Chapter Seven - Composers and Publishers of French Dance Music

Summary

Du commencement que ie vins demeurer en ceste ville de Lengres…

Nous avions maistre Claudin [de Sermisy] qui iouoit divinement bien des instruments.

Thoinot Arbeau, Orchesographie (1589)

The compositions that connect Arbeau's choreographies to dance's sister art of music reveal a great deal about the cultural milieu, work force, and class structure of France during his prime. Among the composers most frequently referred to in Orchesographie and found among the texts for its dances, Claudin de Sermisy (c. 1490–1562) and Pierre Certon (fl. c. 1529–1572) represent the cream of the French court. Like many major French poets, great composers like Sermisy and Certon flourished under the patronage of François I. The beautiful words of contemporary poets were set to music in both sacred and secular contexts. Both the poetry and the music to which it was set were supported by a highly artistic king and his closest friends and advisors. Cardinals François de Tournon (1489–1562) and Jean de Lorraine (1498–1550) supervised the composition and publication wings, respectively, of the king's musical establishment.

Known as “grande maistre, expert et magnifique compositeur (great master, expert and magnificent composer),” Claudin de Sermisy served as Chapel Master and resident composer in the Chapelle Royale on the Ile de la Cité. Originally a minor cleric, like Arbeau he later became a canon. Unlike the Catholic composers of Spain who typically composed either sacred or secular music during this era, the career patterns of French composers more closely resembled those of Italy, where musicians trained to be conversant in a wider variety of compositional styles and genres. This explains why Claudin, master of a Catholic chapel, composed music found in a secular source like Arbeau's Orchesographie. The tenor line of Claudin’s chanson “Jouissance vous donneray” is used for the “Basse dance commune” in Arbeau's treatise. The use of the tenor line could relate to the basse dance tenors used in the fifteenth century that were apparently used as the basis for instrumental improvisation to accompany dance. Interestingly, this chanson, which sets a poem by Clément Marot, also materializes in four paintings of its age, a discovery uncovered in a groundbreaking article by John Parkinson.