"Style brisé, Style luthé," and the "Choses luthées"

David J. Buch

The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 71, No. 1. (1985), pp. 52-67.

Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0027-4631%281985%2971%3A1%3C52%3A%22BSLAT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S

The Musical Quarterly is currently published by Oxford University Press.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained
prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in
the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/journals/oup.html.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.

The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic
journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers,
and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take
advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

http://www.jstor.org
Tue Oct 30 17:40:20 2007
 Style brisi, S~tyleluthb, and the Choses luthbes

DAVID J. BUCH

THE lutenist-composers of the third decade of the seventeenth century

began t o develop a new repertory for the solo lute. By the end of the cen-
tury some writers and composers concerned with transferring the repertory
or its style t o the keyboard acknowledged that this music had certain idio-
matic features. The subject of the present essay is t o investigate the terms
and concepts used to describe this body of music and t o clarify exactly
which terms were employed in the period and which terms are of modern
origin. Since the lute repertory had a profound influence on seventeenth-
century keyboard composers, an investigation of these concepts might
prove helpful in our understanding of what the French solo instrumental
style meant t o early Baroque musicians.

Style brise

The term most frequently used by modern writers to describe the

musical style of the seventeenth-century French lutenists is the style brise
("broken style"). Although the word brise was used in the seventeenth
century t o distinguish a type of ornament,' the term style brise was ap-
parently coined in the twentieth century. After an exhaustive search through
dictionaries, lexicons, theoretical treatises, practical sources, and contem-
porary accounts, I am unable t o find a single example of the term style
brisk used in any previous century. In his book, Les Luthistes (1928), Lionel
de la Laurencie writes that
this "broken" style of the French lutenists finds another imitator in the Austrian J. G.
Peyer, who was in the service of the Emperor Leopold I in Vienna from 1672 to 1 6 7 8 . ~
La Laurencie puts only the word brise in quotation marks, suggesting that
at this time the term style brise was not yet in common use. By 1947 the
' For a discussion of this usage see Frederick Neumann, Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-
Baroque Music (Princeton, N.J., 1978), pp. 279 ff.
Les Luthistes (Paris, 1928), p. 82.
52
term had come t o be thought of as a historic one as evidenced by Manfred
Bukofzer's remarks in Music of the Baroque Era, where it is stated that the
broken style was "what was known as the style b r i ~ e . "Richard
~ L. Crocker,
in his history A History of Musical Style, claims that the textural elements
in lute music of the preceding generation were "later called style b r i ~ e , " ~
suggesting that the term had a historical use at some later period.
If there is no historical precedent for the use of this term, why d o
so many authors use it in a way that suggests one? While some authors
may have believed that the term had historical usage, others may have
used the term t o point t o the French origin of the style itself. But using
a foreign-language term in this manner runs the risk of misleading the reader
into assuming a use of the term in the period being discussed.
What exactly have modem authors meant by the term? Style brise
seems t o have been used t o describe a combination of texture, harmony,
melody, and rhythm of the French Baroque lute style. This style may
have included both compositional and improvisatory elements. Perhaps
the most detailed definition of this style is given by Wallace Rave in his
dissertation on the sources of seventeenth-century lute music in France.'
As characteristic of this style he includes:

1. The avoidance of textural pattern and regularity in part writing

2. Broken chord textures
3. Ambiguous melodic lines
4. Temporal distribution of chord members
5. Rhythmic displacement of pitches within a line
6. Octave migration of line
7. Fleeting inner lines
8. Absence of an assertive vigor of line
9. "Vague inner phrase definition"
10. Avoidance of melodic, harmonic, bass, and textural accent in any com-
bination, except for beginnings and endings of a couplet
1.
1 Irregular phrase lengths (except in sarabandes)
12. An impression that melody hardly exists, with a surface harmonic pro-
gression that overshadows the melody

Rave's definition of the style brise focuses on decorative elements

and certain compositional procedures that are rarely all present in a single
piece, and ignores the similarity of the style t o the music of the past. Hence

(New York, 1947), p. 165.

(New York, 1966), p. 573.
"Some Manuscripts of French Lute Music 1630-1770: An Introductory Study" (Ph.D. diss.,
University of Illinois, 1972), pp. 58-60.
he does not describe the actual music but only lists certain peculiarities
characteristic of the style.
Perhaps the most illustrious of the originators of the style brise is the
lutenist-composer Denis Gaultier. Even a cursory examination of the pieces
in Andri Tessier's modern edition of Gaultier's music will reveal some
disparity between the description above and much of the music.6 While
many of the elements described by Rave are present in Gaultier's unmea-
sured preludes (Nos. 7, 39, 63, etc., in the modern edition), dances such
as pavannes, courantes, sarabandes, and canaries generally have a far more
pronounced sense of melody, line, and pulse than Rave's description would

Ex. 1 . D. Gaultier, La Dedicasse, mm. 1 - 1 7 .

a.

Gaultier's works are available in a modern edition, La Ri7etorique des dieux et outre piPces d e
lurh de Denis Gaultier, ed. AndrC Tessier, 2 vols. (Paris. 1931-33).
suggest. Example 1, the first two sections of the opening Pavanne from
Gaultier's Rh etorique des dieux, La Dedicasse, clearly illustrates this.
Rather than an "impression that melody hardly exists at all," the upper
voice dominates the texture with its clearly contoured melody. There is
no absence of vigor in line, and phrases are not ambiguous. Gaultier's melo-
dies are characterized by freely spun, elegant lines, usually of limited range
and composed of short motives. An initial gesture is frequently extended
by motivic repetition o r pseudo-imitative textures. Seemingly unrelated
material may occur in close proximity. Syncopations are used (e.g., mm. 6-7
of Ex. l), and ends of sections are softened by graceful "standardized"
cadences (mm. 16-1 7). The melody of the Pavanne gradually ascends from
the A in measure 1 to the E in measure 5. An opening two-measure phrase
is extended by an ascending motive (labeled a in Ex. l), heard as three
overlapping repetitions. The second section opens with a one-measure
idea that is similarly extended by motive b. A drive t o the last cadence in
section two is facilitated by a strettolike repetition of motive c (mm. 13- 16).
Rather than an "absence of melodic, harmonic, bass, and textural
accent in any combination," this Pavanne has a tightly coordinated struc-
ture. Besides the careful melodic design described above, one might note
that the bass enters on structural beats only at the most important points,
for example, measures 1, 5, and 8. Otherwise, it enters after the coordinated
beat and harmonic change. Motivic play, conforming t o the half measure,
is also coordinated with the harmonic change (e.g., motives a and c).
This shows that Gaultier does not avoid textural pattern, vigorous
melody, phrase definition, and coordination of rhythm, melody, harmony,
and texture. He shares these qualities with most lutenists who write in the
new Baroque style.7
A significant element in this style, often neglected in modern descrip-
tions, is the transformation of polyphonic textures of earlier lute music
into the freer pseudo-imitation of the French Baroque lute style. While the
single surviving example of a contrapuntal genre in this repertory is Denis
Gaultier's F a n t a i ~ i e s ,the
~ influence of counterpoint is observable in many
dances, although it is rarely marked by a strict style. This often takes the
form of a "gestural imitation" of a motive. By this is meant a nonliteral
repetition of a motive with a resemblance t o the original motive only in

Modern editions of the French Baroque lutenists are available in the series, Le Choeur des
muses Corpus des luthistes francais, ed. Andrt Souris (Paris, 1965-72).
The Fantaisies was originally printed in Gaultier's second publication, the Livre de tablature.
For a modern reprint see Denis Gaultier, Ennemond Gaultier (Livre only), Pieces de luth de Denis
Gaultier sur trois differents modes nouveaux (Paris, ca. 1670) and Livre de tablature des pi&ces de
luth d e Mr. Gaultier Sr. d e neiie e t d e Mr. Gaultier son cousin (Paris, ca. 1680), facsimile reprint
(Geneva, 1975), pp. 84 and 87.
direction, contour, rhythm, or decorative character. In Example 2, a gestural
imitation suggestive of motivic repetition is used t o create an impression of
imitative entries at the beginning of a contrapuntal piece.

Ex. 2. D. Gaultier, Le Panegirique, mm. 1-3

Another example of this is found at the double bar of Phaeton foudroye',

from the same work:

Ex. 3. D. Gaultier, Phaeton foudroye, mm. 1 1 - 1 3.

The pseudo-imitative gestures of Example 2 could only have been

composed by one familiar with strict contrapuntal style^.^ Example 3 shows
a type of motivic imitation commonly used in continuo playing and will
be discussed later.
Thus as the French contrapuntal fantasy took o n the rhythmic and
melodic characteristics of the dance, so the stylized French dances adapted
elements of the contrapuntal genres. l o The fantasy and ricercare, long the
mainstay of music for plucked string instruments, had all but disappeared
from the French Baroque lute repertory. Yet its legacy was preserved in
the texture of this music in a manner reminiscent of sixteenth-century

In his Pieces de luth, Gaultier prints a tombeau for Charles Racquet, an organist and noted
contrapuntalist, causing speculation that Racquet may have been Gaultier's teacher.
l o For a discussion of the French fantasy, see James Anthony, French Baroque hfusic from
Beaujoyeulx to Rameau, rev. ed. (New York, 1978), pp. 289-303; Albert Cohen, "The Farztaisie for
Instrumental Ensemble in Seventeenth-Century France, Its Origin and Significance," The hfusical
Quarterly, XLVllI ( 1 9 6 2 ) , 234-43. For an example of a thoroughly contrapuntal allemande, see the
Allemande ( F u g t e ) by Henry Du Mont, printed in Albert Cohen, "A Study of Instrumental Ensemble
Practice in Seventeenth-Century F7rance," The Galpin Societj, Journal, XV (March, 1962), 16-17.
intabulations of vocal music-the implication of complex textures through
a partial realization of polyphony. This idea is suggested by Gaultier's
disciple Gallot, who writes of the adaptability of his solo music t o ensemble
performance:

If some connoisseur wishes t o perform my pieces with an ensemble for all kinds of
musical instruments, he will find all the derived parts, upper and lower, in the work of
this composer."

Les Choses luthe'es

Although comtemporary reports of musical style d o not mention or

define a style brise', there are a few hints that suggest an awareness of its
traits. In his printed collections Denis Gaultier gives only one example
of a broken interval called se'pare'es (see Ex. 4a).12 His followers merely
continue t o give similar examples in their instruction prefaces. l 3 In Perrine's
book of lute transcriptions (1680), there is a more detailed account of
separdes (Ex. 4b).14 F r a n ~ o i sCouperin mentions les choses luthdes ("the
things of the lute") only in passing and never indicates whether he means
texture, rhythm, melody, ornamentation, genres, or nonmusical elements
such as subtitles or programmatic features. l 5

Ex. 4a.

'I Jacques Gallot, Pieces de luth . . . (Paris, [I6841 ; reprinted, Geneva, 1978), p. 1.
l1 Pieces de luth, p. 3 ; Idem, Livre de tablature, p. 4 .
l 3 Gallot, Pieces de luth, p. 4 ; Charles Mouton, PiPces de luth . . . (Paris, ca. 1698; reprinted,

Geneva, 1978), p. 19.

'' Pikces de luth en musique . . . (Paris, 1680;reprinted Geneva, 1980), pp. 4-9.
l 5 L'art de toucher le clavicin, trans. Mevanwy Roberts (Leipzig, 1933), p. 33.
 Ex. 4b.

At least a particular explanation of Couperin's clloses luthees might

be found in Perrine's preface t o his Pi$ces de luth en musique cited above.
In this collection Perrine states that he is concerned with putting the lute
works of Ennemond "vieux" Gaultier and Denis "jeune" Gaultier into
regular staff notation so that both lutenists and keyboard players could
perform them. Perrine writes that

the particular manner of playing all kinds of pieces for lute consists only in the arpeg-
giation or the separation of voices, as I have notated in the majority of lute pieces put
into musical notation below. . . . I 6

Besides these notes separees, Perrine also states that

lastly it must be observed that in order t o find the true rhythm of all kinds of lute
pieces, the first parts (or first parts of the parts) of the beats in the measure must be
longer than the others.17

The author of an important contemporary English lute tutor, Miss Mary

Burwell's Instruction Book for the Lute, describes a type of rhythmic
alteration that is the

"soul" of the lute-the humour and fine air of a lesson-which cannot be taught but
is stolen better b y the ear in hearing those that play well. . . . You may get the art by
breaking the strokes; that is, dividing of them b y stealing half a note from one note
and bestowing of it upon the next note. That will make the plaing of the lute more
airy and skipping.''

Later seventeenth- and eighteenth-century descriptions of arpeggiation

and notes skparkes are abundant. l g Johann Mattheson writes of the different

l6 Pieces, p. 5 .
l7 Ibid.,p. 9.
'' Thurston Dart, "Miss Mary Burwell's Instruction Book for the Lute," Galpin Society Journal,
VIII (1958), 46.
l9
Neumann, Ornamentation, pp. 498 ff.
manners of breaking chords under the heading of Brechung. 20 In a descrip-
tion of a courante luthke, Johann Gottfried Walther mentions the
"Lautenart, arpeggiando oder gebrochen tractirt werden soll" ("the manner
of the lute, arpeggiated or treated in a broken manner").21 He later defines
the term luthke as "das einer Laute gleich ist" ("that which is like a lute"),22
but like Couperin gives no further information.
There is a Courante luthee included in Gaspar Le Roux's Pieces de
clavecin (Paris, 1705). The piece resembles the brief courantes of the seven-
teenth-century French lutenists only in some general stylistic traits such
as the D-minor tonality, the short melodic passages in a free-voiced texture,
the use of suspensions and held notes, and a few broken chords. The piece
modulates more than the usual lute courante, recalling the lute tombeau,
pavanne, and allemande. It is substantially longer and has little of the
hemiola and rhythmic play that often mark the lute courante. The piece
is therefore not imitating a lute courante but is a keyboard courante with
some elements of the lute style.
This piece is discussed in Margarete Reimann's study on the history of
form in the French keyboard suite.23 She states that the French keyboard
composers adapted pseudo-polyphonic textures from the lute style. This
is only true to a degree. "Pseudo-polyphony" is more indigenous t o the solo
bowed-string repertory (as seen later in the suites and sonatas for unaccom-
panied violin or cello) and should be treated separately from elements
that are peculiar to the lute. In this regard it is significant that there is little
pseudo-polyphony in Le Roux7s Courante luthee. One might be wise t o
make a distinction between pseudo-polyphony, where two or more voices
are implied in a monophonic line, and pseudo-imitation, The latter is indige-
nous t o the lute style and is characterized by a gestural imitation of motives.
In his History o f Keyboard ~blusict o 1 700.24 Willi Ape1 cites an Italian
source in reference to the broken style, Martino Pesenti's I1 Seconde Libro
della correnti alla Francese . . spezzate a tre,25 where a written-out repeti-
tion is entitled Prima (seconda) parte spezzata. However it is not clear that
Pesenti's use of the term spezzata is merely referring t o the broken style.
Bernardo Gianoncelli, in his I1 Liuto . . . (Venice, 1650), uses the term
spezzata t o indicate an ornamented version of the preceding courante,
what the French would call a double.
a0 Der vollko~~zrneneCapellrneister (Hamburg, 1739; reprinted, Kassel, 1954), pp. 352-56.
2'
Musicalisches Lexicon . . . (Leipzig, 1732; reprinted, Kassel, 1953), p. 188.
l2 Ibid., p. 374.
l 3 Untersuchungen zur Formgeschichte der franzosischen Klavier-Suite (Regensburg. 1940),

pp. 54-57.
l4
Trans. and rev. Haps Tischler (Bloomington, 1972), p. 485.
l 5 Martino Pesenti, I1 second0 libro delle correnti afla Francese per sonar nel clavicembalo, e t

atri stromenti, con alcune correnti spezzate a tre (Venice, 1630), p. 670.
 Tracing the sources of commentary on the lute style is easier than
tracing the origins of the style itself, perhaps because there was not a con-
scious attempt to create a lute style as such but only a gradual accrual
of traits. Where did these traits originate? While free-voiced textures are
not new in polyphonic instrumental music, the emphasis of this kind of
texture is far greater in the music of the French Baroque lutenists. But
were arpeggiation, ornament, elusive texture, and declamatory rhythm
(in unmeasured preludes) inventions of the French lutenists? While the
degree t o which these masters are credited with originating this style may
never be fully appraised, one can point t o some precedents as well as t o
some seemingly new contributions.
The most likely origin for the arpeggiation and ornaments of the
Baroque lute style is basso continuo accompaniment played by the lute
in both vocal and instrumental music. First developed in Italy, continuo
accompaniment spread throughout Europe in the early seventeenth century.
One of the earliest indications of a change in preference from Renaissance
divisions t o Baroque continuo style and texture can be found in Agazzari's
Del Sonare sopra'l basso (1607). In his discussion of the "foundation"
instruments, Agazzari tells us:
Thus whoever performs on the Lute, the noblest instrument of any, must perform
nobly, with great fertility and diversity, yet not, like some who have an agile hand,
making continual runs and divisions from start t o finish. . . . Chords should be struck at
times, with restrained reiterations; at other times, florid passages both slow and fast
should be executed besides [thematic or canonic] points of imitation at different in-
tervals of pitch and of time (in diverse corde, e lochi), together with ornaments such as
gruppi,trilli, and ~ccenti.'~
It could be that this was the style of playing that Andre Maugars, in
1639, described in his account of Roman lutenists who would accompany
"avec mille belles varietez, e t une vistesse de main incroyable" ("with a
thousand beautiful varieties and the quickness of an unbelievable hand").27
Thus the arpeggiated style of the French lutenists may have had its origins
in the lute accompaniments in the continuo role. There is evidence of this
style in Italian instrumental music, notably Frescobaldi's remarks in his
preface to his Toccate (Rome, 1615-16): "The openings t o the toccatas
are t o be taken adagio and arpeggiando . . . breaking is t o be performed at
the discretion of the p e r f ~ r m e r . ' ' ~ ~
' 6 Translated in Robert Donington, The Interpretation of Early Music, new ed. (New York,

1974), pp. 171-72.

" Response faite a un curieux sur le sentiment d e la musique dlItalie (Rome, 1639), p. 32.
Modern edition in Ernest Thoinan [Antoine Ernest Roquet], Maugars, Cdlibre joueur de viole . . .
(Paris, 1865), p. 43.
28
Donington, The Interpretation . . ., p. 278.
 Points of imitation in Italian continuo accompaniment, as indicated by
Agazzari, suggest the free-voiced textures of the French lute style. Praetorius
also comments on the use of such imitation in accompanying the voice
and describes the accompanist's imitation of the singer's Movimenten,
Diminutionen, Gruppen, Tremolletten, and Triller. 29 There is also documen-
tation of extensive ornamentation in the performance of airs d e cour,
which were usually accompanied by lutenist^.^'
The contribution of the French lutenist-composers of the Baroque
era may have been t o adapt, in a more complete way than was done before,
the traits of the new style of accompaniment t o the solo instrumental
repertory. While early seventeenth-century composers such as Frescobaldi
suggested certain performance practices at the discretion of the performer,
the French lute masters actually integrated these traits into their style
of composition. The points of imitation noted by Praetorius and Agazzari
reinforce the suggestion of counterpoint, as in Examples 2 and 3. The
restrained reiteration of chords and arpeggiation invaded the texture and
helped form the ubiquitous "tails" at the ends of phrases. Ornamentation
was developed and codified to a point where elaborate tables were used
to explain the highly organized method of melodic decoration. In the
original context of accompaniment, such decoration had been the
responsibility of the performer. The declamatory rhythms of the new
monodic style that brought continuo accompaniment into being may have
provided an important precedent for the rhythms of the unmeasured pre-
lude. Thomas Mace describes the prelude as having "no perfect form, shape,
or uniformity . . . but a random business, pottering and grouping . . . an
unlimited, and unbounded l i b e r t ~ . " ~This
' description recalls the rhythmic
style of the recitative, which was suggested as a precedent for the un-
measured prelude in Alan Curtis' study of the genre.32 A similar idea is
suggested by Couperin in his L 'art de toucher le clavicin where he com-
pares music t o literature and likens measured music t o verse and unmeasured
music t o prose.33
The seventeenth-century lutenist-composers appear t o call for a strong
rhythmic interpretation of much of this repertory, with the notable excep-
tion of the unmeasured prelude:

Praetorius' remarks are translated in Michael Morrow, "Lutes and Theorboes: Their Use as
Continuo Instruments Described by Michael Praetorius in his Syntagma Musicum (Wolfenbiittel,
1619), Vol. 11, Organographia," The Lute Society Journal, I1 (1960), 26-32.
" This documentation is discussed in Neumann, Ornawzentation, pp. 31 ff., 562 ff.
" Musick's Monument (London, 1676), new ed. with facsimile, commentary, and transcriptions,
ed. Jean Jacquot and Andre Souris (Paris, 1958, 1966), I, 128.
" "Unmeasured Preludes in French Baroque Instrumental Music" (Unpublished master's thesis,
University of Illinois, 1956), p. 3.
3 3 P. 33.
 Have an exact motion, of true time-keeping, which is one of the most necessary,
and main things, in musick . . . and indeed, there is a general fault, in this particular,
in most performers . . . they are generally subject to break the time. . . .34

All [music] should be played in an equal measure, otherwise, it is like a great vessel
on the sea without a pilot.j5

The greatest error that is in playing the lute is to play too fast, and not t o keep the
time. . . .36

If one believes that the above-cited remarks are only pedagogical aids
t o the lute student we have yet more evidence from Denis Gaultier and
his student, Jacques Gallot. In the preface to his Livre de tablature, Gaultier
complains that his pieces are often found in such a poor state and with
"beacoup de confusion . . . au regard de la mesure," as well as the manner of
performance, that one does not hear them played with the true rhythm and
beautiful sound that makes for the "charm and harmony of the lute."37 In
enumerating common faults in the performance of his music, Gaultier first
insists that "il faut observer avec iustkce tant au regard de la Mesure que des
Tenues . . ." ("the meter, as well as the tenues, must be observed with
e x a ~ t n e s s " ) .Gaultier's
~~ student Gallot warns his readers t o "s'empecher de
brouille" ("not to play in a muddled manner").39
People danced t o the lute, for we have a description by none other
than "vieux" Gaultier himself of lutenists who played in a style suitable
for dancing. The author of the Burwell Instruction Book quotes "vieux"
Gaultier as saying that certain lutenists' lessons "might be turned into
singing or dancing corants and saraband~,"~'and tells the reader that "a
young lady may dance the saraband with her lute [in hand] ."41 The same
author advises the student t o learn dancing because it will "give him the
humor of a corant and of a ~ a r a b a n d . " Of ~ ~ course dance music must have
a clear pulse.
Certain critical remarks have come down t o us regarding the French

34 Mace, Musick's Monument, p. 81.

j v i t e d in F r a n ~ o i sLesure, "Recherches sur les luthistes parisiens A l'kpoque de Louis XIII,"

in Le Luth et sa musique, ed. Jean Jacquot (Paris, 1958), p. 2 2 0 .
j6 Dart, "Miss Mary Burwell's Instruction Book," p. 6 .

j' Pikces d e luth, pp. 2-3.

j8 Ibid.,pp. 2-3.

j9 Piecesde luth, p. 2 .

40 Dart, p. 6 0 .

4 1 Ibid.,p. 6 2 .

4' Ibid.,p. 43.

lutenists, mostly in English and German accounts.43 The English account
is a derisive report describing an affected and mannered French lutenist
of poor quality who "scratches away" at the lute-exactly what Gaultier's
contemporaries would have probably criticized in a deficient player.44
The German accounts come from some one hundred years after the esta-
blishment of the French Baroque lute repertory and reflect a commonly
held nationalistic chauvinism on the part of their authors rather than an
objective account of the now extinct French lute art.
In contrast to the view of a rhythmic interpretation of this repertory,
several scholars have advocated great rhythmic freedom in all French
Baroque lute music, not only in the performance of unmeasured preludes.
In his introductory remarks t o the collected lute works of Ennemond
"vieux" Gaultier, Andr6 Souris writes of a preference for fluctuating
rhythm, already present in French lute music at the turn of the century,
which entirely permeates the works of G a ~ l t i e r .In~ ~his article on the
problems of interpreting French lute music, Souris argues that the seven-
teenth-century French lute repertory is typically Baroque in its use of
astonishment, expectation, and ambiguity. This is apparent in the asym-
metrical phrases, syncopations, anticipations, and delays of the music in
all voices. Souris believes that it follows that the music must be performed
in "un tempo variable, c'est-a-dire en rubato proprement dit."46 However
these rhythmic contradictions t o the measure would have no astonishing
effect or ambiguity if performed in the free rhythm that Souris suggests.
It is only with a metrical interpretation that this rhythmic shifting can be
perceived. In neither of his essays does Souris offer documentary support
for a free rhythmic interpretation.
The notation of a free tempo for French lute dances can be traced to
Henri Quittard's article on the origin of the keyboard suite.47 Quittard
mistakenly believed that an "ind6cision de la mesure" was a necessary limi-
tation of the way in which the lute must be played. He also stated that open
strings could not be damped by the player after they were sounded-another
misconception. He describes a "rubato perpdtual" as being characterized by
4 3 Ernst G. Baron, Historisch-theoretische und practische Untersuchung des Instruments der

Laute (Nuremburg, 1727; reprinted, Amsterdam, 1965), pp. 85-86; Douglas Alton Smith, "Baron and
Weiss Contra Mattheson: In Defense of the Lute," The Journal o f the Lute Society o f America, VI
(1973), 50-51; Richard Flecknoe, "Of a Petty French Lutenist in England" (from Enigmatical Charac-
ters, 1658), The Lute Society Journal, X (1968), 3 3 .
44 Dart, "Miss Mary Burwell's Instruction ~ o o k . " ' ~ h author
e criticizes those who "scratch
away at the lute" (pp. 44, 61).
Ennemond Gaultier, Oeuvres d e "vieux" Gaultier, ed. and transcribed by And16 Souris with
a historical introduction and concordance study by Monique Rollin (Paris, 1966), p. xxx.
46 "Apport du 16pertoue du luth l'6tude des problkmes d'interpr6tation," in L 'lnterpre'tation
de la rnusique fran~aisaux XVIIe et XVIIIe siicles, ed. Edith Weber (Paris, 1974), pp. 107-19.
47
"Les Origines de la suite de clavecin," Le Courrier musical, XIV (1911), 675-79, 740-46.
a "brouillard sonore" (p. 741). The evidence points t o the contrary, and one
lutenist-composer (Gallot) specifically warns "s'empecher de b r ~ i i i l l e . " ~ ~
In his book o n Baroque and post-Baroque ornamentation, Neumann calls
this rubato the style luthe', apparently unaware of Walther's definition of
luthe'e. He writes of our "certain knowledge about the rhythmic freedom of
the style luthe' . . . with perpetual shifting of note values backward and for-
ward with slight anticipations and d , e l a y ~ . "In~ ~the same book he writes that
"rubato as well as arpeggiation often blurred the location of the beat."50
Neumann offers two sources for his conclusions regarding the rhythmic
freedom of the lute style. The first is Jean-Baptiste Besard's remarks from
his Novus Partus.

If it were possible t o prescribe how t o play sweet ornaments and trills on the lute,
I would make some remarks about this here; since they cannot be explained, however,
either orally or in writing, it will have t o suffice for you t o imitate someone who can
play them well, or learn them by yourself.52

One need not conclude from these brief remarks that Besard means that lute
ornaments are executed with the kind of rhythmic freedom that Neumann
describes. Besard's collections comprise late Renaissance repertory that
dates from well before the Baroque lute school. His reasons for the im-
possibility of prescribing how t o execute good ornaments are in fact never
given. In addition, he makes n o comments on the general rhythm at all.
The other source for Neumann's conclusions is the collection of the
Gaultiers' lute works by Perrine, the Pieces de luth en musi.pe, cited earlier.
This collection is singled out as going "as far as notation is capable of doing"
in expressing precisely the rhythmic freedom of lute music.53 Two examples
are given from Perrine's book, comparing a single ornament with one from
a reading in a manuscript source (see Ex. 5a).54 This latter source comes
from a modern edition of an apparently unrelated manuscript version
(Paris Bibl. Nat., Vm7 6211)' in the hand of Sebastian Brossard (1651-
1730), dating from at least twenty years after the death of the composer,
"vieux" G a ~ l t i e r . ~ ~

48 Pieces, p. 2.
49 Ornamentation, p. 419.
" Ibid., p. 67.
hiovus Partus. . . (Augsburg, 1617), p. 62.
These remarks are translated by Julia Sutton, in "The Lute Instructions of Jean-Baptiste
Besard," The Musical Quarterly, LI (1965), 359.
5 3 Neumann, Ornamentation, p. 419.

54 Ibid., Neumann's examples are taken from Perrine, Pieces (pp. 47-48) and Ennemond

Gaultier, Oeuvres (p. 64).

"'or more details on this and other contemporary manuscripts, see Wallace Rave, "Some
Manuscripts. . .," pp. 133 ff.
Neumann believes that Perrine has transcribed a prebeat mordent (Ex. 5a)
from a metrically imprecise "original" tablature version (Ex. Sb), attempting
a more precise notating of the same ornament. But comparing the two
sources we find that the pieces are vastly different settings. No original
or authoritative version exists for this piece. Variants in the readings of
this repertory are abundant and often confusing, usually resulting from
the preference of the lutenist in whose hand the tablature is written. Most
often we are dealing with different ornaments from divergent sources and
not with different ways of notating the same ornament. This is most likely
the case with Example 5a.

Ex. Sa. Ennemond Gaultier, Courante, mm. 14-15 (Perrine, pp. 47-48).

Ex. 5b. Ennemond Gaultier,' Volte, mm. 14-15 (Paris, Bibl. Nat. Vm7 621 1).

In order t o draw conclusions about Perrine's transcriptions, one would

have t o make a detailed study of his versions with truly authoritative read-
ings that were no doubt available t o him when he made his edition. In the
case of Ennemond Gaultier, there is no authoritative version except for
that of the print of his cousin Denis, the Livre d e tablature, published
some two decades after the death of Ennemond. However, Denis' own
works are preserved in the latter print as well as in the earlier print, the
Pidces d e luth, and the manuscript, La Rhetorique des dieux, all cited
earlier. I have made such a comparison, and the results are i l l ~ m i n a t i n g . ~ ~
56 Tessier's edition of the Rhdtorique des dieux is based only in part on the readings in the

manuscript. He used the latter printed versions whenever possible. The facsimile pages of the manu-
script are incomplete in his edition as well. These missing pages, along with a detailed discussion
of the source, can be found in my dissertation, "La Rhdtorique des dieux: A Critical Study of Text,
Illustration, and Musical Style" (Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1983), p. 325.
 While a detailed review of this comparison is impossible within the
limitations of the present essay, a general summary of the differences in
these sources can be reported. In many cases there is great similarity between
the Gaultier sources and Perrine's collection, even in regard to the order
of pieces, suggesting that Perrine had access t o the two printed collections
of Gaultier. However, there are differences including wholly different
ornaments, more suspensions, broken intervals and chords, passing notes,
dotted rhythms, and inner voices. Yet there are also instances where dotted
rhythms are deleted, suspensions and bass notes left out, arpeggiation
and broken intervals omitted, and even entirely new sections added.''
In general it appears that Perrine exercised a good deal of editorial judgment
and felt free t o change and interpret rather than merely transcribe pre-
existing pieces. Even if Perrine were working from other sources, now lost,
it would be difficult to accept Neumann's conclusions that Perrine was
making more precise versions of the Gaultier "originals." Instead we should
accept Perrine's versions as his own interpretations and not try t o draw
conclusions about the lute style of some forty t o fifty years earlier from
differences among divergent and often unrelated sources. The differences
in Gaultier's own versions from the manuscript, La Rhetorique des dieux,
and his later printed collections are quite substantial and reflect the very
free attitude of the lutenists in regard t o sources rather than t o free rhythm
in ornamentation and interpretation of tempos.58

Conclusions

From the evidence given one may conclude that the terms style brise
and style luthe are modem ones and have little t o d o with the terms brisk
and luthee as they were used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
German writers used the terms luthee and Berchung t o identify a style of
arpeggiation and broken intervals and chords, while Couperin made a brief
mention of les choses luthees without indicating exactly what he meant.
Perrine wrote that the particular style of the lute was marked by arpeggia-
tion and broken intervals as well as a type of rhythmic style characterized
by a longer first "part" of the beat in the measure. Whether this was an
improvisational element such as adding or intensifying dotted rhythms,
merely holding a longer note value slightly while "stealing" time from the
next note, or the result of broken intervals cannot be determined at the
present time.

57 Perrine, Pitkes, Sarabande, pp. 6 2 ff., mm. 42-93.

5 V h i s is discussed in my "La Rhe'torique," pp. 25-26, 30-31, 238-42.
 Other descriptions of the style brise and style luthe are modern ones
and may be inaccurate o r unsubstantiated. It would appear that this reper-
tory was not generally characterized by rubato rhythms, avoidance of
melodic, harmonic, bass, and textural accent that are often cited as earmarks
of the style (although this description does apply t o the unmeasured pre-
lude). The compositions of the French Baroque lutenists were marked by
the suggestion of contrapuntal texture and elements probably gleaned
from the lute's continuo role. The music was most likely performed with
the clear rhythmic character of the dances that make up the majority of
genres in this repertory.

Editor's note: Some further remarks will appear in a forthcoming issue of The Musical Quarterly o n
this topic.