Musique de Cour

Instrumental music had quite a lush history, but until a certain moment composers did not consider instrumental music as an independent genre because in that time vocal music dominated in the world and the role of music instruments was to “support” the singer and prevent him from singing out of key. For instrumental music it took 150 years to be recognized as an independent genre and independent subject. It happened thanks to 5 factors: Composers discovered the individuality of music instruments Dance popularity Lute versatility Invention of new instruments Composers’ musical experiments As noted earlier, instrumental music existed long before the Renaissance, however, it wasn’t separated from vocal music. During Late Medieval and Early Renaissance period music instruments played same melody that the singer sang. Music instrument was not considered as a key instrument or individual component of music culture, it was kind of conductor which guided a singer and helped...

Florentine Camerata. The word of music Almost all the encyclopedic articles about Florentine Camerata say that it was a group of poets, philosophers and musicians, who wanted to bring ancient Greek music into the modern, at that time, Italian music. However, if we get deeper, it becomes obvious that Camerata members had no clear notion about what was the real sound of ancient Greek music . Of course, there were some ancient descriptions but it did not give precise explanations. Following these descriptions we can guess next: a) A poet (he is a singer as well) was reading his poem in a singsong manner and accompanied by music b) A singer sang the text in a free rhythm and it was also accompanied by the music (but we should not forget that there was also a choir in Ancient Greece). Italy of 16th century. In music of that time (mainly) polyphony was prevailed. Camerata thought that polyphonic music had no “miracle”, because there was no clear and understandable syllable. Ca...

French Music of XVI century I think this article can be interesting for people who are professionally engaged with music (mainly singing), who know the meaning of such terms like fugue, music period etc. France of the 16th century had a move from the Renaissance to the Baroque era. In that time classical fugue form did not set yet and by the period musicians of Renaissance meant a phrase, human speech, which was "integrated" into the music. If you take a look at scores of vocal music of 16th century, for example, Pierre Guédron , Claude Le Jeune , Eustache Du Caurroy etc. you should pay attention to the fact that many their works have no bar. It was assumed that a singer and an accompanist had to be guided by the literary text, which was a developing story plot. In Renaissance vocal music - text, phrase, word, poetry are very important. Pierre Guedron gave next recommendation concerning the interpretation of his music: rhythm, word, pleasant voice. Moreove...

Étienne Moulinié. Court composer of Gaston d'Orleans Before genre of opera came to France the aristocracy practiced singing with court aria (air de cour) or - courteous aria. Story of air de cour began with a lute song of 16th century. There are three main composers, who played an important role in history of development and becoming of this genre: Pierre Guedron (1565-1620). He wrote music for Henry IV and Maria Medici. Antoine Boesset (1587-1643) - court composer of Louis XIII. Étienne Moulinié (1599-1676) - the musician of Gaston, Duke of Orleans, the only brother of the king Louis XIII. Gaston of Orleans was an eccentric and unrestrained person and it was the reason of many arguments between him and his brother Louis XIII. So, because of this, Louis XIII was repeatedly sending his brother away from the Royal court. The Duke was leaving to his ownership, where he had his own court; there he was spending some time until he made peace with the King. Then he was c...

Royal printers. The family of Ballard The family of Ballard had a complete monopoly on the printing (publication and distribution) of court music in France. Ballard decided not only for the conception of music collections, but also for the number intended for the public. Ballard family was quite powerful. They jealously guarded their position and they did not tolerate any sort of rivalry, which was almost impossible because they were at the mercy of the King. For sure, first of all Ballard published the music of composers who were serving at the royal court. We can blame Ballard for the fact that it is for this reason many worthy works of less known and non-court composers had not survived, but thanks to Ballard we can have a full view about the court music - what sort of music it was and how it was developing. And something about Robert Ballard Jr. Robert Ballard Jr . was a lute player and composer. He was born in Paris about 1572-1575. In 1612 he entered the service of ...