A tombeau (plural tombeaux) is a musical composition (earlier, in the early 16th century, a poem) commemorating the death of a notable individual. The term derives from the French word for "tomb" or "tombstone". The vast majority of tombeaux date from the 17th century and were composed for lute or other plucked string instruments. The genre gradually fell out of use during the 18th century, but reappeared in the early 20th.

History

"In instrumental music, ''tombeau'' signifies a musical 'tombstone' (French ''le tombeau'' = tomb). The musical genre of the tombeau is generally connected with music for the lute of the 17th and 18th centuries. Of some 60+ surviving pieces, most are intended for the lute or

theorbo The theorbo is a plucked string instrument of the lute family, with an extended neck and a second pegbox. Like a lute, a theorbo has a curved-back sound box (a hollow box) with a wooden top, typically with a sound hole, and a neck extending ...

, 5 for the baroque

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

, 7 for the

viola da gamba The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitch ...

and 3 for harpsichord. The earliest example of this genre seems to be the ''Tombeau de Mezangeau'' (1638) by French lutenist

Ennemond Gaultier Ennemond Gaultier (Gaultier le Vieux, Gaultier de Lyon; also spelled ''Gautier'' or ''Gauthier'') (c. 157517 December 1651) was a French lutenist and composer. He was one of the masters of the 17th century French lute school. Gaultier was born i ...

." "Musical predecessors are memorial pavans like those by

Anthony Holborne Anthony ''AntonyHolborne ''Holburne(c. 1545 – 29 November 1602) was a composer of music for lute, cittern, and instrumental consort during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Life An "Anthony Holburne" entered Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1562 ...

(''Countess of Pembrokes Funeralle'', 1599). In France, where this musical genre emerged first, strong influence of literary models, particularly of memorial poems that were popular from the 16th to the end of the 17th centuries, may have been another important factor." "The tombeau preeminently comes in two forms, as a slow elegiac

allemande An ''allemande'' (''allemanda'', ''almain(e)'', or ''alman(d)'', French: "German (dance)") is a Renaissance and Baroque dance, and one of the most common instrumental dance styles in Baroque music, with examples by Couperin, Purcell, Bach ...

grave in 4/4 or as a pavan, a tri-partite

renaissance dance Renaissance dances belong to the broad group of historical dances. During the Renaissance period, there was a distinction between country dances and court dances. Court dances required the dancers to be trained and were often for display and ente ...

already long out of date for the era of tombeaux, but with all the trappings of the allemande (cf.

Denis Gaultier Denis Gaultier (''Gautier'', ''Gaulthier''; also known as Gaultier le jeune and Gaultier de Paris) (1597 or 1602/3 – 1672) was a French lutenist and composer. He was a cousin of Ennemond Gaultier. Life Gaultier was born in Paris; two conflict ...

, ''Tombeau pour M. Racquette''). There are also a few unique tombeaux that appear as

gigue The gigue (; ) or giga () is a lively baroque dance originating from the English jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th centuryBellingham, Jane"gigue."''The Oxford Companion to Music''. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online. 6 July 20 ...

s; that is because the gigue grave resembles the allemande in a number of respects." "As opposed to the Italian lamento, the tombeau should not have used expressive elements of mourning, which were skeptically viewed in France. Nevertheless, certain typical

onomatopoetic Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...

features were used: repeated note motifs depicting the knocking of Death at the door, ascending or descending diatonic or chromatic scales which depict the soul's tribulation and transcendence. Froberger's

Lamentation A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about somethin ...

on the Death of Ferdinand III or the Meditation sur ma Mort Future would be a prime example of such a form. Some tombeaux include a motif of four descending notes, a metaphor for grief given influential expression by John Dowland in his Lachrimae (1604). These genres offered many suitable expressive characteristics: the suspirans figure (a three-note upbeat), dotted rhythms, particularly in repeated notes, and slow-moving harmonies in the minor mode whose gravity is heightened by a tendency to settle on pedal points. Later examples also tend to use chromatic progressions related to the lamento bass. The few courante tombeaux exploit the same rhythmic features in triple metre." "Developed by Parisian

lutenist A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can re ...

s (

Charles Mouton Charles Mouton (1617 - before 1699) was a French lutenist and composer. There were musicians in Mouton's mother's family, one of whom worked at the French court. Mouton was living in Paris in 1664, where he had several affluent students. He to ...

Jacques Gallot Jacques Gallot (or Jacques de Gallot, le vieux Gallot de Paris) (c. 1625 – c. 1695 in Paris, France) was a French lutenist and composer. He came from a Parisian family of lutenists and composers. He was a student of Ennemond Gaultier. In P ...

François Dufault François Dufault (or Dufaut) (before 1604 (?)ca. 1672?) was a French lutenist and composer. Dufault was born in Bourges, France. As a student of Denis Gaultier, he enjoyed an excellent reputation as an instrumentalist, which is demonstrated in ...

), the genre was soon taken over by

clavecin A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanis ...

ists (

Johann Jakob Froberger Johann Jakob Froberger (baptized 19 May 1616 – 7 May 1667) was a German Baroque composer, keyboard virtuoso, and organist. Among the most famous composers of the era, he was influential in developing the musical form of the suite of dances in hi ...

Louis Couperin Louis Couperin (; – 29 August 1661) was a French Baroque composer and performer. He was born in Chaumes-en-Brie and moved to Paris in 1650–1651 with the help of Jacques Champion de Chambonnières. Couperin worked as organist of the C ...

, both on the death of their friend Blancrocher in 1652) and was then spread into Central Europe (

Jan Antonín Losy Jan Antonín Losy, Count of Losinthal (German: ''Johann Anton Losy von Losinthal''); also known as Comte d'Logy (''Losi'' or ''Lozi''), (c. 1650 – 22 August 1721) was a Bohemian aristocrat, Baroque lute player and composer from Prague. His lut ...

, Sylvius Leopold Weiss)." The tombeau genre went into decline at the end of the 18th century. It reappeared in the 20th century with Maurice Ravel's ''

Le Tombeau de Couperin ''Le Tombeau de Couperin'' (''The Couperin's Grave'') is a suite for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, composed between 1914 and 1917. The piece is in six movements, based on those of a traditional Baroque suite. Each movement is dedicated to the mem ...

'' (1919). Other 20th century tombeaux include

Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first ...

's ''Le Tombeau de

Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

'' for solo guitar,

Arthur Benjamin Arthur Leslie Benjamin (18 September 1893, in Sydney – 10 April 1960, in London) was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of '' Jamaican Rumba'' (1938) and of the '' Storm Clouds Cantata'' ...

's ''Le Tombeau de Ravel'' for clarinet and piano, the last movement of ''

Pli selon pli ''Pli selon pli'' (Fold by fold) is a piece of classical music by the French composer Pierre Boulez. It carries the subtitle ''Portrait de Mallarmé'' (Portrait of Mallarmé). It is scored for a solo soprano and orchestra and uses the texts of ...

'' by Pierre Boulez, and ''Tombeau for Michael Collins'' (1987) by Mona Lyn Reese. Surely between the tombeau and the hommage the

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...

Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten ''Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten'' () is a short canon in A minor, written in 1977 by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, for string orchestra and bell. The work is an early example of Pärt's tintinnabuli style, which he based on his react ...

'' by Arvo Pärt and ''for Morton Feldman'' (1987) by Stephen L. Mosko. In the 21st century a series of tombeaux was written by

Roman Turovsky-Savchuk Roman Turovsky-Savchuk (Ukrainian: Роман Туровський-Савчук) is an American artist-painter, photographer and videoinstallation artist, as well as a lutenist-composer,

List of tombeaux

Lute and other plucked string instruments

* François Dufaut: ''Tombeau de Monsieur Blancrocher'' *

: ''Tombeau de Condé'', ''Tombeau de Madame'', ''Tombeau de Turenne'' *

: ''Tombeau de Monsieur Blancrocher'', ''Tombeau de Mlle Gaultier'', ''Tombeau de Mr. Lenclos'', '' avane ouTombeau de Mr. Raquette'' *

: ''Tombeau de Mezangeau'' *

: ''Tombeau'' *

: ''Tombeau de Gogo'', ''Tombeau de Madame'', *

Robert de Visée Robert de Visée (c. 1655 – 1732/1733) was a French lutenist, guitarist, theorbist and viol player at the court of the kings Louis XIV and Louis XV, as well as a singer and composer for lute, theorbo and guitar. Biography Robert de Visée's p ...

: ''Tombeau de Mr. Francisque Corbet'', ''Tombeau de Dubut'', ''Tombeau du Vieux Gallot'', ''Tombeau de Mr. Mouton'', ''Le Tombeau e Tonty', ''Tombeau de Mesdemoiselles de Visée'' * Sylvius Leopold Weiss: ''Tombeau sur la mort de M. Cajetan Baron d'Hartig'', ''Tombeau sur la mort de M. Comte de Losy'' * Jacques de Saint-Luc: ''Tombeau sur la mort de Mr Francois Ginter'' *

: ''Tombeau sur la mort de

Omelyan Kovch Оmelyan Hryhorovych Kovch ( uk, Омелян Григорович Ковч; August 20, 1884, Kosmach — March 25, 1944) was a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic priest murdered in Majdanek concentration camp. He was born in a peasant family in the tow ...

'' * : ''Tombeau de Mr. de Maltot''

Viola da gamba

* Charles Dollé: ''Tombeau de

Marin Marais Marin Marais (; 31 May 1656, in Paris – 15 August 1728, in Paris) was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colomb ...

'' *

: ''Tombeau de M.

Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully ( , , ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, ; – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, guitarist, violinist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he ...

'', ''Tombeau pour Marais le cadet'', ''Tombeau de M. Meliton'', ''Tombeau de M. de Ste-Colombe'' * Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe: ''Tombeau 'Les regrets'', ''Tombeau pour Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe le père'' *

: ''Tombeau de

Telemann Georg Philipp Telemann (; – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hilde ...

'', ''Tombeau de Forqueray''

Harpsichord

* Jean-Henri d'Anglebert: ''Tombeau de M. de Chambonnières'' *

: ''Tombeau de Monsieur Blancrocher'' *

: ''Tombeau fait à Paris sur la mort de Monsieur Blancrocher'' * Mona Lyn Reese: ''Tombeau for Michael Collins''

Other instruments

* Maurice Ravel: '' Tombeau de Couperin'' (adapted into ''The Enchanted Grove'', a ballet)

References

'', second edition (1995): 3:9. *Anon. "Tombeau". ''Brockhaus-Riemann Musiklexikon'', second edition (1995): 4:247. * Birkner, Günther. "Tombeau". ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'' (1986): 13:477–78. * Boulez, Pierre. ''Tombeau: Facsimilés de l'épure et de la première mise au net de la partition'', edited with a commentary by Robert Piencikowski. Vienna: Universal Edition, 2010. . * Brenet, M. "Les tombeaux en musique". ''RHCM'' 3 (1903), 568–75, 631–38. * Dart, R. Thurston. "Miss Mary Burwell's Instruction Book for the Lute". ''Galpin Society Journal'' 11 (1958): 33–69. * Depersin, Françoise. "Figures rhétoriques et pièces instrumentales baroques: L’exemple du ''Tombeau fait à Paris sur la mort de Monsieur Blancheroche'' de Froberger". ''Musurgia: Analyse et pratique musicales'' 12, nos. 1–2 (2005): 35–47. * Goldberg, C. ''Stilisierung als kunstvermittelnder Prozess: die französischen Tombeau-Stücke im 17. Jahrhundert'' (Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 1987) * Green, Robert A. "François Dufaut and the Origins of the Tombeau". ''Lute Society of America Quarterly'' 39, no. 3 (September 2004): 29–34. * Lanzelotte, Rosana. "Aspectos retóricos da música do século XVII: Um estudo do ''Tombeau de Mr. Blancrocher'' de Louis Couperin". In ''IX encontro anual da ANPPOM'', edited by Martha Tupinambá de Ulhôa and José Maria Neves, 323–26. Rio de Janeiro: Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Música (ANPPOM), 1996. * Ledbetter, D.
Harpsichord and Lute Music in Seventeenth-Century France
(diss., U. of Oxford, 1985). * McClary, Susan. "Temporality and Ideology: Qualities of Motion in Seventeenth-Century French Music". ''ECHO: A Music-Centered Journal'' 2, no. 2 (2000). * Mellers, Wilfred. ''François Couperin and the French Classical Tradition'', new revised edition. London: Faber, 1950. . * Piencikowski, Robert T. "''Tombeau'', extrait de ''Pli selon pli'' de Pierre Boulez". In ''Pli selon pli de Pierre Boulez: Entretiens et études'', edited by Philippe Albèra, Vincent Barras, Jean-Marie Bergère, Joseph G. Cecconi, and Daniel Galasso, 45–48. Geneva: Contrechamps, 2003. . * Rollin, M. "Le tombeau chez les luthistes Denys Gautier, Jacques Gallot, Charles Mouton". ''XVIIe siècle'', nos. 21–22 (1954): 463–79. * Rollin, M. "Les tombeaux de Robert de Visée". ''XVIIe siècle'', no.34 (1957): 73–78. * Schneider, Matthias. 2002. "Die ''Fried- und Freudenreiche Hinfarth'' und die 'Franzosche Art': Zur deutschen Rezeption des Tombeau im 17. Jahrhundert". In ''Bach, Lübeck und die norddeutsche Musiktradition'', edited by Wolfgang Sandberger, 114–31. Kassel: Bärenreiter. . *van den Borren, Charles. "Esquisse d'une histoire des 'tombeaux' musicaux". ''Académie royale de Belgique: bulletin de la classe des beaux-arts'' 43 (1961); abridged in ''SMw'', 25 (1962), 56–67. * Wood, C. "Orchestra and Spectacle in the tragédie en musique, 1673–1715: Oracle, sommeil and tempête". ''Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association'' 108 (1981–82): 25–46. * Vendrix, P. "Le tombeau en musique en France à l'époque baroque". ''RMFC'', 25 (1987).

External links

Tombeau & Baroque LuteAnother Lute Website (Tombeaux)
- Overview of Lute video's of the famous tombeaux of the great composers {{Authority control Music genres 17th century in music Funerary and memorial compositions