Style brise\ Style luthe, and the Choses luthees

DAVID J. BUCH

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THE lutenist-composers of the third decade of the seventeenth century
began to 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 to the keyboard acknowledged that this music had certain idio-
matic features. The subject of the present essay is to investigate the terms
and concepts used to describe this body of music and to 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 to early Baroque musicians.

Style brisi

The term most frequently used by modern writers to describe the

musical style of the seventeenth-century French lutenists is the style bris4
("broken style")- Although the word brise" was used in the seventeenth
century to distinguish a type of ornament, 1 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 to find a single example of the term style
brisi 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 1678.2
La Laurencie puts only the word brise" in quotation marks, suggesting that
at this time the term style brisd was not yet in common use. By 1947 the
1
For a discussion of this usage see Frederick Neumann, Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-
Baroque Music (Princeton, N.J., 1978), pp. 279 ff.
1
Les Luthistes (Paris, 1928), p. 82.
52
 53

term had come to 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 hnse"."3 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 brise""*
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 do
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

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used the term to point to 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 modern authors meant by the term? Style brise"
seems to have been used to 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. 5
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
11. 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 brisi focuses on decorative elements

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

•(New York, 1947), p. 165.

4
(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.
54

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 Andrd 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

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pronounced sense of melody, line, and pulse than Rave's description would

Ex. 1. D. Gaultier, La Dtdicasse, mm. 1-17.

i J n

1 i J
r
^ f •'

f r -r r
10 b.
I

¥
^M*-

rrfpr

• Gaultier's works are available in a modern edition, La Rhttorique des dieux et autrc piices dc
luth de Denis Gaultier, ed. Andre Tessier, 2 vols. (Paris, 1931-33).
 55

suggest. Example 1, the first two sections of the opening Pavanne from
Gaultier's Rhitorique des dieux, La Didicasse, 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 or pseudo-imitative textures. Seemingly unrelated
material may occur in close proximity. Syncopations are used (e.g., mm. 6-7

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of Ex. 1), and ends of sections are softened by graceful "standardized"
cadences (mm. 16-17). 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. 1), heard as three
overlapping repetitions. The second section opens with a one-measure
idea that is similarly extended by motive b. A drive to 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 to 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 Fantaisies,6 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 to the original motive only in

7
Modern editions of the French Baroque lutenists are available in the series, Le Choeur des
muses Corpus dei 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), Piices de luth de Denis
Gaultier sur trois difftrents modes nouveaux (Paris, ca. 1670) and Livre de tablature des piices de
luth de Mr. Gaultier Sr. de neue et de Mr. Gaultier son cousin (Paris, ca. 1680), facsimile reprint
(Geneva, 1975), pp. 84 and 87.
 56

direction, contour, rhythm, or decorative character. In Example 2, a gestural

imitation suggestive of motivic repetition is used to create an impression of
imitative entries at the beginning of a contrapuntal piece.

Ex.2. D. Gaultier, LePanegirique, mm. 1-3.

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Another example of this is found at the double bar of Phaeton foudroye",
from the same work:

Ex. 3. D. Gaultier,Phaeton foudroyi, mm. 11-13.

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

composed by one familiar with strict contrapuntal styles.9 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 on the rhythmic and
melodic characteristics of the dance, so the stylized French dances adapted
elements of the contrapuntal genres.10 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 Ptices de luth, Gaultier prints a tombeau for Charles Racquet, an organist and noted
contrapuntalist, causing speculation that Racquet may have been Gaultier's teacher.
10
For a discussion of the French fantasy, see James Anthony, French Baroque Music from
Beaujoyculx to Rameau, rev. ed. (New York, 1978), pp. 289-303; Albert Cohen, "The Fantaisie for
Instrumental Ensemble in Seventeenth-Century France, Its Origin and Significance," The Musical
Quarterly, XLVIII (1962), 234-43. For an example of a thoroughly contrapuntal allemande, see the
Allemande (Fugue) by Henry Du Mont, printed in Albert Cohen, "A Study of Instrumental Ensemble
Practice in Seventeenth-Century France," The Calpin Society Journal, XV (March, 1962), 16-17.
 57

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 to ensemble
performance:

If some connoisseur wishes to 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.11

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Les Choses luthe'es

Although comtemporary reports of musical style do not mention or

define a style h/ise", 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 siparies (see Ex. 4a). 12 His followers merely
continue to give similar examples in their instruction prefaces.13 In Perrine's
book of lute transcriptions (1680), there is a more detailed account of
sipartes (Ex. 4b). 14 Francois Couperin mentions les choses luthe'es ("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.15

Ex. 4a.

" Jacques G«llot, Piices de kith . . . (Paris, [1684]; reprinted, Geneva, 1978), p. 1.
11
Piicesde htth, p. i;Idem, Livre de tablature, p. 4.
11
Gallot, Piicet de luth, p. 4; Charles Mouton, Piicei de luth .. . (Paris, ca. 1698; reprinted,
Geneva, 1978), p. 19.
14
Piices de luth en muiiquc . . . (Paris, 1680; reprinted Geneva, 1980), pp. 4-9.
15
L 'art de toucher le clavicin, trans. Mevinwy Roberts (Leipzig, 1933), p. 33.
58

Ex. 4b.

T
i=

r r

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At least a particular explanation of Couperin's choses luthies might
be found in Perrine's preface to his Pieces 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. .. ,16

Besides these notes se'pare'es, Perrine also states that

lastly it must be observed that in order to 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 by the ear in hearing those that play well.. . . You may get the art by
breaking the strokes; that is, dividing of them by 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.18

Later seventeenth- and eighteenth-century descriptions of arpeggiation

and notes se'pare'es are abundant. 19 Johann Mattheson writes of the different
16
Piices,p. 5.
17
Ibid, p. 9.
'• Thurston Dart, "Miss Mary Burwell's Instruction Book for the Lute," Galpin Society Journal,
VIII (1958), 46.
19
Neumann, Ornamentation, pp. 498 ff.
 59

manners of breaking chords under the heading of Brechung.20 In a descrip-

tion of a courante luthee, Johann Gottfried Walther mentions the
"Lautenart, arpeggiando Oder gebrochen tractirt werden soil" ("the manner
of the lute, arpeggiated or treated in a broken manner")- 21 He later defines
the term luthee 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

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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 to 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 Roux's Courante luthee. One might be wise to
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 to the lute style and is characterized by a gestural imitation of motives.
In his History of Keyboard Music to J700,24 Willi Apel cites an Italian
source in reference to the broken style, Martino Pesenti's // Seconde Libro
della correnti alia Francese. . . spezzate a tre,2S 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 to the broken style.
Bernardo Gianoncelli, in his 77 Liuto . . . (Venice, 1650), uses the term
spezzata to indicate an ornamented version of the preceding courante,
what the French would call a double.
" Der vollkommene Capellmeister (Hamburg, 1739; reprinted, Kassel, 1954), pp. 352-56.
11
Musicallsches Lexicon .. . (Leipzig, 1732; reprinted, Kassel, 1953), p. 188.
" 1bid., p. 374.
11
Unterwchungen zur Formgeschichte der franzosischen KlavierSuite (Regensburg, 1940),
pp. 54-57.
" Trans, and rev. HansTischler (Bloomington, 1972), p. 485.
" Martino Pesenti, // ucondo libro delle correnti alia Francese per sonar nel clavicembalo, et
atri stromenti, con alcune correnti spezzate a tre (Venice, 1630), p. 670.
60

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 to which these masters are credited with originating this style may

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never be fully appraised, one can point to some precedents as well as to
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 to 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 to 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 accenti26

It could be that this was the style of playing that Andre1 Maugars, in
1639, described in his account of Roman lutenists who would accompany
"avec mille belles varietez, et 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 to the toccatas
are to be taken adagio and arpeggiando . . . breaking is to be performed at
the discretion of the performer." 28
" Translated in Robert Donington, The Interpretation of Early Mutic, new ed. (New York,
1974), pp. 171-72.
" Rerponte faite a un curieux sur le sentiment de la mutique d'ltalie (Rome, 1639), p. 32.
Modern edition in Ernest Thoinan [Antoine Ernest Roquet), Maugart, Calibre joueur de viole ...
(Parii,1865),p. 43.
" Donington, The Interpretation . .., p. 278.
 61

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 de cour,
which were usually accompanied by lutenists. 30
The contribution of the French lutenist-composers of the Baroque
era may have been to adapt, in a more complete way than was done before,

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the traits of the new style of accompaniment to 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 liberty." 31 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 to literature and likens measured music to verse and unmeasured
music to prose. 33
The seventeenth-century lutenist-composers appear to 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 (Wolfenbuttel,
1619), VoL II, Organographia," The Lute Society Journal, II (I960), 26-32.
M
This documentation is discussed in Neumann, Ornamentation, pp. 31 ff., 562 ff.
11
Mustek'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.
" P. 33.
62

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. .. .M

All [music] should be played in an equal measure, otherwise, it is like a great vessel
on the sea without a pilot.35

The greatest error that is in playing the lute is to play too fast, and .irt to keep the
time... .x

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If one believes that the above-cited remarks are only pedagogical aids
to the lute student we have yet more evidence from Denis Gaultier and
his student, Jacques Gallot. In the preface to his Livre de tablatwe, 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 iustece tant au regard de la Mesure que des
Tenues . . ." ("the meter, as well as the tenues, must be observed with
exactness"). 38 Gaultier's student Gallot warns his readers to "s'empecher de
brouille" ("not to play in a muddled manner"). 39
People danced to 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 liitenists' lessons "might be turned into
singing or dancing corants and sarabands," 40 and tells the reader that "a
young lady may dance the saraband with her lute [in hand]." 4 1 The same
author advises the student to learn dancing because it will "give him the
humor of a corant and of a saraband." 42 Of course dance music must have
a clear pulse.
Certain critical remarks have come down to us regarding the French

M
Mace, Musick's Monument, p. 8 1 .
" Cited in Frangois Lesuie, "Recherches sur les luthistes parisiens 4 l'epoque de Louis XIII,"
in Le Luth et sa musique, ed. Jean Jacquot (Paris, 1 9 5 8 ) , p. 2 2 0 .
" Dart, "Miss Mary Burwell's Instruction B o o k , " p. 6.
" Pieces de hith, pp. 2-3.
" Ibid., pp. 2-3.
M
Pieces de luth, p . 2.
40
Dart, p. 6 0 .
41
Ibid, p. 62.
41
Ibid., p. 43.
 63

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,

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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 to 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 Gaultier.45 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 to 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 "indecision 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 perpetual" as being characterized by
41
Ernst G. Baron, Historisch-theoretische und practische Untersuchung des Instrument! 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 of the Lute Society of America, VI
(1973), 50-51; Richard Flecknoc, "Of a Petty French Lutenist in England" (from Enigmatical Charac-
ters, 1658), The Lute Society Journal, X (1968), 33.
44
Dart, "Miss Mary Burwell's Instruction Book." The author criticizes those who "scratch
away at the lute" (pp. 44, 61).
41
Ennemond Gaultier, Oeuvres de "vieux" Gaultier, ed. and transcribed by Andre Souris with
a historical introduction and concordance study by Monique Rollin (Paris, 1966), p. xxx.
44
"Apport du repertoire du luth a l'etude des problemes d'interpretation," in L 'Interpretation
de la musique francais aux XVII* et XVIIIe aides, ed. Edith Weber (Paris, 1974), pp. 107-19.
41
"Les Origines de la suite de clavecin," Le Counter musical, XIV (1911), 675-79, 740-46.
64

a "brouillard sonore" (p. 741). The evidence points to the contrary, and one
lutenist-composer (Gallot) specifically warns "s'empecher de brouille." 48
In his book on Baroque and post-Baroque ornamentation, Neumann calls
this rubato the style luthe", apparently unaware of Walther's definition of
luthie. 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 delays." 49 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

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freedom of the lute style. The first is Jean-Baptiste Besard's remarks from
his Novus Partus.S1

If it were possible to prescribe how to 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 to suffice for you to 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 to execute good ornaments are in fact never
given. In addition, he makes no 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 musique, 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"Gaultier. 55
41
Pieces, p. 2.
" Ornamentation, p. 419.
10
Ibid., p. 67.
51
Novus Partus. . . (Augsburg, 1617), p. 62.
11
These remarks are translated by Julia Sutton, in "The Lute Instructions of Jean-Baptiite
Besard," The Musical Quarterly, LI (1965), 359.
" Neumann, Ornamentation, p. 419.
14
Ibid, Neumann's examples are taken from Perrine, Pieces (pp. 47-48) and Ennemond
Gaultier, Oeuvres (p. 64).
" For more details on this and other contemporary manuscripts, see Wallace Rave, "Some
Manuscripts .. .," pp. 133 ff.
 65

Neumann believes that Perrine has transcribed a prebeat mordent (Ex. 5a)
from a metrically imprecise "original" tablature version (Ex. 5b), 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

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the case with Example 5a.

Ex. 5a. Ennemond Gaultier, Courante, mm. 14-15 (Perrine, pp. 47-48).
15

r
Ex. 5b. Ennemond Gaultier, Volte, mm. 14-15 (Paris, Bibl. Nat. Vm7 6211).
is

r
In order to draw conclusions about Perrine's transcriptions, one would
have to make a detailed study of his versions with truly authoritative read-
ings that were no doubt available to 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 de 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
Pieces de luth, and the manuscript, La Rhe"torique des dieux, all cited
earlier. I have made such a comparison, and the results are illuminating.56
14
Tessier's edition of the Rhitorique des ditux 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 Rhitorique des dieux: A Critical Study of Text,
Illustration, and Musical Style" (Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1983), p. 325.
66

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 to 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

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and broken intervals omitted, and even entirely new sections added. 57
In general it appears that Perrine exercised a good deal of editorial judgment
and felt free to 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 to draw
conclusions about the lute style of some forty to fifty years earlier from
differences among divergent and often unrelated sources. The differences
in Gaultier's own versions from the manuscript, La Rhitorique des dieux,
and his later printed collections are quite substantial and reflect the very
free attitude of the lutenists in regard to sources rather than to free rhythm
in ornamentation and interpretation of tempos. 58

Conclusions

From the evidence given one may conclude that the terms style brisi
and style lutM are modern ones and have little to do with the terms brise"
and lutMe as they were used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
German writers used the terms luthe'e and Berchung to identify a style of
arpeggiation and broken intervals and chords, while Couperin made a brief
mention of les choses luthe'es 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.

" Perrine,Piices, Sarabande, pp. 62 ff., mm. 42-93.

" This is discussed in my "LaRhitorique" pp. 25-26, 30-31, 238-42.
 67

Other descriptions of the style brist and style luthe" are modern ones
and may be inaccurate or 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 to 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

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genres in this repertory.

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