French lute-song, 1529-1643

Thesis

A study of French-texted solo songs and duets with lute or guitar accompaniment notated in tablature, dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Connected repertoires include the Parisian chanson, psalm, voix de ville, dialogue, and air de cour. Sources are examined in terms of their background, composers represented in them, relationship to concordant and other musical sources, repertoire, and musical conception. Foreign and manuscript sources are included. Literary references indicating the status of sixteenth-century lute-song, its importance to humanists (including its role in the Académie de Poésie et de Musique), and its position in theatrical works, are considered. Issues of notation, musical and poetic form, prosody, rhythm, ornamentation, lute pitch and tuning, relationship to polyphonic versions, to the ballet de cour, to dance forms, and to solo instrumental styles such as stile brisé are examined. Early references to continuo practice and to the theorbo are noted. Several arguments are developed, including 1. that the sixteenth-century Le Roy publications were conceived primarily as solo lute music, 2. that from the late sixteenth-century onwards lute-songs were initially conceived as melody-bass outlines, and may to an extent be regarded as continuo realisations, and 3. that rhythmic features of the air de cour commonly related to the influence of musique mesurée may also be explained with reference to earlier attempts to adapt the voix de ville to humanist goals, and also to the influence of the Italian villanella. Includes tables and bibliographies. Musical examples, facsimiles, and transcriptions are included in a separate volume.

Authors: Le Cocq, J

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-bxeonm5pa
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: French; song; lute; guitar; music
• Subjects: Songs, French -- 17th century -- History and criticism; Guitar music -- 16th century -- History and criticism; Lute music -- 16th century -- History and criticism; Guitar music -- 17th century -- History and criticism; Songs, French -- 16th century -- History and criticism; Lute music -- 17th century -- History and criticism