Claude Gervaise (1525–1583) ; these dates are contradicted by other sources was a French composer, editor and arranger of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

, who is remembered mainly for his association with renowned printer

Pierre Attaingnant Pierre Attaingnant (or Attaignant) (c. 1494 – late 1551 or 1552) was a French music publisher, active in Paris. Life Attaingnant is considered to be first large-scale publisher of single-impression movable type for music-printing, thus making it ...

, and for his instrumental music.

Life

Little research has been done on Gervaise's life, and details are known only of the period in which he was active in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

as an assistant to Attaingnant. He first appears around 1540, mentioned as an editor on the title pages for several of Attaingnant's books of instrumental dances. After Attaingnant died in late 1551 or 1552, Gervaise continued to assist Attaingnant's widow, Marie Lescallopier-Attaingnant, in carrying on their publishing business. Where Gervaise went after the last publication under the Attaingnant name in 1558 is not known.

Music

Gervaise's extant output consists of

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic ...

s, mostly for three or four voices, and instrumental music, mostly dances. He appears to have written no sacred music at all, an unusual omission for a composer of the time. In addition to being a composer, he appears to have been an innovator in notation of instrumental music: in an instruction manual for the

viol 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 pitc ...

(1548, now lost), he is known to have produced the first viol

tablature Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches. Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuela, as well as many fr ...

in France. His chansons are freely composed, and are mostly settings of long poems (for example ''huitans''). He published a collection of twenty chansons for four voices in 1541. The remaining chansons, for three voices, are arrangements of his previous pieces for four; this collection came out in 1550. Stylistically, all are typical of French chanson composition of the 1540s: polyphonic but concise. His instrumental music is the most famous portion of his output. Most of his music is in four parts, and is intended for dancing. The principal forms employed are the ''

pavane The ''pavane'' ( ; it, pavana, ''padovana''; german: Paduana) is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century (Renaissance). The pavane, the earliest-known music for which was published in Venice by Ottaviano Petrucci ...

'', ''

galliarde The ''galliard'' (; french: gaillarde; it, gagliarda) was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, Portugal, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy. Dance fo ...

'', and ''

branle A branle (, ), also bransle, brangle, brawl, brawle, brall(e), braul(e), brando (in Italy), bran (in Spain), or brantle (in Scotland), is a type of French dance popular from the early 16th century to the present, danced by couples in either a ...

''; and the varieties of the branle are the ''

courant Courant may refer to: * '' Hexham Courant'', a weekly newspaper in Northumberland, England * ''The New-England Courant'', an American newspaper, founded in Boston in 1721 * ''Hartford Courant'', a newspaper in the United States, founded in 1764 *C ...

'', ''gay'' and ''simple''. One of his pavanes, the ''Pavane passemaize'', incorporates the famous ''

passamezzo antico The passamezzo antico is a ground bass or chord progression that was popular during the Italian Renaissance and known throughout Europe in the 16th century. van der Merwe, Peter. 1989. ''Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth- ...

'' bass line. The melodies are simple in his instrumental music, and the texture is almost always

homophonic In music, homophony (;, Greek: ὁμόφωνος, ''homóphōnos'', from ὁμός, ''homós'', "same" and φωνή, ''phōnē'', "sound, tone") is a texture in which a primary part is supported by one or more additional strands that flesh ...

, making the music ideal for dancing.

References and further reading

* Lawrence F. Bernstein: "Claude Gervaise", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed March 12, 2006)
(subscription access)
*

Gustave Reese Gustave Reese ( ; 29 November 1899 – 7 September 1977) was an American musicologist and teacher. Reese is known mainly for his work on medieval and Renaissance music, particularly with his two publications ''Music in the Middle Ages'' (1940) ...

, ''Music in the Renaissance''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gervaise, Claude French classical composers French male classical composers Renaissance composers French printers 1525 births 1583 deaths

Life

Music

See also

References and further reading