Further Exploration of Jacquet de La Guerre

Some readers may recall that it was through Sarah Cahill that I first learned about the seventeenth-century composer Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre. My introduction took place through a live-stream recital that was part of the Piano Talks series presented by the Ross McKee Foundation. She played four of the nine movements of the composer’s first suite (in the key of D minor) in the 1687 Pieces de Clavecin collection, the Prelude, the Sarabande, the “Chaconne l’inconstante” (the inconstant chaconne), and the Gigue.

That was enough to pique my interest. After that “first contact,” I had no trouble finding the IMSLP download site, which then allowed me to work my way through all nine of the movements in the score. Meanwhile, Cahill recorded the movements she had performed at her recital, along with the second Courante; and those five movements served to begin her second The Future is Female release, whose title was The Dance. Now, while waiting for the final volume in that series, which is due for release at the end of next month, I decided to take on the second suite in the 1687 collection.

I also decided that I could do with a bit of further guidance in dealing with the opening Prelude music, whose notation seems to serve as a foundation for some degree of improvisation. Here, for example, is the notation that begins the Prelude that Cahill had recorded:

Clearly, the whole notes were not intended to be performed as whole notes! Rather, they seem to outline harmonic progressions that are arpeggiated and embellished with the notated eighth notes.

My understanding of the music was further enhanced by a two-CD Naxos release of all six of the suites in the collection. As the hyperlink indicates, this album is still available for purchase from Amazon.com, even though its release dates back to 2005. The harpsichordist is Elizabeth Farr, and I have now had my first encounter with her approaches to all six of the suites. With that background I now feel equipped to find my way through the second suite (in the key of G minor) in the set.

John Cage used to tell a story that reflected on his approach to composition that was based on tossing coins. As a recall, the pianist David Tudor, who performed many of Cage’s works, supposedly voiced his own opinion of Cage’s techniques. That opinion was distilled down to a single sentence: “Now that it’s so easy, there’s so much to do!” Now that the Internet has made it “so easy” to examine and play so many different publications of music, there really is “so much to do!”