The first half of the 17th century was one of the most troubled periods in the history of both France and Europe. After the murder of King Henry IV in 1610, his nine-year-old son Louis XIII succeeded him to the throne. The boy’s mother, Marie de Medici, reigned in his place until he was 16 years old. His younger brother Duke Gaston d’Orléans conspired against his reign, including instigating several unsuccessful revolts.
Despite these troubled times, one of the most important artistic movements ever came into being as the beginning of the 17th century was a time of extraordinary flourishing of artistic life at the French Court. Louis XIII was a man of the arts: He painted, composed, played the guitar, and had a particular passion for dance. So too was his younger brother a man of the arts who had his own orchestra. Pierre Guédron (ca. 1566–ca. 1619) was a leading musician at the court of Louis XIII, followed by his son-in-law Antoine Boësset (1586–1643), while Etienne Moulinié (1599–1676) worked in the service of Gaston.
Gaston’s orchestra included some of the finest musicians of the time. Eight singers were permanently in his personal service, among them the young Michel Lambert (ca. 1610–1696). Charles Fleury, one of the most respected lute players of the time and known as Sieur de Blancrocher, played in the orchestra, and Moulinié composed for and conducted the ensemble. A sizable orchestra, it was known to perform ballets de cour that required up to 94 singers and 42 viols and lutes.
The secular songs with lute or theorbo accompaniment called the air de cour (also known at the end of the century as air tendre or air sérieux) was the preferred medium for expressing soulful, delicate feelings. These “courtly” songs were usually strophic, and the poems they set expressed amorous, elegiac, plaintive, spiritual, and even mildly erotic feelings. Often describing a rural milieu, the lyrics were elegant, fresh, and intimate, and their prosodic accents guided the musical rhythm.
Singing to lute accompaniment appears to have been particularly appreciated in Paris at the homes of ladies of culture and refinement. The singers, both men and women, exerted a magical influence wherever they performed, and their art surpassed all other modes of communication, fascinating society of the time. Excellent pronunciation, accuracy, and good taste in the placing, creating, and performing of ornamentation were all important hallmarks of the finest singers.
Pierre Guédron was born in Châteaudun and became surintendant de la musique under Louis XIII. He played an active part in promoting the popularity and success of ballets de cour and airs de cour, which would become the most important genres with the most numerous compositions in France for nearly a century. Guédron’s music features clear declamation of the text, which aligns him with the style of his Italian colleagues. He also arranged popular music by harmonizing well-known melodies, elevating the music to a more noble status. The relationship between the text and the melody is much more sophisticated in the airs de cour that were based on popular songs and may be regarded as a first attempt at operatic music, the French equivalent of the Italian recitar cantando (i.e., early sung recitative). From Spain and Italy, ostinato basses—such as the ciaccona, passacalle, zarabanda, and others—came to France. Guédron uses a zarabanda bassline in his piece “Nos esprits libres et contents” from his 1609 Ballet de la Reyne written for Marie de Medici.
Antoine Boësset was a singer and composer who held the titles of maître de la musique as well as surintendant de la musique for both King and Queen, and carried on the tradition that had been passed on to him by his father-in-law, Pierre Guédron, by writing more than 250 works. Like his father-in-law, Boësset used popular themes and rhythms to bring out pastoral characters. French love poetry adopted the rustic themes with stock characters, including Philis, Cloris, Climène, and others. The charming pastoral fictions constituted a veritable social code of manners, and “À la fin cette bergère” is an irresistible dance that culminates in a final exclamation of joy.
Etienne Moulinié was born in Languedoc. He was taught to sing and play the cornetto, organ, and bassoon from an early age at Narbonne Cathedral. His older brother Antoine, who was a singer in the chambre du Roy, used his influence to bring his brother to Paris in 1621. Moulinié soon made a name for himself as a composer and was appointed director of music to Gaston d’Orléans in 1627. Moulinié’s career was tied to Gaston’s political conspiracies, revolts, and eventual exile until the Duke’s death in 1660, when Moulinié conducted the music for Gaston’s funeral and his own daughter sang at the performance.
His third book of airs, published in 1629, contains most of Moulinié’s airs étrangers and shows his capacity for imitating different genres and composing in a varety of styles. He set “foreign” texts in Spanish, Italian, and Occitan. Henry Le Bailly (ca. 1585–1637) and Gabriel Bataille (ca. 1575–1630) had already started the trend for Spanish airs upon the arrival from Spain of the young Queen Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII. The guitar, castanets, and tambourine were often heard at Louis XIII’s court.
An exceptional lutenist and celebrated singer, Michel Lambert started as one of the singers for Gaston d’Orléans under the direction of Moulinié. He went to Paris in 1630 and received voice lessons from the renowned singer Pierre de Nyert. In 1640, he married singer Gabrielle Dupuy, and their daughter would eventually marry Jean-Baptiste Lully. In 1661, after dancing alongside Louis XIV and Lully in court ballets, he was appointed to the chambre du Roy, and began his career as a composer by writing the music for several parts of these sumptuous spectacles. Today, more than 300 of his airs survive.
The Spanish air “Yo soy la locura” was written and sung by Le Bailly, who held the position musicien ordinaire du Roy and was a virtuoso singer. Under the title “Passacalle de La Folie,” it was included in the Ballet de la Folie, three airs from which were published for voice and lute in Bataille’s six-book compendium of Airs de différents autheurs, mis en tablature de luth. Bataille’s collection of “airs by different authors” also included the anonymous “El baxel està en la playa” as well as “Pues que me das a escoger,” which may have been by Guédron. Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643–1704) published around 40 love songs and drinking songs. “Sans frayeur dans ce bois” was published in 1680 and was described at the time as “a very pleasant chaconne.”