MUSIC IN RENAISSANCE PARIS

1
CHAPTER 22

• MUSIC IN RENAISSANCE PARIS

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THE RENAISSANCE IN PARIS

• During the Black Death (1349-1350) and the
  Hundred Years War (1337-1453) the fortunes of
  France, and Paris in particular, declined. Paris
  regained its former glory during the reign of
  Francis (r. 1515-1547), who almost
  single-handedly brought the Italian Renaissance
  to France. Among the accomplishments of Francis
  I were
• The importation of Italian artists such as
  Leonardo da Vinci and Benvenuto Cellini into
  France
• The establishment of a college for the study of
  classical literature in both Latin and ancient
  Greek
• The importation of Italian instrumentalists to
  play at his court
• The recognition of the importance of new
  invention--music printing--by granting a monopoly
  to printer Pierre Attaingnant

3
King Francis I as painted by Jean Clouet about
1525
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MUSIC PRINTING IN PARIS

• During the 1520s Pierre Attaingnant (c1494-c1532)
  developed a relatively inexpensive method by
  which to print music called single-impression
  printing.

5
A copy of the soprano part of a Mass by Jean
Mouton printed by Pierre Attaingnant in 1532

• The wavy lines are created by the many small
  pieces
• of movable type being fitted together.

6
A French printing shop about the year 1530

• On the right, proof-readers check the text for
  errors.

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THE PARISIAN CHANSON

• Beginning in 1528 Pierre Attaingnant issued
  nearly a hundred collections of popular,
  polyphonic songs, usually for four voice parts.
  Each voice was set in its own book called a part
  book. The chanson Attaingnant published usually
  had a light, lively style in which the rhythms of
  the text animated the rhythms of the music. This
  type of chanson of the 1520s, 1530s, and 1540s
  has come to be called the Parisian chanson.

8
A tapestry from Bourges, France, depicting four
singers performing a chanson from part books
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CLAUDIN DE SERMISY

• Claudin de Sermisy (c1490-1562) was the master of
  the Parisian chanson. Although primarily a
  church musician, he still managed to publish 169
  very worldly, secular chansons. The most popular
  of these was his four-voice Tant que vivray (As
  Long as I Live), which possesses snappy musical
  rhythms inspired by the accents of the poem. An
  alluring melody and bouncy rhythms explain why
  Tant que vivrary was reprinted in England, Italy,
  the Netherlands, and Spain, and appeared in many
  different instrumental arrangements.

10
The beginning of Claudin de Sermisys Parisian
chanson Tant que vivray first printed by Pierre
Attaingnant in 1528
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INSTRUMENTAL ARRANGEMENTS

• So popular was Claudins Tant que vivray that it
  soon appeared in instrumental arrangements for
  solo keyboard, lute, lute and voice, and even for
  three lutes. The four-voice version could also
  be played by a four-part instrumental ensemble.
  A version of a chanson, Mass, or motet arranged
  for solo lute is called a lute intablulation, in
  part because it is written in lute tablature.
  Pierre Attaingnant issued Tant que vivray in lute
  tablature in 1529.

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LUTE TABLATURE

• The beginning of Tant que vivray written in lute
  tablature (below) with a modern transcription
  (above). As often happens in lute
  transcriptions, the alto line of the original
  chanson has been removed, and notes of long
  duration are broken up into quickly moving lines
  of figural ornamentation (here eighth notes).

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ARRANGEMENT FOR VOICE AND LUTE

• The beginning of Claudins Tant que vivray
  arranged for voice and lute as published by
  Pierre Attaingnant in 1529. Here the soprano
  voice takes the over the original soprano line of
  the song while the lute plays a slightly
  ornamented arrangement of the bottom three
  voices.

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ARRANGEMENT FOR KEYBOARD

• In 1531 Attaingnant issued a collection of
  twenty-one chansons arranged for keyboard solo,
  one of the first printed collections of keyboard
  music. Here again the ever-popular Tant que
  vivray appeared now with more abundant
  ornamentation applied to the chordal skeleton of
  the original chanson.

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The beginning of Pierre Attaingnants arrangement
of Tant que vivray for keyboard solo
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OTHER INSTRUMENTAL ARRANGEMENTS

• A four-voice Parisian chanson might be performed
  by many different combinations of instrumentals.
  In this painting, showing Paris as it was about
  1540, a flautist plays the upper voice of a
  chanson while a lutenist plays an intabulation of
  the lower voices.

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DANCE MUSIC

• In 1529 Pierre Attangnant commenced to publish
  dance music for four-part instrumental ensemble.
  The most numerous dances issued by Attaingnant
  were the pavane and the galliard. The pavane is
  a slow, gliding dance in duple meter performed by
  couples holding hands. The steps of the dance
  came in units of four, and the lines of the
  music, consequently, tended to span four-bar
  phrases.

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The beginning of a four-part instrumental pavane
published by Pierre Attaingnant in Paris in 1547
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THE GALLIARD

• The pavane was usually followed by the galliard,
  a fast leaping dance in triple meter. The basic
  unit of this dance and its music involves six
  beats and six steps in 6/4 time. The fast steps
  are periodically embellished with leaps (sauts)
  into the air. The principal leap (saut majeur)
  occurs on beat five of the six-beat phrase, and
  this accounts for the frequent use of hemiola.

20
The beginning of a four-part instrumental
galliard published by Pierre Attaingnant in Paris
in 1547

• Note the hemiola in bar 4.

21

• A painting believed to show queen Elizabeth I
  dancing the volta, an athletic dance closely
  related to the galliard.

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THOINOT ARBEAU THE DANCING PRIEST

• Thoinot Arbeau was the pseudonym of Jehan
  Tabourot (1520-1595), a priest who lived in
  Langres, in the eastern part of France. Most of
  what we know about dancing in Renaissance France
  is contained in Arbeaus Orchésographie (1589), a
  manual of instruction presented in the form of a
  dialogue between master and pupil.

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A couple executing a révérance (initial bow) as
depicted in Thoinot Arbeaus Orchésographie (1589)