The hurdy-gurdy in eighteenth-century France [Second edition.] 9780253025135, 0253025133

Table of contents :
Historical background --
The music --
Musical interpretation and performance practice --
The repertory --
The vielle in the literature of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France --
Appendix: avertissements in the works of Jean-Baptiste Dupuits.

Citation preview

The Hurdy-Gurdy in

Eighteenth-Century France

PU BL IC AT IONS OF T H E E A R LY M USIC I NS T I T U T E

The Hurdy-Gurdy in eighteenth-century

france second edition

8 robert a. green

INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS  Bloomington & Indianapolis

This book is a publication of Indiana Universit y Press Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA iupress.indiana.edu © 2016 by Robert A. Green All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48 –1992.

Manufactured in the United States of America Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress. Names: Green, Robert A., [date] author. Title: The hurdy-gurdy in eighteenthcentury France / Robert A. Green. Other titles: Publications of the Early Music Institute. Description: Second edition. | Bloomington ; Indianapolis : Indiana University Press, 2017. | Series: Publications of the Early Music Institute Identifiers: LCCN 2016047238 (print) | LCCN 2016047997 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253024954 (pb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253025135 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Hurdy-gurd. | Music— France—18th century—History and criticism. | Dupuits des Bricettes, Jean-Baptiste. Classification: LCC ML1086 .G73 2017 (print) | LCC ML1086 (ebook) | DDC 787.6/9094409033—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc. gov/2016047238

1 2 3 4 5  21 20 19 18 17 16

For Lee

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CONTENTS

Preface to the First Edition Acknowledgments for the Second Edition Introduction to the Second Edition 1 Historical Background

ix xiii xv 1

2 The Music

25

3 Musical Interpretation and Performance Practice

50

4 The Repertory

66

5 The Vielle in the Literature of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century France

89

Appendix: Avertissements in the Works of Jean-Baptiste Dupuits

103

Bibliography

109

Index

115

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PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

The hurdy-gurdy has been in continuous use in Western Europe for a thousand years; few other instruments can make that claim. In the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries it was found in the most musically cultivated circles; in the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries, it was played by the lowest classes. Today, it is a popular folk instrument in France, much like the banjo in American music. The story of the hurdy-gurdy, or, as it is known in France, the vielle, is so in­ teresting that much has been written about its use in different periods. In such surveys, the cultivation of the vielle in eighteenth-century France represents only a chapter, but so many beautiful instruments and so much information, relatively speaking, survives from this period that it has received more attention than any other. Nevertheless, there are many areas left to explore, and surprisingly, the music composed for the vielle and its performance is one of these. Previous explorations of the vielle during the eighteenth century have revealed a certain blindness on the part of most authors. They have focused on its cultivation by lady amateurs at the highest level of society, most notably members of the French royal family, leaving the impression that fashion rather than musical considerations was largely responsible for the popularity of the instrument. In addition, most authors have not been players of the instrument and have failed to grasp the distinctive features of the repertory. I believe that these two considerations are largely responsible for a lack of interest in the vielle among those concerned with eighteenth-century music and its performance on period instruments. The purpose of this book is to place the instrument squarely within of the purview of the latter group. This book is written with two types of audience in mind: those interested in eighteenth-century music and what the vielle and its music can reveal about the sound world of the period, and those who play the instrument and are familiar with the fundamentals of technique but wish to explore the interpretive possibilities. This book is not a method. Elements of technique are discussed only insofar as they are necessary for the general reader to understand musical and performance practice considerations. ix

x  ◇ PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

In order to fully understand what is said here, it is important that the reader understand my biases. I became aware of the vielle and its music through my musicological research into the instrumental music of the early eighteenth century. I found so many interesting works that I wanted to play them and find out how they sounded on the instrument for which they were written. Eventually I was able to acquire a good instrument and learned to play it by reading the eighteenthcentury methods discussed in detail here. There was much left unexplained, however, and I went to France to learn more about the technique from the players of folk music who have studied the instrument as part of a living tradition. I soon encountered several who were interested in the eighteenth-century repertory, but who approached their examination of this literature and study of the treatises from their background as folk musicians. While many of these players have a thorough grounding in technique based on their involvement with folk music, it is difficult for them to discard elements of their playing which they have found to be expressive but which are inappropriate, or used in a different way, in the performance of the eighteenth-century literature. I differ from them in that I have approached this music from my background as a scholar and one who is generally familiar with what was composed for other instruments in the period. Thus, the issue in learning to play and interpret the music then becomes what to retain from the living tradition as musically valid and what to discard as inappropriate. No player fully agrees here, and, therefore, widely differing approaches may be heard in performances of this music. The same must be said of any other instrument, however, but with more and more performances of the music for the vielle, a range of musically viable possibilities will emerge. I must mention here Claude Tailhades, who served first as a mentor in my learning to play the instrument and then as a collaborator in an exploration of the duo literature, a literature we had hoped to record. Claude, one of the finest players in France, turned his attention from folk music to the eighteenth century about ten years ago. Of all the players in France he, in my opinion, most successfully combined his knowledge of the technique derived from the living tradition with what he learned from the treatises. Although we differed on minor points, our views on the major ones were alike. Much of what is said in chapter 3 resulted from our continuing dialogue on issues of performance practice. Although Claude’s death on January 12, 1995, brought an end to our collaboration, I can only hope that this book will serve in some way as a memorial to his contribution. If my attitudes have been influenced by my experiences as a player, they have also been influenced by the instruments themselves. The outstanding reproductions of eighteenth-century vielles by Thomas Norwood of Paris and an eighteenth-century instrument from about 1740 built by François Feury and restored by Norwood have strongly influenced the formation of a sound ideal. The hurdygurdy is a complex mechanism which requires considerable adjustment. These adjustments can change the sound considerably, and, therefore, one must know what sound one wants. The paradox is that one does not know what sound one

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION  ◇ xi

wants until one has heard it. It was only after considerable experimentation that I arrived at the sound I wanted and which best served the music, and I have tried to communicate this ideal as well as words can describe it. When I first began to play the instrument, I thought of it as a diversion. The sound was so intensely satisfying, however, that I could not put the instrument down. Over the years I have encountered many players of various abilities, all united by their love of the sound of the instrument. It is therefore difficult for me to believe that eighteenthcentury players did not on some level share that attraction whether or not the instrument was fashionable. After giving lecture recitals and concerts at universities and as part of various early music series, I made a recording, French Music for Hurdy-Gurdy (FOCUS 932) which realizes many of the ideas on interpretation presented in this book. In addition, it recreates the sound world of eighteenthcentury France as it relates to the vielle by including a spectrum of music from the unaccompanied arrangement of music for other instruments to chamber music in the latest style. In introducing the reader to the eighteenth-century literature for the hurdygurdy, I have not hesitated to express my critical judgment regarding the relative merits of various works in order to separate the interesting from the mundane. Although value judgments of this kind must include an element of subjectivity based on the satisfaction derived from playing the music, two questions truly provided the basis for these remarks: Does this music use the instrument to its full capabilities? Does the composer create harmonic variety within the limitations imposed by the drones? Rhythmic variety and contrapuntal interest were also taken into account. Finally, this book is not the last word on the vielle and its music in eighteenthcentury France. A thorough study of the popular airs and dances played as pastime music by the large majority of eighteenth-century players, now being undertaken by Françoise Bois-Poteur, will add significantly to our knowledge of the literature. No complete catalogue of instruments surviving from the eighteenth century with their measurements and descriptions now exists and, until such a project is completed, it will be difficult to discuss the contributions of various makers and their distinctive characteristics. A thorough search of the memoirs of various members of the court and society in the early eighteenth century, as well as legal documents housed in national and regional archives, may reveal more about the composers and teachers, the amateurs who played the instrument, and the few virtuosi who made a career performing on the instrument. No project of this kind is undertaken in a vacuum. I want to thank Northern Illinois University for providing me with summer grants and a sabbatical to complete this book. My thanks to Rick Hirsch for his speedy and accurate preparation of the musical examples and to Peter Middleton for the loan of his equipment for the preparation of camera-ready copy. Thanks also to Dr. Warren R. Jones of Loyola University of Chicago for a careful, thoughtful reading of the manuscript. I also want to express my appreciation to the editor Nathalie Wrubel for her many

xii  ◇ PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

suggestions and her support and encouragement. I want to express my special gratitude to Lee Chapman, who as an intelligent listener provided a sounding board for many ideas and read successive drafts, providing much useful and constructive criticism. This effort is immeasurably the better for his advice.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FOR THE SECOND EDITION

I would like to thank the following colleagues who generously shared their expertise and knowledge with me. Jean-Christophe Maillard (d. July 2015) and Paul Fustier (d. March 2016) unhesitatingly sent me their new discoveries and documents. I am grateful for the hospitality of Jean-Christophe and his family on my visits to Toulouse. Curtis Berak has provided many insights into the instrument itself through his study of the hurdy-gurdies in his magnificent collection. Finally this new expanded edition would not have occurred without the work of Dr. Guy Tell. His knowledge and his enthusiasm for the vielle—the instruments themselves, their construction, and the music—have been an inspiration to pursue an expansion of this book. His study of children’s instruments has been particularly useful.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION

The Hurdy-Gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is distinguished by two features: a rosin-covered wheel that rubs against the strings producing a continuous sound, and tangents that touch the melody strings at predetermined points to change the pitch. Most hurdy-gurdies have one or more drone strings playing an octave and/or fifth below the open, or unstopped, melody strings. The wheel is turned by a crank operated by the right hand, while the left hand depresses keys with the tangents mounted on them.1 The keys are enclosed in a slotted key box with a cover that protects the mechanism and provides some support for the left hand. The range of the instrument—the number of keys—has over the centuries expanded from an octave in the earliest medieval instruments to more than two octaves in some modern ones. Over the thousand years of its history, the hurdy-gurdy has taken many forms, but these basic features have remained constant. By the seventeenth century, and possibly earlier, a buzzing bridge, which was controlled by accelerating the wheel, was added to the instrument. The distinctive sound could be used variously to provide a percussive accompaniment or a form of articulation particularly useful in music with a sharply rhythmic profile, such as dances or Italian-style allegro. The specific features of the French hurdy-gurdy, or vielle, will be explored in chapter 3.

New Discoveries and Recent Research Since this book was completed in 1995, much research by myself and others has provided new insights into the vielle and its music in eighteenth-century France. The collection of essays titled Vielle à roue: Territoires illimités (1996) contains work by Jean-Christophe Maillard and Florence Gétreau, among others, that has proved useful in this expansion of knowledge. The catalogue of the exhibit of vielles and related materials that took place in Brou, southwestern France, in the summer of 1. The first incarnation of the hurdy-gurdy, commonly known as the organistrum, was operated by two people, and the tangents were pulled against the strings with knobs.

xv

xvi  ◇ INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION

2008 contains valuable essays, some of which function as sequels to those published in the 1996 collection. Laure-Elizabeth André’s thesis on Jean-Baptiste Dupuits (1996), directed by Jean-Christophe Maillard, is a valuable resource for information on the life of Dupuits and the web of patronage surrounding the composition and publication of his works for the vielle. It also establishes his activities within the milieu of Parisian daily life. This research was greatly aided by André’s discovery of the marriage certificate and the inventory after death of the composer. I can only briefly summarize and comment on some of her conclusions. I am indebted to JeanChristophe Maillard for providing me with a copy of this work. Paul Fustier’s dissertation, published as La Vielle à roue dans la musique baroque française (2006), provides a wealth of new discoveries and information. Drawing on his background as a psychoanalyst, Fustier takes a unique approach to the social aspects of the instrument’s popularity based on his analysis of the pastoral or Arcadian myth. During the last ten years a number of new collections of eighteenth-century music for vielle have surfaced that have enabled me to expand the repertory list in chapter 4 and the discussion of the repertory in chapter 2. I am indebted to Paul Fustier and Jean-Christophe Maillard for providing me with some of these collections. Some of the notable finds include Joseph Bodin de Boismortier’s Sonatas, op. 77, and a manuscript in the Duckles Collection of the Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library at the University of California, Berkeley. Other manuscripts have surfaced in France, and, although they add little to the repertory, they provide a window into the musical life of the period. Jean-François Boüin was a prolific composer of dance tunes, and the publications containing these are listed here for the first time. A book of duos by Claude Cordelet is in a private collection and not available at present, but perhaps in the future examining this book will allow us to reevaluate the unfavorable opinion François-Joseph Fétis formed of this composer. Bound with Cordelet’s work is a set of extracts from the operas of JeanPhilippe Rameau arranged as duos that are unavailable elsewhere. In addition, I have expanded the list of lost works in large part based on Anik Devriès-Lesure’s latest work L’Édition musicale dans la presse parisienne au XVIIIe siècle: Catalogue des annonces (2005). These include, for example, a lost book of sonatas by Boüin and an oeuvre by Ravet. The most substantial addition is chapter 5, which discusses the vielle in the literature of eighteenth-century France. In this new chapter, I seek to demonstrate that references to the vielle in the poetry and novels of this period are unique in the history of the vielle for their use of the instrument as a vehicle of satire and attacks on perceived truth.

The Social and Cultural Significance of the Vielle During its thousand years of existence, the vielle has experienced wide swings in its social status and desirability. Today a popular folk instrument used in rock

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION  ◇ xvii

Figure I.1. Sixteenth-century woodcut. The hurdy-gurdy can be seen under the blind man’s coat.

music and jazz, it began as an instrument associated with the church, a tool for the education of scholars, as a bowed manichordium. Later it played a role as an instrument associated with troubadours and was used by traveling musicians in their performances before members of medieval nobility. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the vielle was an instrument associated with blind beggars and as such was considered the lowest of instruments. Since the social status of an individual was an indication of his moral character, poor, blind beggars were viewed with particular circumspection. Physical blindness served metaphorically to depict moral blindness. Figure I.1 shows a blind vielleur being led through life by a sighted person who helps him avoid pitfalls on either side. The dog is traditionally the faithful companion of the vielleur. In the words of Jean-Christophe Maillard, the vielle has at times been regarded as the “Other,” an invitation to sin, the antithesis of beautiful artistic expression, and even the negation of life itself, with its presence in images of death.2

2. Jean-Christophe Maillard, “La Vielle en France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles,” in Vielle à roue: Territoires illimités, 1–29 (Saint-Jouin-de-Milly: FAMDT, 1996), 12.

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The way the instrument was played contributed to its reputation. In his Dictionnaire universel of 1690, Antoine Furetière says, “That which perhaps contributed further to making the vielle purely popular was the great perception that these blind people and poor people played this instrument very badly.”3 The essayist Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597–1654) suggests that those who played the vielle were those not competent enough to play the violin in a period when the violin was primarily a street instrument.4 During the later seventeenth century, the vielle began to take on a degree of respectability. Its appearance in Jean-Baptiste Lully’s operas (discussed in chapter 1) may have contributed to its rehabilitation. A musical source that bears witness to a growing interest in the vielle among the aristocracy in the late seventeenth century is Sainte-Colombe’s piece “La Vielle” for solo viol, and it perfectly imitates the sound of the instrument. This piece is found in the Tournus manuscript, which is dated about 1690.5 It has been interpreted as both rustic and refined by the performers who have recorded it, but the fact that it was composed for an instrument and a repertory regarded as refined suggests that the vielle had begun to move up the social scale.6 During the period ca. 1720–1760, the vielle became established as a popular instrument in the hands of upper-class amateurs. In part this interest was encouraged by the vogue for the pastoral, which manifested itself in social gatherings and dances in outdoor settings with a certain amount of appropriate costuming. The pastoral, or as Paul Fustier has styled it, the Arcadian myth, takes its cue from an imaginary world of shepherds and shepherdesses who engage in amorous pursuits and other social activities while having little to do but watch their sheep. These activities are expressed in visual art by the works of Jean-Antoine Watteau and others of his generation. The association of the vielle with the pastoral has led to charges of frivolity in its unreality (real shepherds are not like that).7 Paul Fus-

3. Quoted in ibid., 15: “Ce qui contribua peut-être encore à render la vielle purement populaire, c’est qu’il y a grande apparence que ces Aveugles et ces Pauvres joüoient très-mal de cet Instrument.” 4. Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, Les Entretiens (Paris, 1657; reprinted as Édition critique, edited by B. Beugnot, Paris: Librairie Marcel Didier, 1972), 500: “Disons qu’ils ont voulu estre Menestriers, à quelque prix que ce soit, que n’ayant pû apprendre à joüer du violon, ils se sont faits joüeurs de vielle.” 5. Tournus Manuscript, Bibliothèque municipale de Tournus, ms. M.3 (facsimile edition, Geneva: Éditions Minkoff, 1998). 6. For a rustic performance, see Vittorio Ghielmi on Bagpipes from Hell, Winter & Winter Basic Edition 910 050-2 (2000). For a refined performance, see Lisa Nielson on The Baroque Hurdy-Gurdy, Focus 950 (2005). 7. This view forms the basis for Richard Leppert’s study of the hurdy-gurdy and musette, Arcadia at Versailles: Noble Amateur Musicians and Their Musettes and Hurdy-Gurdies at the French Court (c. 1660–1789), A Visual Study (Amsterdam and Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger B.V., 1978). This work attempts to marginalize the significance of these instruments.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION  ◇ xix

tier, however, points out that play-acting of this type is an ever-present feature of cultures around the world in all periods. Whether dressed as a pirate or a princess, or clad in period clothing to perform early music, costumed characters are never for an instant believed to be who they pretend to be. 8 There are more substantive reasons for the popularity of the vielle in this period. The ascendance of the musette, a small bagpipe, among mostly male amateur musicians encouraged the development of a comparable instrument that would be more suitable and accessible to women. There is certainly a faddish element in the female pursuit of this instrument. A characterization of the vielle as representing the worst side of fashion is found in Le Guerrier philosophe (1744) by novelist Jean-Baptiste Jourdan (1711–1793). Jourdan’s character is an adventurer in uniform, spending the summers campaigning in Italy and winters in amorous pursuits. Upon his return to Paris he is introduced to a “new” type of woman, the “petit maîtresse,” the slave of fashion and the female equivalent of the “petit maître.” After satirically describing their clothes and coiffures, Jourdan’s friend, an Italian nobleman, continues: [She] is found at all the parties, does not miss a restaged opera, a new play, a day of excitement. She must stay in bed for the slightest imposition, constantly complain about her color, of the lack of vivacity in her eyes, the negligence of her adornment, have the vapors on command, (Oh! An essential article) speak Italian, play the vielle, drink champagne: finally laugh, sing, never be on time, and go to bed at 4 am.9 This description places the vielle in the context of a shallow lifestyle that many associated with the instrument. However, the vielle and musette have been singled out for condemnation on this basis with the conclusion that these instruments were not taken “seriously” and therefore had little social relevance or, by extension, musical importance.10 This attitude was held in the eighteenth century

8. Paul Fustier, La Vielle à roué dans la musique baroque française. Instrument de musique, objet mythique, objet fantasmé? (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006), 106–112. He analyzes Leppert’s position on pages 103–104. 9. “Se trouve à tout les fêtes, ne manque point un opéra remis, une pièce nouvelle, un jour de capitation, elle doit être au fait de toutes les intrigues des gens du bel air, des vaudevilles, des épigrammes qui courent, lire les nouveautés, en connoître les auteurs, avoir des abbés galans, de beaux esprits à sa toilette, garder le lit pour la plus légère indisposition, se plaindre sans cesse de son teint, du peu de vivacité de ses yeux de la négligence de sa parure, avoir des vapeurs à commandement, (Oh ! C’est un article essentiel) parler italien, jouer de la vielle, boire du vin de champagne; enfin rire, chanter, danser, n’être jamais en place, et se coucher tous les jours à quatre heures du matin.” Jean-Baptise Jourdan, Le Guerrier philosophe (Paris, 1744), 306–307. 10. Leppert, Arcadia at Versailles, 106–107, reaches this conclusion based on iconographical research. Since the publication of this provocative study, a number of “serious” eighteenthcentury portraits have surfaced.

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as well and was debated from various positions. Certainly the instrument was the subject of controversy.11 But against this negative view of women who played the vielle, we must consider the many women who displayed the instrument as a part of their formal portraits.12 A portrait dated 1728 of a female vielle player by the prominent artist Alexis Grimou (1678–1733) appears to be the earliest of this genre.13 The vielle player is beautifully dressed and posed with the instrument at the center of the composition. The hands are positioned to suggest a flawless technique. While the vielle depicted in the painting is a trapezoidal instrument similar to those common in the seventeenth century, many of the portraits that followed depict beautifully decorated vielles that enhance the sumptuous costumes of the players. Some fifteen to twenty portraits of this type have been located, and their evident purpose is to highlight the beauty and accomplishments of the subject.

The Vielle in the Hands of Children From the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries the vielle maintained a strong association with the activities of children of all classes.14 In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries children served as guides for blind beggars, often accompanying them on the musical triangle.15 In eighteenth-century Europe children could be seen playing in the streets, accompanied by a marmot in a box, in order to attract the attention and generosity of strangers. They were sometimes used as chimney sweeps, because their small bodies could squeeze into tight spaces, and were used to run errands and serve as messengers.16 These street 11. For example, Pierre-Louis d’Aquin de Château-Lyon noted the continuing debate over its musical value: “The vielle will always be the subject of dispute among us, but its greatest adversaries will not deny its gaiety and vivacity [La Viele sera toujours parmi nous un sujet de dispute, mais ses plus grands adversaries ne lui refuseront pas de la gaieté et de la vivacité],” Siècle littéraire de Louis XV, ou lettres sur les hommes célèbres. Premier partie. (Amsterdam, 1745, 1753), 153. 12. Florence Gétreau has extensively studied the surviving portraits. See her article “Les Belles vielleuses au siècle de Louis XV. Peinture d’une mode triomphante,” in Vielle à roue. Térritoires illimités, edited by Pierre Imbert, 90–103 (Saint-Jouin-de-Milly: FAMDT Collection Modal, 1996). For additional portraits, see Marie-Anne Sarda, Florence Gétreau, JeanChristophe Maillard, and Paul Fustier, eds., Le Vielleux: Métamorphoses d’une figure d’artiste du XVIIe au XIXe siècle (Lyon: Fage Éditions, 2008). 13. Gétreau, “Les Belles vielleuses,” 90–91. 14. I wish to thank Dr. Guy Tell for preparing a draft of this section. Dr. Tell has a collection of children’s vielles. For further discussion of children and the vielle, particularly the iconography, see Florence Gétreau, “L’Enfant vielleux en France: Mutations d’une pratique et d’un stéréotype pictural,” in Le Vielleux: Métamorphoses d’une figure d’artiste du XVIIe au XIXe siècle, edited by Anne-Marie Sarda, Florence Gétreau, Jean-Christophe Maillard, and Paul Fustier, 54–63 (Lyon: Fage Éditions, 2008). 15. Ibid., 55. 16. For more on immigrant children, see Graham Robb, The Discovery of France (New York: W. W. Norton, 2007), 147–149.

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children were occasionally called Savoyards, even though they were often not from that region.17 Savoy was a very poor, remote area, suffering from wars and other depredations, and many families who could not provide for their children sent them out to survive as best they could, perhaps after teaching them the rudiments of playing the vielle and some tunes. The departure of these children from their homes, often forever, became an artistic genre in itself. These Savoyards were often depicted in operas and plays. The romanticized view of these children was built around two contrasting ideas. The first centered around their poverty and their ability to survive on their wits. The second emphasized their carefree nature, which derived from their freedom to go wherever they wished, unencumbered by material possessions. This view is reflected in Goethe’s play Jahrmarktsfest zu Plundersweilern (1773), a comedy exploiting typical small-town characters. Among them is a traveling Savoyard hurdy-gurdy player. He sings: I have come already through many a land, With the marmot, And always found something to eat With the marmot, Here and there, With the marmot. Ich komme schon durch manches Land, Avecque la marmotte, Und immer was zu essen fand Avecque la marmotte, Avecque si, avecque la, Avecque la marmotte.18 In the eighteenth century, portraits of aristocratic children playing the vielle appeared, many in idealized Savoyard costumes. The context of these portraits is that of a theatrical game. Most famous of these is the portrait by François-Hubert Drouais (1727–1775), “The Sons of Monsieur de Choiseul in Savoyard Costume,” later disseminated as an engraving.19 Another more overtly theatrical portrait of the Perceval family features five children performing as street musicians for their parents.20 One plays a vielle, another an oboe, the third a triangle, and the fourth a bagpipe, while the fifth holds out a hand requesting coins from the parents, who lean out from an open window. Other paintings more directly emphasize domesticity, 17. For further discussion of the Savoyard tradition, see Paul Fustier, La vielle à roue, 137–144. 18. Note that the refrain is in French. This song was set by Beethoven and published as op. 52, no. 7 (ca. 1790–92). 19. The original painting is in the Frick Collection, New York. 20. This painting is found in a private collection. See Gétreau, “L’Enfant vielleux,” 56.

xxii  ◇ INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION

such as the anonymous portrait of the Comtesse de Montagnac with two children playing at her feet. One plays a small, decorated vielle and the other holds a marmot in its box.21 Other children, often of provincial origins, were given vielle lessons as part of their education. The music book of the Marquise de Vibraye reflects this, but she clearly showed little interest in the vielle, as she made little progress and later switched to the guitar.22 A substantial number of children’s instruments survive, and these are often decorated and quite playable. They might have functioned in much the way that a quarter-size violin, or pardessus de viole, might. Although the vielle as an educational instrument for children is poorly documented, the many surviving examples bear witness to its use in this way. While interest in the vielle began to dissipate among members of the upper classes around 1760, interest in the instrument by the lower and middle classes increased. The English writer Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) witnessed the degree to which the vielle continued to be a part of the life of the lower classes. He toured France in 1762 and described the experience in his book A Sentimental Journey (1768). While he was traveling in a coach near Lyon, the loss of several horseshoes forced him to stop at a peasant farmhouse inhabited by an old man, his wife, five or six adult children, and their spouses. They welcomed him and offered him a simple but satisfying meal. After supper they all danced, accompanied by the old man and his wife. “The old man had some fifty years ago been no mean performer upon the vielle,—and at the age he was then of, touch’d it well enough for the purpose. His wife sung now and then a little to the tune,—then intermitted,— and join’d her old man again, as their children and grand-children danced before them.”23 In the nineteenth century the vielle played an important role in the musical life of central France. During this period the majority of the folk music associated with the vielle was created and played by both the middle and lower classes. While this music almost died out, it was revitalized in the 1960s in the folk revival. This movement has matured in a variety of ways, and it continues to attract a large number of enthusiastic players.24 Many groups and players who began by performing traditional music have expanded into more popular and widely commercial forms. The way that the instrument is played today differs substantially from its

21. This painting is in the Château Parentignat, Issoire. See Gétreau, “L’Enfant vielleux,” 56. 22. For further discussion of this manuscript, see Sylvie Granger, “Les Métiers de la musique en pays manceau et fléchois du XVIIe au XIXe siècle (1661–1850),” Thèse de doctorat, Université de Maine, 1995. 23. Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (London, 1768), see the chapter titled “The Grace.” Note that Sterne uses the French “vielle.” 24. Gérard Guillaume, Vielles & cornemuses en Vallée Noire et au(l)tres lieux du Berry (Châ­ teauroux: Éditions La Bouinotte, 2013), provides a directory of the most recent groups active in central France.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION  ◇ xxiii

Figure I.2. Child hurdy-gurdy player.

use in the eighteenth century, a problem also encountered by baroque violinists or flutists, whose instruments have likewise continued to evolve. To approach the eighteenth-century repertory for the vielle, the player must examine the evidence found in the treatises, the music, and the testimony of those who played and experienced the music at the time it was composed.

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The Hurdy-Gurdy in

Eighteenth-Century France

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8

1. Historical Background

T

Terminology

he English term hurdy-gurdy is used to describe two different instruments. First, there is the mechanical organ with a mechanism much akin to that of a player piano that was played earlier in this century by immigrants who begged for money with monkeys and tin cups on the street corners of American cities. These instruments are still found in European parks and on street corners and are differentiated from the hurdy-gurdy by other names, such as orgue de Barbarie in French. For many, the term hurdy-gurdy first calls to mind this instrument. Much less familiar is the instrument whose sound is produced by a rosincoated wheel, turned by a crank, that, like a bow, rubs against several strings. Some of these strings function as melody strings, others as drones, giving the instrument a sound like that of a bagpipe. This instrument is found throughout continental Europe as far east as western Russia and may be the only instrument truly indigenous to that continent. It has a history which goes back to the eleventh century. In different times and in different regions, it has taken many shapes and been given different names. All European languages, however, with the exception of English, differentiate between the mechanical organ and the bowed instrument. No other language or group of people draws parallels between these two instruments. The following discussion centers around the bowed instrument as it appeared and was used in eighteenth-century France. It is therefore appropriate to refer to it by the name by which it was known in that time and in that place: the vielle.

Social Life in the Seventeenth Century No musical instrument has suffered so grievously from changes in social status as the vielle. In eleventh-century Germany the vielle was associated with church 1

2  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

music.1 By the twelfth century it was associated with music performed in the courts of the nobility. By the fourteenth century it had become associated with the lower classes and, eventually, by the fifteenth century, it became associated with blind beggars. Blindness was regarded as a physical manifestation of inner or moral blindness, and, therefore, the very appearance of the instrument in a painting suggested sin.2 Although certain painters at the beginning of the seventeenth century, such as Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) and Georges de la Tour (1593–1652), began to regard blind vielle players as victims of a tragic infirmity, the instrument retained a repellent reputation. The views toward blind beggars and their instruments are reflected in the introduction to Marin Mersenne’s oft-quoted description of the vielle in Harmonie universelle of 1636. If men of rank played the vielle as a rule, it would not be regarded with such contempt. But because it is played only by the poor, and particularly by blind men who earn their living from this instrument, it is held in less esteem than others, but then it is not as pleasing. This does not stand in the way of what I will explain here, since science belongs to both rich and poor, and there is nothing so low and vile in nature that it not be worthy of discussion.3 1. For a thorough investigation of the medieval instrument, see Christian Rault, L’Organ­ istrum (Paris: Aux Amateurs de Livres, 1985). See also Christopher Page, ‘The Medieval Organ­ istrum: A Legacy from the East?,” Galpin Society Journal 35 (1982): 37–44, and “The Medieval Organistrum and Symphonia II: Terminology,” Galpin Society Journal 36 (1983): 71–87. These two authors do not agree on several features of this subject. 2. On the representation of the hurdy-gurdy in art from the late fifteenth century to the beginning of the seventeenth century, see Kahren Jones Hellerstedt, “Hurdy-Gurdies from Hieronymus Bosch to Rembrandt” (PhD diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1981). Hellerstedt includes a list of 168 representations. 3. Marin Mersenne, Harmonie universelle contenant la théorie et la pratique de la musique (Paris, 1636; Paris: CNRS, 1965), 211–12: Citations refer to the CNRS edition. “Traité des instrumens à chordes. Si les hommes de condition touchoient ordinairement la Symphonie, que l’on nomme Vielle, elle ne seroit pas si mesprisée, mais parce qu’elle n’est touchée que par les pauures, & particulierement par les aueugles qui gaignent leur vie auec cet instrument, l’on en fait moins d’estime que des autres, quoy qu’ils ne donnent pas tant de plaisir. Ce qui n’empesche pas que ie ne l’explique icy, puis que la science n’appartient pas dauantage aux riches qu’aux pauures, & qu’il n’y a rien de si bas ny de si vil dans la nature, ou dans les arts qui ne soit digne de consideration.” Mersenne goes on to point out that if someone took an interest in the instrument and refined it, that it would be capable of playing music that would “touch the spirit” as much or more so than other instruments. Even so, he feels that the nature of the instrument is such that its possibilities are limited. He discusses a hypothetical keyboard instrument which would produce its sound with either a series of rosined wheels or one big wheel like the vielle. To Mersenne, it would sound like a consort of viols.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND  ◇ 3

Social attitudes toward the instrument in the early part of the seventeenth century based on Mersenne and other writers have been discussed in detail.4 A number of civil documents surviving from the seventeenth century and published in secondary sources indicate that however poor players of the vielle in the first part of the seventeenth century may have been, they often had families and a place to live and legalized the events of their lives, such as births, deaths, and marriages, as did every other citizen.5 Documents indicate that at least some players took musician-apprentices, as did other musicians of the period. Some were members of the Corporation St. Julien-des-Ménétriers so viciously satirized by François Couperin (1668–1733) in his piece Les Fastes de la grande et anciénne Mxnxstrxndxsx from Book II (1716–1717). The “Seconde Acte” of this piece, titled “Les Viéleux et les gueux” (The vielle players and the beggars), consists of two “airs de viéle.” The piece accurately reflects the sound of the vielle with its c-g drones; however, the satirical element must be taken with a grain of salt. The music limps along, evoking the decrepit condition of those who played the instrument. Couperin devoted much effort to gaining a noble title, and his desire to separate himself from the lowly status associated with professional musicians during this era must be borne in mind. The first documented appearance of the vielle at the French court is in JeanBaptiste Lully’s Ballet de l’impatience, presented at the Louvre on February 19, 1661. The “Third Entrée” of Part IV (LWV 14/47–50) begins with an instrumental introduction for the entrance of blind beggars. This is followed by an instrumental section labeled “ten blind men impatient of losing time for earning a living.” A récit follows, which in mock solemnity compares the unfortunate situation of the blind men with love that can be as blind as they are. The blind men then play an air on the vielle. The music contrasts with what precedes and follows in its diatonic and harmonically static nature: it is clearly composed with drones in mind. This 4. For example, Richard Leppert, Arcadia at Versailles. Noble Amateur Musicians and Their Musettes and Hurdy-Gurdies at the French Court (c. 1660–1789). A Visual Study. (Amsterdam and Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger B.V., 1978), 11–32. See also Frayda B. Lindemann, “Pastoral Instruments in French Baroque Music: Musette and Vielle” (PhD diss. Columbia University, 1978), 81–86. 5. There are two major sources of biographical information for seventeenth-century Parisian musicians not associated with the court. The “Laborde affiches,” a file containing 66,080 entries from parish records and other sources referring to musicians in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, contains the names of nine “joueurs de vielle” between 1620 and 1646. The entries associated with these musicians give addresses and mention baptisms and marriages. Only one of these is explicitly described as “pauvre aveugle” (poor blind man). The second source consists of legal documents in the National Archives in Paris. For the first, see Yolande de Brossard, ed., Musiciens de Paris 1535–1792. Actes d’état civil d’après le fichier Laborde de la Bibliothèque Nationale, vol. 11, Vie musicale en France sous les rois Bourbons (Paris: A. et J. Picard & Cie, 1965). For the second, see Madeleine Jurgens, Documents du Minutier Central concernant l’histoire de la musique (1600–1650) (Paris: S.E.V.P.E.N., 1967), which lists an additional player in an entry dated 1605. Claude Tailhades, “Viellistes de ville—Viellistes de cour” (unp. essay, 1993), searched these two works and listed the names of these players.

4  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

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Example 1.1. Jean-Baptiste Lully, Ballet de l’impatience (LWV 14/50), “Second air pour les aveugles jouant de la vielle.” In this example the middle parts have been removed.

piece would have been performed with the vielles doubling the violins on the top line of the five-part string ensemble (see example 1.1). The vielle was further used in Lully’s Ballet des sept planètes, composed of ten entrées, a work that concluded the performance of Hercule amoureux (Ercole amante) by Francesco Cavalli on February 7, 1662. In Lully’s ballet a group of pilgrims are given a piece for vielles and ensemble (LWV 17/21). The use of the vielle in this work following so closely on the Ballet de l’impatience suggests that

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND  ◇ 5

the instrument was regarded as a novelty, but using it twice seems to have been enough for Lully: he never composed music for it again. Due to the paucity of sources dealing with the vielle in seventeenth-century France and its increasing use among the aristocracy, most writers have come to depend on the history of the vielle published by Antoine de Terrasson (1705–1782) in 1741.6 Terrasson republished his account in 1768, revealing his lifelong enthusiasm for the instrument.7 Terrasson was a musical amateur who played the musette, flute, and vielle, as well as a jurist and man of letters who was well equipped to argue a case. His purpose was to demonstrate that the vielle deserved respectability due to its antiquity. Tracing the origins of the instrument, he links it with ancient Greece and the lyre of Orpheus. While it is all too easy to attack the obvious inaccuracies in his discussion of Greek myths and music history, as other writers have done, it is well to remember that many instrumental treatises make a case for the importance of their subject by arguing that great age confers respectability.8 When Terrasson arrives at the period within living memory of the people around him, he demonstrates a profound understanding of the evolution of his instrument. Terrasson describes the arrival at court of two vielle players named “La Roze” and “Janot,” perhaps at the invitation of an enthusiastic courtier, sometime after the first operas of Lully had stimulated an interest in the instrument among the aristocracy.9 His discussion of the appearance of the vielle at court after 1671, possibly about 1680, appears to be based on testimony which can to some degree be corroborated from other sources.10 6. Antoine de Terrasson, Dissertation historique sur la vielle (Paris: J. B. Lamesle, 1741; Reprinted Amsterdam: Antiqua, 1966.). 7. Antoine de Terrasson, Mélanges d’histoire, de littérature, de jurisprudence litteraire, de cri­ tique (Paris, 1768), 173–254. Neal Zaslow, “Charles Bâton,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan, 1980), suggests that Bâton was in fact the author of the Dissertation. The internal evidence overwhelmingly suggests otherwise. For example, in the foreword to the Mélanges, Terrasson clearly introduces the Dissertation as his own. However, the technical detail contained in this work suggests that Terrasson received considerable advice from either Charles or Henri. Further, Terrasson’s praise of Charles Bâton’s sonatas in 1768, long after Bâton’s death, demonstrates Terrasson’s strong allegiance to the composer. 8. For example, Pierre Borjon de Scellery, Traité de la musette avec une nouvelle méthode pour apprendre de soy-mesme à jouer de cet instrument facilement, & en peu de temps (Lyon, 1672), 1–13, traces the origins of the musette back to antiquity. 9. Terrasson, Dissertation, 89–93. Both played popular airs and dances including selections from the operas of Lully. They sometimes sang while accompanying themselves on the vielle. 10. Marcelle Benoit, Versailles et les musiciens du roi, 1661–1733: Étude institutionelle et sociale, vol. 19, Vie musicale en France sous les rois Bourbons (Paris: Editions A. and J. Picard, 1971), 165, discusses the apprenticeship certificate of the son of Jean Langot dit La Rose to Jean Corbron, joueur d’instrument and musician suivant la cour (“following the court”), dated January 25, 1694. This would support a date in the 1680s for La Rose’s appearance at Versailles. Corbron agrees to provide Langot’s son with a violin to earn his living. It is easy to imagine that La Rose would regard learning the violin as a step up, since the instrument might earn him a place in the court musical establishment, an option denied to the father.

6  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Throughout the seventeenth century the vielle shared its existence with the musette, a small bagpipe played by bellows pumped by the left elbow and requiring no breath from the player. This instrument had become fashionable with the upper classes in the early seventeenth century and continued to be popular until the end of the reign of Louis XV (about 1770), after which time it became extinct as a result of changing taste. This contrasts with the vielle, which has been played continuously until the present. The musette was cultivated by two families of professional players attached to the court musical establishment: the Hotteterres and the Chédevilles. It became an accepted orchestral instrument and has frequent, and sometimes extensive, parts in the great French operas of the early eighteenth century. Much of the music for the vielle can also be played on the musette and vice versa.

The Eighteenth Century What is often overlooked in Mersenne’s discussion of the vielle in the Harmonie universelle is his speculation on how the vielle could be improved. This flexibility—the ability of makers to alter it to conform to changing musical styles and social function—has characterized the instrument since its origin and would be the basis for its growth in popularity throughout the eighteenth century. It seems likely that the vielle began its rise in society in the late seventeenth century with the development of a slightly more refined instrument that Terrasson refers to as a “vielle carrée”: a vielle with a characteristic shape generally described today as trapezoidal (see figure 1.1). This trapezoidal instrument was an attempt to reduce the size of the body while keeping the same string length.11 The three melody strings were tuned in D; one was an octave lower than the other two, with drones in D and A. Thus it was slightly larger than the vielle that later became standard in the eighteenth century (the melody strings of the latter were tuned to G). In spite of later innovations, this basic shape for the vielle continued to be used throughout the eighteenth century.12 It is pictured by Watteau in the second decade of the eighteenth century in the hands of gentlemen or idealized peasants in rustic settings.13 The instrument was most likely used at this time to play the bransles and other dances associated with the French countryside.

11. Terrasson, Dissertation, 93–96. 12. Alain Fougerit, “Fabrication des vielles en Normandie au XVIIIe siècle,” Revue Modale 3 (January 1983): 6–35, puts forth the hypothesis that this instrument was developed and made primarily by Norman makers. Claude Flagel, “Vielles de Normandie: La ‘Terrassonite’!” Revue Modale 5 (Fall 1984): 37–40, challenges this view. 13. The Marriage Contract is one such painting. He also executed a drawing of the hands of a player of this instrument. There is a painting in the Birmingham Art Museum entitled Gentleman Playing the Hurdy-Gurdy that, if not by Watteau, is at least contemporary with his work.

Figure 1.1. “Vielle carrée” after an instrument dated 1774. Copy by Thomas Norwood.

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND  ◇ 9

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Music created specifically for the vielle carrée is found in an opéra comique by Jean-Joseph Mouret (1682–1738), Le Philosophe trompé par la nature, presented at the Comédie de Saint Jory in 1725. In the final scene of this work, a group of grape harvesters (vendangeurs) make their entrance to the accompaniment of a vielle, bass viol, and continuo (example 1.2). They make light of the philosopher’s avoidance of the pleasures of life: their ignorance of Latin does not affect their enjoyment of eating, drinking, dancing, and making love. While the composer is not specific concerning the instrumentation of the following numbers, some would

10  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

be appropriate for performance with vielle and others must have been performed on other instruments, since they make use of keys incompatible with the drones. This music is in A major and was composed for a vielle in D-A, probably the trapezoidal instrument. Presumably the presence of the vielle in this scene is justified by its rustic setting. However, the use of the vielle in the first number of Mouret’s opera is anything but rustic: it is treated in an expressive fashion not unlike any other melody instrument (example 1.1). According to Terrasson, the seventeenth-century vielle was flawed by its unrefined melody strings, especially the heavy string at the lower octave. Further, the drone strings were so raucous that they drowned out the melody. Terrasson informs us that Henri Bâton, an instrument maker at Versailles, was the first to build a new type of vielle on the backs of old guitars and lutes that were then going out of fashion and thus spark the cultivation of the vielle in court circles.14 This work seems to have taken place between 1716 and 1720. It is important to remember that there was already an enthusiastic following for the vielle among the nobility by this time, providing the impetus for these improvements. Terrasson tells us that Bâton shaped the pegbox in the manner of the viol and decorated it in a way that made it “pleasing to the ladies” (figure 1.2). In redesigning the pegbox in the manner of the viol, an instrument traditionally played by both upper-class men and women, he provided the newly styled vielle with a link to respectability. The similarities between the vielle and the viol go beyond appearance and involve sound and technique to be explored later. Unfortunately, by 1720 the viol was reaching the peak of its popularity and was about to begin a long, slow decline. Thus the similarity in both sound and appearance between these two instruments may have contributed to the decline in the use of the vielle in sophisticated chamber music in later decades. It must be emphasized that Henri Bâton’s vielle was a new instrument with musical capabilities far beyond those of earlier instruments, and it was being used in an entirely different way than it had been before. It had an increased range and melody strings which sang above the drones. As a result, the music composed for it was of an experimental nature, as composers explored the possibilities and limits of the instrument. Further experiments in improving the instrument continued throughout the eighteenth century.15

14. Terrasson, Dissertation, 96–98. No instruments verifiably built by Henri Bâton survive. Only one instrument built on the back of a guitar has survived. Built by the luthier Jean-Nicolas Lambert, it is number 523 in the catalogue of the Musée du Conservatoire, Paris. 15. There were too many changes proposed in the eighteenth century to be discussed here. Most involved extending the range (down a fifth or fourth or up by several more notes) or ameliorating the sound. None of these caught on. Various keyboard arrangements, or vielles organisées, were also proposed, the only successful incarnation of which was the lyra organiz­ zata best known for its use in Haydn’s music composed for the King of Naples, an enthusiastic player of this instrument.

Figure 1.2. Pegbox of a vielle by François Feury, ca. 1740.

12  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Academic discussions of the vielle have paid considerable attention to the social position of the instrument in the eighteenth century. The view of the instrument as a plaything of wealthy lady amateurs has by extension led to an unfavorable judgment of the music itself, often without further examination. The value of the music should be judged on its own merits, independent of its social function. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to examine the basis for this stereotype and its limitations before proceeding to a discussion of the intrinsic value of the music. Views of the role of music in aristocratic life in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had their roots in humanist formulations of the sixteenth century, and were thus based on Plato’s discussion of the subject in the Republic. Simply put, music was regarded as an important social accomplishment as long as it was kept in its place. The result of these views in cultivated musical circles was a spontaneous, simple form of music making with greater emphasis placed on the expression of sentiment and minimal interest in technical accomplishment. Musical activity generally involved the vocal or instrumental performance of simple airs and dances. Technical polish and virtuosity were best left to those of a lower class who made their living through music. Early in the eighteenth century attitudes toward the appropriate role of music making in aristocratic life began to change. Gentlemen took up the violin, flute, and to a lesser degree the oboe (the musette had become popular among this group in the seventeenth century). These instruments had previously been the province of professionals because they were difficult to play well, and the types of music composed for these instruments—that is, theater and dance music—were likewise left to professional musicians. The appearance of music of a sophisticated, virtuosic nature, solos, and works for solo and continuo, notably the Italian sonatas of Corelli, encouraged the adoption of these instruments by the upper classes as well. Corelli’s music required a degree of accomplishment bordering on the virtuosic, a trait never before associated with the cultivated amateur. The role ladies played in this new and more technically challenging type of music was that of accompanist, typically playing the harpsichord or the bass viol. The avoidance of the violin and wind instruments by women in the early part of the eighteenth century was based on the physical appearance of the player and body movements associated with playing the instruments: playing the flute and oboe required facial distortion, while the violin and musette involved an unsightly flapping of the upper arm in a way that playing the viol did not. In contrast, the vielle presented a pleasing appearance in both bodily position and movement and enabled women to play music in the latest style, first as an equal partner in unaccompanied duos and later in the role of soloist. That the new vielle of Bâton was far more suitable for its role in this type of chamber music was of paramount importance. Nevertheless, this preference for the vielle by women did not exclude men from playing the instrument as well. The spontaneous, simple musical performances of the past existed side by side with more virtuosic displays among the upper classes throughout the eigh-

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND  ◇ 13

teenth century, but not without tension. Diatribes against the aristocratic virtuoso are common. A letter which appeared in the Mercure de France in June 1738 enthused over the new interest taken in the violin by the upper classes. This instrument [the violin] has been ennobled in our own time. It is no longer shameful for honest men to cultivate it and to grant a kind of glory and esteem to those who excel on it, among whom are counted the highest nobles.16 In contrast, an anonymous letter in the Mercure de France in August 1738 concludes its attack with this observation. Let us indeed leave to those who were born with these great talents the care to cultivate them in preference to all. . . . It can indeed be permitted under normal conditions to devote oneself to music and to instruments to a certain point; that is to say, as much as is necessary to make oneself agreeable in society and to obtain entries into the [social] world, but for the nobility, they must be occupied with a broader outlook. They are accountable to their country, to the names they carry, and to talents of an altogether different importance.17 This attitude applied to all instruments, not just the vielle and musette, and it was deeply rooted in the structure of society. As a result of these uncomfortably coexisting eighteenth-century views, two types of music are found for the vielle: arrangements of popular airs and dances and chamber music in the latest style. Although solo and trio sonatas and concertos requiring great virtuosity on the part of the player were composed from the 1730s to about 1760, the primary activity of most amateur vielle players in the eighteenth century was playing popular tunes arranged for the vielle for oneself and one’s friends in informal settings. In this respect the vielle may be compared with the parlor piano or harmonium of 16. Anon., “Memoires pour servir à l’Histoire de la musique vocale et instrumentale,” Mercure de France (June 1738): 1110–18. “Cet instrument a été ennobli de nos jours; il n’est plus honteux aux honnêtes gens de le cultiver, et on veut bien accorder une sorte de gloire et de l’estime à ceux qui y excellent, parmi lesquels on peut compter des Seigneurs de la plus grand Elévation.” 17. Anon., ‘’Lettre écrite de Paris le 29 juillet 1738 sur les memoires pour servir à l’histoire de la musique,” Mercure de France (August 1738): 1723. “Laissons donc à ceux qui naissent avec ces grands talens, le soin de les cultiver par préférence à tout, et la liberté de se livrer sans reserve à l’espece d’enthousiasme qu’exigent tous les Arts, qui sont du ressort du goût, pour y réüssir superieurement. “Il peut bien être permis dans un état moyen de s’adonner à la musique, et aux instrumens jusquà un certain point, c’est à-dire, autant qu’il peut être nécessaire pour se rendre agréable dans la Société, et pour se procurer des entrees dans le monde; mais pour les gens du premier ordre, ils doivent être occupés de plus grandes vûës; ils sont comptables à leur Patrie, et aux noms qu’ils portent, de talens d’une toute autre importance.”

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the next century. Many of these pieces survive in the methods of François Boüin and Michel Corrette, manuscript sources, and numerous collections of the latest melodies from the opéra comique and the most well-known composers.18 By far, the most numerous publications of this type came from the brothers EspritPhilippe (1696–1762) and Nicolas Chédeville (1705–1782), who, in addition to arranging popular tunes, published arrangements of violin sonatas and concertos by Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco and Antonio Vivaldi. Although the Chédevilles’ works were primarily intended for the musette, they were appropriated by vielle players as well. Recognizing that vielle players constituted a large portion of those who bought his music, Esprit-Philippe presented alternate arrangements of airs for vielle and musette in his publications (see example 2.1). Pictorial representations of vielle players rarely show them accompanied by other instrumentalists. For example, Louis Carrogis (1717–1806), known as Carmontelle, did a drawing of Madame de Julienne playing the vielle for Madame de Serré (a relative) in 1760.19 This picture contrasts with many of Carmontelle’s other works that show groups of two to three musicians. The initial popularity of the vielle in the eighteenth century was given impetus by the devotion of those in the upper ranks of society. From the 1730s into the 1760s it is possible to identify three groups that cultivated the instrument. The first of these were members of the nobility and royal family at Versailles. This is no surprise in that the activities of vielle maker Henri Bâton were centered there. More specifically, the vielle was favored and popularized by the queen, Marie Leszczyńska, wife of Louis XV.20 Her interest in the vielle is often cited as evidence of the social status that the instrument achieved. However, her musical tastes and cultural interests were deemed not as sophisticated as others at court who cultivated a taste for opera. These judgments are particularly damning in that they come from those close to her whose affection for her was beyond question. Although she loved the vielle, she did not play it well, and therefore she has

18. Françoise Bois-Poteur is indexing these arrangements of airs and dances for vielle and musette. I estimate that there may be as many as 5000 of them. 19. Madame de Julienne had been the wife of the son of Jean de Julienne (1686–1766), director of the Gobelin textile factories and associate of Watteau. Left a widow in 1755, she became associated with the circle of Mme. d’Épinay, one of the most famous hostesses and female literary figures of the period. This drawing is now in the Musée Carnavalet. For further discussion, see Claude Flagel, “La Vielle à roue parisienne sous Louis XV: un modèle pour deux siècles,” in Instrumentistes et luthiers parisiens XVIIe–XIXe siècles, edited by Florence Gétreau, 117–33 (Paris: Délégation à l’Action Artistique de Paris, 1988), 127; notes and caption, 106–107. 20. The most detailed source concerning the musical activities of the queen are the memoirs that the Duc de Luynes kept between 1735 and 1758. The modern edition fills seventeen volumes, but the musical references have been extracted in Norbert Dufourcq, ed., La Musique à la cour de Louis XIV et de Louis XV d’après les Memoires de Sourches et Luynes 1681–1758 (Paris: Editions A. & J. Picard, 1970), 53–180.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND  ◇ 15

been cited as exemplifying the lack of seriousness with which the upper class regarded the instrument in the eighteenth century. In fact, she was the perfect noble amateur who played airs and dances as an agreeable pastime. More partisan views leave the impression that the queen represented a cultural backwater in the society of Versailles, and the king abandoned her for the accomplished singer and harpsichordist Madame de Pompadour, who pursued the ideal of the noble virtuoso. Nevertheless, the queen invited such virtuosi as M. Danguy21 to court where they performed concerts for various members of the royal family that appear to have been received with pleasure.22 After such a performance, it was not uncommon for the queen to play simple duets with these musicians. Another amateur in this circle was the Duchess de Bourgogne, the king’s niece. Charles Bâton, son of vielle maker Henri and a virtuoso and composer, dedicated his collection of suites La Vielle amusante to her, affirming on the title page that he was her teacher. A second group of amateurs are to be found among the noblesse de la robe: lawyers, judges, and tax farmers, who, lacking noble blood, had bought or married their way into the nobility. Lacking the family blood lines which would distinguish them in society, they compensated with a wholehearted pursuit of the arts. Since they were quite wealthy, money was not the constraint that it might have been for members of the poorer nobility. Many of the published collections of music for the vielle were dedicated to members of this group, who served as patrons as well as amateur players. A number of manuscript collections from their personal libraries survive. Among the most prominent of these amateurs was M. Le Rebours, a member of the Paris Parlement (conseiller) who patronized the composer-teacher Michon. The character piece Musette La le Rebours is found in his first collection, and the composer dedicated his second collection to Le Rebours as well. A large manuscript of dance pieces for vielle and bass from Le Rebours’s library is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale.23 Another amateur player from this group was Madame de Senozan, to whom Bâton dedicated his six sonatas, op. 3.24 A manuscript collection of one-line airs from her library is extant.25 One of the most important of these amateurs was the financier and musical patron Jean-Joseph Le Riche de La Pouplinière (1693–1762). An amateur composer and student of Jean-Philippe Rameau, he often sang his own airs while accompanying himself on the vielle or guitar.26

21. The first name of M. Danguy and various other musicians and court personalities mentioned without full reference in text are unfortunately lost. 22. Dufourcq, La Musique à la cour, 79 (February 19, 1744) and 104 (October 23, 1746). 23. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Vm7 3643. See chapter 4. 24. This dedication mentions that the vielle is one of her occupations without suggesting that she is necessarily capable of playing the sonatas. 25. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cons. L.12.847. See chapter 4. 26. Georges Cucuel, La Pouplinière et la musique de chambre au XVIIIe siècle (Paris: Librairie Fischbacker, 1913. Reprinted New York: Da Capo Press, 1971), 288.

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A third group that cultivated the vielle was the provincial gentry of both sexes. With the paucity of music teachers in rural areas or small cities, the vielle was easier to pursue on one’s own than, for example, the violin. Arras, Caen, Rheims, Grenoble, Lyon, and Toulouse all had luthiers who made vielles and were presumably supported by local activity. A large manuscript prepared for a M. Houe of Toulouse, “conseiller du consul souverain de l’isle Guadeloupe,” gives some idea of the types of repertory played outside Paris.27 M. Houe enjoyed playing the works of all the most famous composers, as well as popular songs and dance tunes. The large majority of these works are for solo vielle, but there are some for two vielles as well. Nothing of a regional nature is included, for provincial musicians looked to Paris for the latest music. Fragmentary sources provide additional names of amateurs who played the vielle among all these groups. For example, inventories of musical instruments that were confiscated along with other goods during the 1790s from 111 noble households list six that possessed vielles.28 Dedications on title pages of the music and the music itself indicate that there were some truly accomplished players among the upper classes in the 1730s and 1740s. It is possible to identify some of these from the dedication pages of music by Boüin, Bâton, and other teachers who referred specifically to their dedicatees’ musical abilities. For example, Michel Corrette dedicated his Six fantaisies à trois parties to Monsieur Delpech d’Angerville, Conseiller au Parlement, Marquis de Mereville, clearly a wealthy lawyer. In the dedication Corrette writes, “The honor that you do every day to my music by playing it on the vielle, on which you equal the most capable masters, makes me take the liberty of offering to you these fantasies.”29 While it is generally assumed that these dedications flatter the abilities of the dedicatees, there is no reason to assume that they did not play well. Further, it is unlikely that composers would write beyond the abilities of these amateurs if they wished to sell their music. Another example is the Pièces de caractère of Jean-Baptiste Dupuits published in 1741. Until recently, little was known of the life of Dupuits, but, thanks to the research of Laure-Elisabeth André, we now know that both he and his father were 27. Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Ms. 2547. See chapter 4. 28. A. Bruni, Un Inventaire sous la terreur. État des instruments de musique relevé chez les émigrés et condamnés par A. Bruni, l’un des délegués de la Convention, edited by J. Gallay (Paris, 1890). The households that possessed vielles are those of Marquis Chabert de Cogolin (1724– 1805), who owned two vielles; the Vicomte de Noailles (1756–1804); le Comte de Maillebois (1715–1791); François René Cueu d’Herouville (bourgeois) (executed 1794); the wife of the Marquis Marboeuf (executed 1796); and le Comte de Lowendal (dates unknown). The vielle in the possession of the Vicomte de Noailles is the instrument originally thought to have belonged to the Princess Adelaïde now in the Paris Conservatory Museum (cat. no.124). 29. “L’honneur que vous faite tous les jours à ma musique, en l’executant sur la Viele, dont vous égalez nos most habiles Maîtres, me fait prendre la liberté de Vous offrir ces Fantaisies.”

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND  ◇ 17

bourgeois de Paris and his wife’s family had connections to the royal establishments in both France and Spain. The Pièces de caractère are dedicated to Madame D’Obrien, “Sennora D’onor” to her majesty the Queen of Spain and a guest a Dupuits’s wedding.30 In the dedication Dupuits says, “the way in which you execute [the pieces] contributes not a little to the degree of perfection which I have been able to attain.”31 The first pieces in this collection are grouped into two suites named La Sennora and the Amusements de la sennora. These two suites are technically difficult but musically conventional in contrast to the experimental nature of some of the later pieces in the publication.32 The evidence suggests that Dupuits worked at composing pleasing works specifically for Madame D’Obrien, and that she was capable of playing some of his most difficult music. Dupuits and others composed and published music for reasons other than renown or patronage. Their works attracted students who came not only to learn to play the instrument but to learn how to play the music of that particular composer. Dupuits himself taught the harpsichord and vielle privately from at least 1741 and, in the avertissements which precede his publications, he encourages those who have questions about how to play certain passages to visit him and gives the days when he can be found at home (see the appendix). In 1753 he opened L’École Publique de Musique where he offered lessons in vocal music, organ, and accompaniment (figured bass). He also taught “l’ensemble,” presumably coaching musical groups of amateurs. For the purposes of this school, he published a Cours des leçons which has unfortunately not survived.33 Further impetus to the popularity of the vielle was given by the appearance of virtuosos such as Charles Bâton and M. Danguy. Little is known about these two,

30. Laure-Elisabeth André, “Une figure de la vielle à roue au XVIIIème siècle: Jean-Baptiste Dupuits des Bricettes, Pédagogue et Compositeur” (masters thesis, Université de Toulouse le Mirail, 1996), prepared under the direction of Jean-Christophe Maillard. André’s research revealed many details of Dupuits’s life hitherto unknown. Two documents, his marriage contract (1743) and the inventory after his death (1759), provide considerable amounts of information. The guests at his wedding reveal his status and connections. These include the Duc de Cambrai and his wife the Duchesse D’Obrien, the dedicatee of his Pièces de caractère. Others include abbés, lawyers, and physicians. One uncle Monseigneur Pierre de Borsat carries the title “docteur du Sorbonne, Abbé commendataire de l’Abbaye Royale de la Cassagne,” and another church official present is Monseigneur Claude-Louis de Borsat, “Chapelain de la Reine, prieur de Beaumont.” The family of the bride had connections with the royal establishment. 31. Jean-Baptiste Dupuits, Pièces de caractère, Avertissement, “La façon dont vous les executes [sic] ne contribuent pas peu a [sic] leurs donner le degré de perfection que je n’ay pû atteindre.” 32. A more complete discussion of the music in this collection is found in conjunction with that of Dupuits’s other works. 33. André, “Une figure de la vielle à roue.”

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but Charles Bâton seems to have spent most of his time in court circles at Versailles, while Danguy was mostly associated with events in Paris.34 Accounts of their playing are favorable, even from those who had no great love of the instrument. Danguy is most often described as performing duos with a musette player Colin Charpentier, who was also a singer. They were much in demand and played on occasion for the queen at Versailles. In 1733, for the wedding supper of the granddaughter of the financier Samuel Bernard with the Marquis de Mirepoix, one of the many cases of money marrying position, Danguy and Charpentier performed a concert of works composed specifically for the occasion by Jean-Philippe Rameau.35 Danguy and Charpentier also performed regularly on the vielle and musette in the public Concerts Spirituels series held during religious holidays. From the inception of the Concerts Spirituels in 1728, it was customary to perform suites of noëls with the orchestra at the performances that took place on December 24 and 25. In 1728, the musette made its appearance, and in 1732 Danguy and Charpentier performed arrangements of noëls by Michel Corrette with the orchestra.36 These performances were so well received that they became an annual tradition, lasting until at least 1743.37 In 1742 and 1743, Danguy and Charpentier performed noëls with the orchestra between movements of the motet Fugit nox by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689–1755).38 Both Danguy and Charpentier appear to have had some involvement with the Théâtres de la Foire. A piece described as “air de la Comédie Italienne de Danguy” is extant.39 Charpentier made his acting debut in La Tante rival in 1729.40 Danguy

34. A decision following a lawsuit filed against Danguy and a Mme. Soygeuze by the famous luthier Jean-Nicolas Lambert dated September 13, 1746, is bound in the back of a copy of the Ballard Pièces choisies pour la vielle à l’usage des commençants found in the Newberry Library, Chicago. Lambert sued for the price of a vielle and costs and won. The circumstances surrounding the suits are not explained. A likely possibility is that Mme. Soygeuze as a student of Danguy bought an instrument from Lambert on credit and then failed to pay. 35. As quoted in Georges Cucuel, La Pouplinière, 313: “Au milieu du souper les sieurs Charpentier et Dangoy [sic], célèbres concertants, l’un sur la musette, l’autre sur la vielle, vinrent au milieu du fer à cheval exécuter des morceaux que Rameau avait composés exprès pour cette occasion.” 36. Michel Corrette published at least five concertos de noëls of which only two mention the vielle specifically on the title page, but three are in fact playable on the instrument (see chapter 3). 37. Danguy and Charpentier are not listed by name after 1733, but the repertory in subsequent performances remained the same, and it is most likely that they continued their performances. 38. This motet is lost. It seems likely that Boismortier made the arrangements of noëls performed on these occasions. Although he published one Concerto de noëls in 1737, only one part survives. 39. Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Ms. 2547, 38. 40. Clifford R. Barnes, “Instruments and Instrumental Music at the ‘Théâtres de la foire’ (1697–1762),” Recherches sur la musique français classique V (1965): 156.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND  ◇ 19

seems to have had a long career of performing and teaching, since he may have been active as late as 1785.41 While the vielle, in the words of Boüin, might not have been “to the taste of everyone,” modern scholars have quoted eighteenth-century attacks on the vielle without context.42 A more nuanced discussion of two of the most important of these polemics clarifies the attitudes toward the instrument which sparked them. The first was published in August of 1738 in the Mercure de France in response to a letter discussing the state of music.43 After praising the violin as an instrument worthy of study, the author announces that the only instrument not worthy of attention is the vielle, which should be returned to the blind men and cafés from which it came because its continual blaring is an affront to sensitive ears. The diatribe includes a denunciation of the musette as well.44 The author also attacks the current vogue for the aristocrat to play the virtuoso violinist, and offers generally negative judgments on many other aspects of contemporary music. For example, the technical and musical difficulties of Rameau’s music come up for some heavy criticism.45 The same conservatism is present in a far more substantial and interesting attack found in a pamphlet published anonymously by François Campion (ca. 1686– 1748) titled Lettre de Monsieur l’Abbé Carbasus, à Monsieur de ***, auteur du Temple de Goust sur la mode des instruments de musique in 1739.46 Campion was the finest guitarist of his time, a theorist, and a composer of considerable talent. Le Temple de Goût, a part-poem, part-essay published by Voltaire in 1732 (revised 1733), is an

41. Anon., Tablettes de renommée des musiciens, auteurs, compositeurs, virtuoses, amateurs et maîtres de musique vocale et instrumentale, les plus connus en chaque genre. . . . Pour servir à l’Almanach-Dauphin (Paris, 1785), mentions a Danguy active as a teacher of the vielle, but this may have been a son. 42. Boüin, François, La Vielleuse habile, ou nouvelle méthode courte, très facile et très sure pour apprendre à jouer de la vielle . . . oeuvre IIIe (Paris, 1761), 13. See Lindemann, “Pastoral Instruments,” 28–35, for a number of other disputes concerning the musette and vielle. Also see Leppert, Arcadia at Versailles, 105. 43. Anon., “Lettre écrite de Paris le 29 juillet 1738,” 1721–32. 44. Ibid., 1722, “Mais on pourroit sans inconvenient pour le bon goût, releguer la Vielle aux Ginguettes, et l’abandonner aux Aveugles; car, n’en deplaise aux Danguis, et aux Belles qui s’y sont adonnées depuis quelques années, c’est un Instrument si borne et son cornement perpetuel est si désagréable pour des oreilles délicates, qu’il devroit être proscrit sans misericorde; peut s’en faut que j’en dise autant de la Musette qui ne peut être admise raisonnablement que dans une Fête champêtre.” 45. Ibid., 1728, “L’on court risque de donner, comme a fait R*** dans le bizarre souvent outré; car le mérite de toute espece de Musique ne consiste nullement dans la difficulté de l’exécution.” 46. See also Marianne Bröcker, Die Drehleier: Ihr Bau und ihre Geschichte (Düsseldorf: Verlag der Gesellchaft zur Förderung der systematischen Musikwissenschaft, 1977), 410–13, for a somewhat different summary of this pamphlet.

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attack on poor taste in all the arts. Voltaire describes a concert given at the house of an “homme de la robe” who has more money than taste (a contemporary stereotype) and shows great enthusiasm for both French and Italian styles without understanding the difference between them. In Campion’s Lettre, the fictitious Abbé Carbasus attends this concert with Voltaire.47 Also in attendance is a widowed marquise, a friend of the abbé, who is a talented harpsichordist. The catalogue of her musical accomplishments is truly formidable. She can play Couperin and the two-manual pieces of Rameau. She owns and has presumably studied Rameau’s Traité d’harmonie and Campion’s own theoretical treatise La Régle de l’octave. She can transpose at sight a half step lower or higher. She is thoroughly familiar with both French and Italian styles and can improvise variations and three-, four-, and five-part fugues and double fugues. After Voltaire leaves, the concert concludes with a surprise: a trio consisting of a musette, a vielle, and a bassoon performs.48 Carbasus is disgusted by the dissonance and “confusion” which seems to characterize this music, but to his horror the marquise is enraptured by what she hears. The next day he visits her and finds the performer of the previous night hired as her vielle teacher. Not entirely convinced that she should abandon the harpsichord for the vielle, she asks the vielle teacher if this would be a wise decision and if she is in fact suited to play the instrument. This question stimulates a lecture from the vielle teacher which includes a long, nonsensical history of the instrument, much like that which Terrasson would publish two years later. He goes on to criticize the limitations of every other instrument and its unsuitability for women. Campion has the vielle teacher eloquently espouse these undoubtedly widely held attitudes in a way that is quite seductive. The author then plays his hand, and the real reason behind this treatise is revealed. The marquise tells the vielle teacher that she has an ornate and very expensive guitar which the teacher advises her should be made into a vielle. When the marquise hesitates, the vielle teacher says, “Ah, Madame! Your scruples astonish me. . . . You are indeed not informed that it is the only use today for theor­ bos, lutes, and guitars. These gothic and despised instruments are as a last resort turned into vielles: that is their grave.” 49

47. It is surprising that Campion picks the character of an abbé for his protagonist since Voltaire’s work begins with an anticlerical attack. 48. This is the ensemble depicted on the cover of Michel Corrette’s Six fantaisies à trois par­ ties (ca. 1731). Corrette includes in this work pieces for musette, vielle, and bass which could be played by such an ensemble (see figure 2.1). 49. François Campion, Lettre de Monsieur l’Abbé Carbasus à Monsieur de *** auteur du Temple du Goust, sur la mode des instrumens de musique, ouvrage curieux & interressant pour les amateurs de l’harmonie (Paris: le Veuve Allouel, 1739), 18: “‘Eh, Madame! votre scrupule m’étonne!’ reprit le Maître. ‘Vous n’êtes pas informée que c’est le seul usage que l’on fait aujourd’hui des Théorbes, des Luths, & des Guitares. Ces Instrumens gothiques & méprisables sont en dernier ressort métamorphosés en Vielles; c’est-là leur tombeau.’”

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND  ◇ 21

There follows a discussion of the decline of the guitar since the great old days of Louis XIV. This sets the stage for an exhortation on the part of the vielle teacher to follow current fashion at all costs, for to go against fashion is to go against nature: “Fashion is the daughter of novelty, adopted and cherished by persons with good taste, who do not look at things as they should be, but as they are.”50 The marquise is thoroughly convinced by this argument, but Carbasus saves her at the last minute and reveals the fallacy in the vielle teacher’s philosophy. Campion, whose career had suffered from the decline in interest in the guitar in spite of his considerable abilities, must have seen himself as the victim of fickle fashion. The destruction of guitars and lutes for the purpose of making the new instrument designed by Henri Bâton must have truly rankled. It is little wonder that he chose the vielle as a symbol for the great tragedy of his life. The vielle would eventually suffer from the changing fortunes of fashion and musical style as well. When Terrasson first published his treatise in 1741, he concluded it on an optimistic note. “In a word, the prodigious quantity of new music which is composed every day for it: the increase in ability that our vielle teachers acquire themselves by continual practice: all assures us that the reign of this instrument will endure.”51 In 1768 he replaced this passage with a rather gloomy one. “But in spite of all that [improvements, music], the vicissitude of human things which influence instruments as they do everything else in life have caused a bit of a decline in the [popularity of] vielles and musettes, especially since clarinets, horns, and other loud instruments have expelled theorbos, lutes and bass viols which (in the feeling of all true connoisseurs) were with the harpsichord the only instruments capable of supporting and nourishing the harmony.”52 Terrasson was a champion of the virtuoso-oriented music composed by Bâton and others and does not mention the airs and other popular tunes arranged for the instrument. Classified by the late eighteenth century with older instruments

50. Ibid., 41: “La Mode est fille de la Nouveauté, adoptée & chérie des personnes de bon Goût, qui ne regardent point les choses comme elles devroient être, mais comme elles font.” 51. Terrasson, Dissertation, 104, “En un mot, la prodigieuse quantité de Musique nouvelle que l’on compose pour elle: l’augmentation d’habilité que nos Maîtres de Vielle acquierent euxmêmes par une pratique continuelle: tout nous assure que le Régne de cet Instrument sera durable.” 52. Terrasson, Melanges d’histoire, 254, “Mais malgré tout cela, la vicissitude des choses humaines, qui influe sur les instruments comme sur toutes les autres choses de la vie, a fait un peu tomber les musettes et les vielles; surtout depuis que les clarinettes, les cors de chasse et autres instruments bruyants ont fait expulser des concerts les théorbes, luts et basses de viole qui cependant (au sentiment de tous les vrais connoisseurs) estoient avec le clavessin les seuls instruments capables d’entretenir et de nourrir l’Harmonie.” This passage is also quoted by Bricqueville, who was unaware of the 1741 edition of Terrasson. See Eugène de Bricqueville, Notice historique sur la vielle (Paris, 1911; Paris: La Flûte de Pan, 1980), 44. Citations refer to the CNRS edition.

22  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

and styles, the vielle and its concert music, which seemed so new in the 1730s, were now looked on as outmoded. While the popularity of the vielle as an instrument for chamber music was in decline, however, the general popularity of the instrument for the playing of popular airs and dances was as strong as ever and remained so throughout the century. Although the instrument may have been abandoned by court circles after 1760, it had by then permeated all levels of society, even the street performers populating the boulevards and the walks of the Palais Royale. In the words of one writer, “The fashion for the vielle was not the concern of the nobility alone. Bit by bit it entered the plan of the general culture.”53 As a result, the French Revolution was perhaps less disruptive to the fortunes of the instrument than has been implied. How large a part of the musical scene was devoted to playing, performing, and composing for the vielle in the eighteenth century? In spite of the obvious difficulties in answering such a question, a few statistics might provide at least an approximate answer. A tabulation of the contents of the music catalogues of Parisian publishers shows that of the 1,649 musical editions and methods available in 1742, at the highpoint of the instrument’s popularity, 113 titles were listed for the musette and vielle.54 In 1751, out of a total of 2,348 titles, 156 were listed for these two instruments. Of the 489 composers active between 1730 and 1760 whose works were published in Paris, at least 56 composed music for the musette and vielle. As mentioned earlier, 6 out of 111 aristocratic families owned vielles in Bruni’s list of instruments confiscated during the revolution (see note 28). From these fragmentary numbers it would seem safe to say that 5–10 percent of musical activity in this era was devoted to playing the vielle. While this does not seem a high percentage, in a world of amateur music making where the great majority of performances were vocal, the vielle falls behind only the violin, flute, and harpsichord in popularity. In the early nineteenth century, the romanticized transformation of a fictional vielle player named Fanchon, a street performer whose virtue triumphs over ad­ versity, became one of the most popular subjects for the stage, reawakening an interest in the vielle and resulting in the republication of Corrette’s method.55 Eventually, however, activities involving the instrument shifted away from Paris to

53. “La mode de la vielle ne concerne pas seulement la noblesse, elle s’inscrit peu à peu au programme de culture génerale.” Jean-François Chassaing, La Vielle et les luthiers de Jenzat (Combronde: Aux Amoureux de Science, 1987), 13. 54. Anik Devriès-Lesure, Édition et commerce de la musique gravée à Paris dans la première moitié du XVIIIe siècle (Geneva: Éditions Minkoff, 1976), 74–75. 55. The list of plays and operas based on Fanchon is too lengthy to give here. For a fairly complete list, see John Ralyea, The Shepherd’s Delight, 2nd ed. (Chicago: The Hurdy-Gurdy Press, 1981), 125–192. Many of these stage works have parts for the vielle. Most notable among these are Luigi Cherubini’s Les Deux journées (1800) and Gaetano Donizetti’s opera Linda di Chamonix (1842). The latter contains music for the vielle, but the former does not.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND  ◇ 23

Normandy and the regions of central France: the Auvergne, Berry, Bourbonnais, the Morvan, and Périgord. During this period, the town of Jenzat near Vichy became the center of vielle construction for the region. The most prominent of Jenzat’s luthiers, the Pajots, had been minor government officials in the eighteenth century with distant ties to the French court.56 The first instruments they made were modelled on those of the eighteenth century. Their clients came from all classes. Some were established members of the middle class from surrounding towns, who ordered highly decorated instruments. Others were members of the peasantry. The instruments were played outdoors for weddings and town gatherings, including dances, as well as in taverns. These new requirements necessitated bigger instruments which produced more sound; thus the types of music and playing styles changed as well. A decline in interest in regional music in the twentieth century almost destroyed this tradition. A reawakening of interest in the 1960s and 1970s, however, has revived this music and the instruments associated with it, including the vielle. Enough players survived from the early part of the twentieth century to establish a continuous tradition. Georges Simon and Gaston Rivière, among others, have taught hundreds of students the playing styles of nineteenth-century traditional music. A new generation of virtuoso players has refined the technique of playing traditional music in a manner more precise than those of preceding generations. Valentin Clastrier has extended the repertory of the instrument, developing an avant-garde musical style out of traditional origins. The instrument itself continues to evolve, as luthiers experiment with different body shapes and gadgetry that produce different sounds and easier tuning.57 The emphasis on technique and attempts to extend the possibilities of the instrument have redefined traditional music in a contemporary context. This movement has many analogies with musical trends in America where the interest in traditional music has led to creative activities far removed from their original roots. But current interest in the vielle has not extended so far as to include the eighteenth-century repertory. This music has been viewed as “elitist,” the very antithesis of what many who were interested in traditional music valued. Further, the activities and skills required for folk music are entirely different. A good ear for style and for picking up tunes, as later chapters in this book will show, is only the beginning of what is necessary for mastering of the eighteenth-century vielle repertory. There is little that is social or communal in the disciplined practice required to learn this challenging literature. Unlike traditional music, where people gather in large groups to play in unison, performance of classical vielle music, like that of any classical repertoire, is based on extensive time spent alone in a practice room. 56. Chassaing, La Vielle et les luthiers, 13–15, traces the origins of the Pajot family. 57. For a description of some of these new instruments, see Pascal Lefeuvre, “La Vielle à roue. 800 ans d’évolution (2ème partie),” Trad Magazine 29 (July/August 1993): 8–11.

24  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

This is not to say that the players of the vielle have been entirely unaware of or uninterested in the eighteenth-century repertory. At least as early as the 1880s, groups playing instruments anciens, including the vielle, presented concerts in Paris. Eugene de Bricqueville mentions a vielle player, Laurent Grillet, who participated in these concerts.58 Bricqueville himself was the leader of an early twentiethcentury group, La Couperin, which specialized in performing eighteenth-century French music on period instruments. As part of this group he performed the most significant repertory for the vielle. Although Bricqueville, and presumably Grillet, had read the eighteenth-century treatises and thus knew about as much about performance practice as we do today, they felt it necessary to make compromises so as not to offend audiences. Grillet completely eliminated the drones, and Bricqueville used them only for dance movements. The pioneering recordings of this repertory by Michelle Fromenteau in the 1970s alerted people once again to its tunefulness and appeal. Fromenteau, however, made her recordings on a nineteenth-century instrument of the Pajots in company with other musicians using modem instruments.59 In the late 1970s and early 1980s Claude Flagel made recordings using an eighteenth-century instrument together with musicians playing period instruments. In the years following these recordings, more and more of the eighteenth-century repertory continues to be recorded. This literature does not yield its secrets easily through the study of scores, therefore a true evaluation of the musical qualities of this music for the vielle will come only through repeated hearings.

58. Bricqueville, Notice sur la vielle, 52–53. 59. For a discography of eighteenth-century repertory as of 1981, see Ralyea, Shepherd’s Delight, 58–59.

8

2. The Music

I

General St ylistic Features of French Music

n the seventeenth century, a well-established tradition of vocal chamber music permeated the upper classes. The air, a solo song accompanied by the lute, or later the harpsichord, and bass viol was the most frequent form of home entertainment. Instrumental chamber music consisted mainly of solo works for harpsichord, lute, or viol (unaccompanied). The publications of the solo part book Pièces à une et à deux violes in 1686, followed by its companion continuo part book three years later, represent the first instrumental solo-bass collections published in France. All of the vocal and instrumental works mentioned above had one element in common not found in the music of other countries: the solo part was sufficient unto itself and could be performed without accompaniment. Later in the eighteenth century, when instrumental solo-bass music became common, this feature was retained. The bass part, although desirable for the full realization of the work, was often merely an addition. This feature contrasted with the solo-bass sonata in Italy, where the bass was an integral part of the work. The independence of the solo part in French music of the era is particularly characteristic of the solo-bass music for the vielle, and grants the bass part more independence as well, since its accompanimental role is less important. As a result, bass lines can be extremely florid, highlighting and commenting on the gestures of the upper part. Thus the way is paved for a truly conversational style, one of the features of the style galant. The appearance of the Italian solo sonata and concerto in France in the last decade of the seventeenth century and the first two decades of the eighteenth century resulted in a variety of hybrid types of chamber music often, but not always, called sonatas. They combined traditional French materials, mainly associated 25

26  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

with the dance, with features associated with these Italian genres. Academic discussions of this phenomenon often center around François Couperin’s conscious combinations known as les goûts réunis, but his efforts represent only a beginning. By the 1730s and 1740s, when most of the music for the vielle was composed, the features of both French and Italian styles had been fully internalized, so composers could un-self-consciously mingle the two. While this is true in a general sense of all the chamber music composed in these decades, composers for the vielle and musette integrated these two styles in unique ways. In the following discussion of individual composers of music for the vielle, several examples of this type of synthesis will be examined. Eighteenth-century French chamber music was to some degree independent of the medium for which it was composed. One finds on the title pages of most works a variety of possible instrumentations; for example, works for flute that can also be played on the violin or oboe. While some have dismissed this feature as a blatant attempt at commercialization, this is, in fact, a product of the nature of the music itself. The emphasis in French music at this time was always on the melody, a feature that found its origins in the seventeenth-century air: even figuration was basically melodic (and thus singable). Nevertheless, certain instruments realized the intentions of the composer more fully than others, and the lists of alternate instruments on title pages were arranged in a descending order of desirability.1 For example, Charles Bâton’s first work is a set of duets titled Premier ouevre contenant trois suites pour deux vielles, muzettes, flûtes traversières, flûtes à bec, et hautbois avec la basse continue. Clearly the work is primarily intended for vielles and the vielle was the composer’s instrument; however, the range of the pieces allows for the possibility of performance on the musette, a drone instrument like the vielle.2 In fact, much of the repertory suitable for the vielle can be played on the musette. There are dynamic indications possible on the vielle that are not realizable on the musette, but they can be ignored if necessary. Further, in many works for the vielle, there may be movements that contain notes above the range of the musette. While these passages may be transposed down or discarded as unplayable, some publications give alternate passages for musette and vielle when this happens. The duos also fall within the range of three melody instruments: transverse flute, recorder, and oboe. These three may have been listed in order of popularity. The effect of the drones is lost with these melody instruments and therefore they are less desirable substitutes. It is thus possible by analysis of title pages and content to identify those works intended primarily for the vielle. 1. For a fuller discussion of this subject, see Robert A. Green, “Title Pages of EighteenthCentury French Chamber Music as a Guide to Performance Practice,” Courant 1, no. 4 (1983): 21–25. 2. The range of the vielle was two chromatic octaves (g’-g’’’) whereas the range of the musette was a little over an octave and a half (f-sharp’-d’’’).

THE MUSIC  ◇ 27

St ylistic Features of the Music for Vielle The music for the vielle may be divided into two categories: arrangements of popular airs and dances in solo, solo-bass, and duo, and concerted works in the mainstream of the latest French and Italian styles. The former category is the most numerous and grew out of the seventeenth-century tradition of performing airs as instrumental works. The latter category was a much newer style and was pursued by a smaller part of the musical population. The numerous publications of the Chédevilles contain hundreds of these arrangements. “La Queue du chat pour la vièle” is one of these (example 2.1).3 It comes from a collection of melodies without bass and is designed to be performed alone. It exceeds the range of the musette with the addition of a high E-flat for which an alternate arrangement, transposed down, is included later in the publication. Although it is for the most part diatonic, grating A-flats and passing dissonances are present. The concerted music for the vielle is similar to that found in the chamber music for all instruments in this period. Multi-movement works include solo-bass sonatas and suites of dance movements or character pieces. The unaccompanied duo for two vielles, consisting primarily of suites of dance movements, is an important part of the repertory. Often the distinction between the sonata and the suite is minimal. The sonata begins with a lyrical slow movement followed by a fast movement, which may be fugal, in a binary or through-composed form. The following movements are usually dance movements, with an occasional movement labeled “air” or “aria,” depending on the degree of Italian content. The suite also begins with a slow movement, but this is followed immediately by dance movements. French overtures, as a means of establishing the French nature of the work, frequently occur at the beginnings of these suites.4 One type of piece has unique features associated only with the music for the vielle and musette: the trio for either two drone instruments and basso continuo, or for one drone instrument, one melody instrument, and basso continuo. These works are rarely named sonate en trio, because they rarely exhibit the characteristics common to that genre. Instead, these works are called gentillesses (by Boismortier) or fêtes rustiques (by Naudot), or a host of other nondescript titles. They exhibit a

3. This piece will be familiar to most readers as the Tambourin in E minor found in JeanPhilippe Rameau’s Pièces de clavessin (1724). He later used it again in an orchestrated version in Les Fêtes d’Hébé (first performed May 21, 1739). This work may have originated in Rameau’s work for the Comédie-Italienne in the 1720s and may be an original melody by him or an arrangement of a preexistent melody. Chédeville’s failure to attribute this to Rameau may be evidence that it was not originally composed by the latter, since Chédeville generally provided the original stage work or composer when known. The title itself (“The Cat’s Tail”) has no association with any context involving Rameau’s use of the melody and therefore suggests the melody had a life of its own. 4. For example, the composer Michon, to be discussed below, consciously maintained this distinction.

28  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Vielle

˙+ % œ œ œ œ+ œ œ n œ+ œ œ b œ œ 2 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœœ œ œ œ œ &b 2

+ œ œ œ œ œ œ nœ œ œ œ ˙ œ b œ &b

œœœœ ™™

œ œ b œ+ œ b œ+ œ œ œ œ œ

Fin

b &b

œ œ b œ+ œ b œ+ œ œ œ b œ+ œ œ œ b œ+ œ œ œ b œ+ œ œ œ + œ œ œœœœ

+ œ œ œ œ+ œ œ œ œ œ œ n œ+ œ ˙ œ œ œ œ+ œ œ œ œ b œ œœœœ œ œ &b œ œ n œ œ œ œ œ œ b œ+ œ œ #œ œ œ+ nœ nœ œ œ+ bœ œ œ œ+ œ œ œ œ œ œ bœ b & œ œ œ bœ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œœœ b & œ œ œ œ œ œ œ b &b œ

œ

% + œ œ œ œ œœœœ œœœœ œœœ œœœœ œœœ œœœ œœ ˙ œœœœ

Example 2.1. Esprit-Philippe Chédeville, “La Queue du chat pour la vielle,” from IIe recueil de contredanses ajustés pour les musettes et vièles, p. 15.

ritornello form and other concerto-like features. At the beginning of these works a ritornello theme is presented by both instruments playing in unison or in thirds with simple counterpoint, followed by a series of solos for each instrument that are separated by ritornello material. While the unison ritornello may seem a bit rudimentary, the drones of the instruments provide a richness that gives it an orchestral effect. In the works for two vielles or musettes and bass, the harmonic plan is necessarily restricted, and the contrast between the solos is based on the

THE MUSIC  ◇ 29

Vielle 1

Vielle 2

+ ° b3 œ™ b œ œ b œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ b œ œ œ œ +œ œj œ b œ & 8 + œ œ œ œ + œ œ œ b3 œ™ œ œ œ b œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ b œ b & 8 ¢

Example 2.2. Michon, Amusemens de chambre, Suite en duo, ariette, mineur, mm. 15–19.

Vielle

B.C.

° 3œ &8

œ

œ

œ bœ J

œ

œ œ œ œ œbœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ J

œœœ œ ?3 œ œ œ œJ ¢ 8œœœœ œ œœœ 7

N

ï

2

œ

œ

6

6

œ J

Example 2.3. Jacques-Christophe Naudot, Sonata in C Major, op. 14, no. 1, 2nd mov’t., Allegro, mm. 66–70.

material. In the works where a drone instrument and a melody instrument are contrasted, the solos for the melody instrument provide modulations not possible against the drones. Further contrast is provided by the ranges and types of figuration most suitable for the different instruments. As implied in the above discussion, composing for a drone instrument may involve some harmonic limitations, of which composers were well aware. Even so, these are few, and the means by which composers work around them is a study in itself. The problem with drones is the establishment of subsidiary keys beyond tonic and dominant. In most forms commonly found in the music of this time— binary and rondeau—this is not a serious problem in that tonic and dominant are, of course, the keys of necessity and are readily available. It is a greater problem in ritornello forms, as indicated above.5 Some composers, such as the Chédevilles or Michel Corrette, deal with the problem by simply avoiding anything beyond the prolongation of the secondary dominant. Others, however, show a greater tolerance for dissonance. Michon, for example, uses the minor subdominant on occasion, which results in grinding A-flats against the C-G drones (example 2.2). Some composers avoid establishing dissonant keys by encompassing the notes of the chord and the drones in some type of seventh or ninth. The dominant of the subdominant is a particularly rich chord on a drone instrument, since the B-flat in the melody blends well with the C-G drones (example 2.3). 5. See the Avertissement for Dupuits’s Sonates pour un clavecin et une vièle in the appendix.

30  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Vielle

B.C.

Vielle

B.C.

° 2 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œbœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œbœ œ œ œ œ œ œ & b4 ? 2 ¢ b4 ˙

˙

˙

˙

˙

° b œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œbœ œ œ œ œ œbœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & ? ¢ b˙

˙

˙

˙

˙

Example 2.4. Jean-Baptiste Dupuits, Pièces de caractère, “L’Unique,” mm. 202–211 (Drones G–g–d’).

The resolution to the subdominant can be very dissonant, but the A is often treated as part of a ninth chord that includes C and G. Composers have a greater tolerance for the dissonance created by passing chords, particularly when they occur over a pedal. Example 2.4 is an instance of this from the works of Dupuits. A systematic statement of the tonal system associated with the vielle is found in Toussaint Bordet’s method.6 Given that the most common activity for the vielle player of the eighteenth century was the performance of the latest tunes, Bordet felt that the most important musical skills to emphasize were arrangement and transposition. He therefore laid out in systematic detail what was and what was not permissible harmonically for the instrument. It is necessary to observe that the airs which are transposed in these two modes [C major-minor and G major-minor] for the aforementioned instruments [musette and vielle] must modulate in the major key only to the dominant, and, in passing, to the subdominant. With regard to the minor mode, airs can modulate not only to the dominant and to the subdominant, but also to the mediant [relative major] and the minor sixth, as well as the seventh [dominant of the relative major], but it is necessary in this case that the passage not last longer than a measure or two, and that it must be softened and treated with art. Otherwise it would be hard on the ear, because the [drone] strings or bourdons, which sound continually the

6. [Toussaint] Bordet, Méthode raisonnée pour apprendre la musique d’une façon plus claire et plus précise à laquelle on joint l’étendue de la flûte travèrsitre, du violon, du pardessus de viole, de la vielle et de la musette, leur accord, quelques observations sur la touche desdits instruments et des leçons simples, mésurées et variées, suivies d’un recueil d’airs en duo faciles et connus pour la pluspart (Paris: l’auteur, Bayle-Lyon, Bretonne, 1755).

THE MUSIC  ◇ 31

fifth and the tonic note, would become foreign strings in the new key and would form without ceasing badly placed dissonances which would be unbearable if the passage lasted a long time.7 The composer’s ability to create harmonic variety while deemphasizing the dissonance that results is, as Bordet implies, the measure of his art. Nevertheless, that the harmonic limitations and passing dissonance struck “delicate ears” as a distinguishing and sometimes unpleasant feature of this music is evident from attacks on the musette and vielle and from music that was composed in imitation of it.8 It is possible to divide composers who published music for the vielle into two categories. Those who composed primarily for the vielle were often virtuosi or teachers of the instrument. Foremost among them were Bâton, Dupuits, Ravet, Michon, and Boüin. In general they were not individually prolific, publishing only one to four collections of music each. To the second category belong those composers who wrote for other instruments as well. These included Boismortier, Corrette, and Naudot. To these must be added Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (1705–1770), one of the most brilliant composers of the period, whose works for vielle and musette have, unfortunately, not survived.9 They often brought to their compositions for the vielle a highly polished compositional style but often less of an understanding of the idiomatic and technical features of the instrument. The latter group of composers are discussed first. 7. Ibid., 13–14: “II faut observer, que les airs que l’on transposent dans ces deux tons pour les dits instruments ne doivent moduler dans la Mode Majeur, qu’à la Dominante & en passant à la Sous Dominante. A l’égard du Mode Mineur, les Airs peuvent moduler, non seulement aussi à la Dominante & sous Dominante, mais encore a la Mediante & à la 6te mineure ainsi qu’à la 7e; mais il faut dans ce cas, que la passage ne dure pas plus d’une mesure ou deux seulement, & qu’il soit adouci & fait avec art; car autrement il seroit dure à l’oreille, parce que les Cordes ou Bourdons, qui continuellement sonnent l’accord de Ste. & fondamentale du premier ton, deviendroit des cordes étrangeres au nouveau ton, & formeroit sans cesse des dissonances mal placées, qui seroient insuportables si le trait duroit longtemps.” Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cons. Rés. 1177, f. 11r, is much more restrictive on the tonal possibilities. The anonymous author specifically rejects the use of E-flat major, F minor, and B-flat major in C minor. 8. François Campion, Lettre de Monsieur l’Abbé Carbasus, à Monsieur de *** auteur du Temple du Goust, sur la mode des instruments de musique, ouvrage curieux & interressant pour les amateurs de l’harmonie (Paris: la Veuve Allouel, 1739), 10, “Que peut-on penser du goût de plusieurs Symphonistes, qui, loin de refuser de concerter avec ces Instruments, se confondent volontiers avec le cornement perpetuel de leurs insuportables Bourdons?” (What can one think of the taste of many symphonists, who, far from refusing to perform with these instruments [musette and vielle], mingle themselves willingly with the perpetual blaring of unbearable drones?”) The author goes on at length concerning the confusion of the melody that results from drones. 9. See chapter 4, “Unlocated Works” section, for the titles of his two collections. Over 20 percent of the music for these instruments has been lost.

32  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier Boismortier’s reputation as an early eighteenth-century composer of chamber music needs no lengthy treatment here. The extensive discussions of his music elsewhere, however, have generally ignored his substantial contribution to the music for musette and vielle. Boismortier’s compositions for these instruments can be divided into three categories: (1) unaccompanied duos for two vielles or musettes, or for a drone instrument and a melody instrument; (2) trios for two drone instruments and bass, or for a drone instrument, a melody instrument, and bass; and (3) solo-bass works. For the most part, Boismortier composed in a way that did not differentiate between vielle and musette, although in a number of works the musette is clearly preferred. This may be a result of his general preference for wind instruments. Such a work is his cantata Hilas. Boismortier’s duos are the slightest of his works, although they are today the most played. They are among the first works composed for the vielle and musette, and do little to exploit the distinctive features of these instruments. Of most interest is his last collection in this category, Les Loisirs du bercail for musette or vielle and violin. Throughout the six loisirs, or suites, the violin stays low in its range, often providing a florid bass or imitative part that gives an effect not unlike that of a Bach invention. The dance titles often hide a small joke, for example, the IV e Loisir contains a gigue masquerading as a gavotte (example 2.5). The III e Loisir contains a movement labeled “Pesamment” that looks as rhythmically square as any from the period. But appearances are deceiving: portions of it are offset by half a measure, creating an off-balance effect. The bulk of Boismortier’s trios are in numbered collections titled Gentillesse and have general concerto-like characteristics, as mentioned above. Each collection consists of six three-movement works. They must have been popular, since there were four such collections, one of which does not survive. Also of interest in this category are the Balets [sic] de village en trio, op. 52. These works are extended single movements consisting of short sections in different dance tempos and rhythms. Within a short space of time, the composer goes for the ultimate in contrast. The six solo-bass sonatas, op. 72, are among the composer’s finest works. They date from a period when Boismortier turned to the composition of works for a single instrument, eschewing the undifferentiated style that allowed performance on a variety of different instruments. Collections from this period include the Pièces de clavecin, op. 59, and the six solo-bass sonatas for the pardessus de viole, op. 61. That these publications are rare is an indication that they were not very popular. The six sonatas for the vielle are unique in the composer’s oeuvre in that they fully exploit the vielle in a way that precludes satisfactory performance on other instruments. These works are short: “miniature” would not be an inappropriate term for some of them. Four of them are three-movement works, while the other two have four movements. All contain an aria as a middle movement and five of the six end

THE MUSIC  ◇ 33

Vielle

3

Gaiment

2 ∑ Violin & 4 ¢ Vielle

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ

° 2 œ œ œ œ œ 3 œ™ œ œ ™ œ +œ™ œ œ œœœ &4 œ

3

3

œ œ œ œ™ œ œ ™ œ œ 3 œ™ œ œ™ œ œ ™ œ œ™ ° +œ ™ #œ ™ œ #+œ ™ œ œ ≈ & œ œ™ R

Violin

¢& œ

Vielle

° &

œ

œ

œœœ œ

3

œ œœ œ œœœ œ œ 3 3 œ #œ œ œ œ œ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ

œ œ œ œ#œ œ œ Œ Violin & œ œ ¢ œ œ 3 3

3

3

3

Œ

3

œ

œ

œ

3

œ #œ +

œœ ≈ œR œ œ#œ

+ ≈ œr œ ™ œ œ ™ œ œ ™

‰ ™ œR œ™ œ œ ™ œ œ™

Œ

3

œ

3

3

œœœœ

˙

™™

œ œœ ˙

™™

œ œ œ œ™ œ œ

3

+

≈ œr

3

Example 2.5. Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, Les Loisirs du bercail, IV e Loisir, Gavotte, mm. 1–20.

with dance movements: two with gigues, two with gavottes, and one with a minuet. Sonata no. 2 is among Boismortier’s most interesting pieces composed for the vielle. All of its three movements are related thematically by the opening gesture. It is a highly dramatic work and unrelievedly dark in that the work remains in C minor throughout. The second movement is of the type that would later be called romanza, with a stormy middle section. As with all these sonatas, it uses the entire two-octave range of the instrument, but it saves the highest notes for a climax near the end of the third movement. Six Sonatas op. 77, by Boismortier were recently rediscovered by Jean-Christophe Maillard. These sonatas are for either vielle or musette and restrict the range accordingly; however a poem dedicating the work to Danguy suggests that the inspiration for their composition was the vielle.10 Whereas Boismortier’s Sonatas op. 72, are difficult in part because they do not lie well under the fingers, revealing the composer’s lack of familiarity with the instrument, the Sonatas op. 77, are much more idiomatic in this respect. All but the last of these six sonatas have four movements, and four of these have a slow-fast-slow-fast format. Imitative

10. See Stéphan Perreault, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier 1689–1755. Un musicien lorrain-catalan à la cour des lumières (Montpellier: Les Presses du Languedoc, 2001), 95–96, for the poem.

34  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Largo + ° b c œJ œ œ™ œœ+ ™ œœ œ œ œ+ ™ œ œœœœœ œ œ œ œnœnœ œ nœ œ œ œ œ œ ≈ œ œ nœ &b b ‰ œ

? b c Œ Œ ‰ œJ œ ¢ bb œ § 4 7

œ

œ œ œ œ œ œ œnœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 4 Â

D

¿

§ 6 Â

§

4 6 ¿ 6 D 6 ¿ 6

Example 2.6. Joseph Bodin de Boismortier’s Sonata V in C minor, op. 77, mm. 1–3.

counterpoint is found in quasi-fugal second movements creating the basic da chiesa format. In all but one of the six sonatas, the vielle begins alone followed by an imitative entry in the bass. In Sonata no.5, the vielle begins alone on an A-flat, a dissonant note (example 2.6). This movement presents some rich, chromatic harmonies. Dance movements are infrequent in this set: only three sonatas end with dance movements—two gavottes and a gigue. Surprisingly, no minuets appear, although this was an era when this dance was frequently included in sonatas and suites.

Michel Corrette Early in his career, Corrette was much taken with Vivaldi and composed concertos with a single-mindedness unique to French composers. Corrette composed twenty-three concertos or concerto-like pieces that can be played on the vielle or the musette, the only other work suitable for these instruments being a suite for solo-bass published as Opus 5.11 Of these concertos, seventeen can be played on vielle or musette with two violins and bass. Like Boismortier, Corrette composed in a style that did not differentiate between the two drone instruments. In fact, all of these concerted works were probably intended for musette, for beneath the title page, the parts are labeled “musette or flute,” “musette or violin,” or some variant. This preference for the musette in an orchestral setting is natural in that the musette was an established member of the French orchestra.12 Nevertheless, these pieces for the most part work well on the vielle, and the dynamic markings can be realized only on the vielle. Eleven of these concertos were designated concertos comiques, because they were first performed at the Opéra Comique. Many, but not all, of these works quote popular or folk tunes referred to in subtitles. 11. For further discussion of these works, see Robert A. Green, “Eighteenth-Century French Chamber Music for the Vielle,” Early Music 15, no. 4 (November 1987): 470–471. 12. The role of the musette in the French opera orchestra is a subject that has hitherto received little attention. For a brief discussion of this subject, see Frayda B. Lindemann, “Pastoral Instruments in French Baroque Music: Musette and Vielle” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1978), 123–131.

Figure 2.1. Michel Corrette, Six fantaisies à trois parties, title page.

36  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Among these, Concerto III, Margoton, is unique in the repertory in its scoring for three musettes or vielles and bass. The two lowest instruments function as ripieno while the first part is the true soloist. Margoton’s solo lines contain passages that are quite difficult on the musette or vielle. In addition, Corrette composed several Christmas concertos that are arrangements of well-known noëls. It is known that these were performed on the vielle at the Concerts Spirituels.

Jacques-Christophe Naudot Naudot’s position as a composer who contributed to the development of the repertory for the flute has been discussed at length. Unfortunately, his compositions for drone instruments have been described in these same sources as second-class derivatives of his flute music. The harmonic content is, of course, somewhat restricted by drones, but the richness of sound they add compensates for this socalled shortcoming. Naudot composed one set of duos, two sets of unaccompanied trios, two sets of accompanied trios, a set of six solo-bass sonatas, and a set of six concertos. All of these works, with the exception of the sonatas and concertos, are composed in an undifferentiated style that makes them eminently playable on both musette and vielle. The duos, suites of dances, and character pieces called the Babioles (Trifles), are more harmonically varied than similar works by Boismortier and others in this genre. The trios Les Plaisirs de Champigny and the Divertissement champêtre en trio for flute, violin, and musette or vielle, are also suites in the French style. They are the only works in the literature for this combination of instruments. They are well balanced and include as wide a variety of textures as are possible with such a combination of instruments. The six Fêtes rustiques are trios for musette or vielle and melody instrument (violin, flute, or oboe). They are chamber concertos that exploit the difference between the melody instrument and drone instrument through different types of figurations and the use of various keys for the melody instrument solos where the drone instrument cannot go.13 While the works discussed so far may have been intended primarily for the musette, Naudot’s solo-bass sonatas and concertos are works specifically composed for the vielle. The solo-bass sonatas are straightforward church sonatas, identified as such by the opening slow movement and fugal second movement. In typical French fashion, they are followed by movements in the native style. Some of the sonatas are disappointing in their heavy use of sequence and the general lack of imagination that characterizes much of Naudot’s other work. The six concertos, op. 17, on the other hand, are among the few works of their type in the repertory and are among the best.14 They are melodically inventive and offer many 13. Two of the Fêtes are unplayable on the vielle because they have low F-sharps found only on the musette. 14. Three of the six have come into the repertory of recorder players. They have been criticized as being harmonically conservative in relation to other concertos of the period. However, these critics lack any knowledge of the instrument for which the works were originally written.

THE MUSIC  ◇ 37

Vielle 1

Vielle 2

œ œ j œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ +œ œ œ œ œ b 6 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ n+œ b ¢& 8 ° bb 6 œ & 8

œ œ™ œ J œ œ™ œ J

Example 2.7. Charles Bâton, Sonata op. 5, no. 5 for two vielles, 2e Gigue, mm. 29–33.

expressive opportunities for the solo instrument. They also effectively contrast the solo instrument with the strings. In addition to the solo-tutti passages, there are ensemble passages where the strings and vielle operate as equal partners, often imitatively. Although these concertos are straightforward musically, they contain many technical difficulties that may result from the composer’s not playing the instrument himself.

Charles Bâton Charles Bâton’s career as a virtuoso has been discussed above. His five publications, which appeared between 1733 and roughly 1748, comprise eight duo suites, six solo-bass suites, two duo sonatas, and four solo-bass sonatas. Bâton was not the first to compose music for the vielle, but he was the first to attempt to exploit the full range and expressive possibilities of the instrument. He also explored the virtuosic features of the instrument, although occasionally these features seem superimposed on the music and superfluous. Bâton’s style is thoroughly French, and he is at his best when exploring the dance movements of a suite; on the other hand, his sonatas include few of the Italian characteristics that distinguish the genre. He is particularly adept at creating interesting textures in his works for two vielles with short bits of imitation and interchange (example 2.7). Bâton’s rhythmic sense in his dance movements is subtle and not without its difficulties for the performer. The harmony is straightforward but rich with color.

Michon Today little is known about Michon’s career, but a piece dedicated to him by Boüin indicates that he was not unknown among the professional players of his time. His two publications consist of six solo-bass suites and two unaccompanied duos, one of which is for vielle and musette, the only extended composition expressly for this combination. It should be added that this work does not, however, exploit any of the differentiating features of the two instruments. Michon’s music is predominantly French, consisting of dance and character pieces; both publications begin with a French overture. In his second publication, Michon follows his opening suite with a suite en sonate that contains adagio-allegro-menuetto-arietta-allegro ma non tropo [sic]. The emphasis in this work is on the galant style, with slow harmonic rhythm and simple harmonies. These features contrast with the rich,

38  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Vielle

° 2œ œœ &2

œj

œm œj œ œ œ œ +œ

?2 œ ¢ 2 œ

˙

7

7

Tendre et Gratieux

B.C.

œ

œ

j œ

œ

œ œ µ œ ™ œ +˙ œœœœ J

œ œ œ œœœœœœœœ œ

˙

7 --

Example 2.8. Michon, Amusemens de chambre, Première suite en divertissement, Musette en rondeau, mm. 1–5.

almost experimental nature of the harmonies of other pieces. For example, the musette that follows the overture in the first suite of the second book is harmonized in a unique way. Because of the drones, most composers would have provided an accompaniment establishing the tonic. Michon uses the relative minor, thus creating momentary harmonic ambiguities.

Jean-Baptiste Dupuits Jean-Baptiste Dupuits was a teacher and composer rather than a well-known virtuoso. A student of André Campra, he composed a variety of instrumental and vocal music, revealing a thorough background in composition. Dupuits taught vielle and harpsichord privately beginning in 1741 and in 1753 opened L’École publique de musique, where he also taught voice, organ, and accompaniment (figured bass). He also taught l’ensemble, presumably coaching musical groups of amateurs. For the purposes of this school, he published a Cours des leçons which has unfortunately not survived. The publications of Jean-Baptiste Dupuits for the vielle represent the pinnacle of the repertory for this instrument, both in terms of technical difficulty and musical quality. They comprise two sets of duos, one for melody instrument and vielle and one for two vielles; a set of six solo-bass sonatas preceded and introduced by the method; a set of sonatas for vielle and obbligato harpsichord; and a set of Pièces de caractère in the style of the keyboard music of the period. In addition there is a cantata, Le Bouquet, for soprano, vielle, and bass. With the exception of the latter, all these works were published in 1741, although they must have been composed over a lengthy period. They were published in a particular order that is not based on their chronology. The first work is the method, discussed elsewhere, the purpose of which is to serve as an introduction to all of the composer’s works, since in each piece Dupuits refers the player back to the method for further explanation. The least ambitious and most likely the earliest of Dupuits’s sets consists of four duos for vielle and melody instrument in the form of lengthy suites. Clearly the melody instrument of preference for Dupuits is the oboe, a first choice unique in this repertory, although it is frequently mentioned as an alternative. The reason for this choice is one of balance, always a very important consideration of

THE MUSIC  ◇ 39

Dupuits, since equality of the parts, even accompanimental parts, is a salient feature of his style.15 Dupuits most likely finds other instruments too soft, although he hedges and lists them as possibilities. In these pieces, as in most duos of this type, the oboe often provides a bass line, playing mostly below the melody line of the vielle. The forty-five Pièces de caractère are composed in the style of the harpsichord pieces of the composer’s contemporaries. The titles of the pieces are similar to those of other keyboard works of this type, and some bear thematic similarities as well.16 The work begins with two suites written for the dedicatee, the maid of honor to the Queen of Spain. These are followed by the pieces in C, concluding with two large works, Le Labyrinthe and Le Dupuits. Le Labyrinthe represents an extensive movement constructed out of four pieces: two rondeaux in duple meter and two menuets in contrasting moods and tonalities, which are intermingled. Le Dupuits is a four-movement suite clearly meant to show off the virtuosity of the player-composer. Both have an experimental quality, which, in pushing formal and technical boundaries to their limits, may not be totally successful musically. A group of pieces in G follows these two larger works, concluding with one of the composer’s longest and finest movements, L’Unique. This piece is in ritornello form, given its concerto features by the nature of the theme and contrasting solos. The unfolding of the form makes this the lengthiest piece in the set. The last solo concludes with a lengthy pedal point that pushes the tonal limits of the instrument (see example 2.4). Not all the pieces in Pièces de caractère are of equal quality. Occasionally the composer overuses motor rhythms to the point of monotony. While most of the pieces are in binary forms or rondeaux, in works such as Le Labyrinthe or L’Unique Dupuits attempts to transcend this pattern. A mingling of styles creates considerable variety. While L’Unique is high baroque and almost German, La Singulière is frankly galant. In between are pieces with the rich harmonies and refinement of the rococo. The set of solo-bass sonatas that accompany Dupuit’s method suffer from the same strengths and weaknesses found in his Pièces de caractère, as well as from a similar mixtures of styles. Dupuits strives for the utmost in contrast between subsequent movements, and each work is unique within the set. Unique in any repertory are the six sonatas for the harpsichord with the accompaniment of the vielle. They are modeled on the Pièces de clavecin en sonates of Joseph Cassanea de Mondonville (1711–1722), which appeared in 1734 and mark the departure from solo-bass textures that had prevailed in earlier times. Dance movements, fugal movements, and concerto movements are mingled with arias and other musical forms to create the greatest possible variety. The interchange, 15. See the Avertissements in the appendix. 16. Le Petit maître, for example, is thematically related to the piece of the same name by Jean-François Dandrieu (1682–1738).

40  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

° b 3 œ #œ+ nœ œ œ œ œ & 4œ œ œ 3 œ b4 œ™ & J ¢ Largo

Vielle 1

Vielle 2

Vielle 1

Vielle 2

– ° b œ+ œ œ œ œ œ µ œ™ & ¿µ œ™ œ œ #œ œ ™ b ¢&

˙ ¿µ #˙

–m œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ™ Œ

œ œ œ

œ œ nœ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ

– ¿ œ œ œ mœ œ œ œ œ œ µ ˙ nœ œ œ

˙

œ –m œ

˙

Example 2.9. Jean-Baptiste Dupuits, Sonata no. 6 in G Minor for two vielles, 1st mov’t, mm. 10–18.

Vielle 1

Vielle 2

Vielle 1

Vielle 2

° 2 œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & b4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ 2 œ œ b œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ¢& 4 œ 6 ° b œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ#œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ#œ œ & œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ b œ œ ¢&

Example 2.10. Jean-Baptiste Dupuits, Sonata no. 6 in G Minor for two vielles, 2nd mov’t., mm. 23–32.

or conversation, between the instruments is on an equal basis, resulting in great textural variety. The two instruments may take turns accompanying each other or, in concerto movements, alternate solos. In fugal movements, the vielle plays one voice while the right hand and left hand of the harpsichord each take another. The composer’s concern for balance reveals itself in the careful dynamic markings, shadings that in some cases are almost impossible to create on the vielle. The six sonates for two vielles are among the most musically and technically challenging for the vielle in the repertory of this period. In Sonata no. 6 in G minor for two vielles, Dupuits wishes to push the instrument to its musical limits (see example 2.9), which stretches the limits of acceptable harmony, given the presence

THE MUSIC  ◇ 41

of the drones (G-g-d’). Example 2.10 shows leaps in the second movement of this piece that are extremely difficult to execute cleanly (whether or not the thumb is used). These works, as with many other French sonatas, mingle Italianate movements with character pieces and dance movements associated with the suite.

Jean-François Bouin In addition to his method, La Vielleuse habile, Boüin published three other musical collections: a set of six suites, Les Muses, op. 1, before 1742; followed by a set of sonatas, op. 2, in 1748; and several sets of variations on popular songs titled Les Amusements d’une heure et demie, op. 4, about 1763.17 Boüin is at his best when working with melodies, particularly those in a popular vein, or even dance types. It is with disappointment that one finds bass lines of a nature so primitive and at times inept that the composer’s background and compositional training might be called into question. These are seldom independent from the upper parts and often move in parallel thirds or sixths with them. Even those works titled “fugue” have little counterpoint. As might be expected, the works called sonatas are the weakest, as Boüin indulges in the most hackneyed, basic, and predictable figurations. Even so, most of these sonatas are made up of dance movements and thus are almost indistinguishable from the suites. Boüin had little feeling for the Italian style. On the positive side, Boüin clearly knows the capabilities of the instrument and uses the two-octave range with greater freedom than most other composers. Further, many of the individual movements have their charm, with or without the bass.

Ravet Ravet was often classed with Danguy and Bâton as among the great virtuosi of his time, and his music reflects this virtuosity both for better and for worse. Rapid passage work, often harmonically static, is frequently included for effect and often does little to enhance the musical content. Ravet’s first work consists primarily of dance movements arranged in suites for two vielles or in solo-bass sonatas. He seems to make little distinction between the two types of pieces. The overuse of parallel movement in thirds and sixths and the lack of counterpoint or interplay creates considerable monotony in this work. His third suite is a brilliant work, however, that fully exploits the virtuosic possibilities of two vielles. Ravet’s Opus 2 consists of four solo-bass sonatas and three duos for violin and vielle. The four solo-bass works have programmatic titles (La Militaire, La Marine, La Chasse, etc.) and musically descriptive movements relating to them. We have fanfares, storms at sea, and hunting calls using all the technical and virtuosic tools at the composer’s disposal. The bass for these sonatas is unfigured, suggesting performance with a sustaining bass instrument minus keyboard. The bass is by no means limited to providing harmonic support and takes an active role in the 17. This title is an attempt, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, to top Bâton’s earlier work Les Amusements d’une heure.

42  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Figure 2.2. Jean-François Boüin, Les Amusements d’une heure et demie, title page.

proceedings. In contrast to the sonatas, Ravet’s Opus 2 duos for vielle and violin have greater musical interest. The violin and the vielle are treated as equal partners in the texture, and although the violin is used in an accompanying role, it is often given extensive passages above the vielle. Ravet does not shrink from exploiting a variety of harmonic possibilities, which adds to the variety in these works.

Figure 2.3. Ravet, Suittes et Sonates, op. 1, title page.

4 4  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Charles Buterne and Prudent A number of composers produced only one, or one surviving, work for the vielle. This fact does not reflect on the quality of these works, as we shall see. Buterne’s surviving Opus 2, consisting of four solo-bass sonatas and two duos for two vielles, has been previously recognized for its quality.18 All sonatas consist of four to five movements beginning with a slow movement, an allegro in the galant style, a pair of contrasting major-minor airs, and a dance movement. Notable is the mixing of major and minor modes. In the third sonata, a major-mode allegro is followed immediately by one in the parallel minor, a technique later used by Boüin. The fourth sonata is notable for its exploitation of the extreme upper range of the instrument. Although there is considerable variety in content, binary form is used almost without exception. The technical and musical demands of the duos are the same as those for the solo-bass works. Their full and equal exploitation of both vielles, although the lower tends to serve most often as accompanist for the upper instrument, makes these works some of the best of their type. Prudent’s collection of pieces for the vielle is in contrast largely unknown.19 It appears to be a youthful work, as the composer would later gain renown for his vocal music. This publication consists of four solo-bass sonatas and two sonatas for vielle and violin. The sonatas consist of from two to four movements: the first an extensive rondeau or sarabande, the second an allegro that is fugal or has imitative sections, and a dance movement. Thus these works are French interpretations of the church sonata. In contrast to other composers mentioned here, the extensive use of counterpoint in all movements of these works is a unique feature of Prudent’s style.20 Example 2.11 illustrates the pervasive interest in imitation even in dance movements. Like Buterne, Prudent is particularly adept at mixing modes. The second movement of the third sonata L’Elise is a fugue that begins in C major but concludes with a surprising restatement of the subject in C minor. Also like Buterne, the fourth sonata, La Monique, pulls out all the stops with extensive use of the upper range of the vielle. Prudent uses a variety of forms, although like his con-

18. Eugène de Bricqueville, Notice sur la vielle (Paris, 1911), 78. Buterne’s dedication is an enigmatic statement of his philosophy of life. “Music . . . which until the present has amused my leisures today will become my occupation. . . . All men strive for happiness, and I am a bit more of a man than many others.” (La Musique . . . n’a juqu’à present qu’amusé mes loisirs; elle va faire aujourd’hui mes occupations. . . . Tous les hommes tendent au bonheur; et je suis un peu plus homme que bien d’autres). 19. This collection entitled Les Bouquets de Chassenay is dedicated to Madame Poncher, Baronne de Chassenay Tours Ste. Parise. From the dedication, a poem in praise of her musical abilities and taste, the implication is that she was a student of Prudent. Each of the sonatas is given a female name, perhaps students of Prudent or members of his patroness’s family. 20. Boüin recognized this. His character piece “Le Prudent” (Les Muses, 18) is imitative throughout, a feature otherwise nonexistent in other works of this composer.

THE MUSIC  ◇ 45

Vielle

B.C.

Vielle

B.C.

œ b +œ œ œ œ œ œ œ nœ nœ œ œ

œ

° b3 ˙ &b 4

? b3 œ œ œ œ œ œ ¢ b4 ° bb b œ &

œj

œ

nœ

? b œ bœ œ œ œ œ ¢ b !

----

6 §

œ

œ

7

œ

œ nœ œ œ œ œ

§

7

---------------

œ œ œ œ œ #œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ

œ

œ

œ #œ œ œ nœ œ

œ

#

7

œ 7 #

œ

------

ï

Example 2.11. Prudent, Sonate L’Elise, 1st mov’t., Sarabande, mm. 30–36.

temporaries he depends heavily on binary form, even in his fugues. The two duos for vielle and violin are disappointing in that the violin serves mostly as an accompaniment, remaining in the lower range most of the time.

The Methods Four methods devoted entirely to the vielle were published in eighteenth-century France.21 In addition, numerous works provide some basic information on topics such as the range and tuning of the instrument in conjunction with a general discussion of instruments themselves. These latter works will be discussed in chapter 3. A brief discussion of the methods devoted to the vielle in relation to the repertory is relevant here. The first method to appear was an anonymous work published by the printer Ballard in 1732 and revised in 1742. It has been suggested that Charles Bâton had some hand in it, and this is certainly possible, since he was at that time the most accomplished player and a leader of the trend to make the instrument compatible with chamber music of the period. The publication was obviously timed to take advantage of the new craze for the instrument and it has little to offer beyond a few pieces and a brief discussion of the most basic technique. Some of these pieces are most likely by the author of the treatise, but others are arrangements of wellknown works by popular composers of the time. As an interesting note, there is 21. Another “method” cited by Edmond van der Straeten, La Musique aux Pays-Bas, vol. 4 (Brussels: G.-A. Trigt, 1878; reprinted Mineola, NY: Dover, 1969), 92, and mentioned by Marianne Bröcker, (Die Drehleier: Ihr Bau und ihre Geschichte, 2nd ed., 3 vols., Orpheus-Schriftenreihe zu Grundfragen der Musik 11 [Düsseldorf: Verlag der Gesellschaft zur Förderung der systematischen Musikwissenschaft, 1977], 327), is in fact a page of notes most likely based on Boüin’s method.

46  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

discussion of a new instrument with a range of two and a half octaves extending down to middle C but retaining the normal tuning of the drones. The author includes at least one piece suited for this instrument, but this experiment seems to have died out quickly and there is no other extant repertory. The first important method for the vielle was Dupuits’s Principes pour toucher de la vièle, which appeared in 1741. It is important to remember in reading this method that although the instrument itself was old, the techniques for playing the music being composed for it were not. There is an experimental quality to the technical ideas presented, and many of these ideas are unique to Dupuits and his music. For example, Dupuits described the use of the thumb in fingering the keyboard, an idea that never caught on but which may be useful in playing the wide-ranging keyboard-like melodies that he composed.22 In addition, many of the interpretive signs he illustrates are unique to his music. Thus while many concepts represented in Dupuit’s Principes are generally applicable, this method is most useful in studying the music of Dupuits himself. Indeed, his discussion of his six sonatas that conclude this method is the most thorough explanation by a composer of his own works to be found in this repertory. Boüin’s method, La Vielleuse habile, which appeared in 1761, is arguably one of the most complete methods for any instrument to appear in eighteenth-century France. There are few basic issues that this composer does not discuss, and every point of technique is approached in a systematic and detailed way. The text is illustrated by musical examples, but in addition, the author provides the page numbers of pieces in his other works, the suites, op. 1, and the sonatas, op. 2, which illustrate the point.23 Boüin then provides a progressive set of forty-four lessons from the easiest to the most difficult, explaining what each piece is meant to teach. These are followed by a series of pieces in C and G, which are arrangements of popular songs, and works by Lully, Couperin, and others. Boüin’s work owes much to that of Dupuits’s method, and he quotes the latter on a number of occasions without attribution. These include sections on ornamentation and remarks on aesthetics.24 Boüin was a practical man, more concerned with the basics of technique, and it may be that these types of issues were of little interest to him. Nevertheless, his approach has its own special charm. A typical example of the mundane advice that Boüin includes can be found in the section dealing with the care of the instrument: “When during humid weather the keys do

22. Although modern methods avoid discussion of this issue, a thorough explanation of using the thumb is found in Michèle Fromenteau and Guy Casteuble, Musiques en duo pour vielles à roue, 2e recueil. Guy Casteuble, ed. (Courlay: Editions J. M. Fuzeau, 1979, 1985), 11–13. 23. It would be useful to have an edition of La Vielleuse habile with these pieces from his other works at hand while reading this text. They often better illustrate his ideas than the examples that are part of the method. 24. For example compare Dupuit’s remarks about the wheel as the soul of the instrument, Principes, IV, with Boüin, La Vielleuse habile, 16–17.

THE MUSIC  ◇ 47

not fall back in place easily, you should put your vielle in your bed in the morning after you get up, cover it well, and leave it there until the keys fall again easily.”25 A notable difference between Boüin and Dupuits, however, is the level of the pupil at which their respective methods are aimed. Dupuits assumes a basic musical knowledge, and the technical requirements that he lays down are much more advanced than Boüin’s. The sonatas that conclude Dupuits’s method are some of the more difficult works in the literature. Boüin assumes no musical background, and the pieces he includes for study are of a popular nature with only the most basic technical requirements.26 This observation supports the conclusion that although the instrument had retained, and perhaps even increased, in popularity, it was used in a much more casual way by many who had little interest in the sophisticated literature composed for it in the 1730s, 1740s, and 1750s. The last method to appear in the eighteenth century was Michel Corrette’s La Belle vielleuse, published in 1783. The text of this method is largely a condensation of Boüin’s method. The only original part of this work is the paragraph dealing with tuning, an issue surprisingly left untouched by Dupuits and Boüin.27 The musical examples are similar and in some cases almost identical to Boüin’s. Yet this derivative and in many ways second-rate method surpassed Boüin’s original to become the most popular method of its time and was reprinted in the nineteenth century.28 The music has become a staple of contemporary players of the instrument who venture into the eighteenth-century repertory.29 Another anonymous method, most certainly intended for publication but never completed, survives in manuscript.30 This method assumes a basic knowledge of music and proceeds directly to a discussion of technique. It devotes more space than any other method to a systematic discussion of fingering and also provides

25. Boüin, La Vielleuse habile, 20, “Lorsque dans les terns humides les touches du clavier ne retombent pas aisément, il faut mettre votre Vielle le matin en vous levant dans votre lit, la bien couvrir, & l’y laisser jusqu’à ce que les touches du clavier retombent aisément.” The keys fit through slots into the key box, and this fit should be snug but not too tight. In humid weather the keys swell creating this problem. 26. Claude Flagel, introduction to La Belle vielleuse, Editions Pluriel (n.d.), points out that such works were much easier to use for teaching students whose musical literacy was almost non-existent. 27. Flagel, La Belle vielleuse, has compared Corrette’s text with that of Dupuits and Boüin and reaches this conclusion. For a discussion of Corrette’s remarks on tuning, see chapter 3. 28. With certain deletions. See Flagel, La Belle vielleuse, on the differences between the original and the nineteenth-century edition. 29. Claude Flagel has recorded almost all the music found in the method on La Belle vielleuse, Editions Pluriel (n.d.). It has been rereleased on compact disc. This recording is important in that it is the first known to me that uses period instruments for this repertory. Other recordings too numerous to mention contain selections from this work. 30. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cons. Rés. 1177 “Airs choisis pour la viele avec les principes generaux.” There are many pages left blank where the author intended to fill in pieces.

48  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

some comments on ornamentation. It includes a number of airs by George Fri­ deric Handel, Francesco Geminiani, and other contemporary composers, some with elaborate variations. While it is impossible to date this method, it was most likely written after 1741 and perhaps much later, since it appears to comment on ideas put forth in Dupuits’s method concerning the division of the wheel into more than three and four, and it follows Boüin’s general approach in its presentation of the coup de poignet. Bordet’s method includes important passages on the tonal system for the vielle that have been discussed above. It is not properly speaking a method for the vielle in that it devotes no space to technique, instead referring the student to a method and teacher. Bordet’s main interest is in the musical skills required for the playing of airs or popular tunes on any instrument. He provides many musical examples arranged as duos, carefully marking each part with its suitability for each instrument with a system of symbols.31 There are thus duos with such combinations as violin and vielle, musette and vielle, and other instrumental pairings. The music found in all these methods is, with the exception of that of Dupuits, entirely made up of popular airs and dances, emphasizing the principal activity of most vielle players.

Music for Other Instruments in the St yle of the Vielle There are very few pieces from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France specifically imitating or evoking the vielle. There are certainly pieces that create dronelike effects, but many of these are called “musette” in imitation of the bagpipe. Others use drones for evoking moods or contexts such as the pastoral without calling to mind a specific instrument. The few that do specifically reference the vielle using various instruments or ensembles, however, merit some discussion. The earliest example is the harpsichord piece by François Couperin discussed earlier for its social commentary, “Les Viéleux et les gueux,” from Les Fastes de la grande et anciénne Mxnxstrxndxsx. The left hand is labelled “Bourdon” and imitates the drones with C-G-C broken in such a way as to simulate the continuous sound. The upper part (right hand) is labeled (first and second) “air de viéle.” The upper part is much like a dance for the vielle played very slowly in a minor key, and is similar to Camille Saint-Saëns’s satire of the cancan in the Carnival of the Animals. The limping rhythm of the simulated drones creates a musical picture of a person with an uneven gait. The square rhythms of this piece are typical of the style of music often associated with this instrument. In fact, this piece is quite playable on the vielle (an octave up).32 31. “M” is used for musette, “V” is used for vielle, and a symbol combining the two letters is used for pieces appropriate for both instruments. 32. In fact, an arrangement is found in Pièces choisies pour la vielle à l’usage des commençants avec les instructions pour toucher, & pour entretenir cet instrument (Paris: Ballard 1732, 1742): 28–29.

THE MUSIC  ◇ 49

Another harpsichord piece of a totally different kind is found in a collection of works by the Parisian organist Pierre Thomas Dufour (ca. 1721–1786) published in 1772.33 The piece, titled “La Vielle,” eschews any programmatic reference to this instrument. It is a gentle, graceful work reflecting some fifty years of respectability for the vielle. The key of A minor is not one associated with music for the vielle, however. “La Vielle” is paired with another piece titled “La Musette” with many of the same characteristics. One of the most interesting evocations of the vielle, however, comes from the greatest French composer of the period, Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764). In Platée, a ‘’ballet bouffon” first performed at Versailles in 1745, he introduces “Menuets en goût de vièle” in Act II, scene 5. Here the character La Folie demonstrates her musical abilities to move the heart with her lyre. Rameau recreates the sound of the vielle in this scene with rhythmically articulated drones in all the strings (D-A). The violins play open D-A strings while playing the melody on the E string. In keeping with the nature of the vielle, woodwinds do not take part. It should be emphasized that Rameau is not making fun of La Folie. On the contrary, her musical ability is clearly admired. Throughout the ballet the orchestra imitates all kinds of animals and is challenged to capture all kinds of moods. It is possible that Rameau simply wishes to add to the orchestra’s imitative repertory. This bit of program music adds to the topsy-turvy character of this work.

33. Dufour, Pièces de clavecin composées par Mr. Dufour, organiste de St. Jean en Greve et de St. Laurent etc. Oeuvre 1er (Paris, Niquet, 1772), 4. This composer may be related to the M. Dufour listed by Boüin, La Vielleuse habile, 13, as one of the habiles gens, but at present no definite connection can be made.

8

3. Musical Interpretation and Performance Practice

E

Some Preliminary Considerations

ighteenth-century treatises and scores themselves provide considerable information about how the music was interpreted and about technique, but, as with all sources before the twentieth century, they leave many of the most basic questions unanswered. Eighteenth-century treatises are generally uninterested in the most efficient muscular motion, for example. This seems to be considered a personal problem to be solved by the player. But perhaps the most important unanswered question is, how did the music actually sound? There is a large gap in sources between the eighteenth century and the last twenty years, although the playing tradition itself has been tenuously continuous. As a result, reconstructing the technique of playing the eighteenth-century vielle repertory involves stripping away two centuries of accretions while retaining those features of current technique that aid in achieving an interpretation that is musically valid and fills in where the eighteenth-century sources leave off.

Basic Features of the Vielle The sound of the vielle is created by a wooden wheel that rubs against the strings.1 The wheel of the vielle functions like a bow and is exploited with as much flex1. The strings should press on the wheel with enough force to produce a clear sound, but they should not change pitch when the wheel is turned quickly. Adjusting the degree of force

50

MUSICAL INTERPRETATION AND PERFORMANCE PR ACTICE  ◇ 51

ibility as possible to produce an expressive, singing interpretation of the music. To Boüin, it was the “soul of the instrument.”2 Since the pressure on the string cannot be varied, as it can be on the violin, the only way to achieve expression is to change the speed of the wheel. In the eighteenth century the wheel was made of one piece of wood and in fact this practice has continued into the twenty-first century. Because it was lathed across the grain, it was never perfectly round, and the grain on opposite sides of the wheel went in different directions.3 With a wheel of this construction, the rosin tends to redistribute itself, resulting in a slight wavering of sound in the highest notes. Composers avoided exposing this flaw by including these notes only in fast pieces, where the speed of the wheel minimized the effect, or by passing over them quickly. The vielle has six strings. Two are melody strings that run through the key box on top of the instrument and are tuned in unison g’. The main reason for having two melody strings is to establish the dominance of the melody over the drones. Tangents attached to sliding keys simultaneously stop both these strings. These keys are pressed against the strings by the player and then fall back in place from gravity, since the instrument is slightly tilted away from the player. The keys fit through slots cut in the side of the key box, and must not fit too tightly in order to allow for free movement and to avoid sticking. In the early 1730s, keys were added to give the instrument a range of two chromatic octaves (with the exception of the highest F-natural/F sharp-key, which must be tuned to either one or the other, depending on its use in the piece). Four drone strings run along the sides of the key box. Depending on the tuning, only three are used at any one time. Thus in C (major or minor), the drones tuned c-g-c’ are used, while in G (major or minor) G-g-d’ are used. In other words, in tuning from C to G, the lowest c, or bourdon, is disconnected and the G added, while the c’ is tuned up to d’, either by tightening the string or using a tuning device that shortens its length called a “drapeau” (flag; see figure 3.1), or sometimes today by a capo. This shortened string, known as the trompette, runs across a movable bridge that vibrates against the top of the instrument when the speed of the wheel is suddenly increased (see figure 3.2).4 On larger instruments four with which the strings press against the wheel is one way of balancing the drones and the melody strings. 2. Boüin, La Vielleuse habile (Paris, 1761), 16. 3. Nowadays most makers band the wheel with a strip of wood so that the grain goes in one direction. The wheel can then be made perfectly round. This means of construction was certainly possible for eighteenth-century makers, but they probably did not regard this as an important problem. 4. In the nineteenth century, this movable bridge became known as a chien, literally translated as “dog,” because it is shaped like one. Constructing one to respond easily on a particular instrument is one of the most difficult problems for any player. None to my knowledge has survived from the eighteenth century.

Figure 3.1. Vielle en luth by François Feury, ca. 1740.

MUSICAL INTERPRETATION AND PERFORMANCE PR ACTICE  ◇ 53

Figure 3.2. Wheel with trompette.

sympathetic strings run along the body and are most often tuned in unison with the melody strings, although some alternative tunings are possible.5 As discussed in chapter 1, Henri Bâton restyled the vielle by building the instrument on the backs of old guitars and lutes. While few instruments verifiably constructed in this way survive, most instruments in the eighteenth century were 5. Boüin, La Vielleuse habile, 15, discusses the tuning of as many as six sympathetic strings tuned in the tonic triad. The problem with this arrangement is that the player often plays alternatively in C and G, and retuning the sympathetic strings for each change of tuning would be cumbersome.

54  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Example 3.1. Tuning and range of the vielle as found in Diderot’s Encyclopédie.

constructed using bodies with these shapes. Boüin tells us that the lute-shaped instrument (vielle en luth) is appropriate for large concert halls, and the guitarshaped instrument (vielle en guitarre) is appropriate for chamber music.6 Two levels of sound then resulted from these two different instruments.7 Musicians differed as to which of these two types they preferred. Boüin favored the larger vielle en luth, because it produced more harmonie, which may be translated as resonance. Dupuits favored the smaller vielle en guitarre, because it balanced better with the harpsichord and other instruments in chamber music. In part this difference in opinion was the result of a difference in their respective musical styles and types of musical activity. Boüin had in mind the musical activity of most amateurs, which was the performance of popular airs, either as solos or as duos. In Boüin’s music, there was likely to be no balance problem, since in solo-bass works, the vielle always dominates and accompaniments remain just that, whereas in the music of Dupuits the basses are of equal importance with the melody. It is well to remember the experimental nature of the construction of these instruments. After the initial phase of development, makers often built larger guitar-shaped instruments and smaller lute-shaped instruments, although the distinction between the two remained. There was simply no standardization in size. The requirements of the eighteenth-century repertory demanded an instrument that spoke extremely quickly and clearly in order to execute the agréments that are as prevalent in this music as they are in any French music of the period. In fact, based on the experience of this author, instruments made in the eighteenth century and restored to playable condition do have this characteristic.

Tuning The vielle possesses a melodic range of two chromatic octaves from g’ to g’’’. The tangents that control the pitch of the individual notes can be tuned precisely, and 6. Ibid., 20. 7. See the Avertissement of Dupuits’s Sonates pour un clavecin et une vièle in the appendix for further discussion of this point.

MUSICAL INTERPRETATION AND PERFORMANCE PR ACTICE  ◇ 55

4 &4 w A

8

& 15

& 21

˙

n˙

& ˙

B

˙ w ˙ n˙ K

˙

˙

w w

˙

˙

F

˙ ˙ n˙

L

b˙ ˙

˙

˙ ˙

˙

G

b˙ ˙

b˙ ˙

˙

˙

˙

˙ #˙

b˙

b˙

#˙

#˙

˙

˙

#I˙

#˙

˙ #˙

H

M

D

C

b˙

N

b˙

˙

˙

b˙ b˙

˙

E

#˙ b˙ b˙

Example 3.2. Tuning and range of the vielle as described by Corette.

the preset pitch cannot be altered in any way in performance. The keyboard of the vielle is thus analogous to that of any other keyboard instrument, and therefore questions of temperament are relevant.8 Michel Corrette is alone among eighteenth-century musicians in his discussion of this subject. Perhaps Corrette’s background as a keyboard player made him more sensitive to this issue. Corrette’s description for tuning the melody strings of the vielle is very short and is ambiguous on a number of points. However, it has been possible to piece together enough information to make Corrette’s directions usable. The string named the trumpet is tuned in Ut and the two strings in the key box are tuned to the unison of Sol (B) [so that] the fifth [is] a bit narrow against the Ut (A); [as are] also the fifths C, D, E, F and G, H, I a little less [narrow] and with regard to the other fifths a bit stronger; one must take care to disengage the trumpet after the fifth Sol and the octaves of Ut are tuned.9 More simply, tune the trumpet to C. Then tune the melody strings to G in unison, using a narrow fifth between the trumpet and the melody strings. Then tune the octave C with the trumpet. Disengage the trumpet and tune the other C. 8. Tuning questions are particularly important when a harpsichord is part of the ensemble, since the uncompromising nature of the vielle highlights any clashes in intonation. 9. Corrette, La Belle vielleuse (Paris, 1783), 1: “On accorde dabord [sic] la corde nomée trompette en Ut A ensuite les 2 cordes dans le Clavier à l’unisson du Sol B et la quinte un peu foible sur l’ut A; ainsi que les quintes C.D.E.F. et celles G.H.I. un peu moins, et a [sic] l’egard des autres quintes k, l, m, n, un peu plus fortes; il faut avoir soin d’accrocher la trompette, après que la 5te sol B et les octaves d’ut sont accordées.”

56  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

The fifths C–G, G–D, D–A, and A–E are all the same size. The fifths E–B, B–F-sharp, and F-sharp–C-sharp are a little less narrow. The fifths C–F, F–B-flat, B-flat–E-flat, before E-flat–A-flat are stronger, or even less tempered than the previous fifths. There are thus three sizes of fifths, and, therefore, this is not equal temperament.10 The description is very close to that of the tempérament ordinaire of JeanLe Rond D’Alembert (1717–1783) in his theoretical work Eléments de musique théor­ ique et pratique suivant les principes de M. Rameau except that Corrette has left out explanatory material that would have reduced the ambiguity.11 It is possible to interpret D’Alembert and thus Corrette in two ways. A rigidly theoretical approach would result in a system favoring heavily the sharp keys and would create especially harsh effects in C minor, one of the most heavily used sonorities on the vielle, since the interval E-flat–G is a wolf tone.12 A freer interpretation of D’Alembert (and Corrette), however, provides a compromise especially conducive to the music for the vielle in that the intervals in C major-C minor and G major-G minor are favored.13 Of particular use is Corrette’s description, which would have been a discussion of the quality of the thirds that result from his method of tuning. Without them, this description will always be subject to some interpretation. Corrette is the only author to mention the need to tune the drones a little narrow. With a tempered tuning the fifths of the keyboard are wide, and if the drones are tuned in perfect fifths, they will be out of tune with the keyboard.

Dynamics The vielle is capable of playing both loud ( fort) and soft (doux), and these “terrace dynamics” are often found in the music. The difference between these two levels of sound is achieved by the contrast between articulated playing (created by the coup de poignet described below) and playing with a smooth turning of the wheel, named by Boüin en musette for its resemblance to the sound of that instrument.14 When playing en musette, limited gradations and swells (enflés) are possible, resulting in an expressive, singing style.15

10. I wish to thank Professor Owen Jorgensen for his assistance in interpreting the Corrette passage; the conclusions that follow are the result of our correspondence. 11. D’Alembert, Jean-Le Rond, Eléments de musique théorique et pratique suivant les prin­ cipes de M. Rameau (Paris: Chez David l’aine, 1752), 48. For a translation and discussion of D’Alembert’s description, see Owen Jorgensen, Tuning (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1991), 193. 12. D’Alembert, Eléments, 193–202. 13. Ibid., 203–213. 14. Boüin, La Vielleuse habile, 17. 15. Dupuits, Principes pour toucher de la viele (Paris, 1741), VIII, gives three signs for changing the speed of the wheel: a horizontal line for turning the wheel faster but steadily, an asterisk for increasing the speed gradually (enflé), and a u-shaped mark for crescendo-diminuendo. However, these marks are rarely found, even in the music of Dupuits himself.

MUSICAL INTERPRETATION AND PERFORMANCE PR ACTICE  ◇ 57

Some movements are played entirely en musette. Boüin characterizes them in the following way: “In tender airs, or musettes, there is no prescribed coup de poignet. One can turn the wheel more or less quickly according to the character of the airs.”16 The suites of Michon often contain paired dance movements where the second dance is marked doux, indicating that it should be played without coup de poignet. This practice was standard even where it was not indicated. The Ballard method says, “it should be observed that ordinarily, when two menuets are played, and one is in major and the other minor, the first which is in major is played detaching all the notes with the poignet, and the other, which is in minor, is played en musette, that is to say softly turning always equally.”17 Most often, directions for dynamics in the music reveal, as one might expect, the introduction of contrast between sections or phrases. They also reveal the necessity of creating balance within the ensemble, such as when the vielle must move into the background and other parts must come to the fore. Dupuits summarizes the possibilities of using this type of contrast within a piece: 1. Where the melody is repeated. 2. Where the melody is less active (i.e., more lyrical). 3. Where the bass has an active part. 4. Near (just before) a passage which one wishes to make stand out.18 He also provides us with a musical example illustrating the effective use of contrast (see example 3.3).

The Coup de poignet The most characteristic feature of the sound of the vielle is the vibrating bridge that supports the drone string, which is known as the trompette. The term coup de poignet has mystified modern players, because “wrist stroke” does not seem to describe what happens, in fact quite the opposite. The coup de poignet, however, is the basic bow stroke associated with the bass viol and described in detail by Etienne

16. Boüin, La Vielleuse habile, 17: “Dans les airs tendres, ou Musettes, il n’y a point de coup de poignet déterminé. On peut tourner la rouë plus ou moins vite, selon le caractere des airs.” 17. Anonymous, Pièces choisies pour la vièle à l’usage des commençants; avec des instructions pour toucher, & pour entretenir cet instrument (Paris, 1741), 12: “Il faut observer qu’ordinaire­ ment, lorsque l’on jouë deux Menuets, dont l’un est majeur & l’autre mineur, le premier qui est majeur se jouë, en détachant toutes les notes du poignet, & l’autre qui est mineur se jouë en musette, c’est-à-dire doucement & en tournant toûjours également.” 18. Dupuits, Principes, VIII: “Dans les pièces de mouvement, quoi qu’il semble que tout doit être marqué, cela n’empêche pas qu’on ne puisse passer plusieurs mesures sans les détacher, sur tout lorsqu’il ya des répétitions de chants, ou que le chant travaille moins, ou pendant que la Basse aura quelques traits d’exécutions, ou lorsqu’on est prés d’un passage qu’on veut faire paroître, parce-qu’il faut que chaque partie d’une pièce contribue à se faire distinguer l’un de l’autre, pour rendre la pièce interessante. Fig. 56.”

Vielle

° 3œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ +œ ™ œ œœœœœœ &8 fort et détaché

B.C.

Vielle

B.C.

Vielle

B.C.

Vielle

B.C.

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fort

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doux

œ œ œ #œ ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ™ œ

° œ™ &

?

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Ϫ

œ

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œ œœœ œ œ œ œ œœœ

+

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doux

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ™ œ œ œ œ œ™ œ œ œ œ

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ™

° ≈ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œµ œ ™ œ œ™ œ œ œ & ¢

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Example 3.3. The use of dynamics to provide structural contrast as described by Dupuits.

MUSICAL INTERPRETATION AND PERFORMANCE PR ACTICE  ◇ 59

Loulié in his manuscript treatise on that instrument.19 In this stroke, as it is used on the bass viol, the middle finger of the left hand leans heavily on the stick of the bow as if to scratch the string. As soon as the sound begins, the tension is released. The sharp articulation followed by a sustained sound that results gives a plucking effect that is analogous to the sound created by the vielle. This sharply articulated effect was described by various writers at the beginning of the eighteenth century as the basic French bow stroke for the violin, as well as the viol, in comparison to the sustained sound that characterized the Italian bow stroke. As the Italian style became more prominent in France toward the middle of the century, this basic bow stroke was discarded in violin playing, and this change in style is reflected in later discussions of the coup de poignet on the vielle. Charles Bâton published a “Mémoire sur la vielle en D-la-ré” in the Mercure de France of October 1752. In this work, he attacks the coup de poignet as being too harsh. Instead, he feels that the touch alone of the fingers of the left hand is sufficient to achieve an articulation approximating that of the flute or violin. The use of the coup de poignet may have had much to do with the loss in popularity of the vielle as an appropriate instrument for sophisticated chamber music after 1760. All writers discuss the use of the coup de poignet to bring out the character of the music and to create as much variety as possible. In describing the use of the coup de poignet in the chaconne, for example, the anonymous manuscript method says, “It is necessary to attempt in this movement [the chaconne] the coup de roue [coup de poignet] as much as possible, that is to say detach, to slur, to articulate according to the different characters of phrases of which it is made up.”20 Thus the coup de poignet was one means of expression for the vielle.

Continuo Instruments While the harpsichord was no doubt used heavily in chamber music with the vielle, the combination of these two instruments poses certain problems of balance. The articulation of the vielle followed by its sustained sound can cover the harpsichord. Dupuits and others seek to overcome this problem through the use of dynamics (see above).21 Also, the size of the vielle can ameliorate this problem of balance. In his Sonates, for example, Dupuits prefers the smaller, guitar-shaped instrument. 19. Etienne Loulié, ‘’Methode pour apprendre à jouer la viole” (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fonds fr.n.a.6355), fol. 218v. These passages have been much discussed in secondary literature. See John Hsu, A Handbook of French Baroque Viol Technique (New York: Broude Brothers Limited, 1981), 2–9. 20. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cons. Rés. 1177, “Airs choisis pour la viele avec les principes généraux,” f. 7 v: “II faut tacher dans ce mouvement de varier le coup de roue autant qu’il est possible, c’est a dire de le detacher, couler, ou piquer suivant les differents caracteres des frases qui le composent.” 21. See Dupuits’s Avertissement to the Sonates in the appendix for extensive discussion of this point.

60  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Some pieces are composed in a way that a bass instrument without harpsichord suffices for an accompaniment for the vielle. Dupuits’s preface to his Pièces de caractère states that these pieces are best performed with the bass alone, although figures are provided. His reasons for this include that “some spot is always found where a delicate ear is not entirely satisfied” with the exactitude of the figures. My interpretation of this passage is that the full realization of the harmonies interacting with the drones creates dissonances that might disturb some listeners. Dupuits alludes to the two-part nature of these pieces when he says, “it is very important that the accompanimental part (which is the bassline) be executed with as much attention as if it were the principal part.”22 While there are a few works composed specifically for vielle and bass without harpsichord, there are many others that include figures for the keyboard but are as effective, if not more so, when they are performed with a bass instrument alone.23 The vielle has an advantage over other instruments in that the drones fill in texture that might otherwise be provided by a keyboard instrument. A two-part performance consisting of vielle plus a sustaining bass instrument, such as cello or bassoon, is the best test of the effectiveness of this method of performance. In any case, music composed for vielle and continuo always benefits from the presence of a sustaining bass instrument, given the sustained sound of the upper part and the presence of the drones.

Rhy thmic Inequalit y The literature on inequality in French music is extensive, and the intention here is to explore it only as it relates to the unique features of the vielle.24 On the vielle, unequal pairs of notes can be articulated in several ways:

22. Jean-Baptiste Dupuits, Pièces de caractère (Paris, 1741), Avertissement. 23. Considerable evidence suggests that solo-bass pieces for all instruments were frequently performed without the harpsichord and with only a sustaining bass instrument, at least in social situations involving amateurs in eighteenth-century France. Hubert Le­ Blanc, Défense de la basse de viole contre les enterprises du violon et les prétensions du violoncel (Amsterdam: Pierre Mortier, 1740), for example, says, “There is more unity in character required for sweetness in the affairs of life; the evenness of the Viol is more suitable for a gentleman’s use, for he finds there an amiable link with society, be it that a Lady sings, plays the Pardessus de Viole, or plays the bass on the harpsichord.” Trans. by Barbara Garvey Jackson, Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society of America 11 (1974): 25. The emphasis here is on the interaction of two people, one the accompanist on the harpsichord or bass viol, the other the soloist. A third would be an intrusion given the social nature of this musical activity. The scores themselves are large enough to be read by only two people, whatever the combination of instruments. 24. The most recent and thorough survey of this subject is Stephen E. Hefling, Rhythmic Alteration in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Music (New York: Schirmer Books, 1993).

MUSICAL INTERPRETATION AND PERFORMANCE PR ACTICE  ◇ 61

1. They can be articulated solely with the fingers of the left hand. 2. The first note of each pair can be articulated with the coup de poignet and the second solely with the left hand. In other words, the coup de poignet marks the accented note. 3. Both notes of a pair can be articulated with the coup de poignet in an unequal fashion. The first two articulations are invariably used when slurs (but not dots or accents) are present. Boüin uses the term coulé to describe this usage. The third case is used in highly articulated movements, such as marches and overtures. Boüin uses the term marqué to refer to these situations.25 The diagrams that illustrate the coup de poignet appear to the casual reader to be rhythmically rigid. If a note is shortened or lengthened, however, the distance the wheel travels remains the same, but the speed of the wheel changes, providing more possibility for rhythmic subtlety than might first appear. For example, Boüin’s figure 118 in La Vielleuse habile (see figure 3.3) shows a wheel divided into four equal quarters, but Boüin marks each quarter “long” or “breve.” In other words, the player would turn the wheel more slowly for the first quarter turn and faster for the second, and so on. A close look at the diagrams for the division of the wheel by Boüin indicates that inequality, both with and without the coup de poignet, was a fundamental feature of his style, and he probably used it in situations where many or most composers would have avoided it. The most extensive and systematic discussion of inequality as it applies to the literature for the vielle is found in Boüin’s treatise. With a discussion of each meter (pages 6–11), he explains which note values within the meter are unequal. With each meter, he provides a list of pieces in his two books of suites and sonatas (see the repertory in chapter 4) that illustrate his observations. While he does not specify clearly which of the pieces he cites are played unequally, it is reasonably easy to determine this based on principles articulated in most eighteenth-century treatises. As a result, it is possible to say that fully half, and perhaps many more, of his examples are to be played unequally, a larger percentage than found in the

25. Boüin, La Vielleuse habile, 17, uses the word marqué to refer to articulation of the rhythm with the coup de poignet: “Dans les airs gais & vifs, il faut marquer les tours de la rouë avec le poignet. On peut aussi quelquefois ne les pas marquer, cela dépend & du caractere de la Piece & du goût du Joueur (In gay and quick airs, it is necessary to articulate the rotations of the wheel with the coup de poignet. One may sometimes avoid articulating them, but that depends on the character of the piece and the taste of the player).” Hefling, Rhythmic Alteration, 22–23, seems to equate Boüin’s use of the term with inequality itself when it in fact refers merely to the articulation of the rhythm. Dupuits uses marqué in the same way. Dupuits and others also use détaché to refer to the articulation of the individual notes with the coup de poignet. The two terms are almost synonymous.

62  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Figure 3.3. Boüin’s figure 118 from La Belle vielleuse showing the divisions of the wheel for the coup de quatre, or division of the wheel in four. Note that the first quarter is marked “long” and the second “breve,” indicating that the second should be played in a shorter time than the first, although the wheel travels the same distance.

music for the vielle by any other composer or for any other instrument of this period (ca. 1750). There may have been much less unanimity concerning the use of inequality in the mid-eighteenth century than is generally supposed. While ambiguous about which pieces would be normally played with inequality, he is occasionally dogmatic about the types of pieces that would always be played unequally, or those that would be always played equally.

MUSICAL INTERPRETATION AND PERFORMANCE PR ACTICE  ◇ 63

No Unequal Values 1. Airs in 2 or C that are gai or léger and contain no sixteenths. 2. Tambourins. Always Unequal Values 1. “Airs d’un caractère grave et picqués,” such as marches and overtures. The eighths are played “inégales et marquées.”26 2. In airs in “3” with a slow tempo, the eighths are always played “inégales et coulees.” 3. In airs labelled “tendre et gracieux,” with many sixteenths, the latter are always played unequally. 4. If one wishes to play a gigue in 68 picqué, a group of three eighth notes may be altered by dotting the first and making the second a sixteenth. Dupuits in contrast never discusses inequality in any systematic way, although he implies its use by specifying certain movements in his sonatas to be played equally.27 In part, Dupuits’s silence may be a matter of style: he tended to compose in a way that seldom requires inequality.

Ornamentation Ornamentation in French music of this period is too well documented to require exhaustive treatment here. What follows is a discussion of ornamentation as it specifically relates to the performance of music on the vielle. The first composer to publish music specifically for the vielle, Charles Bâton, used only three ornament signs in his publications. Although he never discussed exactly what these signs meant to him, it is relatively easy to imagine how they were played from their usage and from the other composers who did discuss them. They are + v •

a trill beginning on the upper auxiliary port de voix a short trill beginning on the main note.

The anonymous method manuscript discusses these three ornaments in concise and explicit terms and adds the pincé, explaining it as analogous to its use on the harpsichord.28

26. Boüin, La Vielleuse habile, uses the term picqué throughout to refer to dotted or strongly dotted rhythms. 27. Dupuits, Principes, X–XI. 28. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cons. Rés. 1177, f. 12r–v.

64  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Dupuits includes a detailed and precise description of ornaments and their execution as part of his method.29 Although Dupuits retains the signs established by Bâton as standard for the music for the vielle, Dupuits adds a further selection of signs derived from the harpsichord tradition, most likely the result of the composer’s background in this instrument. Boüin discusses ornaments in two places in his treatise.30 The first discussion centers around the three ornaments most commonly used. He calls the short trill martellement, a confusing term in that it is sometimes used synonymously with pincé. Most unusual in Boüin’s discussion is his definition of the coulé as a port de voix played expressively in a descending passage, in other words, an ornament or an appoggiatura from above played on the beat. He provides examples that reinforce this interpretation. Later, however, he discusses the coulé as the filling in of a third and gives different examples from his previous discussion that are clearly off-beat ornaments. The repetitions and inconsistencies in his two different discussions of ornaments may be partially explained by the fact that the second is a summary of the discussion found in Dupuits.

Special Techniques Double-stopping was a technique developed for the musette and involved playing two notes simultaneously on the two chanters. Although the pitches played in this way were limited by the respective ranges of the chanters, it is quite possible to play contrapuntal passages. Double-stopping on the vielle was in fact a fast trill. Boüin describes it in the following way: “Play and hold the lowest note with one finger and trill the highest note during the value of the lowest.”31 Extensive passages of two-part music are found in the more virtuosic works of the Chédevilles. Quite difficult technically, these passages are more readily realizable on the musette than on the vielle. Doubling the turns of the wheel, or, in other words, turning the wheel twice as fast in order to create a continuous buzz, is a technique commonly used in folk music today for expressive purposes, but in the eighteenth century it was used only sparingly, in slow, grave pieces such as marches and overtures. Boüin discusses briefly the doubling of wheel turns but does not specifically describe the effect.32 29. Dupuits, Des Cadences, 111. 30. Boüin, La Vielleuse habile, “Article IV: Des signes d’agrémens,” 4; “Des agrémens, De la cadence,” 18–19. 31. Ibid., 20: “Il faut toucher & tenir la note la plus basse avec un doigt, & cadencer pendant la valeur de la note d’en bas, la note la plus haute.” 32. Ibid., 6–7, discusses its use and marks the notes in which it is used with an asterisk (Fig. 63, “Marche des mousquetaires”). However, surprisingly, there are other expressive pieces where an asterisk is present, such as fig. 122, the “Musette de Mr. Gaviniés” and several others.

MUSICAL INTERPRETATION AND PERFORMANCE PR ACTICE  ◇ 65

Disconnecting the drones and playing with only one melody string is a technique that appears to have originated in folk music and is often used in the performance of the eighteenth-century repertory today. In fact, there is no evidence that any piece was played in the eighteenth century without the drones. The sole discussion of this occurs in Bordet’s method as a last resort for playing those pieces that one wishes to arrange for the vielle but that modulate into “unbearable” keys. Disconnecting the drones “in truth would change the nature of the instruments [musette and vielle] and would take away the greater part of their appeal.”33

33. Bordet, Methode raisonnée pour apprendre la musique (Paris, 1755), 13: “Ce qui à la vérité changeroit la nature de ces instruments, & leur oteroit la plus grande partie de leur agrément.”

8

4. The Repertory

Introduction

T

he following is a list of publications and manuscripts that mention the vielle as an instrument that may be used to play the music contained therein. As has been shown elsewhere, the lists of alternate instruments on title pages of eighteenth-century French publications are not haphazard. On the contrary, they are arranged in a hierarchical order, the most suitable instruments being listed first. This principle is particularly important in examining the works for vielle, as almost always the musette is listed as a suitable instrument as well. The most suitable of the two instruments is generally listed first: a work designated as for “vielle or musette” is primarily suited to the former, but a work designated for “musette or vielle” is intended primarily for the musette. This distinction is very real, since the two instruments have different ranges and different capabilities; thus, a set of suites for “musette or vielle” may contain several pieces that contain low F-sharps, below the range of the vielle. Likewise, a set of pieces for “vielle or musette” may contain several that go above the range of the latter instrument and contain articulation markings and dynamics that are impossible on the musette. Frequently in these latter works, the composer has included transpositions for the musette for those places that use the full two-octave range of the vielle. Nevertheless, various circumstances have resulted in the absence of the vielle from a title page. For example, the works of the Hotteterres for musettes were published before the vielle was a viable alternative. Their accessibility, however, has made them a staple of the vielle repertory. The absence of the vielle from collections of arrangements of airs and dances is less clear, but in these cases the title pages have been the deciding factor. The modern editions included here are of necessity highly selective. Their inclusion is based on their quality. Preference is given to those editions that re66

THE REPERTORY  ◇ 67

produce the complete publication over those that may contain a single selection from that work. A number of facsimile editions of this music were produced by UCP (Paris) and Early Music Facsimiles (Ypsilanti). Although these companies no longer exist, these editions are often available in large libraries, and it may be possible to find them in libraries with large music collections. For this edition, I have included catalogue numbers of the most accessible sources. I have not included the catalogue numbers of every copy in every library, as a number of items have many copies scattered around the world. In some cases the call numbers in libraries outside of France were not readily available. I have used the following bibliographic abbreviations: BN BN Pc GBLbm NLDHgm

Bibliothèque Nationale de France Paris, Fonds du conservatoire, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale Great Britain, London, British Museum The Netherlands, Den Haag, Gemeente Museum

I. Publications Anet, Jean-Baptiste (1661–1755). Deuxième oeuvre de Mr Baptiste, contenant deux suittes de pièces à deux musettes qui conviennent à la flûte traversière, haubois, violons, comme aussi aux vielles. Paris, 1726. [BN Vm7 6709] Terrasson, Dissertation, 98, mentions this as one of the first works for the vielle. It consists of two suites, one in C and one in G. It was later republished in 1730 as Premier oeuvre de musettes . . . corrigé et augmenté par Mr. Baptiste. In this latter edition, each suite has an additional piece. The Deuxième oeuvre is not to be confused with the Second oeuvre de musettes (1730), which contains a different set of suites. For a reason not immediately clear, the vielle is not mentioned on the title page of this latter work. ——— . 3e oeuvre de musettes pour le violon, flûte traversière et vielles. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734. [BN Vm7 6711] Consists of two suites of dance movements and character pieces, one in C and one in G. Modern edition: Sonata I [for 2 flutes and basso continuo]: Siècle musicale. Anon. Amusement champêtre ou les aventures de Cythère. Chansons nouvelle à danser lesquelles se jouent sur la flûte, vielle, musette, &c. [BN Pc Y.436] A collection of unaccompanied airs divided into two parts. This collection is part of a larger series that mentions the musette but not the vielle on most of its title pages. Anon. Le Père Barnaba. Vaudeville pour la musette ou viele, avec les veritables paroles. Paris, n.d. [Washington, DC, Library of Congress] Anon. Ier Recueil de pièces françoises et italiennes, petits airs, romances, vaudevilles . . . choisis dans les opéra comiques du Bucheron, le Roy, et son Fermier, On s’avise jamais de tout, le Maréchal, le Cadi, Anette et Lubin accomodés pour deux vielles ou musettes., n.d., ca. 1765. [BN Pc Rés.1831] Pieces arranged for two vielles from the comic operas of Blaise, Duni, Monsigny and Philidor.

68  ◇ THE HURDY-GURDY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FR ANCE

Anon. Vaudeville, menuets, contredanses, et airs détachés chantés sur le Théâtre des Comédies Française et Italienne. Lesquels se jouent sur la flûte, vielle, musette, violon, &tc. Paris, n.d., ca. 1745. [BN Y.435] Aubert, Jacques (1689–1753). Concert de simphonies pour les muzettes, vielles, violons, flûtes, et hautbois . . . VI suite. Paris, n.d., ca. 1733. [BN Vm7 1160] Aubert composed eleven suites for two melody instruments and bass. Only this one, Suite VI, call for musettes and vielles. The others are for violin, flute, or oboe. ——— . Les amuzettes, pièces pour les vièles, musettes, violons, flûtes et hautbois. Oeuvre XIV e . Paris, n.d., ca. 1734. [BN Pc Rés. F1022] Six solo bass suites of character pieces. Facsimile edition: Early Music Facsimiles (EMF #2). ——— . Les petits concerts. Duos pour les musettes, vielles, violons, flûtes et hautbois. Oeuvre 16e. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734. [BN Pc L.12.682] Six suites of character pieces for two instruments. Modern edition: Heinrichshofen, 2 vols., N1387, N1388. Ballard, Jean-Baptiste Christophe (ca. 1663–1750). See Methods under Anon. Bâton, Charles (early 18th century to sometime after 1754). Premier oeuvre contenant trois suites pour deux vielles, muzettes, flûtes traversières, flûtes à bec, et hautbois avec la basse continue. Paris, 1733. [BN Vm7 6699] The first three suites are for two instruments unaccompanied and are followed by three solo-bass suites (six suites in all). Facsimile edition: Early Music Facsimiles (EMF #5). ——— . Recueil de pièces à deux musettes qui conviennent aux vielles et autres instruments. Paris, 1733. [BN Pc X.456] ——— . La Vielle amusante. Divertissement en six suites pour les vielles musettes, flûtes traversières, flûtes à bec, et hautbois avec la basse continue. Oeuvre 2e. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734. [BN Pc L.12.672] Modern edition: Ier Suite [recorder and basso continuo], Schott Music 10975. ——— . Six sonates pour la vielle . . . Oeuvre IIIe. Paris, n.d., ca. 1741. [BN Pc L.12.673] Four solo-bass sonatas followed by two sonatas for two vielles unaccompanied. Certain movements contain useful articulation markings. Although these works are called sonatas, they are primarily French in character. They contain many virtuosic elements idiomatically appropriate to the instrument. Published together in a facsimile edition with Les amusements d’une heure . . . Oeuvre IVe by Éditions Minkoff. ——— . Les amusements d’une heure, duos pour la vièle et la muzette. Oeuvre IV e . Paris, n.d., ca. 1748. [BN Vm7 6700] Two extended suites or “amusements” for two unaccompanied instruments. Published together in a facsimile edition with the Six sonates . . . Oeuvre III e by Éditions Minkoff. Bertin (de la doué), Servais (1680–1745). Airs sérieux et à boire à une et à deux voix, air pour la vielle et la musette et vaudevilles . . . premier oeuvre. Paris, 1736. [BN Vm7 626] Boismortier, Joseph Bodin de (1689–1755). Unzième oeuvre . . . contenant VI suites de pièces à deux muzettes, qui conviennent aux vielles, flûtes-à-bec, traversières & hautbois. Paris, 1726. [BN Vm7 2304(5), Vm7 6712]

THE REPERTORY  ◇ 69

Six suites of dances and character pieces for two instruments. Modern edition: Leichte Duos, Heinrichshofen, 2 vols., N1302, N1303. ——— . XVIIe ouvre . . . contenant VI suites à deux musettes, qui conviennent aux vièles, flûtes-à-bec, traversières, & hautbois. Paris, 1727. [BN Vm7 6713] Six suites of character pieces and dances. Modern edition: 6 Easy Duets, Hortus Musicus 206. ——— . Vingt-et-unème oeuvre . . . contenant six concerto pour les flûtes-traversières, violons, ou haubois, avec la basse, on peut les jouer en trio en obmettant le ripieno, le dessus du 3e se joue sur la muzette ou sur la flûte-à-bec. Paris, 1728. [BN Vm 7 6669] Although this work mentions only musette, it is quite effective on the vielle as well. Modern edition: Concerto op. 21, no. 3 [arr. as a trio], Schott Music 125. ——— . Vingt-septième oeuvre, contenant six suites pour deux vièles, musettes, flûtes-àbec, flûtes traversières et haubois. Suivies de deux sonates à dessus et basse. Paris, 1730. [BN Vm7 6632, Pc Rés. 1023] Six suites of character pieces and dances in duo followed by two solo-bass sonatas. The latter works mingle Italian and French movements. Modern editions: Sechs kleine Suiten, Hortus Musicus 206; Zwei Sonaten, Schott Music 5738. ——— . Vingt-huitième oeuvre . . . contenant 6 sonates en trio pour deux hautbois, flûtes traversières ou violons, avec la basse, suivies de deux concerts, dont le premier se joue sur la musette, la vièle ou la flûte à bec. Paris, n.d., ca. 1730. [BN Vm 7 6632] Modern edition: Konzert C-dur “Zampogna” (op. 28, no. 7). Baden: Deutscher Ricordi Verlag. ——— . Trente-troisième oeuvre de Mr. Boismortier contenant six gentillesses en trois parties pour la musette, la vièle et la basse; qui peuvent se jouer aussi sur la flûte à bec, flûte traversière, haubois, ou violon. Paris, 1731. [BN Vm7 6670, D11649] The gentillesses are concerto-like trios generally in three movements (F-S-F), which mingle French dances with Italianate features. The use of unison, particularly in the ritornellos, make them most suitable for drone instruments. ——— . Oeuvre quarante-deuxième . . . six pastorales pour deux musettes, ou vièles, qui conviennent aux flûtes-à-bec, flûtes-traversières et haubois. Paris, 1732. [NLDHgm 735.67] Modern edition: Zes pastorales voor twee melodie-instrumenten. Amsterdam: Muziekuitgeverij Ixyzet. ——— . Second livre de gentillesses en trois parties, pour les musettes, vièles, haubois, violons, flûtes-à-bec, ou traversières, avec la basse, oeuvre 45. Paris, 1733. [BN 11650] ——— . Oeuvre quarante-neuvième . . . contenant II divertissements de campagne pour une musette ou vièle seule avec la basse qui conviennent aux flûtes à bec, flûtes traversières, violons, ou haubois. Paris, 1734. [BN Vm7 6716, Vma28.2] Two extended suites of dances. Although for the most part playable on the vielle, they are intended primarily for the musette. Extensive passages in doublestops found in some pieces is not possible on the latter instrument. Modern edition: Divertissement de campagne, no. 2, Heinrichshofen N3489. ——— . IV balets de village en trio, pour les musettes, vièles, flûtes-à-bec, violons, haubois, ou flûtes traversières, Oeuvre 52. Paris, 1734. [BN Pc X.654.5]

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Six continuous movements made up of short contrasting sections for two mel­ ody instruments and continuo. Modern edition: Ballet de Village en trio, op. 52, no. 4, Heinrichshofen N2012. ——— . Noëls en concerto à 4 parties pour les musettes, vièles, violons, flûtes, et haubois . . . Oeuvre 68e. Paris, 1737. [BN Pc 630.4] This work cannot be reconstructed, since only one part survives. ——— . Oeuvre soixante-neuvième . . . fragments melodiques ou symphonies en trois parties mêlées de trio pour les musettes, vièles, flûtes et violons avec la basse. Livre IIe. Paris, 1737. [BN Vm7 6705] A large suite of of dances, airs champêtre, and the like for two melody instruments and continuo. ——— . Oeuvre soixante-et-douzième . . . contenant six sonates pour la vièle ou musette avec la basse, de toutes les notes qui se trouveront les unes sur les autres, celles d’en bas serviront pour la musette. Paris, n.d., ca. 1738. Copy in Arles, Bibliothèque municipale. [Microfilme No. 296 in BN] Six technically difficult sonatas that use the full capabilities of the vielle. Upper register parts are transposed down for alternate performance on the musette. ——— . Oeuvre soixante-et-dix-septième de Mr. Boismortier, contenant Six sonates pour une viele, musette, flute et violon avec la basse. Paris, 1739. Copy in Nîmes, Bibliothèque municipale, 7152. Six sonatas for vielle and basse continuo. Unlike the previous set, these stay within the range of the musette. ——— . Nouvelles gentilesses pour une musette et un violon ou haubois avec la basse . . . Oeuvre centième. Paris, n.d., ca. 1741. [BN Pc X.654.7] Unlike the earlier gentillesses, which are most appropriate for two musettes or vielles, these contrast the drone instrument with the violin.

Boismortier’s Works without Opus Numbers ——— . Hilas. Cantatille, à voix seule, accompagnée d’une musette ou viele avec la basse. Paris, 1738. [Incomplete copy in London, British Museum, C.124.] This short work is primarily intended for the musette. ——— . Les loisirs du bercail, ou simphonies pour une musette ou vièle et un violon sans basse. Paris, n.d., ca. 1741. [NLDHgm] Six unaccompanied suites that contrast the drone instrument with the violin. Bordet, Toussaint. See also Methods. ——— . Second livre ou recueil d’airs en duo. Choisis et ajustés pour les flûtes, violons, et pardessus de viole dont la plus part peuvent se jouer ur la vielle et la musette . . . divisés en sept suittes avec un prélude sur chaque ton. Paris, 1755. [BN D.10.408(2), Pc L.12.744(2)] As with his Méthode (Livre Ier), Bordet indicates the appropriate instruments for each piece with a collection of symbols representing different instruments. ——— . Troisième recueil d’airs en duo tirés des opéra de Mrs. Rameau, Rebel et Francoeur, et autres; opéra comiques, parodies . . . choisis et ajustés pour les flûtes, violons, pardessus de violes et dont la pluspart peuvent se jouer sur la vielle et la musette. Paris, 1758. [BN D.10408(3)]

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Boüin, François. See also Methods. ——— . Les Muses. Suittes à deux vielles ou musettes avec la basse; ces suittes sont gravées de façon qu’elles peuvent se jouer avec agrément sur les violons, flûte, hautbois et pardessus de violle . . . Oeuvre Ier. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. [BN A.35.480] Three suites for two vielles and three solo-bass suites of character pieces and dance movements. These works use the full two-octave range of the vielle and therefore are not fully playable on the musette. Transposing clefs are provided for the duos in order to make them more easily accessible by other instruments. ——— . Sonates pour la vielle et autres instruments avec la basse continue. Oeuvre 2e. Paris, n.d., ca. 1748. [BN Vm7 6707] Six solo-bass works that are fundamentally French suites with a few Italianate movements. The two-octave range excludes the musette. ——— . Les amusements d’une heure et demie, contenant VI divertissements champêtres, pour violon, flûte, hautbois, pardessus de violle, vielles ou musettes, oeuvre 4e. Paris, n.d., ca. 1763. [BN Vm7 6708] Three divertissements for two vielles and three solo-bass works. These divertisse­ ments consist of variations on well-known melodies framed by preludes or overtures and dance movements. Transposing clefs are provided so that the pieces can be more easily played by other instruments, although the two-octave range largely eliminates the musette. These works were also published separately. 1er divertissement champêtre “Ah! Vous dirai-je maman” (duo) 2e divertissement champêtre “Mon coeur volage” (duo) 3e divertissement champêtre “Le Tambourin anglois” (duo) 4e divertissement champêtre “Les folies d’Espagne” (solo-bass) 5e divertissement champêtre “Vos beaux yeux” 6e divertissement champêtre “Vivre sans aimer” Modern edition: Les folies d’Espagne, Gérard Billaudot G3756B. ——— . I e–IIIe Recueil de contredanses nouvelles ajustées pour les vielles et musettes. Paris, 1762–1763. [Bibl. de l’Arsenal M469I–III] ——— . Ir. Recueil de menuets nouveaux ajustés pour les vielles et musettes. Paris, n.d., ca. 1763. ——— . Supplément au 3è recueil de contredanses nouvelles ajustées pour les vielles et musettes et le menuet d’Exaudet avec des variations. Paris, n.d., ca. 1764. [Bibl., Musée de l’opéra] Bousset, René drouard de (1703–1760). Concertos en trios pour les vieles et musettes, qui se peuvent jouer sur les flûtes traversières et à-bec, hautbois et violon . . . 1er oeuvre. Paris, 1736. [GBLbm g.11.d(1)] Copy in London, British Museum. The range of the parts makes these works playable with the violin on one part and the vielle or other melody instrument on the other. Careful dynamic markings largely eliminate the musette as an effective alternative. Bouvard, François (1684–1760). IIIe Recueil d’airs sérieux et à boire à une et deux voix mêlés d’ariettes, récits de basse, brunettes et vaudevilles, que l’on peut éxecuter sure les musettes et sur les vièles avec un air italien. Paris, 1738. [BN Pc Y.381] Braun, Jean-Daniel (le cadet). Deuxième oeuvre . . . contenant six suites à deux musettes qui conviennent aux vièles, flûtes à bec, traversières et hautbois. Paris, 1728. [BN Vm7 6717]

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Six technically simple duos arranged in six suites. Suite VI is appropriate only for the musette. Buterne, Charles. Six sonates pour la vielle, musette, violon, flûtes, hautbois, et pardessus de violles; quatre avec la basse-continue et deux en duo . . . Oeuvre IIe. Paris, n.d., ca. 1745. [BN Vm7 6706] Four solo-bass sonatas and two unaccompanied duos. These works are technically quite difficult. Sonata no. 4 uses the full two-octave range and is therefore unplayable on the musette. This book was later republished with only “B” to represent the author’s name. This edition has thus been catalogued in several sources as anonymous. Modern editions: Vier Sonaten, op. 2, Heinrichshofen, 2 vols., N3544, N3545 [4 solo-bass sonatas for recorder. The original of no. 4 contains fingerings eliminated from the modern editions]. Zwei Duetten, Wilhelmshaven: Heinrichshofen N3546 [2 unaccompanied duos, Sonatas nos. 5 and 6]. Charles, J. Nouveaux amusements tendres et bacchiques. Contenants des airs à chanter, à danser, et à joüer sur le violon, la flûte, le haubois, la musette et la viéle, à I. II. et III Voix. Paris, 1742. [GBLbm] Chédeville, Esprit-Philippe (1696–1762). Members of the Chédeville family were the most prominent musette players of their time and the most prolific in the publication of compositions for that instrument. Although the majority are playable on the vielle, many works have low F-sharps that preclude their performance on the latter instrument unless some suitable transposition can be found. Most collections are technically easy. ——— . Simphonies pour la musette, qui conviennent aux vielles, fluttes à bec, fluttes traversières et hautbois. Livre Ier. Paris, 1730. [BN Vm7 6721] Six suites; four duos and two solo-bass. ——— . Simphonies pour la musette, qui conviennent aux vièles . . . Livre II. Paris, 1730. [BN Vm7 6721] Six suites; four duos and two solo-bass. Modern edition: Cinquième Suite (1730), Gérard Billaudot. ——— . Sonates pour la musette avec la basse continüe. Qui conviennent aux vielles, flûtes, hautbois, et autres instruments . . . Oeuvre IV e . Paris, n.d., ca. 1733. [BN Pc D.11627, D.11630] Six solo-bass sonatas in the Italian style. ——— . Duos galants pour deux musettes, vièles et autres instruments . . . Cinquième oeuvre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1733–1734. [BN Pc L.12.045] Six unaccompanied duos arranged in suites. Modern edition: Sechs galante Duos, Hortus Musicus 81. ——— . Sonatilles galants pour les musettes ou vièles et autres instruments, avec la basse continüe . . . Sixième oeuvre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1736. [BN Pc A.35.472] Six “light” sonatas for solo-bass. A mixture of Italian and French styles. Modern edition: Sonatilles galants I–III, Heinrichshofen N3398. Facsimile edition: UCP S21. ——— . Concerts champêtres pour les musettes, vièles, flûtes et hautbois avec la basse . . . troisième oeuvre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737. [BN Vm7 6726] Six concerto-like trios for flute or oboe and musette with bass. One is for two musettes.

THE REPERTORY  ◇ 73

——— . Deuxième livre de duo galants pour les musettes, vièles et autres instruments. Oeuvre 7e. Paris, n.d., ca. 1739. [BN Pc D.11628] Six unaccompanied duos like the first set. ——— . Les fêtes pastorales, duos pour les musettes et vielles, et autres instruments. Oeuvre 9e. Paris, n.d. [BN Pc A.35.481] Six unaccompanied duos arranged as suites. ——— . Sonates pour les musettes, vielles, et autres instruments avec la basse continue . . . Oeuvre Xe . Paris, n.d. [Glasgow, Mitchell Library] Six solo-bass sonatas.

Esprit-Philippe Chédeville Collections The following collections each contain six suites made up of Esprit-Philippe Chéde­ ville’s arrangements of the latest dances and airs by other composers, as well as by Chédeville himself. ——— . [1er, 2e, 4e] Recueil de vaudevilles, menuets, contredanses, et autres airs choisis pour la musette avec la basse continue qui conviennent aux vielles, fluttes, et hautbois, &c. Paris, n.d., ca. 1731–1737. [BN Pc l.3796, coll. 1er–6e, D.11635 (1er), D.11636 (2e), D.11638 (4e)] Facsimile edition: 2e Recueil, UCP S75. ——— . [3e, 5e, 6e, 7e, 8e] Recueil de vaudevilles, menuets, contredanses, et autres airs choisis pour deux musettes qui conviennent aux vielles, fluttes, et hautbois, &c. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734–1737. [BN Pc D.11637 (3e), D.11639 (5e), D.11640 (6e), D.11641 (7e), D.11642 (8e)] Facsimile edition: 3e Recueil, UCP S26. ——— . Recüeil de menuets ajustées, pour les musettes et vièles. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734– 1737. [BN Vm 145 C51m1] ——— . Nouveau recueil de vaudevilles, menuets, contredanses, et autres airs choisis, ajustées en duo, pour les musettes et vielles. Paris, 1737. [BN Pc Cons. X.622(4)] ——— . Neuvième Recueil de pièces choisis et ajustées pour la musette avec la basse continue qui conviennent aux vielles, fluttes à bec. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. ——— . Dixième Recueil de vaudevilles et autres airs choisis ajustés en duo pour les musettes et vielles. Paris, n.d. ——— . Vaudevilles, brunettes et autres airs choisis ajustés en duo pour les musettes et vièles et autres instruments. Onzième recueil. Paris, n.d. [BN Pc Cons.X.622(5)] ——— . Nouveau Recueil de vaudevilles et autres airs choisis, ajustés en duo pour les musettes et vièles. Paris, n.d. ——— . Suitte de vaudevilles. Recueil de pièces choisies et ajustées pour la musette avec la basse continue qui convienent aux vielle, fluttes à bec, &c. Paris, n.d. [Toulouse, Bibl. du Cons., 946; Bibl. Mun. De Versailles] ——— . IIe Recüeil de menuets ajustées, pour les musettes et vielles. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742– 1751. [BN Pc Rés.306] ——— . [Ie–IIIe] Recueil de contredanses ajustées pour les musettes et vièles. Ie, IIe Rec., Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. IIIe Rec., Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. [BN Vm 145, Pc Rés.307 (1er), Rés.308 (2e), Rés.309 (3e)] ——— . Nouveau recueil de noëls pour deux musettes ou vièles, flûtes, et hautbois. Paris, n.d. [BN Vm7 6754–6755, Pc L.12.044]

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Chédeville, Nicolas (1705–1782). Amusements champêtres. Contenant trois suittes à deux musettes ou vielles et rois avec la basse continue . . . Livre premier. Paris, n.d., ca. 1729. [BN Vm7 6728–6729, all three collections bound together] Three duos and three solo-bass suites consisting of character pieces and dance movements. With the exception of the first two suites, these works are fully playable on the vielle. Facsimile edition: UCP CF42. ——— . Amusements champêtres, suittes pour la muzette, vielle, flûte traversière et hautbois . . . livre deuxième. Paris, n.d., ca. 1731. [See Livre premier in entry immediately above.] ——— . Troisième livre d’amusements champêtres contenant six sonates pour la muzette, vièle, flûte traversière, hautbois et violon avec la basse continue. Paris, n.d., ca. 1733. [See Livre premier, two entries above.] Six solo-bass suites with programmatic titles. ——— . Les danses amuzantes mellées de vaudeville pour la muzette, vielle, flûte traversière, hautbois et violon . . . Oeuvre IVe . Paris, n.d., ca. 1733. [BN Vm7 6730] Six suites of pieces for two musettes or vielles of popular tunes, dances, and the like. ——— . Sonates amusantes pour les muzettes, vielles, flûtes traversière, hautbois, et violons . . . Oeuvre Cinquième. Paris, n.d., ca. 1733–1734. [BN Vm7 6730bis] Three solo-bass sonatas and three unaccompanied duos for Italian movements, dance movements, and character pieces. Modern edition: Fuzeau (Casteuble), Courlay. ——— . Amusements de Bellone, ou Plaisirs de Mars; pièces pour la musette, vielle, flûte et hautbois . . . Oeuvre VI. Paris, n.d., ca. 1736. [BN Vm7 6733] Four “amusements” or solo-bass suites of character pieces named to commemorate the battles fought by the Prince de Conti during his campaigns of 1733–1735. ——— . Six Sonates pour la flute traversière, hautbois ou violon, avec la basse . . . Oeuvre VII. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737. [BN Vm7 6740] Although not specifically for vielle or musette, an announcement in the Mercure de France, October 1739, 2443, states, “Il [Chédeville] a donné un livre pour la flute, qui est son septième oeuvre, qu’on joue sur la musette & sur la vielle, par transposition.” Facsimile edition: Éditions Minkoff, 1985. ——— . Les galanteries amusantes. Sonates à deux musettes, vielle, flûtes, vielle, flûte traversière et violon. Oeuvre 8e. Paris, n.d., ca. 1739. [BN Pc L.12.043(3)] Six sonatas each with a programmatic title and comprising four to nine character pieces. The French character of this music belies the Italian connotation of “sonata.” The lower part remains consistently below the upper part and in most movements contains low F-sharps. Modern edition: 2 Pastoral Sonatas op. 8, no. 3, no. 6, Nagels Musikarchiv 26. ——— . Les Deffis ou l’étude amusante, pièces pour la musette, ou vielle avec la basse continue. Oeuvre 9. Paris, n.d. [BN Vm7 6735] A series of character pieces each with the name of a gentleman amateur. Facsimile edition: Éditions Minkoff. ——— . Les idées françoises, ou les délices de Chambray, pour deux musettes, vielles, flûtes, haubois et violons . . . Oeuvre Xe. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. [BN Vm7 6734] Three dozen character pieces for two musettes describing the delights of the estate of Chambray.

THE REPERTORY  ◇ 75

——— . Les impromptus de Fontainebleau; pièces en deux parties, et par accord, pour les musettes, vièles, violons, pardessus de viole, flûtes traversières et hautbois. Oeuvre XIIe. Paris, 1750. [BN Pc L.3841] Unaccompanied duos. The first set of pieces is named for scenes at Fon­ tainebleau.

Nicolas Chédeville’s Unnumbered Works ——— . Les pantomimes italiennes dansées à l’Académie royale de musique mise pour la muzette, vielle, flûte traversière et hautbois par Monsieur Chédeville, Cadet, Hautbois de la Chambre du Roy. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. [BN Vm7 6731] Four pantomimes and a collection of airs for two musettes or vielles and four solo-bass pantomimes. Pantomimes portrayed some story or dramatic action in dance. They were very popular throughout the eighteenth century, and the most famous composers and dancers worked on them. The fanciful character of this set makes them technically very difficult. They are for the most part playable on the vielle, although a number are best suited to the musette. Facsimile edition: UCP S24. ——— . Nouveaux menuets champêtres pour les musettes, vièles, violons. Paris, n.d. [BN Pc X.608(7)] ——— . Le Printemps ou les saisons amusantes, concertos d’A. Vivaldi mis pour les musettes et vielles avec accompagnement de violon, flûte et Bc. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. [BN Vm7 6743] Six concertos for musette (or vielle), violin, flute, and bass arranged from assorted movements of Vivaldi’s concertos, op. 8. Only six of the eighteen movements are from the Four Seasons. Bröcker (see bibliography), 318–319, has provided a table summarizing these works. ——— . Abaco Opera quarta, mis pour la musette, vielle, flûte traversière et le hautbois, avec la Bc. par Chédeville le cadet. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. [BN Vm7 6742] Eight solo-bass sonatas from the works of Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco (1675– 1742). Although Chédeville has attempted to remain faithful to the originals, he has added some music of his own. ——— . La feste d’Iphise. Airs de l’opéra Jephté ajustés pour deux musettes ou vielles par Mr. Chédeville le cadet. Paris, n.d. [NLDHgm] Two dozen vocal and instrumental pieces from Montéclair’s opera Jephté (1732) arranged in two suites, one in C and a shorter one in G for two musettes (some movements contain low F-sharps). While accurately reproducing the melodies in the upper part, Chédeville has newly composed the second part. ——— . La Feste de Cleopâtre. Airs des festes grecques et romaines [de Colin de Blamont] Mis en deux parties égales pour les musettes et vielle. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. [BN Pc D.11614] Collection of unaccompanied duos arranged as suites. The first provides the title for the collection. Many arrangements of works by other composers. ——— . Les Variations amusantes, pièces de différents auteurs ornées d’agréments et misses en deux parties et par accord pour les muzettes, vielles, pardessus de viole, flûtes traversières et hautbois. Paris, n.d. [BN Pc D.11612]

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Sets of variations on works by other composers beginning with twelve variations on the Folies d’Espagne. Since the title page is missing on some copies, this collection has been cited as a separate work under the latter title. Many of the variations are very elaborate with many double-stops. It concludes with a suite of noëls with variations. Cordelet, Claude (d.1760). Deuxième livre de sonates, pour deux musettes, vielles, pardessus de viole, et autres instruments. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. These six duos consist of a mixture of suite movements and more Italianate items. Many of the movements begin in an imitative fashion. Private collection. Corrette, Gaspard (d. before 1733). Pièces de feu M. Gaspard Corrette de Delft mises pour deux muzettes ou deux vielles. I. suite. Paris, n.d. [BN Pc A.35.479] Corrette, Michel (1709–1795). IIIe Concerto de noëls pour la musette . . . ce concerto peut se jouer dans l’église avec l’orgue. Paris, n.d., ca. 1728–1734. [Bibl. de l’Arsenal, M.476] ——— . Noëls Suisses. IV. Concerto pour la musette, vièle, flûte traversière, flûte à bec, hautbois violon, pardessus de viole avec la basse continue. Paris, n.d., ca. 1728– 1734. [Bibl. de l’Arsenal, M.465] Although this work does not mention the vielle on its title page, it is quite playable and very effective on this instrument. Modern edition: Amadeus BP2401. ——— . Pastorale en noëls pour les musettes, vièles, flûtes et violons, avec la basse continue . . . IIe concerto de noëls concerto de noëls. Paris, n.d., ca. 1728–1734. [Bibl. de l’Arsenal, M.475 a–d] Modern edition: published for recorder by Gérard Billaudot. ——— . VI Concerto pour les flûtes, violons, etc. . . ., le troisième est pour la muzette ou vielle. Oeuvre 4. Paris, n.d., ca. 1729. [BN Vm7 6672] Concerto no. 3 for flute, musette, or vielle, two violins, and bass is a highly effective work for any one of the three solo instruments. ——— . Pièces pour la musette, vièle, flûte à bec, flûte traversière, hautbois, dessus de viole et violon . . . Oeuvre Vme . Paris, n.d., ca. 1730. [BN Vm7 6718] Melodically appealing character pieces and dance movements for solo and bass. Modern edition: Winterthur, Amadeus BP378. ——— . Six fantaisies à trois parties pour la vièle et la musette, flûte et bc. qui conviennent à tous les instruments . . . Oeuvre 6. Paris, n.d., ca. 1731. [BN Vm7 6698] Six three-movement works that exhibit concerto-like features. The term “fantaisie” is used; imitation plays an important role. Some pieces are designated specifically for two musettes or for two vielles, but this seems to be an arbitrary selection, since occasionally low F-sharps appear in parts designated for the vielle. There is one for vielle and violin and another for musette and flute. ——— . L’Allure. IIe Concerto comique pour trois flûtes, hautbois ou violons avec la basse continue, le premier dessus se peut jouer sur la musette, vièle et flûte à bec. Paris, n.d., ca. 1732. [BN Pc Rés. F.51] Facsimile edition: Early Music Facsimiles (EMF #11). ——— . L’Asne d’or. IVe Concerto pour la musette ou vielle, flûte, hautbois ou violon avec la basse travaillée d’une manière aisée pour la violoncelle. Paris, n.d., ca. 1732– 1734. [Bibl. de l’Arsenal, M.465]

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——— . Margoton. IIIe Concerto comique pour trois musettes ou vièles avec la basse continue qui conviennent aux flûtes, hautbois et violons. Paris, n.d., ca. 1732–1734. [BN Pc Rés. F.52] Modern edition: Winterthur, Amadeus BP395 [for three alto recorders and basso continuo] ——— . Six concerto pour trois flûtes, hautbois ou violons avec la basse. Le premier dessus du 2e, 3e, 4e, et 6e se peut jouer sur la musette et vièle . . . Oeuvre VIII. Paris, n.d., ca. 1732. [BN Vm7 6673] This collection contains the first six concertos comiques. The four that are appropriate for the musette and vielle are listed below, as they were published individually. ——— . Le Berger fortuné. Concerto Io pour la musette, vièle, violon, flûte traversière, flûte à bec, hautbois, pardessus de viole avec la basse continue. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734–1737. [Bibl. de l’Arsenal, M.465] The concertos titled Le Berger fortuné are intended for musette, two violins, and bass. They are, for the most part, effective for the vielle. Aside from the third concerto, which contains storms at sea, there are no programmatic effects that relate to the title. They are in the style of the Vivaldi concerto. ——— . La Découpure. XIIe Concerto comique pour la flûte, hautbois, violon, musette, vièle, pardessus de viole avec la basse continue. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734–1737. [BN Rés. F.60 et 60bis] ——— . Ma mie Margo. Xe Concerto comique pour la flûte, hautbois, musette, ou vièle avec deux parties de violons et la basse-continue. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734–1737. [BN Rés. F.58.58bis] ——— . Le Plaisir des dames. VI. Concerto comique pour les flûtes, hautbois et violons avec la basse-continue, le premier dessus se peut jouer sur la musette, vièle et flûte à bec. Paris, n.d., by 1734. [BN Pc Rés. F.54] ——— . Les Recréations du Berger fortuné. IIème Concerto pour la musette, vièle, flûte traversière, violon, flûte à bec, haut-bois, pardessus de viole avec la basse chiffrée. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734–1737. [BN A.35.478] ——— . La Servante au bon tabac. VII. Concerto comique pour trois flûtes, hautbois et violons avec la basse-continue, le premier dessus se peut jouer sur la musette, vièle et flûte à bec. Paris [by 1734. [BN Pc Rés. F.55] Modern edition: Edited for recorder and published by Gérard Billaudot. ——— . La Tante Tourelourette et le Plaisir d’être avec vous. XI. Concerto comique pour la flûte, hautbois, musette ou vièle avec deux parties de violons et la basse continue. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734–1737. [BN Rés. F.59.59bis] ——— . Les Voyages du Berger fortuné aux Indes orientales. IIIe Concerto pour la musette, vièle, flûte, hautbois, violon, et pardessus de viole avec la basse chiffrée. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734–1737. [Bibl. de l’Arsenal, M.465] ——— . La Béquille de père Barnaba. XIII. Concerto comique pour la musette, vièle, flûte, hautbois, violon, pardessus de violle avec la basse. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. [BN Rés. 61.61] ——— . La Choisy. XIV. Concerto comique pour les cors de chasse, musette, vièle, flûte, violon avec la basse. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. [BN Pc Rés. F.62] Modern edition: Heinrichshofen 6209.

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——— . Les Amours de Thérèse avec Colin. XXI. Concerto comique en pot pourri pour les musettes, vielles, violons, flûtes, hautbois, pardessus de viole avec la basse. Paris, n.d. [BN Rés. F.67.67bis] Courbois, Philippe (fl. 1705–1730). Dom Quichotte, VIIe Cantate à voix seule et un violon in Cantates françoises à I. et II. voix. Sans simphonie et avec simphonie. Paris, 1710. [BN Vm7 162] In spite of its title, this work refers to several other instruments in the score. The last aria contains an obbligato part for the vielle. The range of the part (d’–g’’) would fit on a vielle in D described by Terrasson with drones in G. This is the earliest piece specifically composed for the vielle in eighteenthcentury France. Dall’Abaco, Evaristo Felice (1675–1742). See Nicolas Chédeville. Dampierre, Marc-Antoine, Marquis de (1676–1756). Fanfares nouvelles pour deux cors de chasse ou deux trompettes et pour les musettes, vièles et hautbois. Paris, 1738. [BN Vm7 7000] Dauphin, Charles. IVe Recueil d’airs sérieux et à boire mêlés de chansonettes et vaudevilles qui se peuvent jouer sur la flûte et musette ou vielle. Paris, 1733. [BN Vm7 610 contains Rec. I–IV] Derochet, Louis. Premier livre, contenant plusieurs menuets de la comédie italienne . . . Avec un debut de concerto, petite suitte pour 2 violons, flutte, musette et vielle, violoncelle ou basson, avec la basse continue. Paris, 1732. [BN Pc A.33.730] Dubois, ——. Le Pasteur Fidèle ou les délices de la campagne. Sonates à deux parties pour deux musettes, vielles, pardessus de viole et autres instruments . . . Oeuvre Ir. Paris, n.d., ca. 1740. [GBLbm] Dugué, Philippe. Sonates dans le goût italien pour la musette ou vièle. Avec la basse continue qui conviennent aux flûtes et autres instruments . . . Oeuvre Ir. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734–1737. [BN Pc Cons. L.12649; also contains Oeuvre II] A highly accomplished composer of vocal music, the Abbé Dugué turned his compositional skill to the musette. His two sets of six solo-bass sonatas in the Italian style are equally playable on both musette and vielle, but they were intended primarily for musette. ——— . Sonates dans le goût italien pour la musette ou vièle. Avec la basse continue qui conviennent aux flûtes et autres instruments . . . Oeuvre II. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734–1737. [See Oeuvre Ir in entry immediately above.] ——— . Sonates en trio pour les musettes, vièles et basse continue . . . Oeuvre IV. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. [BN Vm7 7704] Six trio sonatas for two musettes or vielles and continuo, fully playable on both instruments. Dupuits, Jean-Baptiste (fl. 1741–1757). See also Methods. ——— . Première suite d’amusemens en duo. Pour les vièles, musettes, haut-bois, violons, flutes . . . Oeuvre II. Paris, n.d., ca. 1741. [All Dupuits’s suites found in BN Vm7 670(1–6)] “Pour une viéle, ou musette avec un haut-bois.” The following suites were published both separately and together. Although these six suites can be played with a variety of instruments, as the title page indicates, Dupuits’s first preference is given above the first piece of music in each case. These are the least demanding of this composer’s works.

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——— . Second suite d’amusemens en duo pour les viéles, musettes, haut-bois, violons, flûtesond suite d’amusemens en duo pour les viéles, musettes, haut-bois, violons, flûtes. . . . Oeuvre IIe . Paris, n.d., ca. 1741. “Pour deux vielles ou une vielle avec une musette ou un hautbois.” Modern Edition: Schott Music ED8822. ——— . Troisième suite d’amusemens en duo pour les viéles, musettes, haut-bois, violons, flûtes . . . Oeuvre IIe . Paris, n.d., ca. 1741. “Pour une viele et un haubois.” ——— . IV e Suitte d’amusemens en duo pour les vieles, musettes, hautbois, violons, flûtes . . . Oeuvre II e . Paris, n.d., ca. 1741. “Pour une viele et un haubois.” ——— . V me Suite d’amusemens en duo pour une viéle et un haubois ou autres instruments . . . Oeuvre II. Paris, n.d., ca. 1741. “Pour une viele et un haubois.” ——— . Sixieme suitte d’amusemens en duo pour les vieles, musettes, haubois, flûtes, &c. . . . Oeuvre II. Paris, n.d., ca. 1741. “Pour une viéle et un haubois.” ——— . Sonates pour un clavecin et une vièle, laquelle partie s’exécute également sur les musettes, violons, flûtes . . . Oeuvre III. Paris, 1741. [BN Vm7 1899] Sonatas for the vielle with obbligato harpsichord. Types of movements include concertos, dance movements, and fugues. ——— . Sonates ou suites à deux vièles, Oeuvre 4. Paris, 1741. [BN Vm7 6713] The most difficult duos composed for the vielle. The full range of the instrument is used, and the music is idiomatic only for the vielle. This collection is notable for its audacious harmonies. Modern edition of Sonatas 1–3, Heinrichshofen Verlag N02377. Facsimile edition: UCP S6. ——— . Pièces de caractère pour la vielle . . . Oeuvre 5. Paris, 1741. [BN Vm7 6704] ——— . Le bouquet, cantate à voix seule avec accompagnement de vièle ou autres instruments composée par M.D. Paris, n.d., after 1742. [BN 275(1à3)] Facsimile edition: Early Music Facsimile (EMF #8). This is a facsimile of the Library of Congress copy, which lists only flute as accompanying instrument and is identified as anonymous. Hotteterre, Jacques Martin (1674–1763). Troisième suitte de pièces à deux dessus pour les flûtes traversières, flûtes-à-bec, haubois & musettes . . . Oeuvre VIII. Paris, 1722. [BN Pc Rés. 1868] Hotteterre published these works before vielle was widely played as a chamber music instrument; however, they are playable and have been played on the vielle. Hotteterre, Jean (d. 1720) and Jacques Martin Hotteterre. Pièces pour la muzette qui peuvent aussi se jouer sur la flûte, sur le haubois &c . . . oeuvre posthume; plus, une suitte de pièces par accords par M. Hotterre le Romain; en outre, la guerre, pièce de muzette la quelle n’a point été imprimée jusquà présent. Paris, 1722. [BN Pc D.11617] This collection contains a suite of programmatic pieces titled “La noce cham­ pêtre ou l’Himen pastoral,” (The rustic wedding) which, although originally intended for musette, has become a staple of the repertory for the vielle in recent times. Modern edition: Die ländliche Hochzeit, Schott Music 2431.

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Lalande, Michel Richard de (1657–1726). Noëls en trio du feu Mr. Lalande avec un carillon pour les musettes, vielles, fluttes, violins et hautbois. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734. [BN Pc X.135(8)A.B.] This edition is a direct transposition of the Noëls en trio . . . Livre Ier for two melody instruments and bass. The latter is available in modern editions. Although only the deuxième dessus and bass parts of this arrangement for vielle and musette survive, since it is a direct transposition of the first edition, it is possible to reconstruct the upper part. Lavallière, ——. Six sonates en duo pour le tambourin avec un violon seul . . . suivies des principes généraux pour connoître . . . l’étendue du flûtet; et l’accord des tambourins . . . on peut exécuter ces sonates sur le haut-bois, flûte, violon et pardessus de viole, la vièle et la musette peuvent jouer le premier dessus en C sol ut. Paris, 1749. [BN Vm7 6686] Music for tambourin consists of an end-blown flute accompanied by a tuned drum with ropes stretched across the head to create a rattle. It is a combination found in the folk music of southern France; in the eighteenth century, it enjoyed a short vogue as a salon instrument. Lavigne, Philibert de. Ier. Oeuvre de Mr. de Lavigne, contenant six suites de pièces à deux musettes qui conviennent aux vièles, flûtes à bec, flûtes traversières et hautbois. Paris, 1731. [BN Vm7 6736] Philibert de Lavigne was probably employed as a musette player by the Comte d’Ayen and, judging from the dedications in his works, moved in the highest aristocratic circles. His first collection is a set of six easy suites playable on the vielle as well as on the musette. ——— . Sonates pour la musette, vielle, flûte-à-bec, haubois, &c. avec la basse . . . II e. Oeuvre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1739. [BN Vm7 6737] Six sonatas for solo-bass eminently playable on the vielle. Modern edition in two volumes (each sonata also available singly): Heinrichshofen N3434, N3449. ——— . Les Fleurs. Pièces pour les musettes ou vielles, avec accompagnement de violon ou de flûte. Oeuvre 4e . Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. [BN Vm7 6738] Character pieces and dance movements for musette or vielle with an accompaniment that is most appropriate for the violin (a number of pieces go below the range of the flute). Modern edition: Amadeus, 2 vols., GM553, GM554. Lemaire, Jean (l’aîné). Suite pour la vièle et la musette avec accompagnement de basse ou violon . . . Oeuvre IV. Paris, after 1751. [BN Vm7 6695] Expressive markings in this collection of two dozen pieces indicate that it is specifically intended for the vielle. The style is more galant than baroque. This is one of the few works that specifically eliminates the keyboard from the bass, although playing solo-bass music without harpsichord may have been a common procedure. Lemaire, Louis (1693 or 1694–ca. 1750). La musette. Cantatille nouvelle avec accompag t de musette, vielle hautbois et violons. Paris, 1735. [BN Pc Cons. D.6831(18)] Lemaire composed about sixty-six cantatilles, most of which were first performed at the Palais du Luxembourg or the Tuileries. Two list the vielle as an alternative on the title page. This cantatille requires both musette and vielle. The latter functions in several places as an alternative to the violin parts. It also has a duet with the musette.

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——— . Les plaisirs champêtres. 2me musette. Cantatille nouvelle . . . avec accompagnement de musette, vielle, flûtes, violons, &c. Paris, 1738. [BN Vm7 305] In this cantatille, the vielle is simply an alternative to the musette. ——— . Climène et Tircis, 5eme musette. Cantatille nouvelle pour un dessus, avec accompagnement de fluttes, violons, et musette. Paris, 1744. [BN Vm7 316] Le Marchand, ——. Nouvelle suitte d’airs pour deux tambourins, musettes ou vielles . . . lorsque l’on executera ces pièces sur la musette ou sur la vielle, l’on suposera la clef de sol sur la première ligne comme elle est marquée au commencemt de chaque air; l’on peut aussi executer ces pièces avec une musette du cinq et un tambourin. Paris, 1735–1740. [BN Pc X.608(8)] ——— . Six suites d’airs en duo pour le tambourin . . . 1ère oeuvre; ces duo se peuvent executer sur la vielle, la musette, flûte traversière, haubois, pardessus de viole et autres instrumens. Paris, 1753–1758. [BN Pc Cons. A.35.473] Lemenu de Saint Philbert, Christophe. Premier livre de cantatilles. Six cantatilles en symphonie. Paris, 1742. [BN Vm7 4822] Contains the composer’s cantatille La Vielle for solo vielle, soprano, and continuo (also published separately). Michon, ——. Divertissements champêtres en quatre suittes avec la basse et deux dessus pour vielles, muzettes, fluttes et hautbois et autres instrumens . . . premier oeuvre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. [BN Vm7 6696] This composer is not to be confused (as several writers have been) with a Mlle. Michon, who composed some airs in the seventeenth century. Michon’s work is among the finest composed for the vielle in the eighteenth century. The first work consists of three solo-bass suites, two in C and one in G. These suites are labelled “divertissement,” which calls attention to their orchestral features. There is also an unaccompanied Suite en duo for vielle and musette. Although this combination was probably common, this suite is unique in its specific directions for this combination. ——— . Amusemens de chambre avec la basse continue et une sonatte dans le goût italien et une suitte en duo pour vieille [sic], musette et autres instrumens . . . second oeuvre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. [BN Vm7 6697] As the title indicates, this work begins with an extensive suite of dances followed by a sonata with both French and Italian characteristics. These are followed by a suite for two vielles. These works are notable for their harmonic richness, tuneful melodies, and features of the incipient galant style. Montéclair, Michel Pignolet de (1667–1737). See Nicolas Chédeville. ——— . Troisième concert dessus & basse, par Mr Montéclair[.] Les airs qui composent ce troisième concert conviennent à la musette, à la vielle, au haubois, au violon, au dessus de violle, a la flûte-traversière, et à la flûte-à-bec. Paris, 1724. [BN Vm7 6491 contains all six concerts] Found in the Concerts pour la flûte traversière avec la basse chiffrée, this work requires considerable adaptation for performance on the vielle, since it is filled with double-stops and low F-sharps. Facsimile edition: Florence, Archivum Musicum 11. Naudot, Jacques-Christophe (ca. 1690–1762). VIIe oeuvre contenant six sonates et un caprice en trio pour deux flûtes traversières, violons et hautbois, avec la basse dont il y a en a trois qui peuvent se jouer sur musettes, vièles et flûtes à bec . . . Paris, n.d., ca. 1731–1734. [BN Vm7 6631]

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The premier dessus of Sonata II (G), Sonata IV (G), and Sonata VI (C) are playable on the vielle (or musette). The deuxième dessus is playable only on the transverse flute, violin, and oboe. ——— . Huitième oeuvre de Mr Naudot, contenant six Fêtes rustiques pour les musettes, vièles, flutes, haubois, & violons, avec la basse . . . Paris, n.d., ca. 1731–1734. [BN Vm7 6719] These works are trios for a drone instrument (musette or vielle) and a melody instrument (flute, oboe, or violin). Two of them are unplayable on the vielle due to low F-sharps. Of the four remaining, two listed below are available in modern editions. These trios have concerto-like features that contrast the melody and drone instruments, providing solos for each. Modern edition: Trio III, Schott Music 5360. Trio I, Schott Antiqua, vol. 82. ——— . Dixiéme oeuvre contenant VI. babioles pour II. vièles, musettes, flûtes-à-bec, flûtes traversières, haubois ou violons, sans basse. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737. [BN Vm7 6693] Six suites of character pieces and dance movements. These works are among the best duos suitable for the vielle. Modern edition: Schott Music, 2 vols., 5734, 5735. ——— . XIVe oeuvre, contenant six sonates pour une vièle avec la basse, dont trois sont mêlées d’accord . . . Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. [BN Vm7 6694] Six difficult solo-bass works modeled on the sonata da chiesa. The last three sonatas exploit double-stops more thoroughly than any other composer for the vielle. ——— . XVIIe oeuvre . . . contenant sonates en quatre parties pour les vièles, musettes, flûtes traversières, flûtes à bec et hautbois, 2 violons et basse . . . Paris, n.d., ca. 1740–1742. [BN Vm7 6744] Although fully playable by the instruments listed on the title page, these works are dedicated to the legendary vielle virtuoso Danguy. Along with the concertos of Corrette, they are the only true concertos for the vielle. Modern edition: Concerto no. 2, Edition Schott Music 5680. Concerto no. 4 in G major, Hortus Musicus vol. 153. ——— . Les plaisirs de Champigny ou Suite en trio pour une musette ou vièle, une flûte et un violon. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. ——— . Divertissement champêtre en trio, pour musette ou vièle une flûte et un violon . . . Paris, 1749. [BN Vm7 6720] The instrumentation of this trio and the following for musette or vielle, flute, and violin unaccompanied is unique in the repertory. They are also highly effective. These trios are suites with dance movments and character pieces. Piffet le cadet, [Joseph Antoine?]. Sonates en duo pour le violon qui peuvent se jouer sur la musette et vielle. Paris, n.d. [BN Vm7 2632] These works can be played as duos with musette or vielle and violin. The range of the upper part has a range appropriate to the former instruments, while the lower part is quite idiomatic for the violin with its extensive use of the lower strings and multiple stops. Prieur, ——. Premier oeuvre contenant six suites de pièces pour la musette ou vielle avec la basse continue; qui conviennent aux flûtes, et hautbois, etc. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734–1737. [GBLbm g.96]

THE REPERTORY  ◇ 83

Six technically modest suites of dance movements equally playable on musette or vielle. Prudent, ——. (d. ca. 1780). Les bouquets de Chassenay. Pour la viele, musette et dessus de viole avec accompagnement de basse et violon. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. [BN Vm7 6705] This work contains four solo-bass sonatas and two for violin and vielle. This work fully exploits the two-octave range and is noteworthy for its extensive use of counterpoint. Rameau, Jean-Philippe (1683–1764). Deuxième recueil d’airs choisi des opéras . . . ajustés pour les musettes et vielle, avec un violon. Paris, 1752. Although Rameau is known to have written or arranged works for the vielle, these duos for vielle and violin were probably prepared by an anonymous musician. The collection consists of six suites of dances. Private collection. Ravet, ——. Suittes et sonates à deux vièles et avec la basse continue. Livre Ier. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. [BN L.12.653] Three unaccompanied duos and three solo-bass sonatas. ——— . Sonates pour la vielle qui conviennent aux musettes, flûtes, hautbois & violons. Oeuvre IIe . Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. [NL.DH.gm] This work contains five solo-bass sonatas, each with a programmatic title, and three duos for vielle and violin. Virtuosity consists of rapid scale passages and double-stops. Senaillié, Jean Baptiste (ca. 1688–1730). Sonates . . . ajustées pour les musettes et vielles. Amsterdam, n.d., ca. 1735. [BN Vm7 6739] One of the few works for the musette and vielle published outside France. It contains sixteen sonatas transcribed from Senallié’s five books of solo-bass sonatas published between 1710 and 1727. These transcriptions depart considerably from the originals and even include new movements. They are, however, quite effective for the musette and vielle and have been designed to work for both instruments. Parts that go too high for the musette are provided with an alternate passage in a lower range. Spourni, Wenceslaus Joseph. VI Sonates pour une musette ou vielle, violon et basse . . . Oeuvre 6. Paris, n.d., ca. 1741–1742. [BN Vm7 7703(1–3)] Although these works are playable on both musette and vielle, they are clearly intended for the former. In spite of vigorous Italianate themes, these works are harmonically unadventurous. Tolou, A. VI Sonates pour les musettes et vielles, avec une flûte seule . . . livre premier. Paris, 1741. [GBLbm K.7.f16] Duos with an upper part for the flute and a lower part for musette or vielle. Although these works are fully playable on the vielle, they are quite difficult to realize musically. Vivaldi, Antonio (1678–1741) (pseud.). Il pastor fido, sonates pour la musette, vielle, flûte, hautbois, violon, avec la basse continue. Opera XIIIa. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737. [Washington, DC, Library of Congress, M990.V85; Case, also Allemagne, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek] Arguably the best-known works in this literature because of their attribution to a well-known name. The individual movements of these sonatas are in fact arrangements of works by Vivaldi and others or at least based on themes by them. Modern edition: Hortus Musicus vol. 135.

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Voyenne, ——. Six suittes de simphonies pour deux musettes ou vielles. Elles ce [sic] peuvent ausi [sic] exécuter sur les violons, flutes, et hautbois . . . livre premier. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. [GBLbm g.536] Modern Edition: Mr. Voyenne, Six Suites for Two Recorders, Practicall Musicke Editions, 89 North Church St., Hornchurch, Essex, RM11 1ST GB.

II. Methods. See also IV. Manuscripts Anon. (Also referred to as the Ballard method, after the publisher, Jean-Baptiste Christophe Ballard [1663–1750]). Pièces choisies pour la vielle à l’usage des commençants avec des instructions pour toucher, & pour entretenir cet instrumentur entretenir cet instrument. Paris, 1732; new edition, 1742. [BN Vm8 V.3] Bordet, Toussaint. Méthode raisonnée pour apprendre la musique d’une façon plus claire et plus précise à laquelle on joint l’étendue de la flûte traversière, du violon, du pardessus de viole, de la vielle et de la musette, leur accord, quelques observations sur la touche desdits instruments et des leçons simples, mésurées et variées, suivies d’un recueil d’airs en duo faciles et connus pour la plus-part. Livre Ier. Paris, 1755. [BN Pc L.12.744(1)] Boüin, François. La Vielleuse habile, ou nouvelle méthode courte, très facile et très sure pour apprendre à jouer de la vielle . . . Oeuvre IIIe. Paris, 1761. [BN CV.8] Facsimile edition: Éditions Minkoff (together with Dupuits). Corrette, Michel (1709–1795). La belle vielleuse, méthode pour apprendre facilement, à jouer de la vielle, contenant des leçons ou les doigts sont marqués pour les commençans; avec des jolis airs et ariettes en duos deux suittes avec la basse et des chansons. Paris, 1783. [Bibl. Mun. De Rouen] Facsimile editions: (1) Saint-Denis-le Gast: Musiciens et Musique en Normandie, supplément, J.-F. Détrée, directeur, 1978. Introduction by Claude Flagel. (2) Éditions Minkoff, 1984. Dupuits, Jean-Baptiste (fl.1741–1757). Principes pour toucher de la vièle avec six sonates pour cet instrument qui conviennent aux violon, flûte, clavecin, &c . . . Oeuvre Ir. Paris, 1741. [BN Vm8 v-1] Facsimile edition: Éditions Minkoff (together with Boüin).

III. Music for the Vielle in Stage Works Brou, ——. La Noce de village. Ballet pantomime dansée sur le theâtre de l’Opera Comique foire St. Germain, le vingtme, ce qui peut s’exécuter sur la flûte, vielles [ou] musette, avec la basse continue, et pareillement utile pour les troupes de comédie en province. Paris, n.d., ca. 1741. [BN Pc Cons. A.34939] A collection of dances in D minor and major. They must be transposed and altered to be played on the vielle. Chauvon, François. Les Agréments champêtres. Pastorale . . . ce divertissement est à grand choeur, avec simphonies pour les violons, flûtes, hautbois, trompettes, tambourins, mu­ settes, vielles, cors-de-chasse, violles, violoncelles. Paris, 1736. [Bibl. de l’Arsenal, M.9] This work contains sections where vielles and musettes accompany choral passages. Lully, Jean-Baptiste (1632–1687). Ballet de l’impatience, LWV 14 [presented February 19, 1661. [BN Rés. F.519] Quatrième partie, III. “Entrée des aveugles” (LWV 14/50).

THE REPERTORY  ◇ 85

——— . Hercule amoureux, LWV 17 [presented February 7, 1662]. Lully composed for this tragedy the Ballet des sept planètes. The X. Entrée contains a scene titled “Pour les pellerins jouant de la vielle” (LWV 17/21). Mouret, Jean-Joseph (1682–1738). “Le Philosophe trompé par la nature.” Paris, n.d., ca. 1726. This work was first presented at the Comédie de Saint Jory in 1725. The music is found in the composer’s collection of music from the fair theaters Premier recueil des divertissements du mouveau theâtre italien augmenté de toutes les simphonies, accompagnemens airs de violons, de flûtes, de hautbois, de musettes, airs italiens et de plusieurs divertissemens qui n’ont jamais paru. [BN Vm6 46] Rameau, Jean-Philippe. Les fêtes de l’Hymen et de l’Amour, ou les Dieux d’Egypt. Ballet héroïque en trois entrées et un prologue [presented March 15, 1747]. Vielles and musettes are doubled and accompany the chorus in what is meant to be an overwhelming conclusion.

IV. Manuscripts Berkeley, University of California, Berkeley, Music Library, Ms.863. “Recueil d’Ariettes et de differens airs arrangés pour 2 vielles par le Sr. Le Marchand appartenant à Monsieur Le Comte de Jumillac Colonel du Régiment Royal La Marine Paris l’an 1762.” This manuscript contains seventy pieces, some of which are extracted from opéras comiques. Some are also by Le Marchand himself. Le Mans, Médiathèque Louis-Aragon, fonds Maine, ms.413-Mi231. “Cahier de la Marquise de Vibraye.” For a discussion of this manuscript, see Granger (in bibliography). My thanks to Paul Fustier for providing me with a copy of these materials. Nîmes, Bibl. Mun., ms. 738. “Recueil d’airs choisis de differents autheurs transposez pour la viele.” This manuscript originally belonged to Charles Emmanuel de Crussol, Duc d’Uzes (1707–1762). Paris, Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal, Ms.2547. Prepared for a provincial official around 1740, this manuscript contains (approximately) 473 arrangements of the most popular pieces of music of the period arranged for the vielle alone or in duo for two unaccompanied vielles. These pieces can be categorized as (1) works by individual composers, (2) popular songs, (3) noëls, (4) fanfares and other works for trumpets, and (5) dances. The largest single group is 149 menuets. Among the composers included are Lully, Montéclair, Marin and Roland Marais, Louis de Caix d’Hervelois, Forqueray, François Couperin, Rebel, Duval, and Destouches. The manuscript contains over a dozen pieces by Danguy, the only surviving works of this legendary player. Bröcker (see bibliography), 315–316, discusses this manuscript without citing its location. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cons. L.12.847. “Recueil d’airs pour la vielle.” Collection of airs, dances, and assorted pieces without accompaniment originally from the library of Mme. de Senozan. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cons. Rés. 1177. “Airs choisis pour la viele avec les principes généraux.”

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This manuscript is a draft of a method that was never published. It consists of an instructional section and a selected group of arrangements of works by other composers, such as Handel and Geminiani. It also includes the anonymous author’s variations on these arrangements. The many blank pages, which were probably projected to be additional pieces, testify to its incomplete state. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms.Vm7 3643, “Recueil de Contredanses transposée[s] pour la vielle.” This manuscript of 383 pages contains over 800 arrangements of well-known melodies for vielle and bass. It was certainly arranged by Michon, although his name does not appear on it. For incipits, see Jules Ecorcheville, Catalogue du fonds de musique anciene de la Bibliothèque Nationale, vol. 5. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms.Vm7 4862, “Recueil de Musettes, de menuets et de contredanses recherchées par M. Michon.” Eighty-one folios of more than 200 unaccompanied dance melodies. See Ecorcheville, Catalogue, vol. 1, 176, for incipits.

V. Unlocated Works There are three sources for the following list: (1) the composer’s catalogue of his works as found at the beginning of one of his publications, (2) advertisements in the Mercure de France and other journals and newspapers of the period, and (3) publishers’ catalogues. The latter two sources are tabulated in the two works of Anik Devriès (see bibliography). In many cases, announcements were printed in multiple sources. I have included here only one source. Others are listed in Devriès. Given below is a composer, the approximate title, an approximate date, and the most accurate source of a date. Anon. Etrennes: Solo pour les musettes et vielles. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. Leclerc catalogue, 1742. Anon. La Feste d’Angélique: Solo pour les musettes et vielles. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. Leclerc catalogue, 1751. Anon. Principes de vielles et pièces choisies. Paris, 1734. Leclerc catalogue, 1734. Anon. Six sonates pour la vielle, musette, violon, flûtes, hautbois & par-dessus de violes; quatre avec la basse-continue et deux en duo, dédiées à madame la comtesse de Rocheplatte par M.xxx, maître de vielle. Oeuvre deuxième. AvantCourier, 1762, 492. Besozzi, Alexandre. Concerto pour les musettes et vielles: Les Festes champêtres. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. Leclerc catalogue, 1751. Boismortier, Joseph Bodin de. Quatre gentilesses, Pour les musettes, vièles, ou autres instrumens, avec le bass, op. 79. Paris, n.d., ca. 1740. Composer’s catalogue. ——— . Six sonates en trio, Pour tous les instrumens & principalement, pour une vièle ou musette avec un violon et la basse, op. 96. Paris, n.d., ca. 1741. Composer’s catalogue. Boüin, Jean-François. 2ème Livre de sonates pour la vielle et autres instrumens. Paris, n.d., ca. 1753. Annonces, affiches et avis divers, May 28, 1753, 334. Bourgeois, Louis. Trio pour les musettes et vielles: Ière Suitte. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742– 1751. Leclerc catalogue, 1751. Buterne, Charles. Solo pour les musettes et vielles, Premier livre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742– 1751. Leclerc catalogue, 1751.

THE REPERTORY  ◇ 87

Chauvet, Etienne-Siméon. Duo pour les musettes et vielles: 1er livre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. Leclerc catalogue, 1751. Colini, (Mlle). Pièces pour les musettes et vielles: Quatre livres de menuets. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734–1737. Leclerc catalogue, 1737. Cordelet, Claude. Solo pour les musettes et vielles: 1er livre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742– 1751. Leclerc catalogue, 1751. D. (some of the following may be the work of Danguy) ——— . Concerto comique par D . . . pour les musettes et vielles. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737– 1742. Leclerc catalogue, 1742. ——— . Pièces pour les musettes et vielles par D. 1er livre en duo. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737– 1742. Leclerc catalogue, 1742. ——— . Solo pour les musettes et vielles. 1er livre par D. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. Leclerc catalogue, 1742. Danguy. Les Plaisirs du jour ou Recueil d’airs choisis ajustés pour la vielle ou la musette. Paris, 1769. David, François. Duo pour les musettes et vielles: premier livre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1751. Leclerc catalogue, 1751. Denis, Pietro. Six duos de mandolines qu’on peut exécuter avec le violon ou pardessus-de viole & deux avec la vielle & musette composés par le Sgr Denis & mis au jour par M. Echaud, maître de mandoline. Paris, n.d., ca. 1764. Annonces, affiches et avis divers, January 5, 1764, 18. Derochet, Louis. Pièces pour les musettes et vielles: Menuets et plusieurs airs. Paris, n.d., ca. 1734–1737. Leclerc catalogue, 1737. ——— . Le Jaloux, Concerto Pantomime, executé et dansé sur le Théâtre de la Comédie Italienne, pour les violons, flûtes, hautbois, vielles et musettes avec la basse continuë et basson. Mercure de France, June 1737, 1397. ——— . Duo pour les musettes et vielles: 2e livre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. Leclerc catalogue, 1742. ——— . Les Nouvelles Bagatelles. Paris, n.d., ca. 1740. Mercure de France, December 1740, 2917–2919. Deshayes, Claude. Premier livre de sonates pour deux flûtes traversières, et qui viennent au violon, hautbois, viele et musette en ravalement. Paris, n.d., ca. 1731. Mercure de France, April 1731. Filosarti, ——. Concerto pour les musettes et vielles. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. Leclerc catalogue, 1751. Gianotti, Pietro. Duo pour les musettes et vielles: 8e livre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. Leclerc catalogue, 1751. ——— . Trio pour les musettes et vielles: 14e livre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1751–1753. Leclerc catalogue, 1753. ——— . Les Petits Concerts de Daphnis et Chloé. Paris, n.d., ca. 1760–1762. Leclerc catalogue, 1762. ——— . Les Soirées de Limiel. Paris, n.d., ca. 1762. Leclerc catalogue, 1760–1762. ——— . Les Soirées de Boulevard. Sonates pour les violes [sic] ou musettes & un violon, Oeuvre XX. Paris, n.d., ca. 1764. L’Avant-Coureur, November 19, 1764, 747. ——— . Les Vendanges de Sologne. Paris, n.d., ca. 1764. L’Avant-Coureur, November 19, 1764, 747. Giardini, Felice. Concerto pour les musettes et vielles: Concerto comique. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. Leclerc catalogue, 1751.

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Guillemain, Louis Gabriel. Pièces pour deux vielles, musettes, flûtes ou violon, op. 9. Paris, n.d., ca. 1741. Composer’s catalogue. ——— . Simphonies d’un goût nouveau en forme de concerto pour les musettes, vielles, flûtes ou hautbois, op. 16. Paris, n.d., ca. 1752. Composer’s catalogue. Guillon, Henri Charles. Duo pour les musettes et vielles: 1er livre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. Leclerc catalogue, 1742. ——— . Duo, 2e livre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1744. Mercure de France, February 1744, 367–68. Lavallière, ——. Six Sonates en duo pour le tambourin, accompagné d’un violon seul; dédiées à M. le Comte de la Blache, Marechal de camp des Armées du Roi, par M. Lavallière l’aîné Maître de musique & de tambourin; Oeuvre II. Elles peuvent s’exécuter sur le violon, flûtes, hautbois, clarinettes, par-dessus de violle, mandoline, guitarre, & sur la vielle & la muzette en les transportant en C. sol ut . . . Paris, n.d., ca. 1777. Lavigne, Philibert de. Trios pour les musettes et vielles: 3e Livre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. Leclerc catalogue, 1742. Lemaire, Jean (l’aîné). Duo, musettes et vielles: 3e livre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. Leclerc catalogue, 1751. Lemaire, Louis (1693 or 1694–ca. 1750). Fanfares ou concerts de chambre pour violon, flûte, hautbois, musette et vielle. Paris, 1741. ——— . Climène et Tircis, 5eme musette. Cantatille nouvelle pour un dessus, avec accompagnement de fluttes, violons, et musette. Paris, 1744. [BN Vm7 316] P. Principes pour la vielle par M. P. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. Leclerc catalogue, 1742. Petit, ——. Solo pour les musettes et vielles: 1er livre de menuets. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. Leclerc catalogue, 1742. Prota, Tomaso. Trio pour les musettes et vielles: 1er livre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. Leclerc catalogue, 1742. Rameau, Jean-Philippe. Duo pour les musettes et vielles (de pièces recueillies des opéras): 1er livre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1737–1742. Leclerc catalogue, 1742. Ravet. Six Sonates pour la vielle, dont deux avec la basse-continue, & quatre avec un accompagnement de violon, par-dessus de viole, flûte hautbois, & autres instruments . . . Oeuvre IIIème. Paris, n.d., ca. 1755. Annonces, affiches et avis divers, February 13, 1755, 93. Spourni, Wenceslas. Solo pour les musettes et vielles: 1ère suitte. Paris, n.d., ca. 1742–1751. Leclerc catalogue, 1751. ——— . Duo pour les musettes et vielles: 1ère suitte, 16e livre. Paris, n.d., ca. 1743. Leclerc catalogue, 1744. ——— . Différents musiques pour les vielles et musettes: Concertino 4e. Paris, n.d., ca. 1743. Leclerc catalogue, 1744.

8 5. The Vielle in the Literature of Seventeenthand Eighteenth-Century France

A

round 1648 the poet and courtier Vauquelin des Yveteaux (ca. 1567–1649) left the sensual pleasures he had enjoyed in Paris and went into retirement in the town of Brianval near Meaux. In the following poem he contrasts his previous life in Paris at the court of Henry IV with the “natural” existence of the countryside: We have here health, Repose and freedom. Our natural music Is an excellent vielle, But we have when we wish Three or four violins. If we are tired of the musette, A harp or spinet. Birds are heard in these woods Where Cloris her beautiful voice 89

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Which sounds like that of an angel Continues in spite of the grape harvest. Nous avons icy la santé, Le repos et la liberté; Nostre musique naturelle, C’est une excellante vielle, Mais nous avons quand nous voulons, Trois ou quatre violons; Si l’on est las de la musette, De la harpe ou de l’epinette, On oit les oiseaux dans les bois Ou de Cloris la belle voix, Qui, pareille à celle d’un ange. Se maintenant malgré le vendange.1 Here, Vauquelin refers to the vielle as a part of the “natural music” around him and associates it with a bucolic ideal—an association that would eventually lead to the acceptance of the vielle among the upper classes in eighteenth-century France. This representation in the seventeenth century, in an era that usually placed the vielle in the hands of beggars as a despised instrument, foreshadows this treatment of the vielle as a pastoral instrument. Vauquelin’s poem is also an early example of how the frequent references to the vielle in the literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries can serve to illuminate and enlarge our understanding of how the vielle was viewed in contemporary society. References to the vielle in the Satires of Mathurin Regnier (1573–1613) reveal a different and more commonly held view of the instrument in the early seventeenth century, an attitude that would characterize its appearance in literature for the next century or so. In Satire IV (ca. 1605), Regnier relates a speech by his father, who attempts to dissuade him from becoming a poet and to persuade him to become a soldier instead: Joker, leave these verses, and what do you think you are doing? The Muse is useless and if your uncle [Philippe Desportes, court poet, 1546–1606] knew How to advance himself in this art you would see yourself disappointed . . . Do you think the lute and the lyre of the poets Are in tune with the music of trumpets, Fifes, drums, the cannon and sword,

1. “Une Rime aue Des Yveteaux a faite en se promenant un matin a Brianval et qu’il envoya à cinq ou six de ses amis,” Oeuvres complètes de Nicolas Vauquelin des Yveteaux, edited by Georges Mongrédien (Paris: Picard, 1921): 128.

THE VIELLE IN LITERATURE  ◇ 91

The extravagant ensemble of the musics of the inferno . . . The greatest of tons tans instilled in the blood, As in Thrace will be brutally nourished, Who among those stout fellows would love the lyre of the muse Any more than the vielle or cornemuse. Badin, quitte ces vers, et que penses tu faire? La Muse est inutile et si ton oncle [Desportes] a sçeu S’avancer par cet’art, tu t’y verras deçeu . . . Pense-tu que le lut et la lyre des poetes S’accorde d’armonie avecques les trompettes, Les fiffres, les tambours, le canon et le fer, Concert extravagant des musiques d’enfer . . . Les plus grands de ton tans dans le sang aguerris, Comme en Trace seront brutalement nourris, Qui rudes n’aymeront la lyre de la Muse Non plus qu’une vielle ou qu’une cornemuse.2 Here the poet’s lyre is equated with the lowest of the lowly instruments and is dismissed as an instrument whose music goes unheard against the backdrop of warlike instruments. Of course, Regnier does not agree with his father or take his advice. Further, he would disagree with his father’s association of the vielle with the lyre, although, as Paul Fustier has pointed out, classical associations with the vielle would later grant new status for the instrument.3 In Satire IX (ca. 1606), Regnier launches an attack on François de Malherbe (1555–1628), the great classicist, and his followers. It seems, in their haughty and noble discourse, That the flying horse would pee only for them, That Phoebus tunes his vielle to their pitch, That the mouth of the Greeks speaks in honeyed tones That they alone here below have only been able to capture. Il semble, en leurs discours hautains et généreux, Que le cheval volant n’ait pissé que pour eux, Que Phoebus [Apollon] à leur ton accorde sa vielle, Que la mouche du Grec leurs lèvres emmielle, Qu’ils ont seuls icy bas trouvé la pie au nit.4

2. Mathurin Regnier, Oeuvres complètes, edited by Gabriel Raibaud (Paris: Klincksieck, 1995): 42. 3. Paul Fustier, La Vielle à roue dans la musique baroque française. Instrument de musique, objet mythique, objet fantasmé?, (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006): 17–19. 4. Regnier, 94.

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Here Regnier substitutes the vielle for the traditional lyre d’Apollon, or lute, for a satirical effect that accords with the earthy references that precede it. This treatment of the instrument as an object of humor and basis for satire in Regnier’s poem represents a common use by other authors in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that persisted even after the vielle had achieved upperclass status. This slant distinguishes the treatment of the vielle in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from its appearance in literature from any other period. In the first part of this book we saw how the works of Mersenne and others demonstrated contempt and even loathing for the vielle. With attitudes like this publicly expressed, it is understandable how the vielle became an object of derision and the butt of humor. It is a short step from these musical sources to the use of the vielle in literature, where these attitudes are played out in more sophisticated ways. Let us more closely examine two novels that bracket the period under discussion, Charles Sorel’s Histoire comique de Francion (first edition, 1623) and Claude Crébillon’s novel L’Écumoire from 1733. Sorel (1602–1674) was a novelist and historian and Histoire comique de Francion is a picaresque work heavily influenced by Don Quixote with the exception that, as the author points out, the hero is a gentleman. Francion is intelligent, educated, and generous. As he tells the story of his life, we meet his college tutor Hortensius, who is a perfect foil for the hero. He is from a lowly, poor background and unlike his pupil, he is stupid and cruel. In attempting to play the gentleman, he highlights his own shortcomings, demonstrating the futility of attempting to better one’s lot in life rather than being content with remaining a member of the social class one was born to. In one characteristic scene, Hortensius attempts to seduce a young lady of the upper classes by adopting strategies he fancies are associated with his betters with laughable results. He pretends to write her an original poem that he has in fact memorized from a well-known author. She has read the poem and sees through his subterfuge. Three friends show up with a blind and beggarly vielle player in tow, and after dinner they all dance to his music. Encouraged to dance, Hortensius hesitates for fear they all will see the holes in his threadbare clothes, so he dances in his cloak, making a ridiculous spectacle of himself. After the departure of his friends, he takes up a viol and begins to play a duet with the vielle, but he does not know how to play the instrument and the resulting cacophony attracts the attention of the principal of the college, who enters Hortensius’s room demanding to know what is taking place. The vielleux explains his presence and gives his account of the evening: “Alas, Monsieur, excuse me,” said the vielle player. “I only go where I am led; my poor light is extinguished. A man whom I do not know bade me come here and sent my eyes back to the house, telling him that I need them only tomorrow morning, when they could call for me.” “What do you mean, your eyes?” said the principal.

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“I call a little boy who leads me this,” answered the vielle player, “because he tells me what he sees in the street, and I receive it in my imagination as if I saw it also. O good Jesus, I wish he were here to lead me to a bed somewhere else than here where enough evil has been done me. When I asked for a drink, I was given a glass the bottom of which was covered with shit, and while the odor displeased me, my thirst forced me to put it to my wide open mouth, and I gulped down a lot of urine which was in the glass before I recognized that it was not wine. That is not all: this fine musician here, who played with me, beat me like a plaster after having berated me in Latin that bruised my soul as much as the blows of his fists bruised my ribs.” Hélas, Monsieur, pardonnez-moi! dit le vielleux. Je ne vais que là où l’on me mène; mon pauvre luminaire est éteint. Un homme que je ne connais pas m’a fait venir ici et renvoyé mes yeux à la maison, leur disant que je n’avait que faire d’eux jusqu’à demain au matin, qu’ils me viendraient requérir. Qu’est-ce à dire, vos yeux ? dit le principal. J’appelle ainsi un petit garçon qui me conduit, répond le vielleux, parce qu’il me dit ce qu’il voit dans la rue, et je le reçois en mon imagination comme si je le voyais aussi. Ô bon Jésus, je voudrais qu’il fût ici pour me mener coucher autre part que céans, où l’on m’a déjà bien fait du mal! Tantôt j’ai demandé à boire, l’on m’a donné un verre dont le pied était tout emmerdé, et quoique l’odeur m’en déplût, la soif que j’avais m’a forcé de le porter à ma bouche, qui ens’ouvrant fort large a englouti beaucoup d’urine qui était dedans avant que j’eusse reconnu que ce n’était pas du vin. Ce n’est pas tout: ce beau musicien-ci, qui jouait avec moi, m’a battu comme plâtre après m’avoir bien dit du latin qui me froissait autant l’âme que ses coups de poing me froissaient les côtes.5 He then asks the principal, whose voice he recognizes, to take him back to the cabaret where he lives. The principal is insulted by the request that he play the guide but excuses the vielle player because “you do not have eyes to see who I am.” 6 The vielle player, however, continues, “Oh, monsieur, I played all evening, and I was promised a quarter of an écu for my salary, give it to me!”7 Eventually the principal promises to make sure that the vielle player is paid and takes him to his home for the night so the quarrel will not continue and the concert will cease. 5. Charles Sorel, Histoire comique de Francion, Édition de 1633 (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1996): 209–210. 6. Ibid., 210: “Car vous n’avez pas ici vos yeux pour voir qui je suis.” 7. Ibid.: “Oh, Monsieur, j’ai joué toute la soirée, l’on m’avait promis un quart d’écu pour mon salaire, donnez-le-moi!”

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There are two reasons for including the vielle player in this scene. First, as Gabrielle Verdier points out, Sorel observes that people are such asses that they will read his novel as mere entertainment and will laugh rather than cry at the spectacle of their own brutality.8 This grimly comic and at the same time barbarous scene elicits just such a schizophrenic reaction on the part of the reader. Second, Hortensius’s interaction with the vielle player serves to highlight the deficient qualities of his character. His musical inabilities coupled with his meanness in refusing to give the vielle player even the pittance promised for his work demonstrate how unfit he is to assume the airs of a gentleman and how different he is from the hero Francion. The juxtaposition of a viol, a gentleman’s instrument, with the vielle, here presented as the lowest of all instruments, and the resulting cacophony serve to highlight the comic absurdities that lie at the heart of Histoire comique de Francion. When Claude Crébillon wrote his satirical novel L’Écumoire a century later, the vielle had been adopted by the upper classes and instruments of surpassing beauty and sound graced the homes of many wealthy and highly enthusiastic amateurs. However this enthusiasm for playing the instrument did nothing to dispel the satirical treatment of the vielle in literature established in previous periods. Crébillon (1707–1777), never able to escape the shadow of his illustrious father, the poet and dramatist Prosper Crébillon (1674–1762), was known as Crébillon fils throughout his life. He has been regarded as somewhat less talented than his father, perhaps because the libertine, not to say prurient, nature of some of his novels has overshadowed his literary achievements. In 1733 he was instrumental in founding the Société des dîners au caveau, a group of men of letters who met regularly for discussion and debate. Among its members were many of the most important figures of the early opéra comique, including Alexis Piron, Charles Collé, the Abbé Sallé, and Louis Fuzelier. This was a repertory heavily dominated by parody and satire, and the conversation inevitably involved issues related to these subjects. Another attendee at these meetings was the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau, who had worked with Piron in the early 1720s composing the music for his opéras comiques. L’Écumoire, Crébillon fils’s satirical novel of 1733, is probably inspired at least in part by his association with the Société des dîners au caveau. Externally it is a conte de fée or fairy tale, a literary genre that was popular in the period. A young Japanese (or Chechian) prince Tanzaï is betrothed to the Princess Néadarné, the daughter of a neighboring king. As the result of a curse, his penis turns into a slotted spoon on his wedding night, and the rest of the novel is devoted to recovering its use, marked by numerous adventures. In the course of these escapades, he recovers his virility by sleeping with the fairy Concombre, and Néadarné sleeps with the libertine Joncquille. After this double adultery they are reunited.

8. Gabrielle Verdier, Charles Sorel (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1984): 43–44.

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Tanzaï’s passion for the vielle is a motive that provides a connecting link throughout the novel. In setting the background for this tale, Crébillon fils establishes the importance of the vielle in this way: While [Tanzaï’s] strongest [artistic inclination] was for poetry, he did not neglect the other arts; all the inquiring minds of Chechian had his tableaux in their chambers, and all the votive paintings in the grand temple were painted only by him. In Chechian operas were often presented with words and music that he had done himself. One could not deny that he had the best taste in the world, and nothing could signify it better than the preference he gave to the vielle over all other instruments. He had such an intense passion for it, that Céphaès [his father], who adopted blindly all the whims of the prince, had ordered suspended in all the towers of Chechian, in place of the drums which had previously called all the people to prayer, vielles of enormous size. The princes of the blood had been charged with the duty of playing them on necessary occasions, and for that they were decorated with the supreme title of vielle players [vielleurs] of the state. This position became one of the greatest in the kingdom, and the oldest of these vielle players was declared constable. The king, in order to give the dignity greater luster, honored those who had been invested with bearskin trousers garnished with chestnuts from India. [It was an] honor that could appear bizarre, but which, according to the biases of the people, was a mark of the most particular distinction.9 Quoique son goût le plus déterminé fût pour la poésie, il ne négligeait pas les autres arts; tous les curieux de Chéchian avaient de ses tableaux dans leurs cabinets, et tous les ex voto du grand temple n’étaient peints que par lui. On représentait souvent à Chéchian des opéras dont il avait fait lui-même la musique et les paroles. On ne saurait nier qu’il n’eût le meilleur goût du monde, et rien ne le marquait mieux que la préférence qu’il donnait à la vielle sur tous les autres instruments. Il avait une si vive passion pour elle, que Céphaès, qui adoptait aveuglément tous les caprices du prince, avait suspendre dans les tours des temples de Chéchian, au lieu des timbales qui appelaient auparavant les peuples à la prière, des vielles d’une grosseur énorme. Les princes du sang avaient été chargés du soin d’en jouer dans les occasions nécessaires; et pour cela, ils étaient décorés du titre suprême de grands vielleurs de l’état. Cette charge devint une des plus grandes du royaume, et le plus ancien des vielleurs était déclaré connétable. Le roi, pour donner à cette dignité un plus grand lustre, honora ceux qui en étaient pourvus, de la culotte de peau d’ours garnie de marrons d’Inde. Honneur qui peut paraître bizarre, mais qui, selon les préjugés de ce peuple, était la marque de la plus particulière distinction.

9. Crébillon fils (Claude), L’Écumoire ou Tanzaï et Néadarné. Histoire japonaise, edited by Ernest Sturm (Paris: A. G. Nizet, 1976): 108.

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No other instrument could have used in this device to achieve the same effect. The exaltation of the vielle here is an instance of classic irony in the eyes of the eighteenth century reader and an attack on the avid amateurs, including the royal family, who had adopted the instrument. This type of satire is also reflected in an engraving of Mont Parnasse discussed by Florence Gétreau.10 At the summit is a braying donkey and along the path leading to the top are several vielle players who are clearly of gentlemanly status. The instrument returns again and again throughout L’Écumoire; for example, it figures in the description of the wedding of Tanzaï and Néadarné: “Already the Grands Vielles enchanted the people with their music, the streets decorated with foliage and flowers.”11 Elsewhere in the novel the vielle returns as a form of social lubricant, as Tanzaï meets other enthusiasts with whom he plays duets and establishes friendships. These instances are probably reflective of actual musico-social situations in the eighteenth century. Thus the instrument helps to provide continuity to an otherwise picaresque adventure. The satirical nature of this work is particularly sensitive in that Tanzaï clearly represents the young Louis XV and the écumoire references the papal bull Unigenitas, the source of one of the most volatile political controversies of the period, pitting the king and his government against the Parlement. Indeed, the author spent some time in prison as a result of this book. L’Écumoire also served as satirical inspiration for part of the fanciful history provided by the maître de vielle in François Campion’s Lettre de Monsieur l’Abbé Carbasus (1739).12 Here the recitation of the story of Tanzaï to demonstrate how many illustrious people played the vielle adds another level of irony to the pamphlet, since all its readers knew that the invention of Tanzaï was itself an exercise in satire. The exotic nature of L’Écumoire, along with Denis Diderot’s Les Bijoux indiscrets, may also have served to inspire Jacques Cazotte (1719–1792), one of the strangest writers in French literary history.13 A government official, he established his literary reputation by publishing Les Prouesses inimitables d’Ollivier, 10. Florence Gétreau, “Les Belles vielleuses au siècle de Louis XV: Peinture d’une mode triomphante.” In Vielle à roue, territoires illimités, edited by Pierre Imbert, 90–103, (SaintJouin-de-Milly: FAMDT Éditions, 1996), 94. 11. Crébillon fils (Claude), L’Écumoire, 124: “Déjà les grandes vielles enchantaient le peuple par leur harmonie, les rues ornées de feuillages et de fleurs.” 12. Campion, François. Lettre de Monsieur l’Abbé Carbasus à Monsieur de *** auteur du Temple du Goust, sur la mode des instrumens de musique, ouvrage curieux & interressant pour les amateurs de l’harmonie (Paris: la Veuve Allouel, 1739), 15–16. Campion paraphrases the entire passage quoted above. 13. One of Cazotte’s gifts was the power of prophecy, and he is alleged to have predicted the French Revolution. He failed, however, to predict its impact upon him: his execution during the terreur.

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marquis d’Edesse in 1763. Like L’Écumoire, this work represents a parody of the epic tradition by Cervantes and Sorel and uses musical instruments, including the vielle, as important indicators of social status. An episode in “Chant 4” of Les Prouesses inimitables d’Ollivier provides an important example. A noble lady Fleurde-Myrthe has been forced to flee France and takes a ship to Syria, but on the way she is shipwrecked on a remote island near Cyprus. After her rescue by soldiers, she finds her attempts to speak are drowned out by the sound of people playing the flûtet and tambourin. She is led in the direction of the palace and along the way encounters many people playing musical instruments. One of these is an old lady whose physiognomy was quite imposing; she gravely approached Fleur-deMyrthe playing a vielle that she held hung at her side, a slow, bizarre, and free melody. Fleur-de-Myrthe wished to speak but at the first sound she spoke the old lady knit her brow, played her vielle with great liveliness, and finished by putting her hand over the mouth of the traveler to the point of causing her to gasp. dont la physionomie avoit quelque chose d’imposant; elle s’approcha gravement de Fleur-de-Myrthe, en jouant sur une vielle qu’elle tenoit pendue à son côté, un air lent, bizarre, et qui n’étoit nullement mesuré. Fleur-de-Myrthe veut parler; mais, au premier son qu’elle articule, la vieille fronce le sourcil, joue de sa vielle avec beaucoup de vivacité, et finit par porter la main sur la bouche de la voyageuse, au point de lui ôter la respiration. As Fleur-de-Myrthe approaches the palace, she enounters people playing more and more sophisticated instruments including the clavecin and basse de viole. She is informed that the inhabitants of the island have lost the ability to speak, probably as a result of a fairy’s curse, and they must communicate through music. The preferred instrument at the palace is the turlutaine de cour, a box with a crank (manivelle) filled with airs designed to express anything. The nouveaux riche buy contrefait turlutaines for their children in order to improve their social status, but they quickly reveal their true nature, since they always play out of tune. This episode establishes a clear social hierarchy of musical instruments, with the vielle placed among the folk instruments of the common people and associated with the bizarre nature of the old woman. At the same time, the turlutaine with its manivelle and supply of tunes may be a satirical reference to the upperclass fashion for the vielle. The artificially exclusive nature of the turlutaine emphasizes the absurdity of class distinctions. There is a strong connection between the satirical tradition reflected in the literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the instrument’s use on the musical stage. Jean-Christophe Maillard points to the appearance of the vielle as the headdress of a character directing the musicians in the ballet de cour of 1625,

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Le Ballet des fées des forêts de Saint-Germain.14 The presence of the instrument in the opéra comique that emerged at the beginning of the eighteenth century (the repertory of which centered around parody and satire) is not surprising. While little music survives, other evidence suggests its frequent presence. For example, Amadis le cadet (Amadis Junior), a parody of the opera Amadis de Grèce (1699) by André Cardinal Destouches (1672–1749), contains a scene where the hero Amadis, under the spell of the sorceress Melisse, is entertained by a group of her peasants. A peasant boy says to him, “Vous pouvez voir notre divertissement si vous n’avez rien qui vous presse, nous vous regalerons de la bonne Vielle du pays.” (You can see our entertainment if you have nothing that presses you [for time]. We will entertain you with a good vielle [player] from the region.)15 There follows a song that can be played on the vielle. This scene (as the footnotes to Amadis le cadet point out) is a satire on the elaborate divertissement that occurs at that point in the opera. In the next scene Melisse returns: “Je t’avois envoyé ces Violons & ces Vielles pour t’amuser pendant que je me coëfferois; mais j’ai refléchi que tu ne pourrois n’être pas assez d’enfant pour baguenader avec des paysans.” (I sent you these violin and vielle [players] to amuse you while I dressed, but I thought that you could not be enough of a child to mess around with these peasants.)16 Florence Gétreau points to an engraving of Bernard Picart showing the muses dancing at the Théâtre de la foire, a popular venue for the opera comique. The caption reads, “The muse of comedy assembles Poetry, Music, and Dance to compose her petits divertissements under the name Opéra Comique.” Music carries a vielle.17 A similar image of the vielle appears in Balthazar de Bonnecourse’s satirical poem Lutrigot (1686): Euterpe [music] appeared with her tambour de basque. Melpomene [tragedy] beat on a bronze basin. Erato [elegy] revealed a guitar in her hands. Thalie [comedy] making a face played the vielle, And Terpsichore [dance], this immortal woman, Quite recovered from her vain errors, Led the voices of Apollo and sisters.

14. Jean-Christophe Maillard, “La vielle en France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles,” in Vielle à roue: Territoires illimités, edited by Pierre Imbert, 10–29 (Saint-Jouin-de-Milly: FAMDT, 1996),15. 15. André Cardinal Destouches, Amadis le cadet parodie d’Amadis de Grèce, in Parodies du Nouveau Théâtre Italien, vol. 2 (Paris, 1738), 287. 16. Ibid., 288. 17. Florence Gétreau, “Les Belles vielleuses au siècle de Louis XV: Peinture d’une mode triomphante,” in Vielle à roue, territoires illimités (Saint-Jouin-de-Milly: FAMDT Éditions, 1996), 92.

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Euterpe se paroit de son tambour de basque. Melpomene frapoit sur un bassin d’airain. Erato s’y montroit la guitarre à la main. Thalie en grimaçant joüoit de la vielle, Et Terpsichore, cette fille immortelle, Fort revenuë alors de ses vaines erreurs, Animoit de la voix Apollon et ses sœurs.]18 A discussion of the representations of the vielle on the musical stage should also include Michel Corrette’s so-called concertos comiques for vielle or musette and string ensemble composed for the intermissions of the opéra comique. They satirize the concertos of Vivaldi, then the rage in France, by using ritornelli based on popular tunes. Recall too the references to the vielle in Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera Platée (1745); in Act II, La Folie, a character lifted from the opéra comique, where she makes frequent appearances, plays a vielle imitated by the orchestra. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the comical and satirical image of the vielle began to change. While many street musicians were vielleux, they no longer excited the same type of derision implied by the satirical references of the past. Rather, the humorous nature of vielle players was more rough and bawdy in nature and often included a titillating aura. Sébastien Mercier in the Tableau de Paris (1782–1788) describes the circus-like atmosphere of the Pont Neuf: “These Allobroges of every sex and age do not limit themselves to being messengers or chimney sweeps. Some carry a vielle under their arms and accompany it with a nasal voice.”19 The reason for the instrument’s association with chimney sweeps is unclear, but it occurs with enough frequency to occasion comment. Songs associated with chimney sweeps are invariably naughty, as the following text from an air found in Michel Corrette’s vielle method demonstrates: Serve yourselves here, my ladies, From all these good chimney sweeps. To eliminate whatever flames, That burn your tender hearts, We sweep your chimneys From top to bottom. We are journeymen, Who do not spare ourselves.

18. Balthazar de Bonnecouse, Lutrigot Poeme heroi-comique (Amsterdam, 1686), 32. 19. “Ces allobroges de tout sexe et de tout âge ne se bornent pas à être commissionaires ou rammoneurs. Les uns portent une vielle entre leurs bras, et l’accompagnent d’une voix nasale.” Sébastien Mercier, Tableau de Paris (Amsterdam, 1782), vol. 1–4, 102. The Allobroges were an ancient Celtic tribe centered in the area of Savoy.

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Servez vous ici mes Dames, De tous ces bons Ramoneurs. Pour éviter queles flâmes, ne brulent vos tendres cœurs; Ramonons vos cheminées, Tout du haut en bas, Et nous sommes gens dejournées, Qui ne s’épargnons pas.20 A similar portrait occurs in Jacques-Henri Bernardin de St. Pierre’s Études de la nature (1784): “Regard this little chimney sweep, the color of smoke, with his lantern, his vielle and his leather kneepads; he resembles a scarab. As he is called in Surinam the lantern carrier, [he] makes the night shine and sounds his vielle.”21 At the end of the eighteenth century this satirical and somewhat earthy view of the vielle player died away in favor of a more socially conscious image of the vielle player. The popular fictional vielle player Fanchon, a female street musician who played in the cafés along the newly constructed Champs-Élysées, may have contributed to the final disappearance of the satirical image. She was romanticized in about two dozen plays and comic operas, the most prominent being Donizetti’s Linda di Chamonix. A number of these works portrayed her as the long-lost daughter of a wealthy family taken from her bed as a child. As she plays a childhood song on her vielle in the street years later, she is recognized by her old nurse and restored to her former status after many vicissitudes. In the early nineteenth century, vielle players were viewed in two ways: first as downtrodden members of the lower classes, most often children accompanied by marmots and forced to beg in the streets, or, alternatively, as carefree musicians free of the burden of material possessions and free to go wherever the spirit might lead, somewhat like the miller in Franz Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin. As an example combining both these characterizations, we might cite Jean Valjean’s encounter with Petit Gervais in Les Misérables. After robbing the bishop, Valjean flees the city. [Resting at the side of the road], he turned his head and saw coming along the path a little Savoyard, a dozen years old, singing, with his vielle at his side, and his marmot box on his back. 20. Corrette, La Belle vielleuse. (Paris, 1783; Reprinted and edited by J.-F. Détrée with an introduction by Claude Flagel [Saint-Denis-le Gast: Musiciens et Musique en Normandie, 1978]). Claude Flagel has found this air in print as early as 1704. This air does not appear in the nineteenth-century edition of the method. 21. “Regardez ce petit ramoneur, de couleur de fumée, avec sa lanterne, sa vielle et ses genouillères ce cuir; il ressemble à un scarabée. Comme celui qui s’appelle, à Surinam, le portelanterne, il luit dans la nuit, et fait entendre le son d’une vielle.” Jacques-Henri Bernardin de St. Pierre, Études de la nature, vol. 3 (Paris, 1804), 319.

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One of those pleasant and gay youngsters who go from place to place, with their knees sticking through their trousers. Always singing, the boy stopped from time to time and played at knucklebones, tossing up some coins that he had in his hand, probably his whole fortune. Among them was one piece of forty sous. Il tourna la tête, et vit venir par le sentier un petit savoyard d’une dizaine d’années qui chantait, sa vielle au flanc et sa boîte à marmotte sur le dos. Un de ces doux et gais enfants qui vont de pays en pays, laissant voir leurs genoux par les trous de leur pantalon. Tout en chantant l’enfant interrompait de temps en temps sa marche et jouait aux osselets avec quelques pièces de monnaie qu’il avait dans sa main, toute sa fortune probablement. Parmi cette monnaie, il y avait une pièce de quarante sous.22 The forty-sou piece escapes him, and Jean Valjean puts his foot on it. In spite of the entreaties of the boy, he refuses to give it back and threatens him until the boy flees in terror. Later Valjean is overcome with remorse for his act of cruelty. The character of Petit Gervais was recreated for a postcard at the end of the nineteenth century. By the end of the nineteenth century, a growing interest in regionalism and folklore had developed, helped in France in no small part by the novels of George Sand which featured characters from Berry, her home region. This interest led to a similar image for the vielle, that of a beloved companion to the peasant, a tool for lightening his load and providing joy to his otherwise bleak existence. The vielle is prominent in the works of Henri Pourrat (1887–1959), whose regional tales became highly popular in the first decades of the twentieth century. The nineteenth century thus provides a real contrast with the treatment of the vielle in the eighteenth century. In retrospect we can say that during a period when the vielle played a prominent role in literature, it traced to some extent the fortunes of the instrument in society. Unique to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however, was the prominent use of the vielle as a satirical device that followed the instrument even as it crossed class boundaries. Whether as an instrument of the poor, ignorant, and boorish, or of the shallow and vain wealthy dilettante, the vielle signaled a comedic critique of the player. Only as the vielle’s base of popularity broadened and later became more rural, did literature embrace the vielle’s association with the bucolic ideal expressed by Vauquelin des Yveteaux in his verses.

22. Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, edited by M. F. Guyard (Garnier-Flammarion, 1967), 135.

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A PPEN DI X

Avertissements in the Works of Jean-Baptiste Dupuits Sonates pour un clavecin et une vièle (1741) Avertissement Although there seems to be much difficulty uniting a harpsichord with a vielle because of the natural contrast which exists between the two instruments, the few modulations which the vielle permits have been my greatest difficulty. I have made these pieces in a way that the harpsichord and the vielle can shine equally, which will be easy to see in each movement where I have designated with the word “solo” the places which are made for each of these instruments. Not only have I used all my efforts to produce new and diverse melodies as much as the accompaniment of the vielle would allow me, but further I have observed that these sonatas can be executed on the violin, the flute and the musette. With regard to this latter instrument, I have marked with little notes an octave below those passages which go out of its range, and in places where a guidon will be found with notes above or below one or another of these letters, for example A, B, C, etc. It is for the violin or the flute that I have put the mark in order to continue or take the notes an octave lower, which is their true position, having been obliged to transpose them, the [range of] the vielle not passing the lower G. I preferred to give the highest notes to the vielle and to keep the right hand of the harpsichord around the middle of the keyboard in order to separate more the two instruments one from the other. Most of the pieces which make up these sonatas can be executed on the vielle without the accompaniment of the harpsichord, such as many of the detached movements, which will be easily seen by the menuets, the musettes, the gavottes, the rondeaux &c. These sonatas can be executed as well on the harpsichord alone, however more cautiously. [In] all movements of sustained melody, such as the Canon, the Allegro of Sonata No.2, the menuets, musettes, gavottes, rondeaux, with the exception of the Rondeau, page 4, it is necessary to play the part of the vielle with the right hand, omitting the part

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written for this hand which is often only a figural accompaniment, and to play the bass without any change. I believed it necessary to compose these pieces in this way, because the vielle not being an instrument [which can be] perfectly softened, the principal melody which would be played by the right hand of the harpsichord would be found to be too absorbed. Also entire movements for the harpsichord will be recognized by the word “solo” written at the beginning of the piece in the part for this instrument. With regard to other movements where the melody alternates [between the two parts], it is necessary in the places where figures are found (which are nothing else than ordinary accompaniment) to take the part of the vielle at the beginning of the word “solo” until the melody returns to the right hand. In order to reconcile these instruments more perfectly, the vielle, if it is constructed in the body of a lute, must be small and much softened. If it is in the body of a guitar, it must not have more sound than the old guitars.1 For this effect, the strings must rest lightly and evenly on the wheel, only the chanterelles [should be] thicker than the trompette[;] without more force [on the wheel], articulate the notes only with the fingers, avoiding perpetual coups de poignet if it is not absolutely required, such as at the beginning of a piece, [or] the beginnings and ends of each reprise. As few vielles have an F sharp at the high end of the clavier (which is very necessary especially if one plays in G), in order to execute those movements called fugue and canon, the F must be tuned a semitone higher than it is set in ordinary claviers.2 If some place is found where the fingering, the different coups de poignet, or the ornaments are difficult, just consult my First Work [Dupuit’s method, Principes pour toucher de la vièle] where one will find the difficulties cleared up. I am persuaded that in paying attention to the measures I have given, one will be bound to do justice to the effect of these two instruments, since they will be perfectly united with each other. It is only after several tests which I have made with Monsieur Danguy that I venture to present to the public a work the newness of which I hope it will appreciate. [Quoiqu’il paroisse beaucoup de difficulté d’unir un Clavecin avec une Viéle par le contraste naturel qu’il y a entre ces deux Instruments, le peu de Modulations que permet la Viéle a éte mon plus grand embarras. J’ay pratiqué ces piéces de façon que le Clavecin et la Viéle peuvent y briller également ce qui sera aisé de voir dans chaque morçeau ou J’ay désigné par le mot Solo les endroits qui sont faits pour chacun de ces Instruments. Non seulement 1. By 1741, makers were building guitar-shaped instruments that were much larger than the instruments built on the bodies of real guitars. These instruments were therefore much louder. 2. Vielles have only one key for F and F-sharp. It is probably most often used as F-natural, but several composers call for the high F-sharp, requiring the retuning of this note before playing.

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J’ay fait tous mes efforts pour produire des chants nouveaux et diversifiés autant que l’accompagnement de la Viéle a pû me le permettre, mais encore j’ay observé que ces sonates puissent s’éxécuter sur le Violon, la Flûte et la Musette, à l’égard de ce dernier Instrument j’ay marqué par de petites Notes, à l’Octave d’en bass les passages qui passent son étenduë, et dans les endroits où on trouvera un Guidon avec des Notes au dessus ou seulement au dessous l’une ou l’autre de ces lettres sçavoir a, b, c, &c c’est pour le Violon ou la Flûte que j’ay mis cette marque pour continuer ou prendre ces notes une Octave plus bas le Sol d’en bas. J’ay mieux aimé donner les chants superieurs à la Viéle et tenir la main droite du Clavecin vers le milieu du Clavier, pour plus détacher ces Instruments l’un de l’autre. La plûpart des piéces qui composent ces Sonates peuvent s’éxécuter sur la Viéle, sans l’accompagnement du clavecin, comme autant de morçeaux détachés ce qu’on verra aisément par les Menuets, les Musettes, les Gavottes, les Rondeaux &c. Ces Sonates s’executent également sur le Clavecin seul, cependant avec plus de précaution. Tous les morçeaux de Chants suivis comme le Canon, l’Allegro de la 2e Sonate, les Menuets, Musettes, Gavottes, Rondeaux, a l’Exception du Rondeau page 4, il faut toucher la partie de la Viéle de la main droite, en obmettant la partie écrite pour cette main qui souvent n’est qu’un accompagnement figuré, et toucher la Basse sans aucun changement. J’ay cru devoir composer ces piéces de cette façon parce que la Viéle n’étant pas parfaitement adouci, le Chant principal qu’auroit touché la main droite au Clavecin se seroit trouvé trop absorbé. Il est aussi des morçeaux entiers pour le Clavecin ce que l’on connoitra par le solo écrit au commencement de la piéce, à la partie de cet Instrument, à l’égard des autres morçeaux dont le Chant est alternatif, il faut dans les endroits où il se trouvera des chiffres (ce qui n’est autre chose que de l’accompagnement ordinaire) prendre la partie de la Viéle au commencement du mot Solo, jusqu’àa ce que le Chant reprenne dans la partie de la main droite. Pour concilier ces Instruments plus parfaitement il est necessaire que la Viéle, si elle est construite en corps de Luth, soit petite et beaucoup adoucir, si elle est en corps de Guitarre qu’elle n’ait pas plus de jeu que ces anciennes Guitarres, pour cet effet que les cordes portent légérement et également Sur la roüe, seulement les chanterelles plus grosse que la Trompette sans porter d’avantage, ne détacher les notes que des doigts, et non pas des coups de poignet perpetuels, si ce n’est celles qui semblent l’éxiger absolument comme le début d’une piéce, les commencements et les fins de chaque reprise. Comme peu de Viéles ont un Futfa diése au haute du Clavier, (ce qui est trés nécessaire surtout lorsqu’on joüe dans le mode de Grésol) pour éxécuter les morçeaux appellés Fugue, & Canon, il faut accorder ce fa un demi ton plus haut qu’il n’est monté dans les Claviers ordinaires. S’il se trouve quelqu’endroit difficile soit pour l’ ordre des doigts, soit pour les differents coups de poignet, soit pour les agréments il ny a qu’a consulter mon premier Oeuvre où l’on trouvéra ces difficultés levées.

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Je suis persuadé qu’en faisant attention aux moyens que je viens de donner, on sera obligé de rendre justice à l’effet de ces deux Instruments, lorsqu’ils seront parfaitement unis entr’eux, ce n’est qu’apréci plusieurs épreuves que j’ay faites avec Monsieur Danguy que je hazarde de présenter au Public un ouvrage dont je souhaite qu’il goûte la nouveauté.]

Pièces de caradères Pour la Vielle . . . Oeuvre V (1741) Avertissement The new pieces which I give to the public are of a type such as there are few for this instrument. The execution of them is not more easy than that of my other works. Their difficulties are not so much in extraordinary [hand] positions, but in the particular characters which each has which must be rendered with the necessary exactitude. I have composed these pieces here in a way that they can be executed without the thorough bass, however, their characters will be rendered precisely only when the two parts are together. It is very important that the accompanimental part (which is the bass) be executed with as much care as if it were the principal part. These pieces will go better without the harpsichord, although I have figured the bass, because some place is always found where a delicate ear is not satisfied by the correctness of the figures or the precision of the accompanist. I have taken care to put in each piece the necessary ornaments according to the character indicated, and although [the pieces] are susceptible to many others, the fewer that might be supplied [by the player], the better. I mixed pieces with different musical characteristics3 for the amusement of everyone. A tender piece executed with delicacy and taste is preferable to a piece which has for all its worth only a great volubility from which there remains nothing after having heard it except surprise. It should be noted that in order to render the character of La Labyrinthe on page 38, which is composed of two rondeaux and two menuets intertwined with each other, there should not be any interruption in the execution of these four sections which are all different. Several passages made up of double notes, one above the other, will be found in these pieces, as in the second part of La Dupuits, page 42, line 11, measure 1–7. These are nothing more than perpetual trills which create the effect of a broken chord played very quickly. They are played by holding the lower note and beating the upper note like an ordinary trill, but without any appoggiatura or preparation. I ask that all those who will wish to play these pieces to sin more by [playing them] too slowly than too quickly, because after having practiced them several times, the true tempo will imperceptibly be grasped. I have used the same ornament [signs] as in my other works. If some are found which are puzzling, an expla3. Dupuits uses the word mouvements here, which refers to the tempos and gestures that help to create the character of the individual piece. In other places in this introduction, he uses the same word to refer specifically to tempo.

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nation of them will be found in my book Principes pour toucher de la viele. Besides it will always indeed be my pleasure to make myself helpful to people who do me the honor of consulting me either for the vielle or the harpsichord and other musical difficulties. For this purpose I will be available three days a week. [Les nouvelles pieces que je donne au public sont d’une espece comme il en est peu pour cet instrument. L’execution n’en est pas plus facile que celle de mes autres Oeuvres; ce n’est pas tant dans des positions extraordinaires que consiste leurs difficultés, que dans les caracteres qu’elles ont chacunes en particulier, lesquels il faut rendre avec toute l’exactitude necessaire. J’ay Composé toutes ces pieces de façon qu’elles pouront s’executer sans la Basse Continued, cependant leurs caracteres ne seront precisément rendus que quand les deux parties seront ensemble; il importe beaucoup que la partie d’accompagnement (qui est la Basse) soit executée avec autant d’attention comme si c’etoit la partie principale. Ces pieces feront mieux sans Clavecin quoique j’aye chiffré la Basse, car quelqu’exactitude qu’il y ait dans les chiffres ou de precision dans l’accompagnateur; il se trouve toujours quelqu’endroit ou une oreille delicatte n’est pas fort satisfaitte. J’aye eu soin de mettre à chaque piece les agrements necessaires suivant le caractere qu’elle doit designer et quoiqu’elles soit susceptibles de beaucoup d’ autres, le moins qu’on pourra suppleer sera le mieux. J’ay melé des pieces de differents mouvements pour l’amusement de tout le monde; une piece tendre executée avec delicatesse, avec goute, est suivant moy plus a preferer qu’une piece qui n’a pour tout merite qu’une grande volubilité, et laquelle il ne reste rien apres l’avoir entendu que la surprise. Il faut observer pour rendre le caractere du labyrinthe page 38, qui est composé de deux Rondeaux et de deux Menuets entrelassés l’un dans l’autre, de ne mettre aucune interuption dans l’execution de ces quatre morceaux dont les mouvements doivent tous etre differents. On trouvera dans ces pieces plusieurs passages de double nottes les unes sur les autres, comme dans la seconde parties de la Dupuits page 42, ligne 11e. mesure 1re. jusqu’a la septieme; ce n’est autre chose que les cadences perpetuelles qui font l’effet d’une batterie tres vive. Elles se font entenant la notte de dessous et battre celle de dessus precisément de meme qu’une cadence battuë a l’ordinaire sans aucun appui n’y aucune preparation. Je prie tous ceux qui voudront executer ces pieces d’y pecher plutôt par le trop de lenteur que par le trop de vivadté, parcequ’insensiblement apres les avoir repeté plusieurs fois, on en saisi le veritable mouvment. Je me suis servi des memes agrements que dans mes autres ouvrages; s’il s’en trouve quelqu’uns qui embarasse on en trouvera l’explication dans mon livre de principes pour toucher de la Viele; d’ailleurs je me feray toujours un vrai plaisir d’etre utile aux personnes qui me feront l’honneur de me consulter tant pour la Viele, que le Clavecin et autres difficultés de Musique, a cet effet on me trouvera trois jours de la semaine.]

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BI BLIO GR A PH Y

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——— . “The Medieval Organistrum and Symphonia II, Terminology.” Galpin Society Journal 36 (1983): 71–87. Palmer, Susann, with Samuel Palmer. The Hurdy-Gurdy. London & North Pomfret: David & Charles, 1980. Perreault, Stéphan. Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, 1689–1755. Un musicien lorrain-catalan à la cour des lumières Montpellier: Les Presses du Languedoc, 2001. Peterman, Lewis Emmanuel, Jr. “The Instrumental Chamber Music of Joseph Bodin de Boismortier with Special Emphasis on the Trio Sonatas for Two Treble Instruments and Basso Continuo.” PhD diss., University of Cincinnati– College-Conservatory of Music, 1985. Ralyea, John. A Modest Manual for the Hurdy-Gurdy including Charles Bâton’s Mémoire sur la Vielle en D-la-ré. Translated and annotated by Paul Goldstein. Chicago: Hurdy-Gurdy Press, 1981. ——— . Shepherd’s Delight: Guide to the Repertoire for Hurdy-Gurdy, Musette, Organized Hurdy-Gurdy, Strohfiddel, Nyckelharpa, Trumpet Marine. 2nd ed. Chicago: Hurdy-Gurdy Press, 1981. Note: also includes “The Hurdy-Gurdy on the French Opera Stage: Savoyards, More Savoyards and Fanchon” and Standley Howell, “The Medieval Hurdy-Gurdy.” Rault, Christian. L’Organistrum. Paris: Aux Amateurs de Livres, 1985. Robb, Graham, The Discovery of France. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. Sarda, Marie-Anne, Florence Gétreau, Jean-Christophe Maillard, and Paul Fustier. Le Vielleux: Métamorphoses d’une figure d’artiste du XVIIe au XIXe siècle. Lyon: Fage Éditions, 2008. Schneider, Herbert. Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis sämtliche Werke von Jean-Baptiste Lully. Mainzer Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 14. Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1981. Straeten, Edmond van der. La Musique aux Pays-Bas, 8 vols. Brussels: G.-A. Trigt, 1878. Reprinted New York: Dover, 1969. Suozzo, Andrew G., Jr. The Comic Novels of Charles Sorel: A Study of Structure, Characterization and Disguise. Lexington, Ky.: French Forum, 1982. Tailhades, Claude. “Viellistes de ville, viellistes de cour.” Unpublished essay, 1993. Verdier, Gabrielle. Charles Sorel. Boston: Twayne, 1984. Zaslow, Neal. “Charles Bâton.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by George Grove. London: Macmillan, 1980.

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I N DE X

Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations or musical examples.

Balzac, Jean-Louis Guez de, xviii, xviiin4, Bâton, Charles, 5n7, 15–18, 26, 31, 37, 41, 41n17, 45, 59, 63–64, 68; suites and sonatas, 5n7, 15, 37; duos, 26, 37 Bâton, Henri, 10, 10n14, 12, 14, 21, 53 Boismortier, Joseph Bodin de, xvi, 18, 18n38, 27, 31–33, 33n10, 34, 68–70, 86, 113; duos, 32; sonatas, xvi, 33, 70 Bonnecourse, 98; Lutrigot, 98 Bordet, Toussaint, 30, 30n6, 31, 48, 65, 65n33, 70, 84; on arranging music for vielle, 31 Boüin, François, 14, 16, 19, 31, 37, 41, 42, 44, 44n20, 45n21, 46, 46n24, 47–48, 49n33, 51, 51n2, 53n5, 54, 56n14, 57, 57n16, 61, 61n25, 62, 63n26, 64, 71, 84, 86; La Vielleuse habile, 19n42, 41, 46, 46n24, 47n25, 49n33, 51n2, 53n5, 56n14, 57n16, 61, 61n25, 63n26, 64n30, 84; Les Amusements d’une heure et demie, 41, 42, 71; Les Muses, 44n20 Bourgogne, Duchesse de, 15 Bricqueville, Eugène de, 21n52, 24, 24n58, 44n18 Buterne, 44, 72, 86; sonatas, 44, 72

Monsieur l’Abbé Carbasus, 19, 20n49, 31n8, 96, 96n12 Carrogis, Louis (Carmontelle), 14 Cavalli, Francesco, 4; Hercule amoureux (Ercole amante), 4 Cazotte, Jacques, 96–97; Les Prouesses inimitables d’Ollivier, marquis d’Edesse, 96–97 Charpentier, Colin, 18, 18n35, 18n37 Chédevilles brothers, 6, 14, 27, 55, 64, 74–75; Esprit-Philippe, 14; Nicolas, 14, 74–75 children and the vielle, xx, xxn14, xxn16, xxi–xxii, xxiii, 97, 100 Cogolin, Marquis Chabert de, 16n28 Collé, Charles, 94 Cordelet, Claude, xvi, 76, 87 Corelli, Arcangelo, 12 Corrette, Michel, 14, 16, 18, 18n36, 20n48, 22, 29, 31, 34, 35, 47, 47n27, 55, 55n9, 56, 76, 84, 99, 100n20; concertos comiques, 18n36, 34, 99; fantaisies, 16, 20n48, 35, 36 Couperin, François, 3, 20, 24, 26, 46, 48, 85; Les Fastes de la grande et anciénne Mxnxstrxndxsx, 3 Crébillon, Claude, 92, 94–95, 95n9, 96n11; L’écumoire, 92, 94

Campion, François, 19–20, 20n47, 20n49, 21, 31n8, 96, 96n12; Lettre de

D’Alembert, Jean-Le Rond, 56 Dall’Abaco, 14, 75, 78

Amadis le cadet (Destouches), 98 André, Laure-Élizabeth, xvi, 17n30, 17n33,

115

116  ◇ INDEX

Danguy, M., 15, 15n21, 17–18, 18n34, 18n37, 19n41, 33, 41, 82, 85, 87, 104, 106 Desportes, Philippe, 90–91 Destouches, André Cardinal, 85, 98, 98n15; Amadis de Grèce, 98, 98n15 Donizetti, Gaetano, 22n55, 100; Linda di Chamonix, 22n55, 100 Don Quixote (Cervantes), 92 Drouais, François-Hubert, xxi Eléments de musique théorique et pratique suivant les principes de M. Rameau (D’Alembert), 56 Flagel, Claude, 6n12, 14n19, 24, 47nn26–29, 84, 100n20 Fromenteau, Michelle, 24, 46n22 Furetière, Antoine, xviii Fustier, Paul, xiii, xvi, xviii, xixn8, xxn12, xxn14, 85, 91, 91n3, Georges de la Tour, 2 Gétreau, Florence, xv, xxn12–14, xxin20, xxiin21, 14n19, 96, 96n10, 98, 98n17 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, xxi; Jahrmarktsfest zu Plundersweilern, xxi Grillet, Laurent, 24 Grimou, Alexis, xx Guillemain, Louis-Gabriel, 31, 88 Herouville, François René Cueu d’, 16n28, Hotteterre family, 6, 66, 79 Houe, M., 16 Jourdan, Jean-Baptiste, xix, xixn9; Le Guerrier philosophe, xix La Pouplinière (Cucuel), 15, 15n26, 18n35 Le Ballet des fées des forêts de Saint-Germain, 98 Le Rebours, M., 15 Les Misérables (Hugo), 100, 101n22 Leszczyńska, Marie, 14

Lully, Jean-Baptiste, xviii, 3, 4, 5, 5n9, 46, 84–85; Ballet de l’impatience, 3, 4; Ballet des sept planètes, 4, 85 Luynes, Duc de, 14n20 Maillard, Jean-Christophe, xiii, xv–xvii, xviin2, xxn12, xxn14, 17n30, 33, 97, 98n14 Maillebois, Comte de, 16n28 Malherbe, François de, 91 Marais, Marin, 85 Mercier, Sébastien, 99, 99n19; Tableau de Paris, 99, 99n19 Mercure de France, 13, 13nn16–17, 19, 39, 59, 74, 86–88 Mersenne, Marin, 3; Harmonie universelle, 2, 2n3 Michon, M., 15, 27n4, 29, 31, 37–38; suites, 57 Mirepoix, Marquis de, 18 Montagnac, Comtesse, xxii Mont Parnasse, engraving of, 96 Mouret, Jean-Joseph, 9; Le Philosophe trompé par la nature, 8–9, 9–10 musette, xix, 5n8, 6, 14, 14n18, 18, 19, 20n48, 21, 22, 26, 27, 28, 31, 32, 34, 34n12, 36, 37, 38, 48, 56, 64–65, 66, 99, 103, 105; comparison of vielle and musette, 12, 19n42, 26, 26n2, 64 musical style and performance practice: continuo instruments, 59–60; French and Italian style, 20, 26, 27; inequality, 60–63 Naudot, Jacques-Christophe, 27, 31, 36–37; Babioles, 36; concertos, 36–37; Divertissement champêtre en trio, 36; Fêtes rustiques, 36; sonatas, 29 Noailles, Vicomte de, 16n28 Obrien, Madame D’, 17, 17n30 Orgue de Barbarie, 1 Pajot family, 23, 24 Piron, Alexis, 94 Plato’s Republic, 12 Pompadour, Madame de, 15

INDEX  ◇ 117

Pourrat, Henri, 101 Prudent, 44–45; sonatas, 44, 45 Rameau, Jean-Philippe, xvi, 15, 19, 20, 27n3, 49, 56, 94; and incidental music for wedding, 18; Platée, 99 Ravet, xvi, 31, 41–43; sonatas, 41, 43; suites, 41, 43 Regnier, Mathurin, 90–92 Rembrandt van Rijn, 2 Republic (Plato), 12 Rivière, Gaston, 23 Sainte-Colombe, xviii; Tournus manuscript, xviii Sand, George, 101 Schubert, Franz, 100; Die Schöne Müllerin, 100 Simon, Georges, 23 Société des dîners au caveau, 94 Sorel, Charles, 92, 94, 97; Histoire comique de Francion, 92–94 Sterne, Laurence, xxii; A Sentimental Journey, xxii

Terrasson, Antoine de, 5, 6, 10, 20, 21; introduction of vielle to French court, 5; and Orpheus myth, 5 Vauquelin. See Yveteaux,Vauquelin des Verdier, Gabrielle, 94 Vibraye, Marquise, xxii vielle: and blind beggars, xvii–xviii, 2–3; coup de poignet, 48, 57–59; description, xv, 51; dynamics, 56–57, 58; lyra organizzata (vielle organisée), 10n15; manichordium, xvii; as object of satire, xvi, 3, 90–100, 101; ornamentation, 46, 48, 63–64; popularity, ix, xvi, xix, 6, 10, 14, 17, 21–22, 47, 59, 101; special techniques, 64–65; terminology and hurdy-gurdy, ix; tuning, x–xi, 51 Vivaldi, Antonio, 14, 34, 99 Voltaire, 19–20 Watteau, Jean-Antoine, xviii, 6 Yveteaux,Vauquelin des, 89–90, 101

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ROBERT A. GREEN is Professor Emeritus of Music at Northern Illinois University and has performed the baroque repertory for hurdy-gurdy throughout the United States, France, and Israel. He has made two recordings of eighteenth-century French music for hurdy-gurdy for the Focus label. Since 1995 he has taught a work­shop devoted to this music in France and has recently begun teaching one in Indiana.