Jacques Duphly: Pièces de Clavecin – Livre I

Description

Jacques Duphly

“…in general his pieces are sweet and amiable: they take after their father.” —Pierre-Louis D'Aquin De Château-Lyon (1752)

Jacques Duphly (1715-1789) was a claveciniste, a representative of a French harpsichord tradition that spans a period of almost 200 years, from the first decades of the seventeenth century to the last years of the eighteenth. Although the music and styles of playing evolved and changed during that period, the essential core of French harpsichord music remained remarkably constant throughout these two centuries. This statement would be difficult to make about any other period or national style in the history of keyboard music. The harpsichord works of Handel bear little resemblance to those of Purcell or Byrd, and there are few if any similarities between the music of the seventeenth-century Spanish composer Cabanilles and the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti. Yet a harpsichord piece written by Chambonnières in 1650 and one composed by Balbastre in 1787, although different in many details, would both be immediately recognized as examples of French music for the clavecin.

This lengthy and continuous tradition can be traced to a number of factors. One was Louis XIV, the Sun King (1638-1715), who exerted total control over almost every aspect of Franch society and culture during his reign of seventy-two years and one-hundred-ten days (1643-1715) —which is exactly how he liked it. As legend has it, he reportedly announced to the Parlement of Paris on 13 April 1655 that “L’État c’est moi” (“I am the state”). He wasn’t exaggerating. He could have also said “L’arte de la musique c’est moi,” in light of the imposition of his preferred style on every composer or performer under his rule. That style features a predominantly two- or three-voice texture, with an elegant, richly ornamented melodic line in one hand and a simple accompaniment in the other. Learned devices, intricate contrapuntal writing or full-voice chordal homophony are avoided, and many of the genres typically found in the other national styles of the Baroque, such as fugues, ricercare, fantasias, toccatas and sonatas, are rare in France. The French harpsichord composer achieved maximum expressive effect by the resonant spacing of parts, sensitivity to sonorities, and a rich harmonic language. Virtuoso keyboard displays were kept to a minimum, and techniques such as the extensive arpeggiation found in J.S. Bach's Chromatic Fantasy (BWV 903) and Handel's Lessons or the rapid scale passages, repeated notes, and hand crossings of Domenico Scarlatti do not generally appear in France until the middle of the eighteenth century.

The clavecinistes, moreover, achieved the highest level of expressive playing by the use of the widest range of techniques: overlegato and detaché; carefully distinguishing between the consonants and vowels of vocal models upon which to base phrasing and interpretation; special effects (such as carefully notated passages in which the two hands play slightly apart, as one finds in Duphly’s Les Grâces); and adherence to the principles of bon goût (good taste or style), politesse (noble etiquette), and the honnête homme (the ideal gentleman) that dominated French thinking and behavior for the entire period. The honnête homme, who was not only upright and virtuous but charming, pleasant, and well mannered, was expected to make his tasteful behavior appear absolutely natural and effortless, with (as numerous “influencers” of the age described) “a certain negligence that hides artifice and shows that nothing is done with forethought or any kind of effort.” François Couperin described the application of this sense of nonchalance to musical performance in his L’Art de Toucher le Clavecin (1716/1717): “The player must have an easy air at his harpsichord…without fixing his gaze on any one object.”

According to this aesthetic, the Italian style was the complete antithesis of the French, from musical, social and political perspectives. Jean-Laurent Lecerf de La Viéville expressed these differences at the beginning of the eighteenth century in blunt and (dare I say) sexist terms. According to de La Viéville, Italian music was “a clever old coquette covered in rouge and white powder, and overloaded with bows… hiding the wrinkles in her face and the defects of her figure by make-up that is…without heart, soul or sincerity.” French music, however, was represented by “…a young woman of noble but modest bearing, of grand but slender figure without excess; neat, always dressed with a galant propriety, but preferring to be informal rather than overdressed…with lovely natural coloring…but never the coquette or crazily playful…speaking well without flattering herself that she is a great speaker and without wanting to speak all the time.”

The Pièces de Clavecin Duphly published four books of pièces de clavecin, in 1744, 1748, 1758 and 1768.

Book I opens with a dedication and privilege: PIECES FOR THE / HARPSICHORD / DEDICATED / To Monseigneur the Duke / OF AYEN / COMPOSED BY / MR. DU PHLY. / Engraved by Miss Vandome. / Price 6. lt. / IN PARIS / At: The Author’s, rue de la Verrerie in the coach gate in front of the dead-end du Cocq. / Madame Boivin’s, Merchant rue St. Honoré, at the Règle d’Or. / Mr. Le Clerc’s, Merchant rue du Roule at the Croix d’Or. / WITH PRIVILEGE OF THE KING

To Monseigneur the Duke of Ayen, Marquis of Maintenon, Lord Baron and Chatelain of Brive and of Malemort, Pénires, Montelard, Chambres, Lentour, Servières, Nosières, and other places, Marshal of the King’s camps and armies, First Captain of his Majesty’s Gardes du corps, Governor of Roussillon and of St. Germain en Laÿe, in succession to the Marshal Duke of Noaïlles, Monseigneur, / You have allowed me to present you with some pieces for the harpsichord, which I had the privilege of entertaining you. I understand all the value of this favor, much less however by the success it can allow this modest work to gain, than by the occasion it gives me to present you with a public testimony of my gratitude and of the deep respect, with which I am, / Monseigneur, / Your very humble and very / obedient servant, / Du Phly

The Music in Book I Book I consists of what are essentially two suites, each featuring many of the standard elements of the French version of the genre, but with some exceptions. We find dance pieces in it: Allemande, Courante, Menuet, Rondeau and Gigue (although not titled as such); dedicatory works; and descriptive titles. However, the compositional styles used are different than those found in the traditional works of Duphly’s predecessors, reflecting the influence of the Italians described above.

For example, the two allemandes feature a continuous flow of sixteenth notes typical of the genre, and a generous use of style-brisé, especially in the opening measures of both halves of the second, but the pieces slide back and forth between Italy and France. There is little use of the classic rhythmic pattern of the 6/4-3/2 hemiola in the courantes, and the Legerement is not a dance at all, but rather a sonata movement that could easily have been written by Corelli, Geminiani or even Handel, with its repeated note pattern in the opening measures of both binary halves. Even more notable are the final measures, with a four-block-chord progression I6-ii6/5-V7-I that functions as a coda rather than the expected petite reprise.

The dedicatory pieces fit more comfortably into the clavecin style.

La Vanlo refers to the singer Christine Somis (1704-1785), daughter of the violinist Giovanni Battista Somis (1686-1763) who married the painter Carle Van Loo (1705-1765) in 1733.

La Cazamajor refers to Antoine de Casamayor (n.d.), Doctor-Regent at the Université de Paris. The piece recalls the style of the Italian gigue, but La Cazamajor is not that dance; rather, it is a piece in a triple compound meter (9/8), made all the more evident by the use of dotted quarters at the beginning. The arpeggio and scale figurations are vintage Italian, and perhaps even pre-classical.

La Boucon is dedicated to Anne-Jeanne Boucon (1708-1780), niece of the first wife of Jean-Baptiste Forqueray (1699-1782) and a well-known harpsichordist in her own right (Jean- Phillipe Rameau [1683-1764] called her “an excellent claveciniste” and Forqueray similarly honored her in his Pièces de clavecin of 1747). She married the innovative violinist-composer Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville (1711-1772) in 1747, and the title of the first piece of the second concert of the Pièces de clavecin en concerts (1741) by Rameau also carries her name.

La Millettina is probably a reference to the “Lady De La Milette” mentioned in the article by Titon du Tillet cited earlier.

There seem to be two, or possibly three descriptive works. La Damanzy, which also might be dedication to a yet to be discovered person, or a dance, since its predominant dotted rhythms belong to the French gigue style.

The same questions about genre remain unanswered with La Larare. Nevertheless, it has some notable characteristics, such as several tempo changes within the piece, marked “un peu moins vitte” followed by “vitte” in measures 5 and 8, and again in measures 32 and 35, respectively. Another is its “modern” harmonic language, such as the dissonant appoggiatura of d♭2 in the right hand above the left-hand chord V4/2 in the key of B-flat major in measure 45, and the dissonant appoggiatura of e♭2 above a vii4/3 in c-minor in the following measure. The passages divided between the two hands point to several works by Rameau and many of Domenico Scarlatti.

La Tribolet is more easily defined. It might refer to the medieval term for a troubadour known only for one song, or for the old French “tribol” to describe a troublemaker or an agitator.