La Royalle: Music for Kings and Courtiers by Delphian Records

Music for Kings & Courtiers

Gordon Ferries guitars, lute & theorbo

no. 6 [3:50] [1:14] [1:12]

Sarabande ‘La Boulonoise’

Pierre Certon, arr. Guillaume Morlaye (c.1510–c.1558) ‘Robin’ [2:10] (tracks 1, 14–18, 21) Martin Haycock, 14-course French theorbo in D after 17th-century models by Matteo Sellas (tracks 2–3, 12–13) D. Sutherland, 8-course Renaissance lute in G after 16th-century models by

Track 1 is dedicated to Claire Thomlinson

(tracks 4–8, 19–20, 26–35) Martin Haycock, 5-course Baroque guitar in E after 17th-century models by Matteo Sellas (tracks 9–11, 22–25) Martin Haycock, Renaissance guitar in A after a contemporary drawing

On the morning of 25 May 1660 the sea and elements finally calmed and the fleet of the soon-to-be Charles II sailed into Dover, marking the Restoration of the monarchy and a new flourishing of the arts. Charles disembarked from his ship, the Royal Charles, and set foot on English soil at around 3pm. Samuel Pepys was present at this historic event, ensconced on a smaller boat along with ‘a dog that the King loved’. He recorded in his diary for that day in his typically trenchant style that this dog ‘shit in the boat, which made us laugh and [made] me think that a King and all that belong to him are but just as others are’.

It is likely that Charles’ considerable entourage on this voyage also included the Italian guitarist and composer Francesco Corbetta, who was to establish for himself an important and influential position in the Restoration court. Having already ingratiated himself with Charles’ cousin Louis XIV and the court of Versailles, the highly adaptable Corbetta took full advantage of the vogue for foreign musicians at a court where English musicians such as John Singleton were openly snubbed. (Pepys again: ‘After supper a play, where the King did put great affront to Singleton’s musique, he bidding them stop and bade the French musique play, which, my Lord says, doth much out-do all ours.’) Certainly Charles, having spent part of his exile in Versailles, was himself – like Louis XIV – a keen guitarist. Pepys himself was

charged with transporting some of the King’s most important possessions, including his guitar, to England.

Suitably impressed by the apparent ease of Corbetta’s playing, Charles sent guitar music to his sister Henriette-Anne in Paris. Indeed, the King’s sister did much to make the guitar highly fashionable for young ladies. The courtier Anthony Hamilton poured an invaluable amount of court gossip into the supposed memoirs of his brother-in-law the Comte de Grammont (Memoires du Chevalier de Grammont , Paris, 1713), and this document is a useful source for information about Corbetta’s time in London, and for contemporary reactions to this remarkable figure, of whom Hamilton remarks: ‘The truth is, nothing was so difficult as to play like this foreigner.’

One incident related by Hamilton gives us such a wonderful picture not only of the ubiquity of the guitar at court but also of its place within its licentious and sexually charged atmosphere that I will quote it in full:

The King’s relish for his compositions had brought the instrument so much into vogue that every person played upon it, well or ill; and you were as sure to see a guitar on a lady’s toilet as rouge or patches. The Duke of York played upon it tolerably well, and the Earl of Arran like Francisco himself. This Francisco had composed a sarabande, which either charmed

or infatuated every person; as the whole guitarery at court were trying at it; and God knows what an universal strumming there was. The Duke of York, pretending not to be perfect in it, desired Lord Arran to play it to him. Lady Chesterfield had the best guitar in England. The Earl of Arran, who was desirous of playing his best, conducted his Royal highness to his sister’s apartments: she was lodged at court, at her father’s, the Duke of Ormond’s; and this wonderful guitar was lodged there too. Whether this visit was preconcerted or not, I do not pretend to say; but it is certain that they found both the lady and the guitar at home: they likewise found there Lord Chesterfield, so much surprised at this unexpected visit, that it was a considerable time before he thought of rising from his seat to receive them with due respect.

Jealousy, like a malignant vapour, now seized upon his brain: a thousand suspicions, blacker than ink, took possession of his imagination, and were continually increasing; for, whilst the brother played upon the guitar to the Duke, the sister ogled and accompanied him with her eyes, as if the coast had been clear and no enemy to observe them. The saraband was at least repeated twenty times: the Duke declared it was played to perfection: Lady Chesterfield found no fault with the composition: but her husband, who clearly perceived that he was the person played upon, thought it a most detestable piece.

In addition to his musical prowess Corbetta embraced the newly restored court’s love of gambling, and his popularity with the King is

further attested by his being granted a royal privilege (signed 22 February 1661) ‘which prohibited any other person from setting up the game of L’Acca di Catalonia ’. The rights for this game – a type of lottery – and the attempts by various parties to monopolise it resulted in much confusion and in the financial ruination of many young men, duped as they were by its insupportable odds. Indeed, many petitions appeared, including one which asked for protection ‘against the sinister practices of Francisco Corbett and his associates’.

Thankfully, however, Corbetta’s legacy from this period is primarily musical. His La Guitarre Royalle (Paris, 1671), dedicated to Charles II, is a fascinating musical memoir of the tastes both of the King and of his courtiers – as for example the ‘gavotte en musique aymee du Duc de Montmouth ’ – as well as of various events, such as that commemorated by the ‘Allemande sur l’imprissonnement de Duc de Bouquengam ’. Corbetta returned to France in 1670 to supervise the printing, and obtained permission and protection from Louis XIV. All of Corbetta’s music on this recording comes from this book, which is arguably the apogee of his output and which contains some of the finest music in the guitar’s repertory. It is evident from the unmistakably French style just how much the English court had been seduced by the tastes of Versailles.

The Suite in D major begins with what is essentially a French-style unmeasured prelude, as can be found in numerous harpsichord, lute and theorbo pieces by Corbetta’s French contemporaries. Although this example is given with bar lines and a time signature, it is clearly designed to be played in a free and improvisatory style. The allemande, courante and sarabande show Corbetta’s complete mastery of the combined use of rasguado (strumming) and punteado (plucking). The rasguado style was originally greeted with contempt by some as an inferior type of music-making which could be played by the relatively unskilled; it was the development of a plucked style which gradually increased the guitar’s appeal and gave it a more widespread acceptance. This more formal style can be seen in the guitar music of Francisco Guerau, whose Poema Harmonico (Madrid, 1694) contains virtually no strummed chords, although the guitar of this period seems never entirely to lose a link with its humble beginnings. The mature Corbetta’s mixed style, however, like that of his fellow Italian guitarist and composer Angiol Michele Bartolotti, maintains the guitar’s quiddity while at the same time imbuing it with the highest sophistication. Corbetta also in these movements make use of thematic material especially at cadences giving the impression of a through composed work. The suite’s closing ‘chacone’ (thus spelt) is a beautifully compressed example of Corbetta’s skill in variations over a ground bass.

The Allemande ‘La Royalle’, in D minor, has the elegiac quality of a French tombeau. Corbetta makes full use of the guitar’s compass, alongside striking dissonances which give the listener the impression that the composer had more than a passing concern with the ‘royal’ subject of this piece. The Sarabande ‘La Stuarde’ appears to be a companion piece to ‘La Royalle’ , and certainly shares its yearning quality. It comes with a decorated variant called a double which is written in the style brisé or ‘broken style’ again much loved by French lutenists (and used to famous effect by J.S. Bach in the C major prelude of Book One of his WellTempered Clavier ).

Corbetta’s death in Paris in 1681 was fittingly commemorated musically by another Versailles musician, Robert de Visée. Noted as a guitarist, theorbist, lutenist, singer and violist, de Visée played chamber music in the illustrious company of musicians of the calibre of François Couperin, Antoine Forqueray and Jean-Féry Rebel in court and at the houses of influential aristocrats including the king’s mistress Madame de Maintenon and the Duc de Bourbon. It seems that de Visée also had a personal and intimate role in Louis XIV’s musical life: in his journal of 1686 Dangeau tells us that after going to bed the King ‘generally had Vize come to play the guitar at around 9 o’clock’.

De Visée published two books of guitar music, the Livre de guittarre (Paris, 1682) and the Livre de pièces pour la Guittarre (Paris, 1686), from which latter the famous Suite in D minor is taken. This suite of nine dances is known to classical guitarists through various transcriptions dating back to the nineteenth century, the earliest being the series of movements transcribed by Napoléon Coste (1805–1883) as part of his expanded version of Fernando Sor’s method. It is difficult, however, to give an accurate impression of the unique tuning and technique of the seventeenth-century guitar, and indeed one version completely omits the harmonically challenging and beautiful final passacaille due to its supposed ‘scanty musical content’; the transcriber must have been somewhat discombobulated by the otherworldly dissonances presented in the opening ground, which are virtually incomprehensible on a modern instrument.

The suite follows the usual pattern of prelude, allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue, but is notable for the variety and attractiveness of the other dances, or Galanterien, presented. I have inserted the short menuet in D printed after the suite, which acts as an attractive counterpart to the menuet in D minor. De Visée’s style is largely melodic, and as well as the tablature we are also provided with versions of some of the pieces with melody and basso in two staves. The composer himself tells us in the preface to his

1682 book that he has given his pieces, ‘as far as my weak talents permit, the flavour of those of the inimitable Monsieur de Lulli’: of course, it was politic for anyone involved in the musical life of Versailles to remain firmly on the right side of the King’s superintendent of music.

Besides his two published books, de Visée’s guitar music is also found in manuscript sources such as Vm7 6222 (B.N. Paris), from which the guitar version of his allemande La Royalle comes. This exquisite piece shares its key –D minor – and its title with the allemande by Corbetta discussed above.

The guitar of the seventeenth century had five courses or double strings, with sometimes a single first string or chanterelle. For this recording I have used the so-called ‘French’ stringing, with the fifth course an octave higher than on the modern instrument and with a higher octave string alongside the lower string or bourdon on the fourth course. This arrangement is perfect for the music of both de Visée and Corbetta, giving clarity as it does to cross-string runs (campanella ) and adding a degree of bass line to chordal passages.

The problems of seventeenth-century guitar stringing (all three commonly-used stringings present problems with chordal inversions) can be a thorny issue amongst scholars and players alike, but the beauty and uniqueness of this instrument lies in its apparent imperfection.

The theorbo was originally developed in early seventeenth-century Italy alongside the new vocal style espoused by the Florentine Camerata. This new musical language and aesthetic essentially heralded the beginnings of the Baroque era in Europe, with basso continuo or figured bass becoming the standard form of accompaniment across many styles from solo song to opera. This was the ideal environment for an instrument like the theorbo, with its extended bass range, to flourish in, and the instrument became ubiquitous throughout Europe. The théorbe de pièces, as used on this recording, was favoured in seventeenth-century France as the more suitable instrument for playing solo repertoire. It has fourteen single courses, six frettable with the left hand and a further eight bass courses played with the right hand only. Pitched in D, a fourth higher than the standard theorbo, it is also of a smaller size.

When played on this instrument, therefore, the theorbo version of de Visée’s ‘La Royalle’ remains in D minor. This version is found in the extensive manuscript collected and copied by Vaudry de Saizenay, a provincial nobleman and pupil of de Visée. (This manuscript is also the only known source of de Visée’s lute music.) It is remarkable how the different timbre and stringing of the theorbo bring out in this version a deep melancholy which is the truest character of French music of this period.

Little biographical information is known about the composer, musician and teacher Charles Hurel. He came from a prosperous Parisian family of instrument makers, although he seems to be the only Hurel to have been known as a composer, having had vocal airs published in various collections in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. The Suite in C major (G major, if played on a conventional theorbo) featured on this recording comes from a 1675 manuscript housed in the Pierpont Morgan library in New York entitled Tablature de luth et de théorbe. Hurel, like de Visée, follows the common French practice of grouping pieces together in keys, allowing the performer to construct his own suite from the given pieces. Hurel’s compositions for theorbo show great skill, balancing caprice and melancholy to great effect. The influence of Lully can again be seen, especially in the charming menuet with its typically French syncopation, and Lully is given further adulation by the inclusion in this collection of Hurel’s transcriptions of some of his opera and ballet music. Les Pellerins comes from Act V of Lully’s Ballet Royal dansé, where it is titled ‘Entrée: pour les Pellerins jouant de la vielle’.

More than a century earlier, the lute and guitar in their Renaissance incarnations were already flourishing in royal circles. The figures of Adrian Le Roy and Pierre Attaingnant, whose lute arrangements appear on this recording,

were both of great significance in the French publishing world, and it is virtually impossible to separate their musical output from their commercial concerns. Attaingnant’s publishing flourished under the patronage of François I, and in 1537 he was awarded the position of ‘imprimeur et libraire du Roy en musique’. Attaingnant’s commercial success coincided with the flourishing of the Parisian chanson via the publishing of works by three of the genre’s major exponents – Claudin de Sermisy, Pierre Certon and Clément Janequin. The two lute pieces both entitled Une bergerote come from Attaingnant’s Trés bréve et famillière introduction pour jouer toutes chansons reduictes en la tablature de lutz (1529). Both are based on vocal settings of the poem ‘Une bergerotte prinse en ung buisson’, the first by Sermisy and the second by an anonymous composer. The settings share not only the same form – a longer first section followed by a shorter refrain – but also a modal style and a generally more archaic musical language.

Le Roy had a dominant role in French musical life during the second half of the sixteenth century; not only as a music publisher alongside his partner Robert Ballard but also as a virtuoso musician, teacher and composer who moved in the most elevated humanist circles that Paris could offer. This fruitful artistic environment does however in some ways mask the dark undercurrent of political and

in particular religious strife of France during this period – in particular the persecution of the Huguenot Protestants culminating in the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre in 1572, in which thousands of Huguenots were slaughtered. The killing began in Paris on the orders of Charles IX, and spread to other French towns, lasting for several weeks. The conflict was resolved in 1598 when the protestant King Henri IV converted to Catholicism, declaring ‘Paris vaut bien une messe’ (‘Paris is worth a mass’). Le Roy’s death coincides with this historic event in French history and the end of an era.

The Pavane ‘Est il conclud’ and accompanying gaillarde both come from Le Roy’s Premier livre de tablature de luth (1551). The style of this music shows us Le Roy’s mastery of arranging contemporary dance music for a domestic market. Both pieces have a strong rhythmic drive and straightforward homophonic harmony, and both come with a version ‘plus diminuée’, which consists of the same music complete with complex divided runs. Perhaps the two versions were intended to be played together by two lutes? Certainly this is possible, although doing so produces at times some ‘interesting’ dissonances! Attaingnant and Le Roy both printed an early form of French tablature, using letters to indicate frets rather than the numbers used in Italian tablature. Using only five lines (representing the strings)

for a six-course lute, this system treats the sixth course as a diapason or low course usually written below the tablature.

Le Roy’s eye for commercial opportunity was quick to alight on the possibilities of the newly arrived four-course guitar in France. This small treble instrument pitched in A has a Spanish provenance, first appearing as it did in the vihuela books in which it was essentially treated in the same contrapuntal manner. (The earliest source is Mudarra’s Tres libros de musica en cifras para vihuela (1546).) Its strongest individual identity, however, lies in its French repertoire. Essentially the guitar technique of this period is the same as that used for the lute, with much use of thumb and index alternation for single line passages. This, together with the greater ease of transportation and much greater ease of tuning, made the guitar perfect for domestic use. The Almande tournée comes from Le Roy’s Tiers livre de tabulature de guiterre (1552). It follows the same procedure as the lute dances above by the inclusion of a version ‘plus diminuée’.

The Quart livre de tabulature de guiterre (1553) published by Le Roy and Ballard contains music by Gregor Brayssing, about whom nothing is know biographically except that he came from Augsburg. Nor is his music found in any other sources. We can perhaps infer from the book’s Parisian provenance, along with the French

version of his first name given on the book’s title page, that he spent a significant time in the French capital and was well acquainted with Le Roy and his circle. Brayssing’s fantasies, alongside his chanson intabulations, show a complete mastery of counterpoint on the small and ostensibly limited compass of the guitar.

The Fantasie des Grues, the first of a series of fantasies which opens Brayssing’s book, is serious in tone, beginning with a beautiful twopart texture with the gradual addition of threeand four-part chords. It has a restless quality which gradually resolves to a final cadence in C following a French-style reprise. Fantasie no. 5 is largely homophonic in style and features a fine example of ‘false relation’ towards the end, with C sharp and C natural appearing in different parts in the same bar. Fantasie no. 6 is more dance-like in form, with a light transparent texture which responds well to a brisker tempo.

The first guitar books to appear in France were published in 1550–51, under the reign of Henri II, who granted many more publishing rights than had his predecessor François I (who had given Attaingnant a virtual publishing stranglehold). One of these was given to the press of Michel Fezandat and Robert Granjon, who published the three guitar books of Guillaume Morlaye. The three chanson intabulations on this recording are all by Morlaye – who, as well as being a lutenist and guitarist well connected in the art world,

is also recorded as a merchant who profited from the African slave trade. ‘Jay veu que j’estoys franc et maistre’, from his Premier livre, is an arrangement of a chanson by Sandrin. The settings of Certon’s ‘Robin couchè a meme terre’ (which must have been well known enough for Morlaye to title his arrangement simply ‘Robin’ ) and of ‘Regretz soucy et peine’, originally attributed to Janequin but probably by Guillaume Le Heurteur, both come from Morlaye’s Second livre. These intabulations manage miraculously well to capture the essence of the originals in terms of melody, harmony and counterpoint. Of course, any or all of the original chanson vocal parts can be sung along with the guitar solo to great effect. The practice of singing one

line of the tablature (usually distinguished by being printed in red) was certainly common in Spain in the equivalent vihuela arrangements.

During the period covered by this recording, lutes and guitars in their various incarnations were inextricably linked to French royalty, and by association to the Restoration court in England. Whether in the turbulent and war-torn sixteenth century, the splendour and opulence of the Versailles of the Sun King or in the decadence, sexual excess and artistic fecundity evinced during the reign of Charles II, guitars and lutes were strummed and plucked in every guise, and thus they formed an intrinsic part of royal life, from the most public of spectacles to the most private and intimate of moments.

Recorded on 16-17 February 2012 in St Michael’s Parish Church, Inveresk Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter 24-bit digital editing & mastering: Paul Baxter Cover image: Caspar Netscher (1639–1684), A Lady Playing the Guitar (1669, oil on oak panel) © Wallace Collection, London / The Bridgeman Art Library

Design: John Christ Booklet editor: John Fallas Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.co.uk

With thanks to Monica Hall, Eleanor Smith, Martin Haycock, Rob MacKillop and the Friends of St Cecilia’s Hall and Museum, Edinburgh

Delphian Records Ltd gratefully acknowledges funding from Creative Scotland, the Binks Trust and the Hope Scott Trust

Gordon Ferries

Having initially studied classical guitar at Napier University, Gordon Ferries went on to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), where he specialised in lute and early guitar music. He has since established himself as one of the UK’s leading exponents of the baroque guitar.

Gordon has worked for both television and radio: arranging and performing music for BBC Radio 4’s production of The Dreamer of the Calle de San Salvador, featuring on Scotland’s Music with Concerto Caledonia and appearing on BBC2 television. He has performed in venues and festivals across the UK and in Europe both as a soloist and in ensemble, appearing with The Scottish Ensemble, the Scottish Early Music Consort, the Edinburgh Quartet, Symphonie de Plaisirs, Fires of Love (with whom he has made two recordings for Delphian Records – Love and Reconquest: Music of Renaissance Spain, DCD34003 and Chansons à Plaisir: Music from the time of Adrian le Roy, DCD34063) and with his new Baroque ensemble Lord Rochester’s Monkey, as well as with John Kitchen, as an accompanist with Susan Hamilton, Frances Cooper and Lorna Anderson, and in duo with Rob MacKillop.

Gordon has released four previous solo recordings with Delphian, all critically acclaimed. He also played on the acclaimed album Spoils and the accompanying EP The Wyrd Meme by Scottish songwriter and guitarist Alasdair Roberts. Gordon has been awarded two grants from the Scottish Arts Council towards study at the Bibliothèque

Nationale de Paris, researching the baroque guitar; the fruits of this research appear on his recordings. Gordon is also much in demand as an educator and is involved in teaching young people and adults in many musical styles.

©Alan Rennie

Les

Plaisirs les plus charmants

Gordon Ferries

DCD34011

From its earliest beginnings, the five-course Baroque guitar was associated – for better or worse – with dance music, becoming the sensuous younger cousin of the lute or vihuela. In this mélange of music from seventeenth-century France, some of it recorded for the first time, and performed on baroque guitars including an original historic instrument from the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Instruments, Gordon Ferries weaves a tapestry of sound that is at once elegant, earthy, and utterly timeless.

‘Full of vitality and will soon have your foot tapping’

— Early Music News, June 2005

Gaspar Sanz (c.1640–c.1710): La Preciosa

Gordon Ferries

DCD34036

Gordon Ferries visits the music of seventeenth-century Spain’s fiery streets. It was a time when the five-course guitar engendered a sense of abject horror in the morally inclined on account of its associations with popular ballads, taverns, criminality, sensuality and in particular with dancing. Ferries evokes the period with panache and breathtakingly virtuosic flair.

‘Sanz’s music exudes Spanish fire from every pore, and it is this exotic but nebulous quality that Ferries captures to perfection’

— Early Music Review, December 2005

‘Ferries achieves an astonishing array of moods and emotions … at once crisp, stylish, and fun. This is a disc to listen to again and again’

— Early Music America, Spring 2006

Francisco Guerau (1649–1722): Marionas

Gordon Ferries

DCD34046

Following his much lauded disc of music by Spanish composer Gaspar Sanz, Gordon Ferries weaves his way through the seductive labyrinth of Francisco Guerau’s ‘harmonic poem’ – sensual ballads, sublime passacalles and the virtuosic dance music of baroque Spain’s fiery underbelly. Ferries’ playing brings this beguiling world to life with elegance and passionate vitality.

‘dispatched with artistry and supreme stylishness’

— International Record Review, February 2008

Di Chitarra Spagnola: music of Angiol Michele Bartolotti

Gordon Ferries

DCD34066

Italian by birth, Bartolotti was employed as a musician at the enlightened court of Queen Christina of Sweden and in the opulent splendour of the Sun King’s Versailles. His elegant suites for guitar and theorbo fuse contemplation and virtuosity, distilling the melancholic beauty of the French Baroque. Largely neglected in modern times, this cosmopolitan composer’s music occupies a seminal place in the early guitar repertory.

‘[Ferries’] playing is relaxed but with a strong sense of rhythm. The contrapuntal passages are nicely balanced with the strumming and there is some appropriately elaborate ornamentation and neat little riffs in all the right places. … He brings off [the three theorbo pieces] with consummate ease and adds some really impressive ornamentation to the melodic lines.’

— Lute News, January 2011