Have you ever wondered
why the guitarists in so many of Watteau’s
(1684-1721) pictures are playing so
enthusiastically compared with say,
Vermeer’s (1632-1675) lutenists who
appear to be tuning up?
The reason is that
this instrument is always associated
with amorous involvement which once
one has looked more deeply into the
picture becomes quite explicit. If male,
the guitarists in Watteau are often
accompanied by kneeling, attractive
girls in low cut dresses, who, as in
the deliciously entitled ‘La Gamme d’Amour’
(The scale of love – note the musical
illusion) are often to be seen holding
the music and gazing up into the musician’s
eyes. The same can be said of ‘La Recréation
Gallante’ (1717). In ‘Mezzetin’ the
guitarist is singing to his own playing
to some off- stage lover, and in ‘L'Ensigne
de Gersaint’ the singing guitarist’s
company seems distinctly shady. In Vermeer’s
‘The Love Letter’ the lady guitarist
is holding the letter. But in ‘Woman
playing the Lute’ she is obviously tuning
it whilst gazing with a fixed stare
out of a window, for … well one must
decide for oneself.
But perhaps when you
look at Watteau’s ‘Recréation
Galante’ you are actually seeing Remy
Medard or even more possibly Henri Grenerin
both featured on this CD.
According to Gordon
Ferries’ own fascinating booklet essay
the guitar’s lack of immediate popularity
in the early 17th Century
can be put down to the fact that it
was associated with loose women, seductive
dances much hated by the church throughout
history, and illicit sex. By contrast
the lute had a more genteel background,
it played largely contrapuntal music,
even motet transcriptions, or accompanied
spiritual songs or played solo, virtuoso
toccatas. The lute took and still takes
a chronic amount of time to tune whereas
the plain six-string guitar takes only
moments. The lute takes a lifetime to
master whereas, as many a teenager will
tell you, the guitar is more easily
tackled and can be made to be convincing
after only a short time. Even worse,
the guitar player can and does strum
basic and crude rhythms (as in Corbetta’s
Chiaccona in C) while the lute concentrates
on melodies.
To popularize the guitar
it needed a man of genius, diplomacy
and influence. By the middle of the
17th century it had found
one: Francesco Corbetta. He is not a
composer of the first division; in fact
I could only put him into the ‘conference
league’ but he was certainly popular
in his day. The quote from Samuel Pepys’
diary, given in the booklet indicates
as much: August 5th 1667
"…..I spied Signior Francisco tuning
his guitar and Monsieur de Puy with
him, who did make him play to me, which
he did most admirably …"
Corbetta and his contemporaries
gave the guitar suites of dances to
play. These were for the entertainment
of the court and the upper classes as
well as for lesser folk. This was music
everyone might relate to played on an
inexpensive instrument many could afford.
These suites consist of an opening Prelude
along with a courante, a sarabande and
probably a gigue as well as a mixture
of other popular dances of the time.
Whether French or English
this pattern in the Suite varied little
and each movement was also in one unifying
key. These pieces were not meant to
be danced to but only listened to.
On the other side was
the more serious influence of Lully
and the French opera of the court of
Louis XIV, the ‘Sun King’. This music
represented the height of aristocratic
artistic fashion and could to a certain
extent be emulated. This is reflected
not only in the Sarabande (with its
emphasis on beat 2 i.e., 1, 2,
3) of which Carre’s suite has no less
than three, and the ‘Passacaile’ but
also in a group of six transcriptions
for guitar from a manuscript found in
the Bibliothèque Nationale de
France. The latter represents composers
like Lully and Marais whose ‘Air’ is
from his opera ‘Alcione’ of 1706 as
well as a transcription of a harpsichord
piece by Couperin. All of these are
an attempt to give the instrument even
more respectability.
Gordon Ferries is quite
definitely a master of this repertoire
and plays delightfully. I must however
take issue with the recording. Not for
the first time with guitar or lute recordings
the microphone has been placed too close.
What one hears is too much hand and
string movement, sometimes even rhythmically
piercing the dances on the same beat
of each bar as in the Gigue of Medard’s
Suite.
Two guitars are used
for this recording, one by Sutherland
after a Voboam instrument of 1760 and
an actual French instrument of the same
date. I’m ashamed to say that I am unable
to recognize a difference between them.
But a word of warning; the sound is
not entirely like a modern instrument.
My eldest son, a guitarist himself,
described the sound produced in non-technical
language as ‘twangy’
I’m sorry to say that
I cannot be sure whether or not to recommend
this disc for the general listener.
My interest in early music was not particularly
roused and the music did not hold my
attention. It does however represent
its period perfectly. I have nothing
but praise for Gordon Ferries’ musicianship,
care and determination to present this
music, mostly for the first time for
two hundred and fifty years, to a modern
audience.
Gary Higginson