Abstract
At the beginning of the seventeenth century France, with over twenty million inhabitants, was the most densely populated country in Europe; Paris was its largest urban centre and had about 250 000 inhabitants. These numerical statements, however, call for some elaboration.
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Notes
An excellent survey of political history during Louis XIII’s reign is provided in V. L. Tapié, La France de Louis XIII et de Richelieu (Paris, 1952; Eng. trans, by D. M. Lockie as France in the Age of Louis XIII and Richelieu, 1974).
Social life in the French capital is expertly reviewed in O. Ranum, Paris in the Age of Absolutism (New York, 1968), and Les Parisiens du XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1973). Also of interest to the English reader will be J. Lough, An Introduction to Seventeenth Century France (London, 1954); idem, France Observed in the Seventeenth Century by British Travellers (Stocksfield, 1984);
D. Maland, Culture and Society in Seventeenth Century France (London, 1970).
Two books by A. Adam, Histoire de la littérature franaise au XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1948–51) and Grandeur and Illusion: French Literature and Society 1600–1715 (trans. H. Tirt, London, 1972), explore the relationship between social and literary history.
A valuable reference work is F. Bluche, Dictionnaire du grand siècle (Paris, 1990).
Music
The most comprehensive and informative book on the music and musicians of the period is J. R. Anthony, French Baroque Music from Beaujoyeulx to Rameau (London, 1973, 2/1978; Fr. trans, as La musique en France à l’époque baroque, Paris, 1981, 2/1992).
R. M. Isherwood, Music in the Service of the King (Ithaca, 1973), links music to general historical developments, focussing on productions at the French court. M. Benoit’s Dictionnaire de la musique en France, aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris, 1992) is a valuable reference work for the period.
Contemporary descriptions of ballets are found in M. de Pure, Idée des spectacles anciens et nouveaux (Paris, 1668),
G.-F. Ménestrier, Des ballets anciens et modernes selon les régles du théâtre (Paris, 1682).
Other court festivities and the beginnings of opera are discussed in idem, Des représentations en musique anciennes et modernes (Paris, 1681). M. M. McGowan, L’art du ballet de cour en France 1581–1643 (Paris, 1963), provides a detailed history of the ballet de cour and M.-F. Christout, Le ballet de cour au XVIIe siècle (Geneva, 1984), offers numerous illustrations of décor and costumes with expert commentary.
H. Pruniéres, Le ballet de cour en France avant Benserade et Lully (Paris, 1914), provides more comment on the music; idem, L’opéra italien en France avant Lulli (Paris, 1913), remains the fullest account of French productions of operas by Sacrati, Rossi, Cavalli and Caproli.
M. Jürgens, Documents du Minutier central concernant l’histoire de la musique 1600–1650 (Paris, 1967), provides a treasure trove of archival documentation on professional and amateur musicians, instrument makers and printers, and the working conditions of musicians in Paris during the minority of Louis XIV (1643–61) are effectively outlined in G. Massip, La vie des musiciens de Paris au temps de Mazarin (Paris, 1976).
More fleeting archival information is presented in Y. de Brossard, Musiciens de Paris 1535–1792: Actes d’état-civil d’aprés le fichier Laborde de la Bibliothéque nationale (Paris, 1965). Musical life observed by the court chronicler Jean Loret and his successors is reviewed in idem, ‘La vie musicale en France d’aprés Loret et ses continuateurs (1650–1688)’, RMFC, x (1970), 117–93, and other contemporary reports are selected in N. Dufourcq, ‘En parcourant le Mercure françois 1605–1644’, ibid, xviii (1978), 5–28, and idem, ‘En parcourant la Gazette 1645–1654’, ibid, xxiii (1985), 176–202.
The musical organization of the Sainte-Chapelle is described in M. Brenet, Les musiciens de la Sainte-Chapelle de Palais (Paris, 1910), and that of the royal chapel in M. le Moël, ‘La Chapelle de musique sous Henri IV et Louis XIII’, RMFC, vi (1966), 5–26.
Vernacular psalms are discussed in D. Launay, ‘A propos du chant des psaumes en français au XVIIe siècle: la paraphrase des psaumes de Godeau et ses musiciens’, Revue de musicologie, 1 (1964), 30–75, and Latin church music in idem, ‘Les motets à double choeur en France dans la premiére moitié du XVIIe siècle’, ibid, xl (1957), 173–95. There is a more general account in idem, ‘Church Music in France (a) 1630–60, New Oxford History of Music, v, ed. A Lewis and N. Fortune (London, 1975), rev.2/ 1986), 414–37.
On the air de cour, see G. Durosoir, L’air de cour en France 1571–1655 (Liége, 1991), and on the composers of lute music L. de la Laurencie, Les luthistes (Paris, 1928).
The composers of harpsichord music are surveyed in A. Pirro, Les clavecinistes (Paris, 1925), and their music in B. Gustafson, French Harpsichord Music in the XVIIth century (Ann Arbor, 1978).
M. Brenet, Les concerts en France sous l’ancien régime (Paris, 1900), includes details on concert life in the period.
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Massip, C. (1993). Paris, 1600–61. In: Price, C. (eds) The Early Baroque Era. Man & Music. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11294-4_11
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