Pierre Gaultier (Gaultier of Orléans; ''Gaultier Orléanois''; ''Gaultier de Rome'', 1599-after 1638) was a French
lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), 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 "lu ...
nist and composer.
Life
Gaultier hailed from
Orléans
Orléans (,"Orleans" (US) and Johann Anton I of Eggenberg (1610–1649), then ambassador of the emperor Ferdinand III to
Pope Urban VIII
Pope Urban VIII (; ; baptised 5 April 1568 – 29 July 1644), born Maffeo Vincenzo Barberini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 August 1623 to his death, in July 1644. As pope, he expanded the papal terri ...
in Rome in 1638. Nothing is known about his further vita.
Gaultier is not identical to the Jesuit and scholar Pierre Gautruche (Latinised form: Petrus Galtruchius Aurelianensis, baptized on 4 August 1602 in the church of Saint-Paul, Orléans, died 1681 in
Caen
Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...
) who he was formerly taken to be. He is also not the composer and opera director (1642-1696), whose name was also Pierre Gaultier.
Works
Music by Gaultier has survived in a single publication: ''Les Oeuvres de Pierre Gaultier'' (Rome, 1638), dedicated to his patron, the prince of Eggenberg. Gaultier probably paid and sold the book, containing 105 pieces of music with six different new tunings (so called ''accords nouveaux''), on his own. It is the only publication of French lute music of that period that was published outside France.
Gaultier's music is typical in that it features the contemporary style of broken melody (in modern sources often called ''style brisé'', a term coined during the 20th century) and in that he experimented with new tunings. Atypical of French lute music of that period, however, was his extensive use of hammer-ons and pull-offs, and of campanella technique, both of which betray the strong influence of Italian guitarists and theorbists.
Edition
Monique Rollin (ed.): ''Oeuves de Pierre Gaultier'' (Paris: CNRS, Corpus des Luthistes Français, 1984).
Recording
Sigrun Richter, Les Accords Nouveaux: ''Pierre Gaultier – Les Oeuvres'', Rom 1636, ASIN: B000024PKV.
Bibliography
*François-Pierre Goy: "Three Versions of Pierre Gaultier's Battaille (1626, 1638, 1650)", in: ''Journal of the Lute Society of America'', vol. XLII-XLIII (2009-2010), p. 1-89, .