267 CHAPTER XIX. FRENCH MUSIC. THE natives of France seem to have been singers and musicians at a very early period. Many incidental notices relating to music are found in their chronicles; and some of their existing chansons are of great antiquity. These partake of the character of the Teutonic ballad in some degree; but are characterized by an airy sprightliness, which does not exist in the latter. Many of their early songs were written in Latin; but the French language was also employed in their composition. Numerous instruments were used on festive occasions; and the victories of their kings were celebrated in triumphal songs. It is generally believed, that the organ was first introduced into France in 757, when one of those instruments was sent as a present to Pepin, father of Charlemagne, by the Emperor Constantine VI. The Gregorian chant was soon after brought from Rome; and Mabillon thinks, that the organ greatly contributed to bring this style of singing to perfection. During the reign of Charlemagne, musical missionaries were sent from Rome to instruct the French in the Gospel service; and that monarch also applied to Pope Adrian for singing-masters to teach the Gregorian chant. The pontiff sent him Theodore and Benedict, two chanters, who took with them an antiphonaria, noted by St Gregory himself. According to this antiphonaria, all the singing books in the empire were corrected, by royal command; and the Gregorian chant was universally adopted. Ás to secular music, in the time of Charlemagne, it would appear that itinerant minstrels and mimes were numerous; and they were not only the musicians, but the historians of the kingdom. Their songs constituted the principal part of the history of France, and celebrated the most heroic actions of her kings. At this early period, the minstrels had no very high character; Charlemagne forbad their admission into convents; and, in the first Capitulary of Aix-la-Chapelle, he speaks of them as of persons branded with infamy. The military songs of this period were long preserved. One of them, in praise of Roland, the Orlando inamorato e furioso of Boiardo, Berni, and Ariosto, was sung as late as the battle of Poictiers, by the French warriors. Several musicians flourished in France from the time of Charlemagne to that of Guido, the principal of whom appear to have been Rabanus, and Hayman of Halberstadt, contemporaries with the missionaries sent by Pope Adrian; Heris, a disciple of Rabanus; Remi, of Auxerre, one of the most learned personages in the Latin church at the end of the ninth century; Hubald, a monk of St Amand, who was contemporary with Remi, and preceded Guido about one hundred years; and Odo, abbot of Cluni, in Burgundy, who is placed, by Mabillon, at the head of literature and the polite arts, during the former part of the tenth century. Both Remi and Hubald wrote treatises on music, copies of which are in the library of the King of France. The latter gives specimens of rude harmony, which shews that singing in consonance was invented prior to the time of Guido. Some of Odo's hymns, chants, and anthems, are still preserved in the Romish church. As there was only one form of the Christian religion then known throughout Europe-the Roman Catholic-the plain-chant, and the descant formed upon it, became, by means of the priests, common to all the countries in this quarter of the globe. This music was applied, generally, to the Latin; but, in the ancient French missals, there are chants existing in that language, some of which are as old as the year 1250. The melody, as compared with plain-chant, is very florid, and full of such embellishments as seem to have been in use in the thirteenth century. The original copy consists of three kinds of notes, -longs, breves, and semi-breves; besides ligatures and triplets. Philip Vitriaco, supposed by some to be the same as Philip de Vitry, Bishop of Meaux, who died in 1361, is generally said to have been the inventor of the minim. The name of Vitriaco frequently occurs in ancient authors, particularly in England; but, if it should be applied to the Bishop of Meaux, it is not very probable that he invented the minim, which appears, from the bull of Pope John XXII. before quoted, to have been in use some time before 1322. Vitriaco is the first who notices that deviation from the natural scale, called by the ancient musicians Musica Ficta: it appears to have been music in which flats and sharps were introduced, being the first departure from the plain diatonic scale. In the twelfth century, the Troubadours made their appearance in Provence. They were the founders of modern versification, and the poets of love and gallantry; diffusing through the different courts of Europe which they visited, a taste for their language, and for poetry; and a love of music and the fine arts generally. They sung their own songs to the melody of their own harps; and when they were not able to do the latter, minstrels accompanied them, who recited the lays the troubadours composed. The most ancient melodies extant, that have been set to a modern language, are those which are preserved, in the Vatican Library, to the songs of the troubadours, written in the ancient dialect of Provence; and, for two centuries subsequent to the time of Franco, no secular music can be found, except that of these Provençal poets. As every species of Italian poetry has been derived from Provence, so AIR, the most captivating part of secular vocal melody, appears to have had the same origin. * The minstrels who accompanied the troubadours, were known under the general name of Jongleurs. Their subdivisions were Violars, or performers on the vielle and viol; Juglars, or flute players; and Musars, or players on other instruments. They travelled from province to province, singing the verses of the troubadours at the courts of kings and princes, who rewarded them with gifts of clothes, horses, arms, and money. * BURNEY. The Provençal language and poetry arrived at the greatest degree of splendour about 1162; and they continued to be predominant till 1382, when the Provençals ceased writing. The most ancient remains of their compositions, and some of the most celebrated, are those of Chatelain, Count de Coucy, written about the year 1190; Thibaut, Count of Champagne and King of Navarre, who was contemporary with Philip Augustus, being born A. D. 1201, and dying in 1254; and of Guillaume IX. Duke of Aquitaine. After the time of Philip Augustus, songs in the French language became common. Gautier de Coincy, an ecclesiastic of St Medard de Soissons, composed a great number, which are still extant. The most ancient compositions of this kind were called lays. "In the thirteenth century, the songs in vogue were of various kinds, -moral, merry, and amorous; and, at that time, melody seems to have been little more than plainsong, or chanting. The notes were square, and written on four lines only, like those of the Romish church, in the clef of C, without any of the marks for time. The movements and embellishments of the air depended on the abilities of the singer. It was not till towards the end of St Louis's reign that the fifth line began to be added to the stave. The singer always accompanied himself on an instrument in unison."* The harp was the favourite instrument of this period; and as the lyre was placed, by the Grecian poets, in the hands of their greatest heroes, so the romances of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries frequently describe the accomplished * Dr BURNEY, History, vol. ii. p. 262. |