Message from Jean-Daniel Forget, remarques from Miguel Serdoura, and
an anecdote
Dear Ed and All
Jean-Daniel Forget:
I had a message from Jean-Daniel Forget, on the topic of the
"fameux Corsaire", J-D says that in the 18th century the confusion
between "corsaire" (privateer) and "pirate" (same word in French)
would have been rare (although the word could both refer to the
privateer, and to his vessel), but J-D does not think that Weiss's
intention was to glorify a particular privateer, French or English.
He says that most of the pieces to which Weiss gave tittles refer to
musical themes, songs or dances that were in fashion at the time, and
among these there would have been sailing songs, among those many
would have been about Corsaires. Jean-Daniel thinks that in this
piece Weiss was evoking a song of the time that could have been
called "le Fameux Corsaire", or could have been "la fameuse chanson"
called "Le Corsaire".
I received this message while continuing my research on this topic,
and I saw that in two major wars around the turn of 1700, the use of
Corsaires, by both the English and the French, were systematic in
what the French called "guerre de course": the Nine Years War,
opposing the Bourbons and the Habsburgs, and again in the War of
Succession. Dugay-Trouin's attacks were so daring and successful
(capturing military as well as merchant vessels, by ruse) that in
recognition for his role he was successively made commander of the
Port of Brest, commander of the squadron of Levant, then commander of
the Port of Toulon (poachers make the best gamekeepers?). Corsaires
were as much a psychological weapon, as of any real military benefit,
to which end, songs about the feats of the corsaires would contribute
by keeping up the moral of the population. I was just beginning to
think that there might be no particular corsaire referred to by this
piece, rather a sort of general evocation, when I received this idea
from Jean-Daniel which I find plausible.
J-D goes on to say that this hypothesis is good as any other; and
that he often notices in 18th century German music (and in Weiss in
particular) traces of old French songs that J-D used to learn at
school, such as "Trois jeunes tambours", "Malbrough s'en va-t-en
guerre", "J'ai du bon tabac dans ma tabatière", "Il pleut, il pleut,
Bergère !", "Frère Jacques", and many others.
Another hypothesis, according to J-D: "le Fameux Corsaire" might be
an image that Weiss used to refer to himself. He points out that
Weiss knows how to play with irony, and in particular while using
French maritime metaphors, as in "la dedicace" (acknowledgement) in
la Plainte de Mons !:
"Weiss sur la generosite de la grande Noblesse au cap de bonne
esperance, en attendant la flotille d'or de leur promesse"
(roughly: Weiss on the generosity of the grande Noblesse at the Cape
of Good Hope, while waiting for the gold filled ships of their
promises).
I really enjoy Jean-Daniel's intuition about this title, as I did his
previous contribution about Gautier's "Tocsein". He seems to be able
to draw on a deep knowledge of the motivations of the Baroque composers.
Miguel Serdoura :
Miguel Serdoura suggests that in the case of Weiss one should
always think about 17th century preciosity. MS says all Weiss'
tittles are French inspired. He believes they were not so much
describing the character of the piece as about "affects
humain" (sentiments). Occasionally, evoking, something or someone, to
whom the music has been dedicated; but very occasionally, it is true,
they could be almost cinematographic.
As an example of preciosity (and the difficulty of its
interpretation), Miguel cites "les baricades", although he prefers to
see this as an evocation of a ladies eye-lashes, he knows of another
interpretation which is equally plausible, but a little more
"coquin", and that is that these baricades could have been the metal
armature that gave support to ladies dresses in the 17th century.
However, Miguel says even a title such as "l'amant malheureux" which
seems relatively straightforward when compared to "les baricades",
could be a slow melancholy piece or a fast furious piece, depending
on the type of "malheur" and and the temperament of the lover that is
being evoked.
All this shows how difficult it would be to arrive at any one
interpretation between a title and the character of a piece, as the
following anecdote shows even for more recent music,
An anecdote (Enigma Variations):
A friend recently gave me a watercolour of Poole Harbour, in
Southern England, by a certain AT Griffith. He had discovered this in
a junk shop in Normandy. At the same time as I was searching the web
for fameux corsaire, I was also searching for data on Griffith. It
turns out that he was an architect and friend of the composer Elgar
(and not a well known artist, as I had hoped), but interestingly he
was the inspiration of the 7th variation of the Enigma Variations:
"Variation 7 (Troyte) is for Arthur Troyte Griffith, (the "Ninepin",
so-called because of his height and shape.) a young architect who set
up shop with Basil Nevinson's brother Edward. Troyte was an abrupt
and forceful person who didn't like others disagreeing with him.The
character of the variation might also have been suggested by a
thunderstorm he and Elgar were caught in on one of their walks. Or it
might also have been suggested by Troyte's unsuccessful attempt to
play the piano. In addition, there is a suggestion of a game of
bowling with ninepins, perhaps alluding to Elgar's nickname for
Griffith."
Surprised to find myself with a second enigma about a musical tittle
(while looking for the name of an artist), I immediately noticed
that even for a fairly recent piece (composed around 1898 to 99) it
is only possible to raise hypothesis on the relation between the
tittle and the character of the piece, so for a piece by Weiss, of
almost two hundred years before, our hopes are very thin indeed
without a written text.
Best wishes
Anthony
Le 10 janv. 09 à 05:35, Edward Martin a écrit :
The sonata in F major by SL Weiss in the London MS has a strange
title. The work is also included in the Dresden MS, but is not
entitled Le
Fameux Corsair.
Does anyone have information as to the identity of the "famous
pirate" ?
ed
Edward Martin
2817 East 2nd Street
Duluth, Minnesota 55812
e-mail: [email protected]
voice: (218) 728-1202
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