Gesture, Affect and Rhythmic Freedom in the Performance of French Tragic Opera from Lully to Rameau Wentz, J.A
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The relationship between gesture, affect and rhythmic freedom in the performance of French tragic opera from Lully to Rameau Wentz, J.A. Citation Wentz, J. A. (2010, December 9). The relationship between gesture, affect and rhythmic freedom in the performance of French tragic opera from Lully to Rameau. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/16226 Version: Not Applicable (or Unknown) Licence agreement concerning inclusion of doctoral thesis in the License: Institutional Repository of the University of Leiden Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/16226 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). The Relationship between Gesture, Affect and Rhythmic Freedom in the Performance of French Tragic Opera from Lully to Rameau by Jed Wentz 1 The relationship between gesture, affect and rhythmic freedom in the performance of French tragic opera from Lully to Rameau Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof.mr. P.F. van der Heijden, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op donderdag 9 december 2010 klokke 11:15 uur door Jed Wentz, geboren te Beaver Falls, Pa. U. S. A. in 1960 2 Promotiecommissie Promotores Prof. F.C. de Ruiter Prof. Dr. R. Harris-Warrick (Cornell University) Overige Leden Prof. Dr. D.D. Breimer Prof. Dr. A.G.M. Koopman Prof. Dr. L. Rosow (The Ohio State University) Prof. Dr. G. Sadler (University of Hull) Prof. Dr. W.A. Wagenaar 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 6 Chapter 1 Utilia non subtilia: a performer’s perspective on the phenomenon of research in and through performance 22 1.1 Introduction to Chapter 1 23 1.2 The place of subjectivity in the research process 23 1.2a Introduction to 1.2 23 1.2b An example from Actio and Persuation 24 1.2c An example from Sept Traités 27 1.3 The performer-researcher as re-constructionist 30 1.3a Introduction to 1.3 30 1.3b Evidence and reconstruction 32 1.3c Researcher-Performer, Artist-Scholar: Hodson’s choice 35 1.3d Artistic synthesis 39 1.3e Is Hodson’s Rite wrong? 40 1.3f Le Sacre and Armide or just how is this relevant 43 Chapter 2 Galenist Musical Affect theory and its place in the reconstruction process 51 2.1 Introduction to Chapter 2 52 2.2 On the affects: from Aristotle to Descartes 55 2.2a Relevant aspects of Galenist affect theory from Aristotle to Coffeteau’s Tableau (1620) 55 2.2b A re-evaluation of the importance of Descartes and Mattheson 59 2.3c Three German writers on musical affect theory 63 2.3 Passion and rationalization in 20th-century scholarship on the affects 67 2.4 The Passions of the Minde in Generall as a source of inspiration for this research 72 2.5 In closing 74 Chapter 3 Primary and secondary sources for and against the use of rhythmic freedom in the tragédie en musique 75 3.1 Introduction to Chapter 3 76 3.2 French sources from Bacilly (1668) to de La Chapelle (1736) 78 3.2a Bacilly’s L’Art de bien chanter (1668). 78 3.2b Brossard’s Dictionaire de musique (1701) 81 3.2c Grimarest’s Traité du récitatif (1707) 82 3.2d de La Chapelle’s Les vrais principes de la musique (1736) 86 3.3 Remarks on metronomic devices as a source of information about rhythmic freedom 87 3.3a Diderot’s ‘Observations sur le chronomètre’ (1748) 87 3.3b Rousseau’s Encyclopédie entry for ‘Chronomètre’ (1753) 91 3.3c Rousseau’s Dictionnaire de musique entry ‘Chronomètre’ (1768) 92 3.3d Laborde’s Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne (1780) 94 3.3e Framery’s Encyclopédie méthoqiue entry for ‘Chronomètre’ [1791] 95 3.4 The Querelle des Bouffons 99 3.4a Rousseau’s Lettre sur la musique Française (1753) 99 3.4b Replies to Rousseau’s Lettre 101 3.4c Rameau’s Observations sur notre instinct pour la musique (1754) and 103 Lallemant’s Essai sur le méchanisme des passions en général (1751) 3.4d Rameau’s Erreurs sur la musique dans l’Encyclopédie (1755) 108 3.4e Summing up of part 3.1-3.43.4f 114 3.5 On French music being in time 115 3.5a ‘Eighteenth-century French and Italian Singing: Rameau’s Writing for the Voice’ 115 3.5b ‘Audible Rhetoric and Mute Rhetoric: The 17th-century French Sarabande’ 120 4 Chapter 4 Affect, gesture and timing at the Opéra: contributory sources 122 4.1 Introduction 123 4.2 The importance of actio in the performance of the tragédie en musique 123 4.3 Selected written sources used in the reconstruction of actio 126 4.3a Various treatises from Sabine Chaouche’s Sept Traités: building up a language of gesture 126 4.3b Gilbert Austin’s Chironomia or, a Treatise on Rhetorical Delivery (1806): of timing and style 129 4.3c Aaron Hill’s An Essay on the Art of Acting (1753): of passions and pauses 134 4.3d Jean-Antoine Bérard/Jean Blanchet: actio, inflection and the Opéra 139 4.4 The visual arts as an aid in reconstructing actio 143 4.4a Le Brun: passions and painting I 144 4.4b De Lairesse: passions and painting II 148 4.4c Antoine and Charles-Antoine Coypel: actors and painters 148 4.4d Cornelis Troost: what comedy can teach about tragedy 150 4.5 Music and vérité 154 4.6 In closing 157 Chapter 5 Case studies 158 5.1 Introduction 159 5.2 ‘Que l’incertitude’ from Phaëton by Jean-Baptiste Lully 163 5.2a ‘Que l’incertitude’, versions 1 and 2 164 5.2b ‘Que l’incertitude’, version 3 166 5.2c ‘Que l’incertitude’, version 4 167 5.2d The conclusions drawn from these various versions of ‘Que I’incertitude’ 168 5.3 ‘Enfin il est en ma puissance’ from Armide by Jean-Baptiste Lully 168 5.3a About ‘Enfin il est en ma puissance’ and its place in this research trajectory 168 5.3b Literary influence: Rameau’s Observations sur notre instinct pour la musique 170 5.3c Influences from the Fine Arts: paintings and drawing by Charles-Antoine Coypel 175 5.3d The application of these principles to a measured air: ‘Venez, venez’ 183 5.3e Conclusions drawn from my work on ‘Enfin il est en ma puissance’ 183 5.4 ‘Du plus charmant espoir’ from Polidore by Jean-Baptiste Stuck 183 5.5 ‘Barbares, laissez-moi’ from Polidore by Jean-Baptiste Stuck 186 5.5a ‘Barbares, laissez-moi’ as spoken declamation, gestures by Jed Wentz 190 5.5b ‘Barbare, laissez-moi’ performed in Sprechstimme with musical accompaniment 191 5.6 Two monologue airs from Jean-Philippe Rameaus’ Hippolyte et Aricie 193 5.7 Proposed responses to the questions posed by the researcher 194 Bibliography 196 Appendix 1 Gilbert Austin’s system of gesture notation: a step-by-step starter’s kit 201 Appendix 2 Scores and texts pertaining to Chapter 5 207 A2.1 Excerpt from La Rhétorique françoise annotated by Jed Wentz 208 A2.2 Phaëton, ‘Que l’incertitude’ 212 A2.2a score of ‘Que l’incertitude’ from Phaëton by Jean-Baptiste Lully 213 A2.2b ‘Que l’incertitude’ annotated by Jed Wentz 214 A2.2c ‘Que l’incertitude’ annotated by Sharon Weller 214 A2.3 Armide, ‘Enfin il est en ma puissance’ 215 A2.3a Score of ‘Enfin il est en ma puissance’ by Jean-Baptiste Lully 216 A2.3b ‘Enfin il est en ma puissance’ annotated by Jed Wentz 221 A2.4 Polidore, ‘Du plus chramant espoir’ 224 A2.4a Score of ‘Du plus charmant espoir’ by Jean-Baptiste Stuck 225 A2.4b Ornament table from Jean Bérard’s L’Art du chant 229 A2.4c Ornamented version of ‘Du plus charmant espoir’ from Bérard’s L’Art du chant 230 A2.5 Polidore, ‘Barbares, laissez-moi’ 231 A2.5a Score of ‘Barbares, laissez-moi’ by Jean-Baptiste Stuck 232 A2.5b ‘Barbares, laissez-moi’ annotated by Jed Wentz 238 A2.6 Hippolyte et Aricie, ‘Cruelle mère’ and ‘Ah! Faut-il?’ 240 A2.6a Score: ‘Cruelle mère’ by Jean-Philippe Rameau 241 A2.6b Score: ‘Ah! Faut-il?’ by Jean-Philippe Rameau 245 Acknowledgements 248 Samenvatting 249 Curriculum vitae 251 5 Introduction 6 The research topic and the questions investigated The title of this dissertation (‘The Relationship between Gesture, Affect, and Rhythmic Freedom in the Performance of French Tragic Opera from Lully to Rameau’), is indicative of the genre to which my research has been applied, the tragédie en musique. My intent, in looking at this repertoire, has been to examine how expressive modifications of the basic rhythmic pulse could have been related to the use of gesture on stage and to the theory of the affects that was prevalent in the medical philosophy of the time. My topic has not sprung, Athena-like, from a researcher’s maggoty brain: in fact, there are a number of sources from the 18th century that indicate that the affective acting style en vogue at the Opéra exerted no small degree of influence on the flow of the musical beat. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for instance, in a rare kindly mood towards French music, wrote in his Dictionnaire de musique (1768): C’est peu de lire la Musique exactement sur la Note; il faut entrer dans toutes les idées du Composteur, sentir & rendre le feu de l’expression, avoir surtout l’oreille juste & toujours attentive pour écouter & suivre l’Ensemble. Il faut, en particulier dans la Musique Françoise, que la Partie principale sache presser ou ralentir le mouvement, selon que l’exigent le goût du Chant, le volume de Voix & le développement des bras du Chanteur; il faut, par conséquent, que toutes les autres Parties soient sans relâche, attentives à bien suivre celle-là.