Francesco Corbetta (c. 1615-1681) & Robert de Visée (c.1650 -
c.1723)
Suites for two Guitars and Theorbos
Francisco Corbetta, originally Corbetti, was
born in the Italian city of Pavia. He settled in Bologna, where he established
himself as a fine teacher of the guitar. After serving in this capacity at the
Courts of the Duke of Mantua and the Archduke of Austria, he moved to Paris to
teach the young King Louis XIV, who had developed a passionate interest in the
guitar at the age of fifteen; so it was that this then-Spanish instrument
became popular at the Court and, later, throughout the rest of France. Some
time in the early 1660s he came to London, where he taught King Charles II and
members of the nobility. sparking off a fashionable guitar mania. By 1671 he
had returned to Paris where, except for a brief visit to London in 1675, he
remained for the rest of his life.
Robert de Visée was born and died in France.
Our earliest knowledge of him is that he was called to entertain the Dauphin in
1682, as the Préface to his first
published book (1682) confirms. It was not until 1719 that he was appointed Maître de guitare du Roy and after one
year he resigned in favour of his son. Thereafter his activities were reported
only occasionally and briefly. He enjoyed a considerable reputation as a player
of the guitar, the lute, the theorbo and the viola da gamba. The theorbo bad
been 'imported' by Italian musicians and was used in Lully's ballets; together
with the guitar it gained in popularity as an accompanying instrument and in
reinforcing the bass line of the continuo in chamber music, which the lute,
then already in decline, could not do. De Visée thus played an important part
in establishing both the guitar and the theorbo.
Both Corbetta and de Visée were regarded as
the greatest players of their time, and their relationship was both friendly
and, in effect, that of teacher and pupil. Corbetta was intimately involved in
the life of both the French and English courts and probably passed his secrets
(both musical and political) 10 de Visée, whose gratitude was enshrined in his tombeau on the death of his master, the
only such tribute written by anyone.
At that time the guitar was played in two
basic fashions: battute - chords
strummed in often complex patterns, and pizzicate,
in which individual notes were separately played (as they were on
the lute), making it possible to realise the internal structure and dynamics of
textures. Of Corbetta' s five known published books (two others may have been
lost), the two volumes of La Guitarre
Royalle, dedicated to Charles II (London, 1671) and Louis XIV
(Paris, 1674), contained the most refined music, skilfully admixing the two
playing techniques. In the Préface to
his book of 1674 Corbetta expresses the hope, that the music will be to the
King's taste (which was rather less sophisticated than that of Charles II). The
evocation of the sounds of war in La Prise
de Maastricht doubtless pleased Louis, as did their celebration of
that small victory. It is from the book of 1674 that the duos recorded on this
disc are taken. L'Allemande aimée du Roy was
originally a guitar solo (in the book of 1571) but Corbetta also produced a
version for three voices with basso
continuo, from which it has been possible to derive one for two guitars,
taking into account the particular character of the duos in the later (1674)
book. The Fanfares are remarkable
for the alarming and incongruous dissonances with which their second halves
begin. The Sarabande du départ du Roy and
the following Passacaille appear
as guitar solos.
Robert de Visée, the younger of the two, was
forward-looking. Though he was renowned as a lutenist he devoted most of his
creative effort to the guitar and theorbo (the 'key' to participation in the
chamber music of his day), and largely abandoned the style brisé that was beloved of earlier French lutenists) in
favour of sustained melodic lines. He declared his style to be "much after
that of Lully". In 1716 he published Un
livre de pièces de théorbe et luth, mises en partition dessus et basses...
destinées a être jouées au clavecin, à la viole et au violon, sur lesquels
elles ont toujours été concertées, confirming his strong interest in
chamber music.
De Visée's duos were derived from existing
solo pieces but are not accompanied solos; instead he added independent second
parts (contreparties), virtually
capable of standing alone as solos, creating dense contrapuntal textures in
which the two instruments converse on equal terms. Some of the contreparties here recorded are to be
found in privately held manuscripts.
The instruments
During the Baroque period the guitar differed
greatly from today's instrument. It had a smaller body and a lighter sound, and
carried five courses - single or paired strings, the double courses tuned
either in unison or an octave apart. A variety of tunings were in use,
permutations of unison- and octave-tuned courses; that adopted by Corbetta,
given below, has the lowest (5th) course tuned to the higher octave. This was
deemed more appropriate to delicate 'art' music than the lower- sounding octave
tuning, the additional weight and 'body' of which enhanced strummed popular
music. The 'baroque' guitar, as it is often termed, was thus an instrument
without a true bass.
The theorbo was a large bass-register lute.
Although its principal uses were 'subsidiary' - to the voice and as a member of
the continuo (the 'rhythm
section' of baroque instrumental groups), a small amount of solo and duo music
was written for it. The rise of the theorbo overlapped the gradual demise of
the lute, and its own demise corresponded with that of baroque music per se. The theorbo used in this recording
has 14 single strings.
Eric Bellocq
Eric Bellocq was born in 1962. He studied with
William Christie at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris, winning the Premier Prix de guitare in 1983. From 1983
to 1989 he took part in numerous concerts and recordings with Les Arts
Florissants. He regularly performs with the leading baroque ensembles in
France, and has since 1990 been a member of Dominique Visse's Ensemble Clément
Janequin, which has been highly acclaimed for its interpretations of music of
the renaissance. Eric Bellocq has made over thirty recordings, which range from
large-scale productions of orchestral works and operas to small-scale vocal
and instrumental works.
Massimo Moscardo
Massimo Moscardo trained as a guitarist, and
his great interest in renaissance and baroque music has led to appearances with
a variety of early music ensembles in some of the most prestigious festivals in
France and abroad. A lutenist with Le Concert Spirituel, he has also appeared
with such leading ensembles as Le Parlement de Musique, Combattimento Concert
Amesterdam and Les Musiciens du Louvre. His recordings for a number of record
labels include, for Naxos, three volumes of the music of Marc-Antoine
Charpentier with Le Concert Spirituel (Naxos 8.553173-75).
