Dear fellow lutenists, If you happen to be in Oxford this Tuesday, please do come to hear a paper that I am presenting at the Faculty of Music. Details of the paper can be found below & on the following site:
http://www.music.ox.ac.uk/events.shtml All best wishes, Benjamin Narvey Bonjour mes chers luthistes, s'il y en a parmi vous qui seront à Oxford mardi, venez nombreux me voir présenter un colloque à la Faculté de musique ! Vous pouvez trouver des précisions ci-dessous, et aussi sur le lien suivant : http://www.music.ox.ac.uk/events.shtml Amitiés, Benjamin Narvey Benjamin Narvey, New College: 'The Musical Remembrances of Robert de Visée: the Birth of the Tombeau and the Death of the French Lute' This talk investigates the 'death' of the French lute as seen through the window of the tombeau form. In this chapter I explore, through an historical and etymological reading of the tombeau, late examples of the form by Robert de Visée (c.1660c.1732). These compositions are then contextualised by placing them in relation to de Visée's position as a great musician of his time, and his place as perhaps the last master within the history of the French lute. De Visée was the most prominent composer for plucked instruments in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries a period that witnessed the final decline of the lute in France. I suggest that it would have been understandable for a lutenist at this time to compose retrospective works designed to reflect upon the passing of his métier in effect, writing a valedictory history within the medium of the subject. I also suggest that de Visée chose the tombeau form as the means to do this since the tombeau, from its first instance, was a form that had always been linked to the lute. Benjamin Narvey was born in Montréal in 1978 and began his musical training in 1981 at the Royal Conservatory of Music (Canada). Upon completion of his conservatory training in classical guitar in Canada, he took a Bachelor of Music degree from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, where he studied the lute and continuo with David Miller. Augmenting his career as an historical performer, Benjamin is also active as a musicologist specialising in the French Baroque. Benjamin took his Master of Studies degree from the University of Oxford in 2004, where he researched elements of enlightenment tonal theory with special reference to the writings of Jean-Philippe Rameau. He has since continued at Oxford in order to pursue the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music, researching the French lute repertoire of the Grand Siècle. -- Benjamin Narvey Luthiste: http://www.luthiste.com To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
