A Survey of the Loure Through Definitions, Music, and Choreographies
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A SURVEY OF THE LOURE THROUGH DEFINITIONS, MUSIC, AND CHOREOGRAPHIES by JULIE ANDRIJESKI Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts Document III Advisor: Dr. Ross Duffin Department of Music CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY May 2006 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Examples ii List of Tables iii SCOPE OF STUDY 1 SOURCES AND ABBREVIATIONS 4 DATABASE I: LOURE DEFINITIONS 5 Overview 5 Database I 28 DATABASE II: LOURE MUSIC 45 Overview 45 Database II 62 DATABASE III: LOURE CHOREOGRAPHIES 91 Overview 91 Database III 110 CROSS-DATABASE ISSUES 115 Emergence of the Loure through the Works of Lully 115 “L’Aimable vainqueur” and “The Louvre” 127 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WORKS 130 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SECONDARY SOURCES 139 ii LIST OF EXAMPLES Example I-1. Loure. Montéclair, Nouvelle méthode, 1709 17 Example I-2. Loure. Montéclair, Méthode facile, 1711 17 Example I-3. Loure. Montéclair, Petite méthode, 1735 19 Example I-4. Loure. Montéclair, Principes de Musique, 1736 20 Example I-5 Loure. Corrette, L’école d’Orphée, 1738 21 Example I-6. Loure. Corrette, Le parfait maître à chanter, 1758 22 Example I-7. Loure. Denis, Nouvelle méthode, 1757 23 Example I-8. Loure. Denis, Nouvelle méthode, 1757 25 Example I-9. Loure. Denis, Nouvelle méthode, 1757 26 Example I-10. Loure. Kirnberger, Recueil d’airs de danse caractéristiques, 1777 27 Example III-1. Campra, “L’Aimable vainqueur” from Hésione (1700) 99 Example III-2. Variation on Campra’s “L’Aimable vainqueur” from Ms-110 99 Example III-3. Comparison of Campra’s “L’Aimable vainqueur” with Ferriol y Boxeraus’s ornamented versions (1745) 101 Example III-4. Ornamented version of Campra’s “L’Aimable vainqueur” By Minguet y Yrol (ca. 1760) 103 Example IV-1. Loure ensuitte, Le Plaisirs de l’Isle enchantée (Lully, 1664) 115 Example IV-2. La Loure. Les Dinivitez et les Numphes. Alceste (Lully, 1674) 116 Example IV-3. Loure pour les Pêcheurs, Alceste (Lully, 1674) 116 Example IV-4. Menuet, Bellérophon (Lully, 1679) 118 Example IV-5. [Loure], Ballet du Temple de la Paix (Lully, 1685) 119 Example IV-6. Loure, L’Idylle sur la Paix (Lully, 1685) 120 Example IV-7. [Untitled], Les Fêtes de l’Amour et de Bacchus (Lully, 1672) 122 iii Example IV-8. Menuet, La Grotte de Versailles, (Lully, 1668) 123 Example IV-9. Les Oyseaux, La Grotte de Versailles 123 Example IV-10. Premier Air, pour les Menades et les Satires, Psyché (Lully, 1668) 125 Example IV-11 Air, Les Peuples de Catay rendent hommage à Medor, Roland (Lully, 1685) 126 LIST OF TABLES Table III-1. Music Incipits for Loure Choreographies 108 Table III-2. Classification of Loure Choreographies According to Character 109 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project grew out of a simple question I asked my first baroque dance teacher, Elaine Biagi Turner, many years ago: “What are the steps to a loure (incorrectly pronounced ‘loo-ray’)?” My understanding of the loure has come a long way since then. At this point it is much simpler to thank everyone in the entire world for their help and support than to list the multitudes that have aided me throughout this project. That said, I would like to offer special thanks to the following: Judith Schwartz, Christena Schlundt, Meredith Ellis-Little, Rebecca Harris-Warrick, and Carol Marsh for their invaluable primary source material; and the library staff at UC-Berkeley, Stanford University, The Hague, and especially the efficient and generous Stephen Toombs, Head Librarian of the CWRU Music Library, for access to manuscripts and microfilms. This document would never have made it to fruition without the undying enthusiasm and support of my advisor, Dr. Ross Duffin, mixed with the encouragement and vote of confidence by an invaluable recent addition to the CWRU music faculty, Dr. Georgia Cowart, Department Chair. I sing her praises. Heartfelt thanks also to the Chatham Baroque musicians, staff, and board of directors who granted me the time I needed to finish this long-overdue project. Finally, I thank my loving husband, Tracy. Through thick and thin he did everything he possibly could to ensure my success. I really couldn’t have done it without him. v A Survey of the Loure Through Definitions, Music, and Choreographies Abstract by JULIE ANDRIJESKI The loure, a French theatrical dance and air, flourished during the reign of King Louis XIV and spread throughout much of Europe during the eighteenth century. The music for this dance is generally characterized by its slow tempo, 6/4 time signature, iambic pickup and sautillant rhythms. The evolution of this dance, from its emergence in Jean-Baptiste Lully's operas and ballets through stabilization in the works of André Campra and his contemporaries to diffusion in Georg Telemann's works and the late operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau both support these general characteristics and exhibit flexibility within these limited traits. The following study examines three types of source material in separate databases: definitions, music, and notated dances. Although some aspects of the loure arise in only one type of source, the three databases complement each other and together form a well-rounded portrait of the loure through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. SCOPE OF STUDY The loure, a French theatrical dance and air, flourished during the reign of King Louis XIV and spread throughout much of Europe during the eighteenth century. The music for this dance is generally characterized by its tempo (slow or grave), time signature (6/4), pickup (usually ), and sautillant rhythms ( ). e q q. e q The evolution of this dance, from its emergence in Jean-Baptiste Lully’s operas and ballets through stabilization in the works of André Campra and his contemporaries to diffusion in Georg Philipp Telemann’s oeuvre and the late operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau both support these general characteristics and exhibit flexibility within these limited traits. A handful of choreographies in the Feuillet-Beauchamp dance notation specific to this time period show that the loure in most cases was one of the most demanding dances in the repertoire and was particularly well-suited to the athletic abilities of professional male dancers. Of the five choreographies that exhibit word “loure” on the title page, all but one are choreographed to a typical loure air, described above. The exception, set in the time signature “3” with a quarter-note pickup, is not only the most famous choreographed loure but is the most popular of all Baroque dances. This ballroom dance for a couple set to Campra’s air “l’Aimable vainqueur” from Hésione (1700) appears in seventeen separate publications or manuscripts from 1701-1765. “L’Aimable vainqueur” plays an important role in the study of the loure, especially in relation to those in 1 England, called “Louvres.” The inclusion of dances that are similar to the loure but are not so labelled , namely the “Entrée Espagnolle,” the “Pastoral” and the “Gigue lente,” help define the character of the loure. A majority of the loure definitions in dictionaries, dance manuals and music treatises support the general description as an air or dance in 6/4 with dotted (“pointed”) rhythms to be played slowly and gravely. Additional details defining the loure as a type of bagpipe, a slow gigue, or “much beloved by the Spanish,” reveal further loure qualities at specific points in time and place. The pedagogical loures found in the music treatises, with no further description, portray further aspects of the dance air in connection through the eyes of the musicians who played and/or composed them. The following study examines these three types of source material in separate databases. Database I, Definitions, contains loure descriptions from dictionaries, dance manuals, music treatises and method books from 1690 to 1820. Database II, Music, includes over eighty musical examples of loures dating from 1668 to 1760. Database III, Notated Dances, amasses twenty-seven loures or dances related to the loure that are known to exist in Feuillet-Beauchamp notation. Each one of these databases individually holds a wealth of information that helps to define the loure. The definitions (Database I) provide clues to the origin of the word “loure,” establish the loure as a specific musical instrument, 2 air and/or dance, and show trends in the dissemination of this information during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The loure music (Database II), the largest of the three databases, reveals a variety of loures and national styles. The choreographed loures (Database III) not only show the preferred step vocabulary found in loures but also the favored loure airs, many of which have multiple choreographies. The number of step units per musical measure and the character of these dances also help pinpoint both style and tempo much more efficiently than either definitions or music alone. Although some aspects of the loure arise in only one type of source, we will find that the three databases complement each other and together form a well-rounded portrait of the loure through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Further issues involving more than one database that arose during this study follow in Cross-Database Issues. 3 SOURCES AND ABBREVIATIONS Original manuscripts, prints or facsimiles thereof were viewed whenever possible. The comprehensive guide, French Court Dance and Dance Music by Judith Schwartz and Christena Schlundt , proved indispensable in locating sources with loure definitions (Database I). Comments from this book are marked “JS” in Database I. Translations of the French and German definitions are my own unless otherwise marked. The loures listed in Database II (Music) were found by combing through special collections of French operas and instrumental music. Libraries at The Hague, UC-Berkeley, and Stanford University as well as Case Western Reserve University supplied the majority.