I think Christopher makes some interesting points. I'll comment below. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher Wilke" <[1]chriswi...@yahoo.com> To: "Martyn Hodgson" <[2]hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk>; "Baroque lute Dmth" <[3]baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>; "Edward Martin" <[4]e...@gamutstrings.com> Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 8:42 AM Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: PS to: Jacques de Saint-Luc
> Ed, > > --- On Wed, 3/23/11, Edward Martin <[5]e...@gamutstrings.com> wrote: > >> Dufaut and Mouton both played in 'Austria' and were far >> greater composers >> and, probably, players. I suspect that J Gallot in his >> 'long journey abroad' >> (see the intro to the Gallot edition) also visited Vienna. >> As far as I know >> St Luc caused a stir at a wedding in Berlin in 1700, and >> there are one or >> two other references, but nothing to suggest he was as >> highly-respected as >> any of these three. >> > > St. Luc was very highly regarded and presumably influential. Baron doesn't have much good to say about Franco composers with the singular exception of St. Luc. In fact, he specifically denigrates the "other three" you mention. In 'Study of the Lute' of 1727, Baron says, > > "In regard to the lute, the French have not accomplished much in particular... Mouton and Dufaut followed their own genius and neglected the cantabile element. Gallot gave his pieces such strange names that one must ponder hard how they connect with the music..." > > "Saint-Luc [before which translator Douglas Alton Smith has editorially inserted the first name 'Jacques de' in brackets] is one of the best, for he always allows something lyrical to flow into his pieces..." <<AJN>>And of course a composer in those days would alter the style of his music to suit the tastes of his Viennese patrons, in this case Eugene of Savoy, and possibly Count Lobkowitz. Jacques (b. 1616) was a lutenist since we have his portrait with lute in hand. > Douglas Alton Smith includes a quote from "Herr von Besser" about the wedding in 1700 in a footnote: <<AJN>> The footnote is Baron's. > "And because it just then happened that the splendid French theorbist and lutenist Monsieur de St. Luc was passing through Berlin on his way to Vienna, he was detained here until the nuptials to increase the forces of the sinfonie with the well-known artists in our service - Ricks, Attilio, Volumnier and others." <<AJN>>Johann von Besser was a poet and chronicler at the Berlin court. In his published diary of the wedding activities, he describes the luncheon in the Oranien-Saal where Saint-Luc created such a sensation in playing "stille Musik" on his theorbo, lute and guitar. He describes him as "der Franzoesische grosse Kuenstler de St. Luc," which strikes me as meaning there is just one such person, and that he enjoyed some fame. He was under way from France to Vienna at the time. He didn't travel from Vienna to Berlin, as some claim. > Saint-Luc obviously had quite the reputation in Germanic lands. No doubt this is due to his emphasis on an easily identifiable primary melodic line in lieu of the brise texture of his predecessors. Was he so highly regarded among the Germans simply because they didn't really understand what the other French guys were about? Or is he a neglected master waiting for a modern interpreter to really "get" him? I haven't played much of his music but personally, I'm not ready to jump to any conclusions about his skills as a composer or how they compare to the other Franco lute composers. <<AJN>> I think it may be a little bit too early to discard Philippe Vendrix's thoughts on the Saint Luc identification problems. Without doubt he has given the matter some considerable thought, since he is now preparing a complete edition of the some 200 works by Saint-Luc works for the Corpus des luthistes franc,ais. <<AJN>> Part, if not most of the problems here, must be laid to the feet of two authors of dictionary articles on the Saint-Luc family. In MGG (1963 issue) and New Grove (1970 edition) Jacques is mentioned, but all the Saint-Luc works are attributed to one Laurent Jacques Alexandre de Saint-Luc. That's where all these attributions on CDs and in editions come from. I was even drawn into this fiction for my "Sources of Lute Music" article in New Grove. That's not one person, that's THREE people. Only one is known to have been a musician, Jacques (b. 1616, d. ca. 1708). He had two sons, Laurent (b. 1669) AND Jacques-Alexandre (b. 1663), but neither are known to have been musicians. And nowhere have I ever seen a lute piece attributed to either of them. And surely if they had been professional players, there would be records at the courts where they were employed. For details, I guess we'll have to wait for Philippe's edition. --ajn > Chris > > > Christopher Wilke > Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer > [6]www.christopherwilke.com > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > [7]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. mailto:chriswi...@yahoo.com 2. mailto:hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk 3. mailto:baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu 4. mailto:e...@gamutstrings.com 5. mailto:e...@gamutstrings.com 6. http://www.christopherwilke.com/ 7. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
