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On the Theoretical Expression of Music in France during the Renaissance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Philippe Vendrix
Philippe Vendrix
Affiliation:
University of Liège
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Extract

It may not always seem obvious to begin a study of French music in the Renaissance with a reference from the theoretical field. By entitling his study ‘Ut musica poesis’ Howard Mayer Brown attempted to remedy this shortcoming. However, without in any way disparaging his work, this results in a series of paradoxes and uncertainties about the links which in France during the Renaissance period unite musical practice and musical thought, whether this be philosophical or theoretical. It is true that expressions like ‘musical renaissance’ or ‘musical humanism’, easy and pernicious terms, have a hard time in the French field. And it is precisely because these terms are easy and pernicious that they can be used in this way. For while there has never been any question of doubting the role of French composers in constructing the musical landscape of the Renaissance, it has never, on the other hand, been imaginable to write a history of humanism in French musical thinking of the Renaissance. It is rather as if, causing a sudden break in the course of history, French writers and theorists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had abandoned the art of sound to the practitioners, composers and performers alone. But no Western culture exists which can have a musical life without thought, and without the will to discover in it a pretext, a paradigmatic function or even an experimental field.

Type
Research Article
Information
Early Music History , Volume 13 , October 1994 , pp. 249 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

1 Brown, H. M., ‘Ut musica poesis: Music and Poetry in France in the Late Sixteenth Century’, pp. 1–63Google Scholar above.

2 This is not the case for Italy, as we see in the study of Palisca, C., Humanism in Italian Renaissance Musical Thought (New Haven and London, 1985)Google Scholar.

3 On the place of the arts in thought and its modality of existence, see the recent book of Steiner, G., Réelles présences (Paris, 1992)Google Scholar.

4 I am preparing for the Centre d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance an analytical and bibliographical study of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries which is due to appear in 1995.

5 On the influence of Lefèvre's treatise, see Palisca, Humanism, and Moyer, A. E., Musica scientia: Musical Scholarship in the Italian Renaissance (Ithaca and London, 1992), p. 220Google Scholar.

6 Cataloguing of the manuscript sources of French music theory is under way. It poses many problems of location but promises here and now to be much reduced in number.

7 On this subject see the two studies L'aube de la Renaissance, ed. Cecchetti, D., Sozzi, L. and Terreaux, L. (Geneva, 1991)Google Scholar, and Préludes à la Renaissance: aspects de la vie intellectuelle en France au XVe siècle, ed. Bozzolo, C. and Ornato, E. (Paris, 1992)Google Scholar. These two volumes pick up on research presented by Levi, A. H. T., Humanism in France at the End of the Middle Ages and in the Early Renaissance (Manchester, 1969)Google Scholar.

8 See his Tres tractatus de canticis which contains the De canticorum originali ratione (written around 1426), the De canticordo (written before 1423) and De canticis (written between 1424 and 1426). For the sources of these treatises see Gerson, J., Oeuvres complètes, ed. Glorieux, P., i: Introduction générale (Tournai, 1960)Google Scholar. For an introduction to the work of Gerson, see Irwin, J. L., ‘The Mystical Music of Jean Gerson’, Early Music History, 1 (1981), pp. 187–202CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Beltran, E., ‘L' humanisme français au temps de Charles VII et Louis XI’, Préludes à la Renaissance, pp. 123–62Google Scholar.

10 Proof is provided by the work of Tinctoris. Thus his Latin style preceding his settling in Italy has nothing in common with the style of the works he wrote in Naples where he shows evidence of research into the quality of language. On this fascinating subject, see Woodley, R., ‘Renaissance Music Theory as Literature: on Reading the Proportionale Musices of Iohannes Tinctoris’, Renaissance Studies, 1 (1987), pp. 209–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 ‘While taking as their authority the common world of antiquity, European humanists were able finally to give free expression to their personal preferences within the framework of their own cultural tradition.’ Beltran, ‘L'humanisme français’, p. 160.

12 George Hermonyme plays a fundamental role in this respect and an even more important one for the music theory of Lefèvre d'Etaples.

13 The Institutions harmoniques of Salomon de Caus shows indebtedness to Italy in its very title, with its evident reference to Zarlino. The work was written in French and published in the Holy Roman Empire by an engineer who was fascinated by a myriad subjects. On Salomon de Caus, see Maks, C., Salomon de Caus, 1576– 1626 (Paris, 1935)Google Scholar.

14 The case of Johannes Tinctoris (c. 1435–c. 1511) is a special one. Born in the Brabant area, he lived in France (in Cambrai, Orléans and Chartres) before entering the service of Ferdinando I of Naples around 1472. His theoretical work, which was considerable and important for theoretical expression, is excluded from this study, first because he seems not to have written his theoretical works before going to Italy, and secondly because his work seems to have remained foreign to French theorists.

15 See Niemöller, K. W., Nicolaus Wollick (1480–1541) und sein Musiktraktat, Beiträge zur rheinischen Musikgeschichte 13 (Cologne, 1956)Google Scholar.

16 We still have no general study on the musical publications of Paris. It is necessary therefore to refer to several different monographs, for example Thibault, G. and Lesure, F., Bibliographie des éditions d'Adrian Le Roy et Robert Ballard (1551–1598) (Paris, 1955)Google Scholar, and Heartz, D., Pierre Attaingnant, Royal Printer of Music: a Historical Study and Bibliographical Catalogue (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969)Google Scholar. For Lyons we have the excellent work of Guillo, L., Les éditions musicales de la Renaissance lyonnaise (Paris, 1991)Google Scholar.

17 Even, B., ‘Jean Guyot de Châtelet, musicien liégeois du XVIe siècle: synthèse et perspective de recherches’, Revue Belge de Musicologie, 28–30 (1974–1976), p. 112CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Vanhulst, H., Catalogue des éditions de musique publiées à Louvain par Pierre Phalèse et ses fils, 1545–1578, Académie Royale de Belgique, Mémoires de la Classe des Beaux-Arts 16/ii (Brussels, 1990), pp. xxxi–xliiGoogle Scholar.

19 The intended readers were undoubtedly the amateur lute players, francophone or francophile, of the Low Countries: the explanation of German lute tablature is replaced here by a description of the French system. This treatise was translated into Flemish in 1568 and published by Jan van Ghelen in Antwerp, no doubt for the same commercial reasons.

20 P. A. Gaillard, ‘Nachwort’ to the facsimile edition, Documenta Musicologica, 1st series, 6 (Kassel and Basle, n.d.).

21 Lang, M., ‘Bibliographie de l'histoire de la musique en Alsace’, La musique en Alsace hier et aujourd'hui (Strasbourg, 1970), pp. 373–459Google Scholar.

22 We should note the unpublished works of Cunradus Dasypodius, especially the appearance in 1612 of the Synopsis musicae (Carl Kieffer) of Johannes Lippius.

23 Seidel, W., ‘Französische Musiktheorie im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert’, Entstehung nationaler Traditionen (Darmstadt, 1986), pp. 4–140Google Scholar.

24 Seay, A., ‘French Renaissance Theory and Jean Yssandon,’ Journal of Music Theory, 15 (1971), pp. 254–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Repaci-Courtois, G., ‘“Art mécanique” ou “état contemplatif”? Les humanistes français du XVIe siècle et le statut des arts visuels’, Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 54 (1992), pp. 43–62Google Scholar.

26 Treatises on painting and sculpture are not legion in French during the Renaissance. However, to proceed to a comparison of the modes of theoretical expression of painting on the one hand and music on the other raises questions which arise only exceptionally within the corpus of French music theory. Discourse by analogy had a much more important place in Italy in the sixteenth century. See Summers, D., The Judgement of Sense: Renaissance Naturalism and the Rise of Aesthetics (Cambridge, 1987), p. 365Google Scholar.

27 Guillaume, J., ed., Les traités d'architecture de la Renaissance (Paris, 1991)Google Scholar.

28 Numbers refer to the ‘Works of French Renaissance theory’ printed as Appendix 1 to Brown, ‘Ut musica poesis’.

29 See Lenoble, R., Mersenne et la naissance du mécanisme (Paris, 1926)Google Scholar.

30 Even if the scientific discourse of the Renaissance does not hesitate to return to the poetic figures in its formulation. See in particular Choay, F., La règle et le modèle: sur la théorie de l'architecture et de l'urbanisme (Paris, 1980), pp. 86–206Google Scholar.

31 See Ellefsen, R. M., ‘Music and Humanism in the Early Renaissance: their Relationship and its Roots in the Rhetorical and Philosophical Traditions’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Florida State University, 1981)Google Scholar.

32 See the work of Carl Schmidt recently translated into French, Aristote à la Renaissance (Paris, 1992).

33 Gallo, A., ‘Die Kenntnis der griechischen Theoretikerquellen in der italienischen Renaissance’, Italienische Musiktheorie im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert: Antikrezeption und Satzlehre, Geschichte der Musiktheorie 7 (Darmstadt, 1989), pp. 7–38Google Scholar.

34 For the list of works studied in university curricula see Carpenter, N. C., Music in the Medieval and Renaissance Universities (Norman, OK, 1958), pp. 46–75 and 140–52Google Scholar; Huglo, M., ‘The Study of Ancient Sources of Music Theory in the Medieval University’, Music Theory and its Sources: Antiquity and the Middle Ages, ed. Barbera, A., Notre Dame Conferences in Medieval Studies 1 (Notre Dame, IN, 1990), pp. 150–72Google Scholar.

35 On the editions of ancient authors and translations, see Gallo, ‘Die Kenntnis’, pp. 29–34.

36 See Vendrix, P., ‘Pierre-Jean Burette: un archéologue de la musique grecque’, Recherches sur la Musique Française Classique, 27 (1991–1992), pp. 99–111Google Scholar.

37 On the philological tradition in the Middle Ages, see the texts presented in Huglo, ‘The Study of Ancient Sources’.

38 A.Gallo, ‘Greek Text and Latin Translations of the Aristotelian Musical Problems: a Preliminary Account of the Sources’, Music Theory and its Sources, ed. Barbera, pp. 190–6. Unfortunately Gallo fails to consider the interesting situation in France.

39 This manuscript translation, which has never been published, is preserved in Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS fr. 211. It dates from the beginning of the fifteenth century. A copy was made around 1480 and is at present in Chantilly, Musée Condé. On Evrart de Conty, see Chavy, P., Traducteurs d'autrefois, Moyen âge et Renaissance: dictionnaire des traducteurs et de la littérature traduite en ancien et moyen français (842–1600), 2 vols. (Paris and Geneva, 1988)Google Scholar.

40 In fact we know much more about the role of Italian theory in France during the second half of the sixteenth century, thanks particularly to the Solitaire second of Pontus de Tyard. We also have partial translations of Zarlino dating from the last third of the century. See Brenet, M., ‘Deux traductions françaises inédites des Institutions harmoniques de Zarlino’, Année Musicale (1911), pp. 125–44Google Scholar. This deals in particular with the manuscript Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale n.a.fr. 4679, which contains a Reigle generalle et fort familière pour cognoistre la situation des principalles cadences de tous les modes ou tons tant par b mol que par b quarre.

41 See Niemöller, , Nicolaus Wollick, pp. 248–66Google Scholar.

42 Yandell, C., ‘Introduction’, Pontus de Tyard: Solitaire second (Geneva, 1980), pp. 31–52Google Scholar.

43 Particular attention should also be paid to the translation of Francesco Giorgio's De harmonia mundi totius cantica tria, the only translation of an Italian work dealing with music in France in the sixteenth century.

44 Schneider, H., Die Kompositionslehre in der ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts (Tutzing, 1974)Google Scholar.

45 Nineteen treatises have recourse to these adjectives.

46 ‘This has forced me to make use of the little knowledge that God has given me to seek and find a method and a way that is shorter and easier, so that those who wish to may learn from what follows, and may succeed in less time and with little trouble.’

47 ‘This has prompted me to draw up this brief Epitome musicale.’ Unlike nearly all his contemporaries, he did not specify his intentions for brevity in his title.

48 ‘This has allayed all the fears I had in undertaking this little Instruction familiere, by which the above aim may (with a modicum of labour and diligence) be attained …’

49 ‘Reader, my friend, you can now see how much more methodical and easier my Instruction is, even simpler for learning to sing musically in polyphony (res facta) as they call it, than that which the Grammarians have persistently presented hitherto, making us lose time in our youth, by counting on fingers and by contemplating the knuckles and bones of their hands.’

50 This attitude also explains the absence of polemic in the history of French theory in the Renaissance, when Italy was marked by numerous disputes which culminated in the conflict between Monteverdi and Artusi. This atmosphere of conflict was possible only in cases where theorists referred to contemporary music. On the nature of these musical disputes see Cowart, G., Origins of Modern Musical Criticism: French and Italian Music, 1600–1750 (Ann Arbor, MI, 1981)Google Scholar.

51 There are two manuscript copies dating from the seventeenth century. The first was written in 1634 by Louys Chaveneau (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS fr. 19100, fols. 187 ff.). The second, reduced for the most part but augmented at the end by new chapters on intervals, fugue and thoroughbass, must have been copied around 1670–1680.

52 Schneider, , Die Kompositionslehre, pp. 26–32Google Scholar.

53 Pogue, S. F., ‘Le Roy, Adrian’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Sadie, S., 20 vols. (London, 1980), x, pp. 686–7Google Scholar.

54 Seay, ‘French Renaissance Theory’.

55 See Brown, H. M., ‘Emulation, Competition and Homage: Imitation and Theories of Imitation in the Renaissance’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 35 (1982), pp. 1–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 ‘Considering therefore the cause to be a lack of knowledge of the Latin language, I have taken this occasion to make this little Treatise taken from several Authors, … and I have put the whole lot together in the form of an epitome in the French language, so that in the future they may more surely compose and put their inventions down in writing.’

57 See Orpheus: the Metamorphosis of a Myth, ed. Warden, J. (Toronto, 1982)Google Scholar.

58 On this subject, see Vendrix, P., ‘L'augustinisme musical en France au XVIIe siècle’, Revue de Musicologie, 78 (1992), pp. 237–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 Cymbalum mundi is sometimes attributed to Des Périers.

60 The influence of Aristotle is tangible here and must be taken into account in any study of musical thought in the Renaissance.

61 See Frangenberg's, Thomas excellent article whose main lines are summarised here: ‘Auditus visu prestantior: Comparisons of Hearing and Vision in Charles de Bovelle's Liber de sensibus’, The Second Sense: Studies in Hearing and Musical Judgement from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century, Warburg Institute Surveys and Texts 22 (London, 1991), pp. 71–94Google Scholar.

62 Dobbins, F., Music in Renaissance Lyons (Oxford, 1992), pp. 32–4Google Scholar.

63 ‘So you cannot however deny that the voice has more powerful energy than sight, given that the voice penetrates more solid, thick and opaque bodies, like walls and other such obstacles, whereas sight cannot pass through even this sheet of paper.’ de Tyard, Pontus, Solitaire second, p. 197Google Scholar.