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Monthly Archives: September 2012

Les Indes galantes & Le Bourgeois gentilhomme: “turqueries”

30 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in History, Literature, Music

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Jean-Batiste de Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Les Indes galantes, Molière, Montesquieu, Nations, Persian ambassadors, Pierre Beauchamp

Louis XIV invites Molière to share his supper – an unfounded Romantic anecdote, illustrated in an 1863 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

Rameau’s Les Indes galantes

There are a few points I should discuss before we leave behind Jean-Philippe Rameau‘s  Les Indes galantes.

Les Nations

As you know, Jean-Philippe Rameau was inspired to write Les Indes galantes after watching Amerindians dance.  However, after the Prologue, Rameau’s Indes galantes features

  • a gracious Turk, “un Turc généreux”
  • Incas from Peru, and
  • Persians ((Flowers – Persian Feast), “Les Fleurs – Fête persane”

In fact, only the final of the four acts is linked directly to Amerindians.  Moreover, that fourth entrée was composed later than the first three acts.  It is called

  • New Act – Les Sauvages (written [Louis Fuzelier] and composed [Rameau] a little later)

Needless to say, this piqued my curiosity.  I also noticed the frequent use of the word “nations” in the music literature of the time, beginning with the reign of Louis XIV or as of Jean-Baptiste Lully.  The final ballet constituting the Bourgeois gentilhomme is named “Ballets des Nations.”  Rameau was Lully’s successor.

For instance, Marin Marais wrote a Suitte [sic] d’un goût [taste] étranger [foreign] in 1717, performed by Jorgi Savall who has been restoring music of the 17th and 18th century.  Jorgi Savall provided the music for the film Tous les matins du monde (Every morning in the world).  Why say du monde (of the world)?

Savall’s ensemble, called the Concert des nations, has also recorded music by Rameau.   It could be that the word had a slightly different connotation, that it simply meant “d’un goût étranger” as in Marin Marais‘s Suitte d’un goût étranger. For six months Marin Marais was a student of Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe whose story is told in Tous les matins du monde.

Sifting through the music of François Couperin (10 November 1668 – 11 September 1733), I noted that François Couperin[i] wrote a piece entitled Les Nations.  I doubt that in the 17th- and 18th century France, the word nation had the same meaning as it does today.  It may have encompassed a wider territory that our current nations.  Moreover, Amerindians consisted of nations.

A Woman in Turkish Dress, pastel on parchment, by Jean-Étienne Liotard  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Orientalism or “Turquerie”

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the Byzantine Empire had fallen into the hands of Ottoman Turks in the middle of the fifteenth century (1453).  As a result, Byzantine scholars (Greek culture) fled to Western Europe prompting a Renaissance, the Renaissance.  However, if, on the one hand, the fall of the Byzantine Empire had a great impact on Western Europe, the revival of Greek culture, on the other hand, citizens of the now huge Ottoman Empire travelled north creating a taste for all things oriental, but also threatening European cities.

The Orient was not new to Europeans but Orientalism reached an apex in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  Orientalism in fashion became known as “turquerie” and, in its early days, “turquerie” included Persia, which may confer a degree of unity to Les Indes galantes’ various entrées.  Matters did not change until the publication, in 1721, of Montesquieu‘s Persian Letters (Lettres persanes).

Persian Ambassadors at the Court of Louis XIV, studio of Antoine Coypel, c. 1715 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

Montesquieu‘s[i] Persian Letters were written after the visit, at the court of France, of ambassador Mohammed Reza Beg or Mehemet Riza Beg.  In 1715, the year Louis XIV died, he was visited by Persian ambassador Mohammed Riza Beg who established an embassy in Marseilles.  Montesquieu’s Lettres Persanes were written and published after the ambassador and his entourage spent several months at the court of Louis XIV.

Turqueries à la Molière and Lully

However, the word “turquerie” has two meanings.  The first, as we have seen, is orientalism.  However, in Molière’s Bourgeois gentilhomme, a “turquerie”  is a play-within-a-play that fools Monsieur Jourdain, the senex iratus of the comedy, who is rich but untitled, into thinking he has been conferred a title, that of mamamouchi.  Cléonte, the young man who wishes to marry Lucile, who loves him, then asks for her hand in marriage dressed as the son of the Sultan of Turkey.  She resists until Cléonte succeeds in letting her know that he is wearing a disguise.  (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Act V, Scene 5)

Louis XIV was very fond of turqueries. The music was composed by Jean Baptiste Lully (Giovanni Battista Lulli; 28 November 1632 – 22 March 1687). The ballet was choreographed by Pierre Beauchamp. But the comedy was written by Molière (1622- 1673), one of France’s foremost dramatists ever.

« Le roi veut un ballet, et qu’il y ait une turquerie plaisante ; au poète, au musicien, aux danseurs de bâtir là-dessus un divertissement qui plaise au roi… »

“The king wants a ballet, and wants it to have a pleasant turquerie;  the poet, the musician and the dancers must therefore build from this ballet and turquerie entertainment that will please the king…”[ii]

Added to the turquerie, the fifth and final act of the Bourgeois gentilhomme (The Would-be Gentleman), is the Ballets des Nations.  It features Gascons, people from Gascony, Spaniards and Italians as well as a blend of persons from different classes.  So the idea of nation surfaces again.

In short, both the Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670) and Rameau’s Indes galantes are turqueries and illustrate the two kinds of turqueries, Orientalism and a deceitful play-within-a-play.  Each may in fact combine elements of both turqueries.

Related articles
  • Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Les Indes galantes” (michelinewalker.com)
  • William Christie: a Performance of “Les Indes galantes” (michelinewalker.com)
  • Rameau & Audubon: Birds of a Feather… (michelinewalker.com)
_________________________
 
[i]  Montesquieu’s full name is Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 1689 – 10 February 1755), but he is referred to as Montesquieu.  His most influential book is The Spirit of the Laws, De l’Esprit des Lois, published in Geneva in 1748.
 
[ii] Charles Mazouer, Trois comédies de Molière (Bordeaux: Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 2008), p. 17.
 
Portrait of Molière by Nicolas Mignard

Portrait of Molière by Nicolas Mignard (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Molière & Lully: Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, 1670

© Micheline Walker
30 September 2012
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Rameau & Audubon: Birds of a Feather…

29 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Music

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Emil Gilels, Forêts, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Jean-Philippe Rameau, John James Audubon, Les Indes galantes, Philippe Rameau, Rameau

The Columbia Jay
(photo credit:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery
/2012/jan/06/birds-of-america-audubon-in-pictures?intcmp=239#/?picture=384709642&index=0)
 
composer: Jean-Philippe Rameau (25 September 1683 – 12 September 1764)
librettist: Louis Fuzelier
opéra-ballet: Les Indes galantes – “Forêts paisibles”
performers: William Christie

John James Audubon (26 April 1785 – 27 January 1851)

Jean-Philippe Rameau was very fond of birds.  So the above video blends Rameau’s Forêts paisibles with the art of John James Audubon.  I found the lyrics of Forêts paisibles and a translation of the French lyrics in a blog.  The translation is literal and does do justice to the original French lyrics, but the words match, which is what we need.

Here is the link:

http://lyricbod.blogspot.ca/2009/04/forets-paisibles-jean-philippe-rameau.html
 

The above site provides a synopsis of Forêts paisibles.  It is part of the fourth and final act or entrée of Les Indes galantes.  In this entrée, a Spaniard and a Frenchman compete for the love of Zima, daughter of a native chief.  She prefers to marry an Amerindian.   Everyone dances and smokes the peace pipe called calumet de la paix. 

Forêts paisibles

Forêts paisibles
Jamais un vain désir ne trouble ici nos cœurs.
S’ils sont sensibles, (in love)
Fortune, ce n’est pas au prix de tes faveurs.
Dans nos retraites,
Grandeur, ne viens jamais offrir tes faux attraits!
Ciel, tu les as faites
Pour l’innocence et pour la paix.
Jouissons dans nos asiles,
Jouissons des biens tranquilles!
Ah! peut-on être heureux,
Quand on forme d’autres vœux?

Peaceful forests

Peaceful forests
Never (may) a vain desire trouble here our hearts.
If they are sensitive,
Fortune, it is not at the price of your favors.
In our retreats,
Greatness, never come to offer your false attractions!
Heaven, you have made them
For innocence and for peace.
Let’s enjoy our refuges,
Let’s enjoy peaceful things.
Ah! Can one be happy
When one has other wishes?
 

Le Rappel* des Oiseaux

*birds calling back and forth (rappel is a term used in mountain climbing, but it has had and still has several meanings)
 
Rameau wrote a lovely Rappel des Oiseaux. YouTube has are several interpretations of the Rappel (Wilhelm Kempff, Sokolov [virtuosic]).  It is played on the harpsichord by Luc Beauséjour.
 
I have inserted a performance by Emil Grigoryevich Gilels‘s (19 October 1916 – 14 October 1985).
 
Micheline Walker©
September 29th, 2012
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News and more on the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau

28 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Music, Sharing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

CTV News, Gazette, Le Devoir, Le Monde, Le Monde diplomatique, National Post, New York Times, WordPress

 

 Black-Billed Cuckoo, John James Audubon

Photo credit: Wikipedia
John James Audubon (26 April 1785 –  27 January 1851)
 

Rameau’s Boréades is his fifth and last tragédies en musique and opéra-ballet.  Rameau’s librettist for the Boréades was Louis de Cahusac.  As you know, Rameau was maligned during the Querelle des Bouffons (1752-54).  However, allow me to quote German scholar H. W. von Walthershausen:

“Rameau was the greatest ballet composer of all times. The genius of his creation rests on one hand on his perfect artistic permeation by folk-dance types, on the other hand on the constant preservation of living contact with the practical requirements of the ballet stage, which prevented an estrangement between the expression of the body from the spirit of absolute music.”

His ballets were suites (called “ordre” by François Couperin): gavottes, minuets, loures, rigaudons, passepieds, tambourins, and musettes.  These pieces are usually gleaned from various folk dances, such as the Spanish and possibly Portuguese passacaglia.

Absolute music is self-referential.  It excludes all pieces that have so much as a title, such as Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.”  Music that is not self-referential is called programmatic or program music.

The News

English
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/
The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The Montreal Gazette: http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html
The National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/index.html
Le Monde diplomatique: http://mondediplo.com/ EN
 
CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/
CTV News: http://www.ctvnews.ca/
 
French
Le Monde: http://www.lemonde.fr/
Le Monde diplomatique: http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/
Le Devoir: http://www.ledevoir.com/
La Presse: http://www.lapresse.ca/
 
German
Die Welt: http://www.welt.de/
 
 
composer: Jean-Philippe Rameau (September 25, 1683 – September 12, 1764)
title: Les Boréades (The Descendants of Boreas)
genre: tragédies en musique
performers: Les Arts Florissants
conductor: William Christie
produced by l’Opéra National de Paris
Micheline Walker©
September 28th, 2012
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A Warning

27 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Better Business Bureau, Confidence trick, Credit card, Micheline Walker, Microsoft, Personal computer, Telephone number, WordPress

My dear readers,

I am about to post another blog, but my computer was hacked and nearly destroyed.  The evil deed was perpetrated by persons who first phone and tell you that viruses are destroying your computer.  They claim to be working for Microsoft, give you the badge number, a name and a telephone number.  They then tell you that they will repair your computer… at a cost.

The next day, you receive another telephone call, by persons who tell you that you have been the victim of a scam but that they will fix the problem … at a lower cost.

At that point you phone to cancel your credit card and your bank account (s).  An investigation is under way.

However, you receive yet another phone call.  This time you hang up.

They are consummate con artists and because your computer does not work, you can be convinced they are Microsoft employees.  They show you a photo ID.

I will have to get in touch with WordPress to change the name of my blog.   Once they have your name, they can also get your phone number or vice versa.

Beware, they also get pictures.  There are Micheline Walker pictures on the internet and since I am not the only Micheline Walker, there are photographs of people who are not me.

But life goes on.  I have not lost a great deal of money, but how does one believe anyone anymore?

My computer (WordPress in particular) does not feel as stable as it felt.  Writing a blog is difficult.

I will post this warning and try to finish what I was doing.

Best regards to all of you.

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William Christie: a Performance of “Les Indes galantes”

25 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Aboriginals, Dance, Music, Turquerie

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Galant Music, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Le Turc généreux, Les Arts Florissants, Les Indes galantes, William Christie

Les Indes galantes

This performance of Les Indes galantes is rather recent and it is, in my opinion, very entertaining.  Jean-Philippe Rameau‘s Les Indes galantes is performed by the ensemble Les Arts Florissants under the direction of its founder (1969), William Christie.

“William Lincoln Christie (born 19 December 1944 in Buffalo, New York) is an American-born French conductor and harpsichordist.   He is noted as a specialist in baroque repertoire.” (Wikipedia)

Les Indes galantes features Amerindians, which makes it a unique opéra-ballet.  An opéra-ballet is of course different from a tragédie lyrique or French lyric tragedy.  Yet, Les Indes galantes bring to mind comedy rather than tragedy.  It is, nevertheless,  an example of music originating in Italy and brought to France by Lully who created French lyric tragedy, music in the “grand manner.”

The libretto can be read at the following site: Les Indes galantes.  The main divisions are Entrées.  These are our four acts and  include conversations and airs (arias), such as the Air pour les esclaves africains.  

You will note that there are two prologues.  There should be one only.  I thought it was best to include both.  Some airs are perhaps missing, but they can be found on YouTube, sung separately, but the following videos is as complete a performance as I could assemble.

Rameau, by Carmontelle, 1760

  • Prologue
  • Le Turc généreux,
  • Les Incas du Pérou,
  • Les Fleurs, Fête persane,
  • Nouvelle Entrée, Les Sauvages

Les Indes galantes – Prologue (1)

Les Indes galantes – Prologue (2)

Les Indes galantes – Les Sauvages (1)

Les Indes galantes – Les Sauvages (2)
Menuet pour les Guerriers et les Amazones I & II; Prélude – Régnez, plaisirs et jeux! Triomphez dans nos bois!
 
 
Les Indes galantes – Les Sauvages (3)
Chaconne
 
 

Les Indes galantes – Les Sauvages (4)

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Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Les Indes galantes”

25 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Music

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Baron Friedrich Melchior von Grimm, France, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Molière, Querelle des Bouffons, Treatise on Harmony, Wikipedia

Baroque period instruments: a hurdy gurdy, a viola da gamba, a lute, a baroque violin, and baroque guitar.

Jean-Philippe Rameau (25 September, 1683, Dijon – 12 September 1764) is a colossal figure in the development of music.[i]  In 1722, he published a Treatise on Harmony (Traité de l’harmonie réduite à ses principes naturels) (Wikipedia).  Well, 290 years later, textbooks on harmony teach harmony as described by Jean-Philippe Rameau.  Once music students have passed their course(s) on harmony, they may stray from Rameau’s treatise, but even then, Rameau’s treatise remains the standard reference.

Rameau and the French Operatic Tradition

Until Rameau, Italian composers entertained the French.  Italian-born Lully (Giovanni Battista Lulli; 28 November 1632 – 22 March 1687) had been a favorite of Louis XIV.  He and Molière (1622-1673), born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, had collaborated in creating “divertissements” (entertainment) for the king who was immensely fond of ballet.  Allow me to quote the Wikipedia entry on Molière.

“Molière’s friendship with Jean-Baptiste Lully influenced him towards writing his Le Mariage forcé and La Princesse d’Élide (subtitled as Comédie galante mêlée de musique et d’entrées de ballet), written for royal “divertissements” at the Palace of Versailles.”

Yet, although Lully collaborated with Molière on comedies, he went on to create French lyric tragedy which Rameau and his contemporaries inherited.   However, there was dissatisfaction with respect to the French lyric tragedy, works in the “grand manner,” such as Les Indes galantes or gallantes. Galant is our keyword.  Bach’s sons, Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian, wrote musique galante and were more successful than their father.  In fact, Johann Sebastian was forgotten.

La Querelle des Bouffons (1752 -1754)

The matter culminated in the Querelle des Bouffons (“Quarrel of the Comic Actors”) which took place in Paris, France between 1752 and 1754.  The Querelle des Bouffons is usually considered as a paper war weighing the relative merits of French and Italian opera.  Wikipedia defines the Querelle des Bouffons as “a war of words between the defenders of the French operatic tradition and the champions of Italian music.”  But it may be more accurate to say that the French longed for music that brought tears to their eyes.  The reign of reason, dating back to Descartes’s Discourse on Method (1637), was being replaced by the reign of sentiment.

Despite its reference to buffoons, the Quarrel opposed the loftiest minds of the French enlightenment, including the Encyclopédistes: Denis Diderot (5 October 1713 – July 31, 1784), co-editor of the Encyclopédie, Jean le Rond d’Alembert, co-editor, with Diderot, of the Encyclopédie and a music theorist, (16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783), the Baron Friedrich Melchior von Grimm, a music critic and  journalist, French-German Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d’Holbach (8 December 1723 – 21 January 1789,  Geneva-born composer, essayist,  author Jean-Jacques Rousseau (28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778).

When Jean-Jacques Rousseau joined the Encyclopédistes, he championed feelings.  Where our Querelle is concerned, Jean-Jacques Rousseau fired the first salvo, but could not have done so had it not been for a performance of Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona, or The Maid as Mistress. (See RELATED ARTICLE, below)

Rameau’s Les Indes galantes: the “noble Savage”

Yet, despite the criticism levelled at him, Rameau was an excellent composer and one who an opera-ballet featuring “Sauvages,” or Amerindians, Les Indes galantes.  In the eighteenth century, le Sauvage was a bon Sauvage.  This is how he is depicted by travellers to North America and, in particular, by a French military officer who served in New France from 1683 to 1693, the Baron de Lahontan (9 June 1666 – prior to 1716).  As described by Lahontan, in three works published at The Hague, in 1703, the Sauvage is morally superior to Europeans in general and the French in particular.  The age of the “Noble Savage” is the age of Jean-Jacques Rousseau who led the Querelle des Bouffons (1752 and 1754).

A Rondeau: Les Sauvages

The history of Les Indes galantes is particularly interesting in that Rameau drew his inspiration from three kinds of dances performed by Amerindians in the Théâtre Italien.  According to Wikipedia, “[o]n 25 November 1725, after French settlers of Illinois sent Chief Agapit Chicagou of the Metchigamea and five other chiefs to Paris, they met with Louis XV, and Chicagou had a letter read pledging allegiance to the crown; they later danced three kinds of dances in the Théâtre Italien, inspiring Rameau to compose his rondeau Les Sauvages.”  Changes have been made to Britannica, but the author of its former entry on Les Indes galantes stated that the Amerindians who travelled to France had motivated Rameau to compose his rondeau were from Louisiana, which makes sense.

Somewhat mysterious, however, is whether or not this rondeau, entitled Les Sauvages, is a separate piece of music or part of Les Indes galantes.  Well, having searched for a solo rondeau entitled Les Sauvages, the piece I discovered was part of the larger Opéra-Ballet.  If I have erred, kindly correct me.

An Opéra-Ballet: Les Indes galantes or Gallantes

Les Indes galantes is an opéra-ballet set to a libretto by Louis Fuzelier.  It is composed of a Prologue and four acts (entrées) and, as mentioned above, features Sauvages. I inserted an excerpt of Les Indes galantes opéra-ballet in Comments on the Quebec General Election & the News is an excerpt from Les Indes galantes. 

Les Indes galantes premiered in Paris at the Académie Royale de Musique et Danse, on 23 August 1735.  It was not a great success and it has a long history of revisions and revivals.  The 185th eighteenth-century performance of Rameau’s opéra-ballet was played for the last time in 1761.  However, by 1961 there had been 246 performances of Les Indes galantes and, in 2005,  “Les Indes galantes (Opus Arte) was given a fanciful reading by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants.”[ii]

So my next post features William Christie‘s[iii] “fanciful reading” of Les Indes galantes. I do not have the score of the opéra-ballet, William Christie’s  interpretation is not, in my opinion, detrimental to Rameau’s opéra-ballet, as Rameau himself  may have envisioned his work.

I must close here, but if you wish to take a peak at Les Indes galantes, my next blog constitutes a short and, in my opinion, delightfully-silly performance Les Indes galantes.

RELATED ARTICLE
A Portrait of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
https://michelinewalker.com/2011/12/20/a-portrait-of-giovanni-battista-pergolesi/
 
Photo credit: Wikipedia
____________________

[i] “Jean-Philippe Rameau.” http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/490604/Jean-Philippe-Rameau.

[ii] “Performing Arts: Year In Review 2005.”  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1090579/Performing-Arts-Year-In-Review-2005

[iii] “William Lincoln Christie (born December 19, 1944 in Buffalo, New York) is an American-born French conductor and harpsichordist.  He is noted as a specialist in baroque repertoire and as the founder (1969) of the ensemble Les Arts Florissants.” (Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
25 September 2012
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Sir Joshua Reynolds: the “grand style”

23 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Balliol College Oxford, Club, Devon, Duke of Grafton, Giuseppe Marchi, Joshua Reynolds, Reynold, Thomas Hudson

Miss Bowles, 1775

Photo credit: Wikipedia

I believe we have all heard of Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792).  He was born in Plympton, Devon.  His father, who had been a student at Balliol, Oxford, did not send his sons to university.

In 1640, Reynolds, who was fond of the arts and showed promise as an artist, apprenticed under Thomas Hudson.  As a pupil of Thomas Hudson, he copied the Old Masters Hudson had in his collection.  He left after three years rather than the customary four and went to Plymouth Doc (now Devonport) where he worked as a portrait-painter  After his father died, in 1745, he remained in Plymouth Doc and shared a house with his sisters.

Rome (1749 – 1752)

In the late 1740s, Reynolds accepted Commodore Augustus Keppel‘s invitation to sail to the Mediterranean.  This trip took Joshua  to Rome where he spent three years studying Raphael and Michelangelo.  On his return trip to England, he was accompanied by 17–year-old Giuseppe Marchi who would be his assistant, but would become an artist in his own right.

Sir Joshua Reynolds settles in London

When he returned to England, it was not long before Reynolds settled in London where his sister was his housekeeper.  He had “connections,” as we would say.  Lord Edgecumbe, recommended the Duke of Devonshire and the Duke of Grafton to sit for him.  His clients must have been pleased as others followed.

“The Club”

In 1764, Reynolds founded a literary club, “The Club,” which could be compared to Madame Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin‘s Paris salon.  Madame Geoffrin (26 June 1699 –  6 October 6, 1777) was hostess to encyclopédistes and France’s intelligentsia.  Habitués, or regulars, needed only contribute a fine mind and good manners.

Madame Geoffrin`s salon in 1755, by Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier. Oil on canvas, Château de Malmaison, Rueil – Malmaison, France

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

Similarly, members of “The Club” were untitled men of genius.  However, “The Club” differed from Madame Geoffrin’s salon in that it was a man’s club.  Reynolds was also a Freemason, another fraternity.  Members of “The Club” were, among possible others, Dr Johnson, David Garrick, Edmund Burke, James Boswell and Richard Sheridan, all of whom were noted intellectuals. (Sir Joshua Reynolds, Wikipedia)  However, Reynolds was knighted by George III, in 1769, thereby acquiring a title.  Later, in 1784, he became painter to the king.

The Royal Academy of Arts

Reynolds was a member of the incorporated Society of Artists and, with Thomas Gainsborough (christened 14 May 1727 – 2 August 1788), he established the Royal Academy of Arts.  He was its first president and remained its president until his death.

Beginning in 1769, Reynolds delivered lectures to students of the Royal Academy.  In one of these lectures he stated that he was of the opinion that “invention, strictly speaking is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory.” (Sir Joshua Reynolds, Wikipedia)

Opinions differ regarding Reynolds and the Royal Academy.  William Blake‘s  Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Discourses in 1808 are “vitriolic,” (Sir Joshua Reynolds, Wikipedia) but J. M. W. Turner requested he be laid to rest at Reynolds’ side. James Northcote RA (22 October 1746 – 13 July 1831), who lived for four years as Reynolds’ pupil, wrote to his family “I know him thoroughly, and all his faults, I am sure, and yet almost worship him.” (Sir Joshua Reynolds, Wikipedia)

Opposition

Many opposed Reynold’s “grand style,” or academic painting, a common phenomenon.  As we have seen, members of Russia’s Mir iskusstva also struggled to free themselves from the constraints of academic painting and, according to André Breton, surrealism was a revolutionary movement.

Yet, although I love the art of William Blake, I cannot find anything wrong with the two portraits I have chosen to feature.

Just below is The Strawberry Girl, 1810.

“V’adoro, pupille” from Giulio Cesare
Karina Gauvin FR Karina Gauvin EN.
 

© Micheline Walker
23 September 2012
updated 24 October 2018
WordPress
45.408358 -71.934658

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Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe & the News

21 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Music

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Gazette, John Dornenburg, Le Devoir, Marian Anderson, New York Times, Paris Opera, Plaisir d'amour, Sainte-Colombe, Second Empire, WordPress

 

Viola da gamba, Isenheim Altarpiece, Colmar (Alsace)

Yesterday, I posted a Baroque interpretation of “Plaisir d’amour” and a modern rendition, sung by Marian Anderson.  Conductor Arturo Toscanini said of Marian Anderson that she had a voice “heard once in a hundred years” (Marian Anderson).

A century is a very long time, but Marian Anderson’s performance of “Plaisir d’amour” brought me greater pleasure than the more authentic Baroque version.  I liked the slower pace, but particularly charming was Marian Anderson’s ability to sing the highest notes with minimum obvious recourse to the various techniques used by most mezzo-sopranos or sopranos.

This comment is in praise of Marian Anderson.  I am in no way criticizing Poème Harmonique artists who are thorough professionals and perform to perfection.   But how can one demand of the very best of sopranos to match a voice “heard once in a hundred years.”

The News

English
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/
The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The Montreal Gazette: http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html
The National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/index.html
 
CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/
CTV News: http://www.ctvnews.ca/
 
French
Le Monde: http://www.lemonde.fr/
Le Devoir: http://www.ledevoir.com/
La Presse: http://www.lapresse.ca/
 
German
Die Welt: http://www.welt.de/
 
photo credit: under viola da gamba, Wikipedia
 
Micheline Walker©
September 21st, 2012
WordPress
 
composer: Jean de Sainte-Colombe (1640 – 1700)
piece: Suite for solo viola da gamba
performer: John Dornenburg (viola da gamba)
a viola da gamba resembles a cello
 
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“Plaisir d’amour” Revisited

20 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Élizabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Baroque, C'est mon ami, Kathleen Battle, Marie-Antoinette, Marin Marais, Plaisir d'amour, Vincent Dumestre

perfomers: Claire Lefilliâtre, Brice Duisit, Isabelle Druet
group: Le Poème Harmonique
conductor: Vincent Dumestre
 
Related blogs:
“C’est mon ami,” composed by Marie-Antoinette
“Plaisir d’amour,” sung by Kathleen Battle
Photo credit: Wikipedia  
 
Marie-Antoinette, by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
“Ma Rose”
(please click on the picture to enlarge it) 

On the 13th of August 2012, I posted a blog on “Plaisir d’amour,” sung by Marian Anderson: “Plaisir d’amour,” sung by Kathleen Battle.  New information surfaced when I wrote about “Le Roi a fait battre tambour.”  As a result we need an update. 

The Dates: circa…

Marian Anderson’s rendition of Plaisir d’amour remains delightful, but it is different.  As for the date given by above, 1785, it may be the date “Plaisir d’amour” was first performed, but it may be safer to write c. 1785.  According to my earlier post, the lyrics, or poem, were written in 1780, now c. 1780, by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian.   But the lyrics were not set to music until 1784 or c. 1784, by Jean Paul Égide Martini.

From Paul Aegidius Schwarzendorf to J. P. É. Martini

Composer Jean Paul Égide Martini, also known as Martini Il Tedesco, was born in Freystadt, Bavaria and his birth-name is Johann Paul Aegidius Schwarzendorf (31 August 1741 – 10 February 1816).  Martini changed his name when he arrived in France.  Martini Il Tedesco or Il Tedesco Martini would mean the German Martini.

The Revival of Ancient Music

However, what I should underline is the current revival of Baroque music and ancient music, interpreted using the instruments of that era in music, the seventeenth century or 1600 to 1730/50.  Eras in music overlap and going from era to era does not necessarily mean progress.  The same is true of eras in the fine arts.

The leader in the revival of Baroque or early music is Jordi Savall i Bernadet (born January 14, 1942, in Igualada, Spain), known as Jordi Savall.  I became aware of his effort when I saw Alain Corneau‘s Tous les matins du monde.[ii]  a 1991 film about composers Sainte-Colombe and Marin Marais, 17th-century French musicians.

The music Savall adapted and performed for Alain Corneau‘s film earned him a César (a French Oscar) from the French film industry in 1992 and the soundtrack to this film sold more than a million copies worldwide (Wikipedia).  There is a song entitled Sur tous les chemins du monde.

Poème Harmonique’s Vincent Dumestre is also engaged in a revival, but he seems to be focussing on songs.  He is recording old songs as they were performed when they were composed.  It is in this respect that Claire Lefilliâtre‘s rendition differs from Marian Anderson’s and vice versa.

Plaisir d’amour

  • The words, or lyrics, based on a poem by Jean de Florian (1755–1794), were written in 1780, now c. 1780;
  • The text was set to music by Jean Paul Égide Martini in 1784, now c. 1784;
  • In 1859, Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), a Romantic composer, arranged the piece for orchestra

Lyrics for Plaisir d’amour

Refrain:
Plaisir d’amour ne dure qu’un moment.
Chagrin d’amour dure toute la vie.
The pleasure of love lasts only a moment.
The pain of love lasts a lifetime.
 
1)
J’ai tout quitté pour l’ingrate Sylvie.
Elle me quitte pour prendre un autre amant.
I left everything for the ungrateful Sylvia.
She is leaving me for another lover.
Refrain 
 
2)
“Tant que cette eau coulera doucement,
Vers ce ruisseau qui borde la prairie,
Je t’aimerai”, me répétait Sylvie.
L’eau coule encore, elle a changé pourtant.
“As long as this water runs gently
Towards the brook that borders the meadow,
I will love you,” Sylvia said repeatedly.
The water still runs, but she has changed.
Refrain
_________________________
© Micheline Walker
20 September 2012
WordPress
 
[i] translation: Every Morning in the World.
 
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“Le Roi a fait battre tambour,” an Old French Song

19 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on “Le Roi a fait battre tambour,” an Old French Song

Tags

France, French Revolution, Henry IV of France, Huguenot, Margaret of Valois, Marguerite, Nana Mouskouri, St. Bartholomew Day Massacre

composer: unknown (c. 1750)
performers: Le Poème harmonique
director: Vincent Dumestre 
  

Le Roi a fait battre tambour

1. Le roi a fait battre tambour
Pour voir toutes ses dames  (To see all his ladies)
Et la première qu’il a vue (the first one)
Lui a ravi son âme

The king had drummers beat their drums /  So he could see all the ladies of his kingdom / And the first one he saw / Stole his soul

2. Marquis dis-moi la connais-tu
Qui est cette jolie dame ?
Le marquis lui a répondu
Sire roi, c’est ma femme (she is my wife)

Marquis do tell if you know her / Who is that pretty lady / The Marquis answered / Your Majesty, she is my wife

3. Marquis, tu es plus heureux que moi
D’avoir femme si belle
Si tu voulais me la donner (If you wanted)
Je me chargerais d’elle

Marquis, you are happier than I  / To have so beautiful a wife / If you gave her to me / I would look after her

4. Sire, si vous n’étiez le roi (if you were not)
J’en tirerais vengeance
Mais puisque vous êtes le roi (since your are)
À votre obéissance (obedience)

Your Majesty / Were you not the King / I would seek revenge / But since you are the King / I must obey

5. Marquis ne te fâche donc pas
T’auras ta récompense
Je te ferai dans mes armées
Beau maréchal de France

Marquis, do not get angry / You will be rewarded / In my armies you will be / A handsome maréchal (marshall) of France

6. Adieu, ma mie, adieu, mon cœur ! (Farewell)
Adieu mon espérance (my hope)
Puisqu’il nous faut servir le roi
Séparons-nous d’ensemble (Let us separate)

Farewell, my dearest, farewell my heart / Farewell my hopes / Since we must the King serve / Let us part

7. La reine a fait faire un bouquet
De belles fleurs de lys
Et la senteur de ce bouquet
A fait mourir marquise

The Queen had a bouquet made / Of beautiful lillies / And the scent of this bouquet / Caused the Marquise to die

The Story behind the song

We know that Le Roi a fait battre tambour was written in 1750.  However, it is difficult to determine whose story the song tells.  Opinions differ.  But, in all likelihood, the song tells of events that took place at the end of the sixteenth century, during the reign of Henri IV (13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), King of France and King of Navarre.

Let us back up a little: Henri II dies

Henri II (31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559.  He was wounded during a jousting tournament and died. Henri II had three sons and all three were potential heirs to the throne of France or dauphins.  It therefore seemed that the Valois Kings of France would continue to reign for a long time.  However, Henri II died prematurely.  Consequently, when his sons ascended the throne, they were too young and the person who reigned was their mother, Catherine de’ Medici (13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589).

The Fate of Henri II’s sons AND THAT OF mARGUERITE

Francis II (19 January 1544 – 5 December 1560), who was married to Mary Stuart (Mary Queen of Scots), reigned for 18 months.

Charles IX (27 June 1550 – 30 May 1574) ascended the throne at the age of 10 (1560 or 1561) and died at the age of 24.  He did not survive the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre which his mother had forced him to order and which began on the 23rd of August 1572.

The Massacre took place a few days after Marguerite de Valois was forced (by Catherine de’ Medici) to marry Henri IV, King of Navarre.  She protected her new husband but, afterwards, the couple seldom shared the same roof.

Henry III (19 September 1551 – 2 August 1589) became king in 1574, at the age of twenty-three and fell ill and died at the age of 38.

Marguerite de valois and the Salic Law

The Salic law prevented Marguerite de Valois to succeed her brothers.  Women could not ascend the throne.  So, ironically, Henri IV, the Huguenot (French Calvinist Protestant ) King she had been forced to marry, was suddenly the new heir to the throne of France.

Henri IV, the King of Navarre, became King of France and Navarre in 1589 and was crowned when his official mistress, Gabrielle d’Estrées, suggested he convert to Catholicism, which he did.  He is reported to have said: Paris vaut bien une messe (Paris [being King of France] is well worth a mass).

Marguerite de Valois as murderess

When Henri IV was having his marriage to Marguerite de Valois (la reine Margot) annulled, Gabrielle d’Estrées (1573– 10 April 1599), his official mistress, died of eclampsia during a pregnancy.  She was bearing their fourth child.  Rumours started circulating that she had been poisoned by the Queen (Marguerite de Valois).  Therefore, the lady killed by the scent of a bouquet of lilies was Gabrielle d’Estrées, an extremely beautiful woman.

Henri IV married Marie de’ Medici (26 April 1575 – 4 July 1642) in October 1600, but the Marguerite de Valois’s title remain that of Queen.

More on the Song

The song is performed in the French of the Ancien Régime, i.e. before the French Revolution (1789-1794).  Roi is pronounced Roé, as it is still pronounced by many French Canadians.  Moreover, the lyrics I have provided are not identical to the words I have found.  I will have to transcribe this older version of the song.

There are several recordings of “Le Roi a fait battre tambour.”  The words given above are the words used by Nana Mouskouri.[i]

Conclusion

So now we know the probable origin of the our featured song, a famous song.  But more importantly, we have seen how dangerous jousting tournaments can be, if one is married to a Medici.  Catherine de’ Medici was manipulative and bloodthirsty and ruined her children’s life.  Henri II had three sons, yet the Valois line died in 1589, the year Henri III and Catherine de’ Medici died.

____________________

[i] I found the lyrics at:  http://www.metrolyrics.com/le-roi-a-fait-battre-tambour-lyrics-nana-mouskouri.html 

Related blog:
Dumas, père & Marguerite de Valois fictionalized
 
© Micheline Walker
19 September 2012
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