Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre | |
|---|---|
 de La Guerre byFrançois de Troy | |
| Born | (1665-03-17)17 March 1665 |
| Died | 27 June 1729(1729-06-27) (aged 64) |
Élisabeth Claude Jacquet de La Guerre (pronunciationⓘ, néeJacquet, 17 March 1665 – 27 June 1729) was a Frenchmusician,harpsichordist andcomposer.
Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet was born on March 17, 1665, into a family of musicians and master instrument-makers in the parish ofSaint-Louis-en-l'Île, Paris. Her grandfather, Jehan Jacquet, and her father, Claude Jacquet, wereharpsichord makers. Claude taught his sons and daughters how to survive and thrive in the world. Élisabeth received her initial musical education from her father. When she was five,Louis XIV, the "Sun King," took notice of her when she performed at his palace ofVersailles. This eventually led to her becoming a musician in his court. She wrote most of her works under his patronage.[1] As a teenager she was accepted into the French court, where her education was supervised by the king's mistress,Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan. She stayed with the royal court until it moved to Versailles. In 1684, she married theorganist Marin de La Guerre, son of the late organist at theSainte-Chapelle,Michel de La Guerre. After her marriage she taught, composed and gave concerts at home and throughout Paris to great acclaim.[2]
Jacquet de La Guerre was one of the few well-known female composers of her time, and unlike many of her contemporaries she composed in a wide variety of forms.[3] Her talent and achievements were acknowledged byTiton du Tillet, who accorded her a place on hisMount Parnassus when she was only 26 years old, next toLalande andMarais and immediately belowLully. A quote from Titon du Tillet describes her as having:
marvellous facility for playing preludes and fantasies off the cuff. Sometimes she improvises one or another for a whole half hour with tunes and harmonies of great variety and in quite the best possible taste, quite charming her listeners. (Le Parnasse françois, 1732)[4]
Her first published work was herPremier livre de pièces declavessin, printed in 1687, which includesunmeasured preludes. It was one of the few collections of harpsichord pieces printed in France in the 17th century, along with those ofChambonnières,Lebègue andd'Anglebert. During the 1690s she composed a ballet,Les Jeux à l'honneur de la victoire (c. 1691), which has subsequently been lost. On 15 March 1694, the production of heroperaCéphale et Procris at theAcadémie Royale de Musique was the first of an opera written by a woman in France. The five-acttragédie lyrique was set to a libretto by Duché de Vancy. Like her contemporaries, she also experimented with Italian genres: principally the sonata and the cantata.[2] In 1695 she composed a set oftrio sonatas which, with those ofMarc-Antoine Charpentier,François Couperin,Jean-Féry Rebel andSébastien de Brossard, are among the earliest French examples of thesonata.[2]
Her only published opera received 5 or 6 performances. An explanation of this failure was that the opera depended on the text rather than the music.Céphale et Procris was soon known astragédie en musique, a tragedy put into music, and French literary theatre recited musically.[5] Her operatic compositions were not received well by the French musical culture, which was cautious about contemporary opera. They might have been accepted more readily in Italy with all its musical innovations,[6] but in France, operatic tradition was considered necessary. The reception ofCéphale et Procris tells us more about the world of opera in France in the 1690s and French music than about her ability as a composer.[5] This put a stop to her career as an operatic composer.[5]
During the next few years many of her near relations died, including her only son who was ten years old, her mother, father, husband, and brother Nicolas. She continued to perform, however, and in 1707 her collectionPièces deClavecin qui peuvent se jouer sur leViolon, a new set of harpsichord pieces, was published, followed by sixSonates pour le violon et pour le clavecin. These works are an early example of the then-new genre of accompanied harpsichord works, where the instrument is used in anobbligato role with the violin;Rameau'sPièces de clavecin en concerts are somewhat of the same type. The dedication of the 1707 work speaks of the continuing admiration andpatronage ofLouis XIV:
Such happiness for me, Sire, if my latest work may receive as glorious a reception from Your Majesty as I have enjoyed almost from the cradle, for, Sire, if I may remind you, you never spurned my youthful offerings. You took pleasure in seeing the birth of the talent that I have devoted to you; and you honoured me even then with your commendations, of the value of which I had no understanding at the time. My slender talents have since grown. I have striven even harder, Sire, to deserve your approbation, which has always meant everything to me ...
She returned to vocal composition with the publication of two books ofCantates françaises sur des sujets tirez de l'Ecriture,Book 1 (1708) andBook 2 (1711). Also known as theCantates Bibliques[7] Her last published work was a collection of secularCantates Françoises (c. 1715).[8] In the inventory of her possessions after her death, there were three harpsichords: a small one with white and black keys, one with black keys, and a large double manual Flemish harpsichord.
Jacquet de La Guerre died in Paris in 1729.
Despite the poor reception of her opera, she continued to publish her work and take opportunities. Her sonatas, from later in her life, are considered triumphs of the genre. This is due to her development of the role for violin and the way she blended French traditions with Italian innovations. After her death, her genius in compositions, her creativity in vocal and instrumental music, and the variety of the genres in which she worked were acknowledged. Her life and career success show that she was given a rare opportunity to succeed as a female composer, and that she took full advantage of it.[5]
During the 1990s there was a renewed interest in her compositions and a number have been recorded.[9]
In 2023, theDunedin Consort, with Hera and Mahogany Opera, performed theCantates Bibliques for the first time in 300 years under the titleOut of Her Mouth, in Scotland,York and London,[7] music 'written by a woman about women and for women'.[10] The mini-operas reflect the struggles of three Biblical women—Susanne,Rachel andJudith—against male violence and oppression[11] and their staging included 'three different singers, four musicians, five watermelons and seven large blue rolls'.[7]
Jacquet de La Guerre's early trio sonatas and violin/viola da gamba sonatas survive only in manuscript sources in Paris. The rest of her output is thought to have been published in her lifetime, althoughTiton du Tillet mentioned a lostTe Deum setting in his tribute to Jacquet de La Guerre.[12]
