to accurately account for the instruments available to Bach, especially at Berlin, where the Prussian Kammerdiener Fredersdorf, named on manuscript copies of Bach's E-major sonata BWV 1034, had access to and no doubt an intimate knowledge of the instruments played by Quantz and King Frederick. The surviving flutes by Quantz and owned by King Frederick II were intended to play at approximately a'= 385-7Hz, the low French chamber pitch in use at the Berlin court. This pitch level was determined by playing the surviving instruments; my initial findings were verified by peiforming on meticulous copies of the originals.

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of this system were learned during those four months of playing 'fast pieces' with Buffardin - another instance of gallic rationality applied to Italianate virtuoso music. It is, indeed, that combination of two alleged national traits that produced the third, German, style of which Quantz and his Dresden contemporaries were among the most important inventors.

Chapter Eight

How did Seventeenth-Century English Violins Really Sound? Peter Trevelyan

Introduction This essay describes a project of assembling and restoring to playing condition the earliest surviving set of English string instruments, made by William Baker of Oxford (c.l645-1685). The result challenges current performance practice which, it is argued, is seriously compromised by modem technology, economics and instrumental technique. The project focussed on a remarkable quintet of instruments. The five instruments include a very early English bass violin, dating from 1672, another bass instrument dating from 1682, and a viola and two violins, dating from 1683. 1 The aim of the project was to restore these instruments as far as possible to the way they were when originally made by Baker and, in doing so, to attempt to answer the question 'how would these particular instruments have been set up and played?' An ensemble called The Baker Collection has been formed to give recitals and record using this set of instruments. William Baker of Oxford (c.1645-1685) The story begins in the centre of the city of Oxford where Baker lived from 1669 until his death in 1685? Although at the time Oxford was a particularly important city in England because of its Royalist connections and seems to have supported at least two violin makers, it was still relatively small in size. We know that Baker lived in the centre of the city; 3

2

There are dates on labels in all of the instruments and, although the labels appear to be original only in the two bass instruments, John Topham has undertaken dendrochronological analysis of the five instruments and confirms the dating of the instruments to mid-late seventeenth century (personal communication). Information about Baker and four of the instruments is given in P. Trevelyan, 'A Quartet of String Instruments by William Baker of Oxford', Galpin Society Journal, vol. 49 (1996), pp. 65-76. He is mentioned five times between 1672 and 1685 in the records ofSt Martin's church in connection with the births and deaths of his children. It is likely, therefore, that this

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From Renaissance to Baroque

not only does the tower of his parish church still remain (the 'Carfax' Tower) but so do many of the records from church and other sources, from which I have been able to find out many fascinating details of Baker's life. For example, one year he took a job as a police constable, probably because he was not earning enough from making violins! It is also sad to report that each of his three children died in infancy - a common fate at the time - and he himself probably died of smallpox in an epidemic in 1685.4 Baker would probably have learnt his craft in London, quite likely with Henry Jaye in Southwark, although a connection cannot be proven. 5 His skills were part of a craft tradition that stretched back to the early years of the century, and across the North Sea to the Low Countries and Germany. 6 Indeed, we were fortunate to be invited to Berlin to give a recital and to see the exhibition in the Musical Instrument Museum of Alemannic (southern Black Forest and Switzerland) instruments, where we were able to make comparisons with the Baker instruments. 7 The Baker Instruments The Viola and the Violins

The viola dates from 1683 and may have been made for the Music School in Oxford, where it seems to have spent its first two hundred years. 8 The inside of the instrument has many features that are of interest, and are also observed in the Alemannic instruments. The original 'through' neck block, which involves the neck itself extending into the body of the instrument

4

5

6

7 8

was his parish church. The parish was small and covered only the quarter between Queens Street and Cornmarket. Trevelyan, 'A Quartet of String Instruments', p. 67. See J. Milnes (ed.), The British Violin: The Catalogue of the 1998 Exhibition '400 Years of Violin & Bow-Making in the British Isles', British Violin Making Association (Oxford, 2000), pp. 23 and 398-403, in particular, for detailed comments on Baker and his instruments. See J. Dilworth, 'Mr Baker the fiddell maker', The Strad, vol. 106 (1995}, pp. 474-81. Dilworth comments (p. 477) that 'The Baker instruments are highly idiosyncratic ... quite unlike any Italian work'. See also 0. Adelmann and A. Otterstedt, Die Alemannische Schute (Berlin, 1997) which also has photographs of the five Baker instruments. The viola and a violin by Baker were exhibited in the Tercentenary Exhibition of the Musician's Company in June-July 1904 and the catalogue (published by Novello & Co in 1909) states that these instruments 'belonged to Mr Taphouse' and were 'formerly in the possession of the Music Schools, Oxford'. In the 1890s, Mr Taphouse was the Lord Mayor of Oxford. However, according to R. Poole, 'The Oxford Music School and the Collection of Portraits Formerly Preserved There', The Musical Antiquary, vol. 4 (191213), p. 144, all the remaining sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Music School instruments were burnt in the quadrangle in the middle of the nineteenth century. The writer acquired the viola from W.E. Hill & Son, and one of the violins had also been there before it was sold at auction and purchased by the writer. The other instruments have had a chequered recent past.

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with a long heel glued to the back of the instrument, shows that Baker would have made the instrument without an internal mould. There are no blocks or linings, so the comers are very pointed and the ribs relatively thick to provide a good surface for gluing. Inside the top of the viola, there is a linen strip pasted along the centre join, presumably for additional strength. As the maker carved out the wood to make the top of the viola, he left in situ a small strip from the bass bar (called an 'integral' bass bar); therefore, we can be sure that this is original. The undercut f-holes help to give an impression of lightness to what is otherwise quite a thick top plate. The viola has survived for more than 300 years with many of its original features intact. The two violins of this set are similar in appearance, and share features that distinguish Baker's work. One has a back made of bird's-eye maple, not seen in Italian work of the period, but associated with makers north of the Alps. The archings are extremely full, and the edges are neatly channelled with a narrow poplar purfling. Both have distinctive undercut f-holes. The nicks are staggered with the inner nick much higher (the opposite to the Italian convention), indicating a short string length. There are small decorative features on the scrolls and elsewhere on the instruments. The Bass Violins

The Baker bass violins are interesting because they appear to be among the oldest surviving English examples. Comparison with dimensions given in the Talbot manuscript9 suggests that it is appropriate to describe the larger (1672) instrument as a bass violin. Specifically, the bass violin dimensions (e.g. the actual body length of 712 mm, or 28 inches) are the same as those given in the Talbot manuscript. The manuscript gives the tuning of the bass violin in fifths as B/J, F, c, g (so that the top two strings are the same as the bottom two on the viola) and describes the bass violin as 'one of the plainest instruments imaginable, having but 4 strings and no frets, by which means the irregularities of the scale and dissonances one instrument to other instrument (may be) avoided, thus fitter to accompany the voice.' 10 The second bass violin ( 1682) is unusual. The body length is less than the other instrument, at 613 mm, but it is just as deep. The instrument also has a fold in the back (as found on many bass viols) and unusually widely separated f-holes. Although it is tempting to think that it might be a bass viol, most surviving features - the neck and peg box are not original- point to it being a violin-family instrument. We have no means at present of knowing exactly how it was set up in the first place, but for the moment it is set up with five strings, tuned C, G, d, a, e'. 9 10

Oxford, Christ Church Mus. 1187; early 1690s; see R. Donington, 'James Talbot's Manuscript, II: Bowed Strings', Galpin Society Journal, vol. 3 ( 1950), pp. 27-45. Oxford, Christ Church Mus. 1187, p. 31.

From Renaissance to Baroque

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The Strings

Historical evidence indicates that instruments of this period and, indeed, until at least the middle of the eighteenth century, were strung in equal tension with all-gut strings. Curiously, this finding is largely ignored today; Baroque ensembles generally use quite inappropriate modem strings. To overcome this, the players in The Baker Collection have themselves made and carefully selected gut strings for each instrument. 11 One consequence of this approach is that the lower strings are relatively much thicker (up to 2.5 mm for the violin G-string) than on a conventional set-up. These strings do not necessarily make for easy playing (modem, highly polished gut strings, with reduced tension on the lower strings are much easier to use) but they do result in a different quality to the sound of the instruments, closer to that of the viol consort. The B/J tuning is not a problem on a small instrument with gut strings and experience has suggested that covered strings are not needed to make the lower strings work. It seems that very few of today's players have been prepared to adapt their playing to make effective use of the very thick lower strings. Covered gut strings were certainly known in England from the 1660s onwards, but I would question just how widespread the use of covered bass strings was and whether early 'covered' strings were really that much different: perhaps they were a gut core with only a small amount of wire winding. The Bows

The bows used are all modem copies, made by Hans Reiners of Berlin. These are partly copied from bows in a painting dating from the early 1660s ~parently showing five members of the English king's Private Music. 1 This important picture shows in considerable detail the short sticktype bows, with fixed boxwood frogs, the only method that was used until well into the eighteenth century. Performance Practice

One of the earliest English violin tutors explains how these violins and bows should be used: II

12

This process, together with a full historical justification for the use of all-gut strings with equal-tension, is given in 0. Webber, 'Real Gut Strings: Some New Experiments in Historical Stringing', The Consort, vol. 55 (1999), pp. 3-29. The Cabal, attr. to Sir John Baptist Medina, at Nostell Priory. P. Holman, Four and Twenty Fiddlers (Oxford, 2/1995), pp. 280-1, was responsible for redating the painting from c.l675 to 'the early 1660s', and for identifying the figures as members of the Private Music.

How did Seventeenth-Century English Violins Really Sound?

171

First, The Violin is usually plaid above-hand, the Neck thereof being held by the left hand; the lower part thereof is rested on the left breast, a little below the shoulder, and the Bow is held in the right hand, between the ends of the Thumb and the 3 first fingers, the Thumb 13 being staid upon the Hare at the Nut...' .

Many paintings of the period represent violinists playing their instruments in exactly this way, a practice which the players of The Baker Collection have consciously tried to emulate. 14 This has involved re-thinking the way the upper instruments are held, and the development of thumb-on-frog bow techniques, and other aspects which together alter performance style and resulting instrumental sound. Conclusion It will be appreciated that this project embodies a distinctive approach to

the performance of seventeenth-century English string music. This contrasts with the situation in which most individual period performers find themselves today. To find work in today's climate, performers have to make a number of compromises in acquiring equipment. First, few have the economic luxury of having access to a range of instruments for different periods and countries. Instead, they have to choose one instrument (or, perhaps, at most two) that can be used in a broad range of musical circumstances. Consequently, it is common to find the ubiquitous Stradivari model with a 'Baroque' set-up that is something of a compromise (with, for example, modem neck thicknesses). They might perhaps be able to afford a slightly wider choice of bows, but their Baroque bow(s) will almost certainly not have a fixed frog, and would have perhaps 20% more bow hair than would have been used on original bows. 15 Almost without exception the strings will be modem products, with gut on the top two, and metal covered gut on the lower two strings, with a lower and varied tension, graded across the strings. All the above factors make for an easy life: instruments that stay in tune, with strings that are easy to play, on bows that differ only a little from their modem counterparts. This is particularly important for players whose professional life involves interspersing periods of playing modem instruments with Baroque or Classical instruments. However, to my mind, the result bears a somewhat remote connection with the original sound of seventeenth-century instruments. Using the raw gut strings is not easy or comfortable on first acquaintance. Nor is changing the whole way in which 13 14

15

J. Playford, 'Rules to be Observed by Practitioners on the Treble-Violin', A Brief Introduction to the Skill of Music (London, 4/1664), p. 100. It must be acknowledged that a variety of playing 'positions' were used. The title pages of Playford's Musick's Hand-Maide (1663) and The Division Violin (1684 onwards), for example, show people playing violins in a higher position than Playford's passage indicates (see Holman, Four and Twenty Fiddlers, pp. 239 and 270). Hans Reiners, personal communication.

172

From Renaissance to Baroque

the instrument and bow is held. Certainly, it took my colleagues a good year or two to feel confident enough to put each element together to make the integrated whole we have now reached. In conclusion, much current seventeenth-century performance practice is seriously compromised by modern technology, economics and instrumental technique. This project has endeavoured to overcome the pervading and unhelpful influence of these factors with, it is believed, a measure of success. 16 16

The presentation at the NEMA conference included a short demonstration on one of the Baker violins by Diane Terry.

Chapter Nine

The Development of French Lute Style

1600-1650 Matthew Spring

As the Lute is the King of Instrumentes soo hath it few thinges that are common with other lnstrumentes. its musicke and its manner of composing is spetiall to its selfe and as the humane body is like a little microcosmos that gathereth and comprehendes in it selfe all that is 1 and all that is tyne and rare in Musicke[.] To make people dance with the Lute it is improper[;] it is true that A young Lady may dance the Sarabande with her Lute, and that is all[.] it is neither proper to sing with the Lute, it being a perfect Consorte of it selfe for the voice is but a repetition of the Treble and if you sing the Treble or any other part (for you can sing but one) that part will drowne the others[.] this Instrument requireth Silence and a serious attention it is used commonly at the goeing to bed of the Kings of 2 France and that tyme is the tyme of most rest and Silence[.]

The lute was perhaps the first instrument to undergo a transformation towards a truly idiomatic style of composition in the early years of the seventeenth century - a transformation that certainly most instruments underwent in the course of the Baroque era. The preoccupation with sonority that French lute players developed in the early seventeenth century led them into isolation, but this pursuit of expression, timbre and idiomatic effects forged a path that was influential on the development of all instrumental writing in the early Baroque. Tablature, as a prescriptive form of notation, is most helpful to us today as it tells us, in quite a detailed way, what players physically did to get the effects they wanted, so long as we can be sure we understand the signs and symbols that were used. The 'French lute' became synonymous with the altered tunings developed in France after 1600 and with the techniques developed to exploit the resonances of these new tunings. Certainly lute and later theorbo players accompanied singers and instruments, but this

2

Burwell Tutor (London, Royal Academy of Music, MS 604), f. 68v. For a version in modem English see T. Dart, 'Miss Mary Burwell's Instruction Book for Lute', Galpin Society Journal, vol. 11 ( 1958), pp. 58-60. Burwell Tutor, ff. 69r-70v.

174

From Renaissance to Baroque

was almost always on lutes in Renaissance tuning and was viewed as an altogether different genre. As the quotations above suggest, players of the 'French lute' were left isolated in the sense that there is only a small amount of evidence that they ever played in ensembles. 3 However, it is my belief that the influence of the style and approach to their instruments of these solo players was far reaching, and felt throughout much of Europe. In the first half of the seventeenth century French ideas and fashions were largely responsible for the transformation of the lute and lute music. The famous manuscript of Anne de Chambure entitled 'La rhetorique des dieux' by Denis Gaultier of c.l652, marks the apogee of French solo lute brise style. 4 The modem term style brise refers to the 'broken style' that resulted from the arpeggiated texture associated with French seventeenthcentury lute and keyboard music. In 'La rhetorique des dieux' the music is decked out with pictures and commentaries that build an elaborate web of associations with classical rhetoric, ancient modes and allegorical personifications of these modes. 5 As the title suggests, the music was held to be of such refinement that it was almost beyond mortal comprehension. The rise of the lute to this exalted position in France in the first half of the century involved a fundamental re-thinking of all aspects of the lute and its music. The changes that led to the development of the French Baroque lute style had their origins in the work of Parisian lute makers and players of the first three decades of the century. The magnitude of this change can be seen by comparing Antoine Francisque's Le tresor d'Orphee of 1600, the only source of solo lute music printed in France in the first decade of the century, with Pierre Ballard's Tablature de luth de different autheurs sur des accords nouveaux (1631). 6 Francisque's book is organized by genre, like the German and Dutch anthologies listed in Table 9.1, and is for a nine-course lute, though many pieces only require eight courses. Ballard's 1631 publication groups pieces according to composer, then tuning, then key, and finally by genre, and requires a ten-course lute. Francisque's book requires only Renaissance tuning, apart from 13 pieces in a cordes avalees tuning. Cordes avalees tunings only required an alteration of one or two inner strings, rather than the retuning of the upper strings to form an open chord that the new tunings required. Yet Ballard's book makes no use of Renaissance tuning, and requires two transitional tunings only. Above all the style of the music and the techniques required to play pieces in the respective books are dramatically divergent. 3

4

6

One ensemble source that includes a lute in new tunings does survive in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Mus. Sch. E.410-14. However this source is unusual, see M. Spring, The Lute in Britain: A History of the Instrument and its Music (Oxford, 200 I), p. 344. Berlin, Staatliche Museen (Kupferstichkabinett), Hamilton 142 (olim 78.C.l2); A. Tessier and J. Cordey (eds.), La rhetorique des dieux et autre pieces de luth de Denis Gaultier (Paris, 1932). R.M. Isherwood, Music in the Service of the King (Ithaca, 1973 ), pp. 6-7. A. Francisque, Le tresor d'Orphee (Paris, 1600); P. Ballard, Tablature de luth de different autheurs sur des accords nouveaux (Paris, 1631 ).

The Development of French Lute Style 1600-1650

175

Table 9.1: Principal Dutch and German Anthologies 1584-1625 7 Emmanuel Adriaenssen: Pratum musicum (Antwerp, 1584); Novum pratum musicum (Antwerp, 1592); Pratum musicum (Antwerp, 1600) For 7-course lute. Each edition has about 5 fantasias, 50 vocal compositions, for 1-4 lutes with 1-4 vocal lines, and 30 dances. Matthias Reymann: Noctes musicae (Heidelberg, 1584); Cythara sacra (Cologne, 1612 - now lost) For 8-course lute. 23 preludes, 16 fantasias, 12 passemezzo suites, 5 pavans, 10 galliards and 8 'chorea'. Adrian Denss: Florilegium (Cologne, 1594) For 7-course lute. II fantasias, I 0 passemezzo suites, 22 allemandes, 5 courantcs, 2 voltes, 4 branles, 1 'ronde', I 'pauvem-tanz' and 84 intabulations. Johann Rude: Flores musicae (Heidelberg, 1600) For 8-course lute. In 2 books: 171 intabulations (over 40 composers), 7 intradas, I fantasia, 30 pavans, 2 galliards, I 'chorea' and 12 English pieces. Joachim Van den Hove: Florida (Utrecht, 1601) For 7-course lute. Fantasias, songs, preludes, vocal intabu1ations, dance types and some music for lute duet with voices. Jean-Baptiste Besard: Thesaurus harmonicus (Cologne, 1603) For 7- and 8course lute. In 10 books: preludes, fantasias, madrigals, French airs, passemezzos, galliards, allemandes, branles, courantes and miscellaneous pieces. Joachim Van den Hove: Delitiae musicae (Utrecht, 1612) For 8-course lute. Preludes, vocal intabulations, dance types and some music for lute duet with vmces. Georg Leopold Fuhrmann: Testudo gallo-germanica (Nuremberg, 1615) For 7- or I 0-course lute. Includes preludes, fantasias, vocal in tabulations, pavans, 'spangnolet', passemezzos, galliards, intradas, branles, allemandes, ballets, courantes, voltes and others. Elias Mertel: Hortus musicalis novus (Strasbourg, 1615) For 7- to 9-course lute. 235 preludes and 120 fantasias and fugues. Joachim Van den Hove: Praeludia testudini (Leiden, 1616) For 8-course lute. 19 preludes, 2 pavans and I echo all by Hove. Jean-Baptiste Besard: Novus partus (Augsburg, 1617) For 7- and 8-course lute. Includes music for lute consort and solos. Johann Daniel Mylius: Thesaurus gratiarum (Frankfurt, 1622) For 10-course lute. Includes songs, preludes, toccatas, fugues, fantasias, galliards, courantes, voltes, allemandes, passemezzos, branles and 'choreas'. Adriaen Valerius: Neder-lantsche gedenck-c/anck (Haarlem, 1626) For 7- to 9course lute. Poetic history of Netherlands 1555-1625 with engravings and 76 popular songs for lute (or lutes) and cittem. 7

The tables and examples in this chapter first appeared in Spring, The Lute in Britain and are reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press.

176

From Renaissance to Baroque

The melodic flow of much Renaissance lute music was governed by tunes which were essentially vocal and not particularly well suited to the lute. From this situation French lutenists became more concerned with sonority and expressiveness, and in how the lute's own capabilities could be best exploited to effect the maximum in expressive variation of rhythm, tone and colour. At the root of the stylistic transformation of lute music from 1600 to 1630 was a move away from regarding the lute as a medium that could simulate polyphonic vocal music. To achieve this their experiments took two main forms: the first with tunings, and the second with significant changes in right-hand, and to a lesser extent left-hand, techniques. Certainly these two developments were concomitant, the latter to exploit the new possibilities opened up by the former. The lute music of Francisque, Nicolas Vallet, Robert Ballard, and the lute publications of Pierre Ballard are listed in Table 9.2. It is possible to trace the adumbration of the style brise in the music contained in these books. Most of them were printed in Paris under the royal patents of Le Roy and Ballard. The exceptions are the first volume of Vallet's Le secret des muses published in Amsterdam, and the Oeuvres of Pierre Gaultier published in Rome in 1638. However, these publications can be considered with those published in Paris. The number of manuscripts that can definitely be said to have been compiled in Paris in the period are not many, although there is evidence that a considerable number of lute makers and players were active in Paris in the years 1600-30. 8

Table 9.2: French Lute Publications 1600-40 Antoine Francisque: Le tresor d'Orphee (Paris, 1600) For 8- and 9-course lutes, Renaissance tuning and cordes avalees. Includes fantasias, preludes, passemezzos, pavans, galliards, branles, gavottes, and vocally-inspired pieces. Robert Ballard: Diverses pieces mises sur le luth (premier livre) (Paris, 1611) For tO-course lute in Renaissance tuning only. Includes only entrees, ballets, courantes and voltes. Robert Ballard: Diverses pieces mises sur le luth (deu.xieme livre) (Paris, 1614) For I 0-course lute in Renaissance tuning. Includes ballets, voltes, galliards, branles and 'pieces diverses'. Nicholas Vallet: Le secret des muses: premier livre (Amsterdam, 1615) For 10course lute in Renaissance tuning. 90 pieces: preludes, fantasias, pavans, passemezzos, galliards, ballets, courantes, sarabandes and voltes. Nicholas Vallet: Le secret des muses: second livre (Amsterdam, 1616) For tOcourse lute in Renaissance tuning. Ballets and branles. 8

F. Lesure, 'Recherches sur les luthistes parisiens a l'epoque de Louis XIII', in J. Jacquot (ed.), Le luth et sa musique (Paris, 1958), pp. 211-13: list of known makers; and pp. 217-23: list of known players, all of whom were active in Paris 1600-30.

The Development ofFrench Lute Style 1600-1650

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(Table 9.2, continued) Pierre Ballard: Tablature de luth de differents autheurs sur /'accord ordinaire et extraordinaire (Paris, 1623) For 10-course lute. Lost anthology. Title page suggests both Renaissance and transitional tunings were employed. Pierre Ballard: Tablature de luth de differents autheurs, sur les accords nouveaux (Paris, 1631) For 10-course lute, tunings nos. 8 and 10. 87 pieces by R. Ballard (7), Mesengeau (12), Dufaut (13), Chancy (12), Bouvier (20), Belleville (6), Dubuisson (3) and Chevalier (14). Pierre Ballard: Tablature de luth de differents auteurs, sur les accords nouveaux (Paris, 1638) For 10-course lute, tunings nos. 8, 9, 10 and D minor. 40 pieces by Mesengeau (19), Dufaut (10), Bouvier (6}, Dubut (5). Includes preludes, allemandes, branles, timbres and canaries. Pierre Gaultier: Les oeuvres de Pierre Gaultier Orleanois (Rome, 1638) For 10course lute, tunings nos. 6, 8, 9, I 0 and 11. 103 pieces: 17 suite-like groups organized by tuning. Includes allemandes, 39 courantes, sarabandes, preludes, ballets, sinfonias and a single pavan.

The travels of the lutenist, author and poet, Charles de L'Espine, to England, Gennany, and Italy in the period 1610 to 1627, the visits of Ennemond Gaultier and of Rene Mesangeau to England around 1630, together with the activities of the French musicians of Anne of Denmark, Henrietta Maria and the Cavendish family, suggest that French lutenists were actively contributing to the dissemination of their music abroad. 9 Ennemond Gaultier was usually referred to as 'Vieux' Gaultier, in relation to his cousin Denis Gaultier who is also known as 'Jeune' Gaultier. Neither is known to have been related to Jacques Gaultier. By 1630 Paris had become the leading centre in Europe for the teaching and composition of solo lute music. Henry Lord Clifford, son of the fourth Earl of Cumberland, studied the lute at de Pluvinel's Academy in Paris and maintained a French lute tutor, a Monsieur Simon, on his return in 1611. 10 The Englishmen, Bullen Reymes, Hender Robarts and possibly John Rogers, studied the lute with French masters in Paris during the period 1630-60. No doubt there were many others. Robert Ballard's position as lute teacher to Louis XIII, and Vieux Gaultier's post as lutenist to Marie de Medici and lute teacher of Cardinal Richelieu, suggest that the instrument had attained high favour with the French Bourbon royal house, which would have undoubtedly boosted the lute's prestige and respectability. 11 Francisque's book, Le tresor d'Orphee contains stylistic elements that anticipate the brise style. Francisque's book does not include vocal intabulations, although a long piece based on Lassus's 'Susanne un jour' 9 10 II

For L'Espine, see F. Lachevre, Charles de Lespine (Paris, 1935); for Gaultier, see Lesure, 'Recherches sur les luthistes parisiens', p. 220. L. Hulse, 'Musical Patronage of the English Aristocracy c.l590-1640' (Ph.D. dissertation, King's College, University of London, 1993), pp. 55 and 224. A. Souris (ed. and trans.), Oeuvres du Vieux Gautier, with an introduction and concordances by M. Rollin (Paris, 1966), p. xii.

178

From Renaissance to Baroque

opens the book. The largest grouping is that of courantes, voltes and branles. Most significant is the inclusion of thirteen pieces in a cordes avalees tuning. This is the first indication that experimentation with lute tuning was under way. 12 A comparison between Le tresor d'Orphee and the near-contemporary Florida illustrates how French tastes were moving away from those of the rest of northern Europe at the start of the century. Example 9.1 gives the opening of a C minor galliard from each of these books. Both are based on pieces by other composers, Francisque's on a volte by Julien Perrichon, Van den Hove's on John Dowland's 'Can She Excuse'. The lightness of texture in Francisque's music and the more infrequent use of full chords contrast with the more ponderous texture of Van den Hove's arrangement, which exhibits a fuller texture than the versions of the Dowland's piece found in English sources. (See Example 9.1.) The bass line in Francisque's pieces moves freely both diatonically and by large intervals. In the Florida piece part writing is less ambiguous, and the bass line has a tendency to move more slowly and keep within an octave compass. In some pieces Francisque approaches a brise texture as a means of variation particularly in his courantes, branles and voltes, although this is more usually achieved through Renaissance running divisions. The books of Robert Ballard, Vallet and Francisque are not anthologies, and in the main contain the works of a single composer. They are less cosmopolitan in content and rely more on original material than the anthologies listed in Table 9.1. It may be that Nicolas Vallet (c.l583-after 1642) left France after 1614, because as a Huguenot his chances of a successful career as a lutenist were better in the Netherlands where the emerging French lute style was becoming fashionable. 13 He had trained and toured in France prior to his departure, and despite spending his remaining working life in the Dutch Republic, must be considered a member of the early seventeenth-century French lute school. 14 Like Van den Hove, Vallet died in misery and poverty after a working life of considerable success. 15 Vallet's well-documented lute quartets were performed for social functions (weddings and banquets are mentioned), in which they no doubt provided dance music and incidental music. Vallet and another member of his quartet, the English lutenist Edward Hancock, founded a dancingschool for which contracts survive. 16 The fact that this music may have been intended for dancing may explain the clear phrase structure and 12

The pieces in this tuning are to be found on ff. 22-24v (eight branles, one gavotte and one pavan) and f. 31r-v (two voltes and one ballet). 13 A. Souris (ed. and trans.), Oeuvres de Nicolas Vallet pour luth seul, with a bibliographical study and critical commentary by M. Rollin (Paris, 1970), pp. xi-xvii. 14 S. Buetens, 'Nicolas Vallet's Lute Quartets', Journal of the Lute Society of America, vol. 2 (1969), p. 28. 15 Souris, Vallet, p. xiv. 16 A. Curtis, Swee/inck 's Keyboard Music (London, 1969), pp. 23--4. Curtis prints in full the contract for the quartet and dancing school drawn up on 12 November 1626 to last for six years.

The Development of French Lute Style 1600-1650

179

Le Tresor d'Orphee (1600), f. 13v

J J

J

j

Florida (1601), f. 99

2.

I. 1bc fit rhythm flag ha.o; been moved from the second bear to bar 2 ~ond beal 2. Barring regularized at this point

Ex. 9.1

Comparison of the opening of Francisque's 'Galliarde faicte sur une volte de seu Perrichon' (Tresor, f. 13v, bars 1-12), and Van den Hove's 'Galiarda' based on John Dowland's 'Can She Excuse' (Florida, f. 99, bars 1-11).

180

From Renaissance to Baroque

consistent texture that characterizes much of Vallet's music. Likewise, the close connections between Robert Ballard's music and the ballet de cour may account for the standard phrase lengths of much of his music. 17 Much of Ballard and Vallet's published music is close to, and was probably derived from, music that was actually danced to. By contrast the music that appears in Pierre Ballard's books of 1631 and 1638 no longer hold to the norms dictated by the dance itself, and constitute abstract art music proper. Herein lies one of the hallmarks of French lute music after 1630. From this point onwards most solo lute music was composed in the form of one or other of the dance movements associated with the suite, although these pieces were unlikely to have actually been danced, though the quotation at the head of this essay suggests that sarabandes played on the solo lute could be danced to. A good variety of genre types are found in Vallet's published books. 18 In this respect his books are comparable to the Dutch and German anthologies of the time, and like them his books are cosmopolitan in outlook, particularly in the many English tunes he arranged. 19 By contrast Robert Ballard published only entrees, ballets, courantes and voltes in any number. Despite this divergence in form their respective styles have much in common. In both Vallet's and Ballard's dance pieces simplicity and regularity of phrase and texture are hallmarks of style. Vallet tends more to scalic divisions and rhythmic sequences, whereas Ballard uses brise texture more extensively as a means of variation. Vallet included in his 1615 book 'La Courante Sarabande'. In this piece bass notes follow full chords placed on the beat. In another piece, 'La Moresque', some bass notes anticipate full chords?0 (See Example 9.2.) Ballard used this technique in several of his ballets, as for example in his 'Troisieme Ballet de M. de Daufin'. The technique became inseparably associated with the sarabande by 1630. Ballard's books are dominated by his ballets drawn from the ballet de cour. In these productions successions of musical entrees, which would have accompanied the spectacular entrance of new groups of dancers, follow one another, requiring ingenuity in varying textures. In the reworking of this material Ballard attempted to highlight the differences between entrees by contrasting tessitura and more importantly sonority. In this last respect he particularly contributed to the development of the brise style. 17

Much of Robert Ballard's published music would appear to be adaptations of music performed at various ballets de cour which Ballard arranged for solo lute. See A. Souris and S. Spycket (eds. and trans.}, Robert Ballard: Premier Livre (1611), with a historical introduction and study of concordances by M. Rollin (Paris, 1963), pp. xii-xiii. 18 Reprinted in facsimile by The Dutch Lute Society as The Complete Works of Nicolas Vallet, 4 vols. (Utrecht, 1994). 19 English musicians and travelling acting companies as well as English popular music were very popular in Holland in the early seventeenth century, hence Vallet's arrangements. See Curtis, Sweelinck 's Keyboard Music, pp. I 0-34. 20 Souris, Vallet,p.!77,no. 74,bars23-38oftablature;p.178,no. 75,bars 1-5.

The Development of French Lute Style 1600-1650

181

} II.

?,

Ex. 9.2

Nicolas Vallet, 'La Moresque': Le secret des muses: premier livre, no. 75, p. 84, bars 1-7.

The 1620s was the decade in which the advances present in the works of Ballard and Vallet were taken up by the leading Parisian lutenists and transformed into something altogether new. Sadly this transformation is impossible to observe with any clarity due to the lack of surviving manuscript source material from what must have been a most stimulating and exciting period of the lute's development. 21 The key lute book, the Tablature de luth de differents autheurs sur I 'accord ordinaire et extraordinaire published by Pierre Ballard in 1623 would, had it survived, certainly illuminate this process of transformation. Unfortunately, all copies are lost except for a single title page. 22 The title suggests that pieces in transitional tunings were included, as well as pieces in Renaissance tuning. It would be interesting to know if these pieces were principally grouped by composer, tuning or genre, and whether the groupings represent a suite-like ordering of pieces. One important but little-known source that pre-dates Ballard's 1631 book is Chancy's Tablature de mandore de Ia composition du Sieur Chancy, published in Paris in 1629. It contains six proto suite-type groups, plus a suite of branles. 23 A typical grouping might be allemande, three courantes, sarabande, passemezzo, chanson and volte. However, all these groupings, excluding those of branles, incorporate the fundamental allemande---courante-sarabande sequence, and thus correspond with Pierre Ballard's 1631 book. 21

Only the French pieces in the Herbert Manuscript (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Mus. 689, associated with Lord Herbert's years in Paris); those in Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, MS 9452; and those in the Reymes Manuscript (Paris, Bibliotheque du Centre National de Ia Recherche Scientifique) are definitely of Parisian origin from the years 1600-35. 22 Lesure, 'Recherches sur les luthistes parisiens', p. 216. This title page was in the private collection of Marc Pincherle. 23 David Fuller ('Suite', in New Grove 2, vol. 24, p. 672) credits the French lutenists c.l620 with the introduction of the allemande-courante-sarabande suite formation. The suite-type groups of movements in Chancy and Ballard's publications are quoted in D.J. Buch, 'The Influence of the Ballet de Cour in the Genesis of the the French Baroque Suite', Acta Musicologica, vol. 57 (1985), pp. 94-108. This article further investigates the origins of the suite, and the importance of the ballet de cour and the French lutenists c.l620 in its development.

182

From Renaissance to Baroque

With so little material surviving from the 1620s it seems on the face of it that the basic Baroque suite (minus the gigue, which did not take its place until in the 1650s)24 appears almost ready formed, and with little obvious precedent. Clearly the suite idea took root in the 1620s but poor source survival has obscured our knowledge of how it happened. By 1630 the dances themselves have changed considerably from 1620. The allemande is transformed from the Renaissance, heavy German dance of moderate speed into a slower, stylized, quasi-contrapuntal abstract form, with comparatively regular phrasing and subtle interplay of rhythmic and melodic motifs. They are generally the most complex movements of the repertory, and the most difficult to play? 5 The sarabande does not appear in any numbers in French sources before 1630, but assumes an important role as the final, and at this period, the fastest dance movement of the suite, drawing its inspiration from the Iberian dance accompanied by guitar and castanets from which it originated?6 Brise writing is less a feature of this movement-type than in others, and it is marked by regular and balanced phrase structure, generally of four, but also of two and eight bars in length. The two most common types of early sarabande are those with a series of strummed chords in the opening phrase that recall the guitar dance, and those with the anticipatory bass followed by a chord on the upper courses derived from Ballard and Vallet. This movement rose from obscurity to great popularity during the years leading up to 1630. The French courante after 1630 epitomizes the style brise and is the most popular dance type of the whole period 1610-80 in the lute repertory? 7 It is characterized by an absence of regular phrase structure, imitation or motivic recurrence. The texture is generally thin, with ambiguous part writing and irregular harmonic rhythm. Courantes are frequently characterized by a 3/ 2 hemiola rhythm, particularly at the approach to a cadence. The courante in the decades up to 1630 had been equally popular before joining the allemande and sarabande in the suite; several manuscripts in the period 1610-30 contain a high proportion of courantes. However, these earlier courantes, as seen in the works of Montbuysson, Saman and Perrichon, have a rhythmic pattern similar to the quick 3/ 4 patterns of the Italian corrente. 28 John Dowland's only known 24

W.B. Rave, 'Some Manuscripts of French Lute Music, 1630-1700' (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, 1972), p. 68. 25 Rave, 'Some Manuscripts', pp. 67-8. 26 D. Ledbetter, 'French Lute Music 1600-1650: Towards a Definition of Genres', Lute Society Journal, vol. 30 (1990), p. 41. 27 Ibid., pp. 34-8; Rave 'Some Manuscripts', pp. 69-70. 28 A. Souris, M. Rollin and J.-M. Vaccaro (eds. and trans.), Oeuvres de Vaumesnil, Edinthon, Perrichon, Rae!, Montbuysson, La Grotte, Saman, La Barre (Paris, 1974); e.g. Perrichon nos. 15 and 17, Montbuysson nos. 4 and 5, and Saman nos. I, 2 and 6. The editors show in the introduction that these early seventeenth-century courantes conform in their structure to the description given by Thoinot Arbeau in Orchesographie (Langres, 1588, 211589; modem edn., trans. M.S. Evans, New York, 2/1967), p. 124, suggesting that these pieces were used for dancing.

The Development ofFrench Lute Style 1600--1650

183

coranto (from the Board Manuscript29 ) is an example of such a piece. See Example 9.3.

11

Ex. 9.3

John Dowland, Coranto: The Board Manuscript, f. 30, bars 1-20.

By 1630 the French courante had become a slower, more subtle dance type with the most consistent use of brise texture. In part these changes, like those affecting the volte and popular tune settings or timbres that are included in the French solo lute sources 1610-40, resulted from the technical exigencies and possibilities of new tunings. It is notable, however, how the advent of transitional tunings saw a considerable drop in the degree of difficulty found in surviving published and manuscript sources, especially as regards the left hand. The move away from a single standard tuning to a variety of tunings, each of which were suited only to very particular keys, had a bearing on the formation of the suite. Having set a lute in a particular tuning it made sense to play a succession of pieces, moving from the slowest and most rhythmically free to the fastest and most precise. The variety of tunings a lute might be subjected to within a relatively short space of time may have obliged a lutenist to begin his play with a piece that circulated through the basic chord positions pertaining to the key and tuning he wished to play in. The unbarred quasi-improvisatory prelude allowed him to dwell freely on chord positions he might have wished to test for tuning imperfections, yet at the same time served to throw into relief the accentuated rhythmic flow 29

London, Royal Academy of Music, MS 603; The Board Lute Book (facs.: Leeds, 1976).

184

From Renaissance to Baroque

of the stylized dance types that were to follow. 30 Some unmeasured preludes of the period c.1630-50 have no rhythmic indications at all; others are unbarred but have rhythmic signs for some or all of the piece, though even here a regular beat is clearly to be avoided. Preludes usually consist of arpeggiated chords and scale passages with little melodic interest. Cadences are often left incomplete, and harmonic progressions disrupted by abrupt shifts in the harmonic movement. 31 The prelude was often the most adventurous harmonically of a set of movements, frequently including unprepared or unresolved dissonances. The unmeasured prelude was, of all the innovations of the Parisian lutenists of this period, possibly the most successful and far-reaching in its influence on other musical media. The term cordes avalees first appeared in mid-sixteenth-century French guitar books, such as Guillaume Morlaye's Quatriesme livre (Paris, 1552), f. 15v and Second livre (Paris, 1553), f. 29v. Here it involved a single altered bass, a practice that can be traced in Italian lute music back to the books of Capirola, Dalza and Spinacino. Dalza also uses a tuning involving the lowering of the two bottom courses, g, d, a, f, Bb, F, and Melchoire de Barberiis (jl. c.l545-50) experimented with this and two other tunings, g', d', a, g, d, G and a', e', a,f, c, G. Cordes avalees tunings in the books of Francisque and Besard involve the retuning of the middle courses of the instrument with consequent adjustment of the bass courses; for example, from Renaissance tuning g', d', a,J, c, G, F, E, C, tog', d', bb,f, Bb, G, F, Eb, Bb', or variants on this latter tuning. Often these tunings were used to provide a continuous ostinato bass pattern on open strings for branles or voltes, or as a drone in imitation of the bagpipes or hurdy-gurdy. 32 By contrast the transitional tunings popular in France in the 1620s and 1630s involved the lowering of the top three courses to an open chord. Probably the first transitional tuning to evolve was the variously titled 'sharp', 'English Gaultier's tuning' or 'Mersenne's extraordinary tuning', with the top two courses lowered to c' and e' (see Table 9.3, tuning no. 3). A close variant of this tuning was to lower the top string to f and the second to c' (tuning no. 4), thus producing an F major chord on the top four strings (j', c', a,j). These two tunings involved no alterations to the basses of a ten-course lute ( G, F, E, D, C). Probably the next tuning to evolve was tuning no. 5, called the 'Flat French' by Mace in 1676. 33 It was the most popular of all transitional tunings. This tuning involves a further descent of the top string to eb', the second course to c and the third to ab. The basses are then altered to run G, F, Eb, Db, C. A close variant of this tuning is tuning no. 6 with the third course raised to aJ; and the ninth to[)¢. 30

31 32 33

Ledbetter, 'French Lute Music', pp. 25-31. Preludes, or opening pieces with a similar function and style also come under the titles 'Entree', 'Point d'Orgue', 'Recherche' and 'Fuge'. Rave, 'Some Manuscripts', p. 65. Ibid. T. Mace, Musick's Monument (London, 1676), p. 83.

The Development ofFrench Lute Style 1600-1650

-tk

Table 9.3: Cordes avatees and transitional tunings Renaissance tuni;~ ~0-course :te) 0

2 Cordes avalees tJ

8

?= b

..

iz

.

0

..

2J

e

0

'

185

"

e

0

u

4. Sharp tumng vanant (with top course raised a semitone) -e-

?'0

..

.

"

J

0

Zl

(I

0

u

9

u

e

u

6. Flat tuning (with third and ninth raised a semitone)

'

~0

-a-

?=e

e

II

- iY

"

u

j

186

From Renaissance to Baroque

During the period 1600 to 1630 French lute makers and players experimented with design as well as tuning. It is clear from the published books in Table 9.2 and manuscript sources that the ten-course lute was standard by 1610. It is the type of lute normally required for the 27 volumes of airs de cour published between 1608 and 1632, all but three of which were printed by Pierre Ballard. 34 According to Piccinini it was during this period that the French acquired all the old lutes of Bologna, especially those of Maler and Frei. 35 The makers then used the backs and bellies of these old lutes, and fitted them with new necks, pegboxes and bridges. The conversion of old lutes by French makers at this time may account for the relative lack of surviving French instruments from this period. As a result of this activity the fashion for round-bodied, multiribbed instruments in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century gave way to a renewed interest in the design of the 'pearl' design of the early sixteenth century with only nine or eleven ribs. 36 The conversion of an old single-headed eight-course lute to a doubleheaded twelve-course lute is relatively easy. This is because the existing body and neck of the Renaissance lute can be used, the only alterations necessary being a new pegbox and bridge. It is clear from iconography and musical sources that this type of instrument found lasting favour in England and the Netherlands. The Burwell Tutor implies that at some point, presumably during the period 1620--40, the French, like the English, were experimenting with twelve-course double-headed lutes. The Burwell Tutor relates that Jacques Gaultier, who left France in 1617 to make his subsequent career in England: ... hath caused twoe heads to be made to the Lute[.] All England hath accepted that Augmentacon and Fraunce att first but soone after that alteracon hath beene condemned by all the french Masters who are returned to theire old fashion keepeing onely the small Eleaventh[.] 37

Thus the tutor credits Jacques Gaultier with the design and construction of the twelve-course lute, although he presumably got an instrument maker to carry out the work, and states that the French masters quickly rejected the instrument. During the 1640s the French eleven-course lute superseded the tencourse lute. An existing ten-course lute could easily be re-strung as an eleven-course lute by adding a treble rider and altering only the bridge and the nut. A rider is a piece of wood added to the upper edge of the pegbox, cut and drilled to carry a single peg, or a small number of pegs. The preference for the 'small Eleaventh' in the Burwell Tutor extract above refers to the French fashion of using only a single octave eleventh string 34 35

36 37

A minority of these songs require only a nine-course lute. See J. Le Cocq, 'Pitch and Tuning in French Lute Song', The Lute, vol. 32 (1992), p. 49. A. Piccinini, lntavolatura de liuto e di chitarrone, libro primo (Bologna, 1623), p. 5. M. Lowe, 'The Historical Development of the Lute in the 17th Century', Galpin Society Journal, vol. 29 (1976), pp. 14-15. Burwell Tutor, f. 68.

The Development of French Lute Style I 600-1650

187

without a fundamental. 38 This arrangement does not necessitate the use of a treble rider, as, with a single first, second course, and eleventh courses, the 19 strings of a ten-course lute are redistributed on the nut and bridge, while the basic instrument remained unchanged. The conversion of an old lute to a ten- or eleven-course lute, unlike a conversion to a twelve-course lute, required a new neck as well. Lutes in Dowland's time had eight frets on the neck, but by the 1640s nine or ten was the norm. 39 This increase in the length of the neck in relation to the body became possible by replacing the neck on a conversion of an old lute, or a rejected twelve-course lute, with a neck suitable for an eleven-course lute. This resulted in an increased string length and a slight decrease in pitch. These changes are consistent with the decrease in use of difficult stopped chords in the left hand and the increase in interest in sonority that is part of the brise style. There is little surviving source evidence that the twelve-course lute ever became popular in France. 40 A ten-course lute only is required for both Ballard's 1631 and 1638 books and for Pierre Gaultier's Oeuvres also of 1638. Both these last books include the first published pieces requiring the D minor tuning f, d', a, J, d, A, G, F, E, D, C, which in France largely supplanted all other tunings by 1650,41 although the D major variant of this tuningf d', a,f#, d, A, G, F/1, E, D, C remained popular even after the midcentury. 42 To arrive at the D minor tuning (transposed down a tone) from the tuning no. I 0 only the third, fourth and ninth courses need to be altered, i.e. from ell, c', ab,J, c, G, F, E/J, Db, C to e/J', c', g, e/J, c, G, F, E/J, D, C (see Table 9.3). Contemporary authorities stress the need to keep an even tension over the whole range of strings. With the continued lowering of the upper course relative to the lower it was necessary to raise the whole tessitura of the instrument. As the ten-course lute gave way to the elevencourse lute the nominal tessitura of the instrument was raised a tone, which, when employing the above tuning, resulted in the standard D minor tuning at the normally transcribed pitch. By increasing the number of adjacent thirds obtained on open strings the transitional tunings, and the D minor and its related tunings, can produce a much more sonorous response from a lute than Renaissance tuning, with its 38

Burwell Tutor, f. 8: 'Concerneing the Eleaventh string which is the last Base the good Masters of the Lute doe use on ely the octave that is the little one [string] ... '. 39 R. Dowland, 'Other Necessary Observations belonging to the Lute and Lute Playing' in Varietie ofLute-Lessons (London, 161 0}, sig. 02; Burwell Tutor, Chapter 4. 40 There are a number of pieces in the Reymes Manuscript (Paris, Bibliotheque du Centre National de Ia Recherche Scientifique) which require a twelfth course (ff. 43v, 44--5, 56v--Q0v), however this manuscript has strong English associations. 41 Mace, writing in 1676, had known the D minor tuning for 40 years (Musick's Monument, p. 191). In 1636, Marin Mersenne (Harmonie universelle, trans R.E. Chapman, The Hague, 1957) mentions only tunings nos. 8 and 10 (p. 115), although he also includes a piece by Mesangeau in tuning no. 9 (p. 124). 42 This tuning is noticeably popular in works of Pinel for ten-course lute. For example, all the pieces by Pinel in Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, MS 9451 are in this tuning.

188

From Renaissance to Baroque

reliance on stopped courses for full triads. Even in chords involving stopped courses, the altered tunings gain in sonority over Renaissance tuning through sympathetic vibration of strings not actually sounded. By stopping notes in high positions on low strings and by playing more open strings, altered tunings could produce a richer tone and a greater continuity of sound despite a thinner texture. Scales and melodic passages can be produced in such a way that successive notes are not played on the same string, as one would normally expect, but on two or more strings, allowing notes to ring on longer than usual. The sound of the open strings in particular can overlap with that of the stopped strings. To achieve these 'campanella' (little bell) effects, the stopped notes use relatively high fret positions. Such 'campanella' melodic passages and certain cadential formulae are a feature of the brise style that developed out of the desire to exploit the richer sonority afforded by the new tunings. Typically the cadential formulae involve arpeggiation from the bass upwards of the penultimate (usually some form of dominant) chord, finishing with a quick tum, the final note of which is the start of the resolution chord. The rest of the second chord is then arpeggiated from the bass upwards. According to the Burwell Tutor these cadences 'formerly were done onely in the end of a Lesson but in our dayes old Gaultier hath intermixed them in all partes of a lesson and that with a great deale of grace. ' 43 There are no surviving tutors from France or England before the Burwell Tutor and Mace's Musick's Monument that clearly describe the technique appropriate to the French style brise. 44 Yet it is clear from the music that fundamental changes had taken place by 1630, and that these changes in technique were then refined during the rest of the century, but not altered in substance. At the centre of this change in technique is a rethinking of the division of responsibilities between the thumb and the fingers of the right hand. We have seen how the the old technique of 'thumb and index' alternation had given way to one of 'index and middle finger' alternation for melodic passage work. The former tended towards a 'thumb inside the hand' position while the latter allowed a 'thumb outside the hand' position. With the increased number of courses these changes were ever more necessary. The thumb could now be left to concentrate on its responsibility for always playing the bass of all chords or brise passages. Conjunct chords, instead of being plucked by the thumb and individual fingers, normally one to a course to allow arpeggiation, could now be 'raked', so that the thumb brushed across all the strings to meet the middle finger plucking the uppermost string. In this new style difficult chords for the left hand and runs seldom feature. Instead there is greater attention to ornamentation, including slurs and slides, in which the left hand sounds extra notes after the right hand has plucked the string. These technical changes are strongly linked to the use of altered tunings, the increase in the 43 44

Burwell Tutor, f. 32v. D. Poulton, 'La technique dujeu du 1uth en France et en Ang1eterre', in J. Jacquot (ed.), Le luth et sa musique (Paris, 1958), p. 118.

The Development of French Lute Style 1600-1650

189

number of courses, and the exploitation of the increased resonance that resulted from the new tunings. It is difficult to decide who amongst the French lutenist-composers is to be credited with these innovations. The fact that Mesangeau's works appear in generous numbers in both of Pierre Ballard's books, his many manuscript attributions, and the high esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries, point to him as a leading figure. 45 Vieux Gaultier wrote a beautiful 'Tombeau de Mezangeau' on the latter's death, and might have been a pupil of Mesangeau. 46 The Burwell Tutor quotation given at the start of this essay singles out Mesangeau as the first master to 'have given to the Lute his first perfection' .47 This would seem to credit him with many of the innovations of his time. The rest of the group of composers who contributed to Pierre Ballard's books (Chancy, Bouvier, Belleville, Dubuisson, and Chevalier) have little to distinguish between them stylistically. Chancy, however, did publish a book for mandora in 1629, and like Bouvier (a contributor to both the 1631 and 1638 books), may have been an important innovator. Dubut, and more importantly Dufaut, were both major figures at the outset of their careers, and cannot thus be credited with innovations much before 1630.48 The active career ofEnnemond ('Vieux') Gaultier (1600-31) coincides exactly with the period under discussion. Unfortunately his music was only published posthumously by his famous nephew Denis, from whose style Vieux Gaultier's music is indistinguishable. 49 It is most likely that Ennemond would have passed through all the transitional phases that led to the consolidation of the style brise, i.e. through music composed in Renaissance tuning, transitional tunings and probably the D minor tuning also. The Burwell Tutor credits him with having discovered 'The Trumpett Tuneing' (tuning no. 14) and other tunings derived from it such as 'the Goate tuneing', which suggests that he was at the forefront of tuning innovations in the period 1600-40. 5 Certainly the writer of the Burwell Tutor regarded him as the foremost lutenist and teacher of his age. It may be that some or all of the music attributed to Gaultier (or Gautier) in the Prague IV.G.l8, Haslemere, Herbert, Montbuysson, and Berlin 40143

°

45 46 47 48

49

50

Besard mentions Mesangeau' s skill in his Novus partus (Augsburg, 1617) as does Adam Gumpelzhaimer in the Gymnasma (Strasbourg, 1621). Souris, Oeuvres du Vieux Gautier, p. xii. Burwell Tutor, f. 5r-v. The Dubut mentioned here is probably Pierre Dubut (fl. 1640). See M. Rollin and J.-M. Vaccaro (eds. and trans.), Oeuvres de Dubuts (Paris, 1979), p. xiii. Dufaut was possibly alive until c.1680 and thus must have been young in 1631. See A. Souris (ed. and trans.), Oeuvres de Dufaut, with introduction and concordances by M. Rollin (Paris, 1965}, p. ix. This disregards pieces attributed to a 'Gautier' published in Mylius's Thesaurus gratiarum (Frankfurt, 1622) or in Louys de Moy's Le petit boucquet de frise orientale (n.p., 1631 ), which may be by Vieux Gaultier from an early stage in his career. Burwell Tutor, f. 14v and f. 12r.

190

From Renaissance to Baroque

manuscripts 51 may be by Vieux Gaultier, but it is also possible that some of these pieces may have been by Jacques Gaultier. 52 Clearly both Gaultiers were important innovators in the period 1600--40. The main characteristics of the style brise developed by the French lutenists after 1630 can be summarized thus: temporal distribution of chord members, in which notes of different registers or 'parts' are sounded one after another; the deliberate avoidance of textural pattern or regularity of part-writing, resulting in melodic, textural and linear ambiguity; binary form in all dance movements, and general irregularity of phrase structure with the exception of the sarabande; simple harmonic movement with midpoint cadences to the most closely related keys; a high degree of stylistic conformity between composers, making identification of unattributed pieces hazardous. 53 One might add to these points the importance of ornamentation as an integral part of composition, and a preference for the middle and lower registers of the lute. By 1652 when 'La rhetorique des dieux' was compiled, these features were firmly established, as was the Baroque suite with the gigue added to the prelude, allemande, courante and sarabande. From 1625 until the 1680s and 1690s France maintained its hegemony over lute composition and style, the rest of Europe, including England, drawing directly from her for inspiration and compositional models. Among the abuses of the lute listed in the Burwell Lute Tutor is for the lute to play with other instruments or accompany the voice. It seems that in their quest for sonority and an idiomatic style the French lute school consciously placed themselves outside ensemble playing. Even the tradition of adding a second lute part to an existing solo (a contrapartie) did not start until after 1640 in France. I would argue that the drive towards an idiomatic approach to instrumental writing takes place first in French solo lute music, and that many other instruments, string and wind, benefited indirectly in applying this drive towards sonority and expression, in their playing traditions and instrument-making development. 51

Prague, Narodni Muzeum, Hudebni Oddeleni, MS IV.G.I8; Haslemere, Dolmetsch Library, MS II.B.l; Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Mus. 689; Kassel, Landesbibliothek, MS 4to Mus.I08(1); and Krakow, Biblioteka Jagie116nska, Uniwersytet Jagiell6nski, Berlin Mus. MS 40143. 52 See Rave, 'Some Manuscripts', pp. 39-51 for a discussion of the problems of attributing to Jacques or Ennemond works simply entitled Gaultier (or some variant spelling) in manuscript sources of the period. 53 Ibid., pp. 38--62; Rave's definition of the style brise is quoted in full in D.J. Buch, 'Style brise, Style luthe, and the Choses luthees', Musical Quarterly, vol. 71 (1985), p. 53. In this article Buch argues against the emphasis in Rave's definition of the style brise on melodic, textual and linear ambiguity.

Chapter Ten

The Early Air de Cour, the Theorbo, and the Continuo Principle in France Jonathan Le Cocq 1

At first glance, continuo practice seems to have come late to France. The earliest French print explicitly to provide not only a continuo bass, but also figures, was the Pathodia sacra of the Dutch diplomat and musician Constantijn Huygens, a collection of sacred airs published by Robert Ballard in Paris in 164 7. This was soon followed by other collections of sacred music by Du Mont and Moulinie, and a collection of four-part secular airs by Cambefort, all calling for a 'basse continue', in the 1650s. 2 We also have some suggestive snippets of information relating to continuo in France, such as the fact that as late as the1660s Jacques Chambonnieres lost his position as a keyboard player at the royal court apparently due to his inability or refusal to realize a bass. 3 All this tends to suggest that continuo only really began to take hold in France in the 1640s and 1650s, and this is sometimes seen as an example of the conservatism of French music at this time. 4 This way of dating the spread of continuo practice is misleading. It almost certainly has a longer history than this in France, which has implications for the performance of certain types of French music dating from before the middle of the century. In fact, the earliest references to the 'basse continue' in musical sources appear in collections of courtly songs,

4

This essay is derived in part from the author's doctoral dissertation, 'French Lute-Song, 1529-1643' (University of Oxford, 1997). A version of it was first presented as a paper at the International Conference of Baroque Music, Exeter, 1998. In 1651 Etienne Moulinie obtained a privilege to publish a collection of Meslanges de sujets chrestiens with 'basse continue'. The book only appeared in 1658, by which time Henri DuMont's collection of Cantica sacra (1652) and Cambefort's Second livre des airs a quatre ( 1655), with basso continuo, had already appeared. See D. Fuller, 'Chambonnieres, Jacques Champion', in New Grove 2, vol. 5, p. 453. For example, whilst acknowledging some of the evidence for continuo practice in the air de cour cited below, James R. Anthony nonetheless suggests that 'The musical conservatism of France in the first half of the seventeenth century is nowhere more dramatically displayed than in the reluctance of her composers to make use of the basso continuo', French Baroque Music from Beaujoyeu/x to Rameau (Portland, Oregon, 3/1997), p. 202. As argued below, Anthony's subsequent claim that the 'continuo-like passages' about to be described in the air de cour are merely 'isolated instances' risks confusing printing practice with that of performance and composition.

From Renaissance to Baroque

192

or airs de cour, arranged as partsongs in the 1630s. The first reference occurs in Antoine Boesset's seventh book of airs de cour in four and five parts, published in 1630, where two of the airs have untexted bass lines marked 'basse continue pour les instruments' (see Illustration 10.1; for Illustrations see pp. 208-1 0). The same thing happens in Etienne Moulinie's collection of airs of 1635, and Boesset's last book of 1642 which draws on airs composed up to ten years earlier. 5 Furthermore, many other airs have untexted sections of bass parts which are marked 'Le Luth' or 'Pour les luths', and these date back as early as Pierre Guedron's third book of airs of 1617. Sections marked 'le luth' in some pieces are similar to those marked 'basse continue' in others, and must be different ways of saying the same thing. The air 'En fin l' Amour' from Moulinie's 1635 collection begins by calling for 'basse continue', and then goes on to alternate texted bass lines with untexted sections marked 'luth', which seems to confirm that references to 'le luth' in these sources, which run right through publications of the 1630s, also refer to continuo and not to the lute playing a single line. One can go back earlier still in the partsong books of airs de cour and find sections of untexted bass lines which do not refer to 'le luth' or any other instrument, but which must have been intended to be played on an instrument, probably the lute. The earliest of these is in Guedron's second book of airs of 1612, and it confirms what one might now expect: that a lute playing from the bass, and probably harmonizing from it, was accepted if not expected in ensemble versions of the airs. This throws a particular light on those airs, which we first encounter in Guedron's collection of 1608,6 which consist of a first section ('verse') for superius and bassus alone, followed by a refrain for the full ensemble. While both parts are usually texted, it is likely that a lute supplied a continuo harmony for the duet sections. Most of these airs also appear in lutesong versions, with tablature, and it is no surprise to find that here the bass line is fully harmonized throughout - that is, in both the duet and the ensemble sections. So there are plenty of clues to suggest that some kind of continuo performance of airs de cour was likely even from the first decade of the seventeenth century. If so, then it probably means that what seems to be the late appearance of continuo in France has as much or more to do with printing conventions as it does with musical practice. At a time when printed tablature was becoming rare in Italy, it takes on a new lease of life in the lutesong arrangements of airs de cour which poured off the Ballard printing presses in abundance between 1608 and 1632, and then more sporadically between 1632 and 1643 when Boesset's last book appeared. The great majority of airs de cour were in fact printed in both lutesong and ensemble versions, and sometimes in anthologies of unaccompanied melodies, often within a year of each other. With all these formats

6

E. Moulinie, Troisi[emej livre d'airs de cour a quatre parties (Paris, 1635), and A. Boesset, IX Livre d 'airs de cour a quatre et cinq parties (Paris, 1642). P. Guedron, Airs de court mis quatre & cinq parties (Paris, 1602), one partbook lost; rev. as Airs de cour quatre & cinq parties (Paris, 1608).

a

a

Early Air de Cour, the Theorbo, and the Continuo Principle in France

193

available, and especially given the existence of lutesongs, continuo versions would have been more or less redundant. One can argue that the vogue for the lute was so great in France that it was viable for a printer to realize a continuo in tablature rather than provide the more versatile continuo itself. 7 Thus as tablature books become less common in the 1630s, so references to 'basse continue' become more common in the partsong publications, and when the printer Ballard asks Huygens to supply his Pathodia sacra (originally intended for theorbo accompaniment) with continuo rather than tablature, the reason he gives is not that the practice is new (he says that purchasers will be trained in it already, or will soon learn it), but that the book should be suitable for keyboard as well as lute accompaniment. At the same time he notes that tablature books will no longer sell - a hint that the lack of printed continuo prior to this had as much to do with commerce as with musical practice. 8 Such printing conventions, all the more potent because the Ballard firm had a virtual monopoly on music printing, might affect our idea not only of how airs were performed, but also how they were conceived and written. The most common view has been that airs de cour were originally composed as partsongs, and then arranged as lutesongs. Nigel Fortune James Anthony, and Andre Verchaly have all suggested or assumed this, 9 because partsong airs generally appear in prestigious editions devoted to the works of single composers like Guedron or Boesset, while the lute-air versions are more often found in functional, even 'popular' anthologies, and say explicitly that they have been arranged, first by Gabriel Bataille, later by Antoine Boesset, and only exceptionally by 'les autheurs eux memes'. But there is another possibility that we should examine here. This is that most airs de cour from the turn of the century onwards were conceived and written as melody-bass outlines or, in essence, as continuo airs, and then arranged as partsongs or lutesongs according to use and in 7

8

9

It is interesting in this context that Brossard explicitly blames Ballard for being slow to print continuo parts. In complaining of Ballard's failure to add a basse continue to reprints of Claude Le Jeune's Octonaires de fa vanite et inconstance du monde (published in 1641), he states that 'that is the way of printers; laziness and often fear of expense prevents them from perfecting their works as much as they ought, even for their honor'; quoted and translated in Anthony, French Baroque Music, p. 203. See W.J.A. Jonckbloet and J.P.N. Land (eds.), Musique et musiciens au XVII' siecle: correspondance et oeuvre musicales de Constantin Huygens, Societe pour l'Histoire Musicale des Pays-Bas (Leiden, 1882), p. ccxix (undated letter, probably early 1647): 'Aussy Mr. Ballard vous prie Monsieur de vouloir faire mettre partout des Basses continues, et non point de Ia tablature, cela satisfaira davantage ceus qui les achepteront, tout ce que le Sr. Ballard a imprime cy devant de tablature luy estant demeure sur les bras, et aussy que ceux qui les auront seront styles a ladite basse continue ou sy stilleront pour en avoir contentement, joint quils pouront aussy levoir pour le clavesin.' SeeN. Fortune, 'Solo Song and Cantata', in G. Abraham (ed.), New Oxford History of Music IV: The Age of Humanism (Oxford, 1968), p. 189; Anthony, French Baroque Music, p. 409, n. 3; A. Verchaly, 'Air de court et ballet de cour', Histoire de fa musique I: Des origines Jean-Sebastien Bach, Encyclopedie de Ia Pleiade, vol. 9 (Paris, 1960), pp. 1532-3.

a

194

From Renaissance to Baroque

order to fit the printing conventions of the Ballard firm. 10 We might describe this as the application of the continuo 'principle' in France, as distinct from (but nonetheless suggestive of) continuo practice (i.e. the realization of a bass in performance). There are in fact a few cases of airs de cour surviving in such melodybass outlines from the first half of the century. There is a melody-bass manuscript contrafactum made by Constantin Huygens of Guedron's 'Amour blesse mon sein' from his partsong books of 1602 and 1608, 11 and arranged as a lutesong in one of Bataille's anthologies in 1614. 12 More significantly, there is a case of a melody-bass outline of an air that is earlier than any of the printed versions. This is Pierre Guedron's air 'Que n' estes vous lassees', which was sent by the poet Malherbe to his friend Pereisc in 1610, but which only appeared in print in Bataille's lutesong anthology of 1611 and then Guedron' s partsong collection of 1612. 13 This survives, conceivably in Guedron's own hand, in the Bibliotheque Nationale (see Illustration 10.2). 14 The bass, while harmonic in orientation, has a note for each syllable of text and so is suitable for vocal realization, but this type of bass is characteristic of early air de cour harmony generally, and we find much the same thing in full-blooded continuo airs that survive in manuscripts dating from the 1640s and after. 15 One might think that the question of how airs were composed could be more or less settled by comparing lutesong versions of airs with equivalent partsong versions: there were 600 or so of these printed between 1608 and 1643. But in fact the evidence here is rather mixed. These seem to show a consistent pattern of more or less identical melodies and bass lines, and relatively independent inner parts. This is what one would expect from both 10

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15

This hypothesis was first suggested by Frank Dobbins in 'The Lute Airs of Charles Tessier', The Lute Society Journal, vol. 20 ( 1976), pp. 23-42. He returned to it in 'Les airs pour luth de Charles Tessier, luthiste et compositeur en Angleterre a l'epoque de Dowland', in Luths et luthistes en Occident: Actes du colloque 13-15 Mai, 1998 (Paris, 1999), pp. 147--61, concluding that in Tessier's works 'the polarity of continuo style is at hand' ('La polarite du style continuo est proche'). A facsimile and transcription of the song is given in F. Kosmann and A. Annegam, 'Amour blesse mon sein: een Frans lied onder de hand schriften van Constantijn Huygens', Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse muziekgeschiedenis, vol. 19 (1961), pp. 89-93. The fragment is also discussed in L.P. Gijp, 'Te voila done, bel oei/: An Autograph Tablature by Constantijn Huygens', ibid., vol. 37 (1987), pp. 170-4. See footnote 6 for the printed sources. G. Bataille (ed.), Airs de diffi!rents autheurs. mis en tablature de luth ... Cinquiesme livre (Paris, 1614). G. Bataille (ed.), Airs de differents autheurs, mis en tablature de luth ... Troisieme livre (Paris, 1611; 2/1614); P. Guedron, Second livre d'airs de cour a quatre & cinq parties (Paris, 1612). Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS Fr 9543, p. 128 (Correspondances de Pereisc. Diverses). The correspondence by Ma1herbe related to this fragment may be found in ibid.,MSFr9535,ff.IIO, lllvand 114-114v. See Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MSS Vm7 501 and Vma 854 for substantial examples of continuo airs by Antoine Boesset and the succeeding generation of midcentury air de cour composers.

Early Air de Cour, the Theorbo, and the Continuo Principle in France

195

versions having been derived from a melody-bass outline. But in some cases one sees just enough relationship between partsong and lutesong versions to suggest a stronger connection than this. To illustrate this, Example 10.1 (Guedron's 'He pourquoy?') aligns a transcription of the lutesong as it appears in 1608 with the partsong version which appeared in the same year. Melody and bass are identical, and there is no attempt at strict intabulation of the inner voices such as one finds in sixteenth-century lutesongs. This is most noticeable just before the double bar ('ressens de douleur'), where the texture is filled out in the lute. But the opening of the air does come quite close to an intabulation of voice parts, and in the last line of the song particularly, at 'En se plaignant', there is an attempt to produce the staggered entries of the partsong where the lute briefly goes into two parts. Few if any lutesongs show a stronger relationship to the partsong versions than this, and many a weaker one or else none at all. But it does suggest that in some cases, at least, the intabulator had a pre-existent partsong version for reference, though not as a strict model for intabulation. The reason for this again has as much or more to do with the way the songs were printed as composed. As mentioned above, the lutesong and partsong versions of the same air generally appeared within a year of each other, and ensemble versions would frequently be to hand for the intabulator regardless of how the airs were originally composed. Both of Ballard's intabulators- Bataille and Boesset- had strong connections with the publisher, and would have had immediate access to whatever was going through his press. Because of this, the more revealing sources are those which appeared before Pierre Ballard monopolized air de cour production, and before he established the pattern of publishing lutesong and partsong airs more or less simultaneously. These include the manuscript or printed sources of lutesongs, sometimes produced outside Paris, which have partsong concordances in sources from the 1590s or early 1600s: sources such as Besard's Thesaurus harmonicus published in Cologne in 1603, which contains about 30 lute airs, or a manuscript compiled by Charles Tessier now in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. 16 The most common source for concordances with the airs de cour in Besard's collection is Pierre Guedron's Airs de court mis a quatre & cinq parties, published in Paris in 1602 and revised in 1608, with nine concordant songs. Typically, the melody and bass of the Besard versions closely resemble those in the Guedron publications, but with no attempt to reproduce the inner parts of Guedron's polyphony. Against Gm!dron's melody and bass, Besard constructs chords on the lute in the manner most characteristic of the instrument, usually producing four-note chords, but sometimes slipping freely into three- or five-note chords as well. If Besard worked from manuscript versions ofGuedron's airs this would help explain the differences between his versions and those printed in 1602 and 1608, especially when those differences are rhythmic and ornamental (that is, 16

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Mus. Sch. 0.237. The manuscript is described in Dobbins, 'Lute Airs' and 'Les airs pour luth', and in LeCocq, 'French Lute-Song', pp. 80-2. An edition of the works of Charles Tessier, incorporating music from this manuscript, is forthcoming from the Centre d'Etudes Superieures de Ia Renaissance.

From Renaissance to Baroque

196

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Early Air de Cour, the Theorbo, and the Continuo Principle in France

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Guedron's air 'Si jamais', which appears not only in the Guedron collections, but also in Gabriel Bataille's third lutesong anthology of 1611, published by Ballard, illustrates these points well (see Example 10.2). Melody and bass are clearly derived from a similar model, but while Bataille seems to have had sight of Guedron's polyphonic version (suggested by the shadowing of the polyphonic alto in the top voice of the lute after the repeat), there is no such evidence in Besard, whose part movement is generally much less smooth. The sort of rhythmic error which creeps in at 'prive', not that uncommon in Besard's settings, might also be seen as more likely when working from a manuscript melody and bass (especially when laid out as in Illustration 10.2) rather than a full polyphonic model. The Tessier manuscript is an especially good source for our purposes because it contains not only airs found in French anthologies and editions from the 1590s, but also versions of some of Tessier's own airs which he included in his partsong collection printed in London in 1597. It seems likely that Tessier compiled this manuscript independently of the publication but at about the same time and possibly for his own use, despite its dedication to George Brooke (youngest son of Lord Cobham, executed in 1603). 17 So it provides an opportunity to look at how a composer treats the relationship between partsong and lutesong versions of airs. What we see in the manuscript is similar to the sort of thing one finds in Besard. Tessier's melody and bass are more or less identical in both formats, with just a little elaboration here and there in the printed partsong version. But where the partsong incorporates a fairly skilled working of inner parts, the lutesong consists of little more than a series of harmonies in stock left-hand chord shapes hung onto the bass line, with no regard for consecutives or for melodic line, even in the top voice of the lute. We can see this in Example 10.3, which combines a transcription of Illustration 10.3 (see p. 210) from the manuscript with Tessier's own 1597 partsong version. Besard and Tessier's lutesong realizations are precisely what one would expect of a kind of rough and ready continuo practice, where a composition conceived as melody and harmonic bass could be given either a simple harmonization on the lute from stock chord shapes, or a more elaborated working-out in parts for a publication. I suggest that this represents the usual way of conceiving and composing an air de cour in the 1590s if not earlier, and remains so throughout its history. This is very likely the form in which airs de cour and similar types of song circulated in manuscript around the tum of the century. What happened is that the renewed vogue for the lute in France in the early seventeenth century, combined with publishing conventions established and maintained by the !7

It appears that the text was applied to the manuscript first, in a fair hand, and then passed on to Tessier to supply the music. Tessier's hand is untidy and his tablature often sketchy and incomplete; one suspects that in the end he retained the book as a sketchbook for his own use.

From Renaissance to Baroque

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Ex. 10.2 Pierre Guedron, 'Si jamais': a) Gabriel Bataille (ed.), Airs de differents autheurs, mis en tablature de luth. .. Troisieme livre (Paris, 1611), f. 45v; b) Jean-Baptiste Besard (ed.), Thesaurus harmonicus (Cologne, 1603), f. 72v; c) Pierre Guedron, Airs de cour(t) (Paris, 1602 and 1608).

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