Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) January 2009 French Accompanied Keyboard Music (1738-1760): A Study of Texture and Style Mixture Nga-Hean Ong Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd Recommended Citation Ong, Nga-Hean, "French Accompanied Keyboard Music (1738-1760): A Study of Texture and Style Mixture" (2009). All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). 267. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/267 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY Department of Music Dissertation Examination Committee: Craig Monson, Chair Dolores Pesce Robert Snarrenberg Todd Decker Harriet Stone Catherine Boon Cuillé French Accompanied Keyboard Music (1738 – 1760): A Study of Texture and Style Mixture by Nga-Hean Ong A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2009 Saint Louis, Missouri copyright by Nga-Hean Ong 2009 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION French Accompanied Keyboard Music (1738 – 1760): A Study of Texture and Style Mixture by Nga-Hean Ong Doctor of Philosophy in Music Washington University in St. Louis, 2009 Professor Craig Monson, Chairperson French accompanied keyboard music published between the late 1730s and early 1760s generally contains a written-out keyboard part with one or more accompanying instruments. In this genre we find, for the first time, that the keyboard plays an equal, if not the more dominant, role in ensemble chamber music. This repertory has been largely misunderstood and underappreciated because it has frequently been evaluated, not on its own terms, but in terms of accompanied collections from other regions and also in terms of the substantial and substantially different repertories of keyboard music with optional accompanying instrument(s) that flooded the market during the second half of the eighteenth century. My study attempts to illustrate the distinctive qualities of this early French accompanied repertory and to highlight its relationship to the fascination with mixed style by French composers, the public, critics, and philosophers. Together, these groups ii formulated an aesthetic of goûts réunis, which encouraged composers to adhere chiefly to the French tradition, while experimenting with the tasteful incorporation of Italianate virtuosity, bold harmonic language, and form. This ideal of style mixture made French accompanied keyboard music distinctively French, characterized by a rich variety of internal details, elegant restraints, noble simplicity and clarity, a tasteful blend of French delicateness and sweetness with Italianate learnedness and boldness, never taken to excess. Two early examples of this repertory by Mondonville and Rameau provided important prototypes for subsequent French accompanied sets. Mondonville’s Op. 3 illustrates a strong leaning toward the Italian sonata tradition, while Rameau’s Concerts show greater affinity to the French pièces de clavecin tradition. The surprising invocation of la belle nature in Mondonville’s dedicatory note to his Op. 3 established, as I suggest, an intriguing link between the important new aesthetic theory and the fashionable musical concept of goûts réunis. My study shows that composers of this repertory conveyed the notion of goûts réunis by skillfully utilizing all the elements of the aural, the visual (verbal markings), and the intellectual (structural organization) to create a unified ensemble appealing both to the senses and to the mind: an artistic objective that was quintessentially French. iii Acknowledgments I am indebted to many people who have made the completion of this project possible. I owe my deepest gratitude to my dissertation committee chair, Prof. Craig Monson, for his insightful comments and invaluable advice. His continuous support and encouragement sustained me through the long process of research and writing. I am extremely grateful to Prof. Dolores Pesce for her generous support and assistance in helping me stay on track. I owe many thanks to the members of my committee, Prof. Robert Snarrenberg, Prof. Todd Decker, Prof. Harriet Stone, and Prof. Catherine Boon Cuillé for their quick reading and insightful comments. This dissertation would have been impossible to complete without the generous financial support from the Washington University Graduate School and the Music Department. My friends and colleagues at UC Berkeley also deserve a special acknowledgment. I owe special thanks to Sherry Brown, Alejandra Dubkovsky, and Flo Mayberry for their endless support and counseling. I am deeply indebted to my two supervisors, Jody Bussell and Rebecca Green, who allowed me to work part time with flexible hours to complete my dissertation. Their inexhaustible wit and immeasurable confidence in me were much needed and appreciated. I have made every effort to secure permission from all the appropriate institutions to reproduce illustrations from their collections in this dissertation. I would especially like to thank Ms. Joelle Majois and Christina Ceulemans at the Royal institute for Cultural iv Heritage (KIK-IRPA), Brussels, Ms. Susan Palmer at Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, and Mr. Thomas Lisanti at the New York Public Library. I am also grateful to the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris for providing me with microfilm essential to my research. To my dearest son, Benedict, who eagerly helped me copy the musical examples and illustrations, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your patience, and for serving as my inspiration. Finally, I want to express my sincere thanks to my family, especially my parents— He Toh Ong and Yow Chee Lee—whose unconditional love and support have played a crucial role in the completion of this project. This dissertation is dedicated to them as a small token of my profound gratitude. v Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgments iv Table of Contents vi List of Illustrations viii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Textural Issues in Accompanied Keyboard Music 19 Chapter 2: Aesthetics of French les Goûts Réunis 77 Chapter 3: The Concept of Les Goûts Réunis in French Accompanied Keyboard 108 Music Chapter 4: Explaining Instrumental Choices in French Accompanied Keyboard 221 Music Chapter 5: The Enigmatic Imitation of la Belle Nature in Mondonville’s Op. 3 267 Petite Reprise 295 APPENDICES: Appendix A: French Accompanied Keyboard Music Published ca.1738 -1760 300 Appendix B: Collections grouped by settings 303 Appendix C: Textural Types 306 C.1: Imitative Trio Texture 306 C.2a: Non-imitative trio texture--melody instrument dominated 308 C.2b: Non-imitative trio texture--keyboard dominated 310 C.2c: Non-imitative trio texture--equal voice 311 C.3: Concertante texture 315 C.4: Concerto texture 316 vi C.5: Idiomatic keyboard texture 316 C.6: “Ad Libitum” Texture” 319 Appendix D: French overture in French accompanied keyboard collections 320 Appendix E: Instrumental choices 321 Bibliography 323 vii List of Illustrations Tables Chapter 1 Table 1.1: Clément, Sonata no. 4/II, Pace of Textural Change 35 Chapter 3 Table 3.1: Movement titles and tempo indications in Couperin’s Apotheosis 114 of Lully Table 3.2 Accompanied keyboard music with subtitles of overture and/or 137 concerto Table 3.3 Movement titles and tempo designations in Boismortier, Op. 91 139 Table 3.4 Movement titles and tempo markings for Boismortier’s Cinq 140 Sonates, un concerto, Op. 26 Table 3.5 Comparison of the method of mixed style between Boismortier 142 (Op. 91) and Mondonville (Op. 3) Table 3.6 Movement titles and tempo and expression markings in Noblet’s 145 NOUVELLES SUITTES DE PIÈCES DE CLAVECIN, ET TROIS SONATES, Avec accompagnement de Violon Table 3.7 Overall organization of Simon’s Op. 1 147 Table 3.8 Formal structure of Simon’s Suite no. 4, 3rd movement 157 Table 3.9 Contrast between the two halves of Simon’s Op. 1 collection 164 Table 3.10 Concertos in French accompanied collections 186 Table 3.11 Mondonville Op. 3/6/III 197 Table 3.12 Dupuits: Op.3, Sonata no. 1/I Ritornello structure 200 Table 3.13 Dupuits: Op.3, Sonata no. 1/III Ritornello structure 203 Table 3.14 Clément: [Op. 1], Sonata no. 5/III Rondeau structure 212 viii Table 3.15 Simon: Op. 1, Suite no. 6/I Ritornello structure 213 Chapter 4 Table 4.1 Instrumental combination in Marchand’s Op. 1 224 Table 4.2 Movement titles in Marchand’s Suite no. 3 229 Table 4.3 Movement titles and keys in Suite no. 6 245 Chapter 5 Table 5.1 Stylistic shift between sonatas in first and second half of Op. 3 285 Figures Fig. 4.1 Theodoor van Thulden, Wedding Feast 231 Fig. 4.2 David Teniers the Younger, Marriage Feast 233 Fig. 4.3 Jacques Bellange, Hurdy-gurdy Player 252 Fig. 4.4 Martin Engelbrecht, “Bagpipe, Shawm, and Hurdy-gurdy 255 Players,” from Varii generic instrumenta musica Fig. 4.5 Watteau, L’Accordée de village 262 Fig. 4.6 Dupuits, Cover page of Principes pour toucher de la vielle 263 (Paris, 1743) Fig. 5.1 Pairing of sonatas in Mondonville’s Op. 3 283 Fig. 5.2 Tonal scheme of Mondonville’s Op. 3 290 Fig. 5.3 Op.3 Sonata no. 5, 1st mvt. (Exposition) 292 ix FRENCH ACCOMPANIED KEYBOARD MUSIC (1738 – 1760): A STUDY OF TEXTURE AND STYLE MIXTURE Introduction Important Issues Concerning French Accompanied Keyboard Music French accompanied keyboard music, which began around the third decade of the eighteenth century, generally contains a written-out keyboard part with one or more accompanying instruments. In this genre we find, for the first time, that the keyboard plays an equal, if not a dominant, role in ensemble chamber music.