Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre
By François de Troy
French harpsichordist, composer, and teacher Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729) was presented to Louis XIV at court when she was approximately five years old. Captivated by her masterful skills at the harpsichord, the King immediately entrusted Jacquet de la Guerre’s academic and musical instruction to his favorite mistress, Madame de Montespan. For the next fourteen years, Jacquet de la Guerre remained at the court in Versailles, delighting countless audiences with her performances as a harpsichordist and singer. Most notably, she was revered for her stunning improvisations at the keyboard, which left audiences spellbound with her brilliance. In 1677, the Mercure gallant reported that Jacquet de la Guerre “sings at sight the most difficult music. She accompanies herself, and accompanies others who wish to sing, at the harpsichord, which she plays in a manner that cannot be imitated. She composes pieces and plays them in all the keys asked of her. Mademoiselle Jacquet from her tenderest youth made known her talents and her extraordinary disposition for music and for the art of playing the harpsichord…The King took much pleasure in hearing her play the harpsichord…”
When she married in 1684, Jacquet de la Guerre left the court at Versailles and moved back to Paris, a burgeoning metropolis where high-quality music was also an essential component of daily life for a growing urban upper class. Many French women pursued careers as professional musicians, but their musical activities were typically reduced when they married. Jacquet de la Guerre continued to enjoy the support of the King after her marriage, and her professional life grew tremendously in Paris. She gave frequent performances and taught from her Parisian home, and eventually, she became one of several prominent Parisian women to host regular salon performances to showcase new musical works by the leading composers of the day. Most notably, however, Jacquet de la Guerre’s career as a composer rapidly accelerated in Paris.
While French women of the time were primarily perceived as interpreters rather than creators of new musical works, a number of French women composed songs for solo singer and continuo. These pieces were included in collections printed and distributed by Jean-Baptiste Christoph Ballard. Although some women, such as Julie Pinel and Madeleine Guédon de Presles, published their musical compositions under their own name, many women published anonymously or under their husbands’ names, leaving ambiguity around authorship for a number of female composers from the time. Louis XIV took a keen interest in Jacquet de la Guerre’s compositions when she was a teenager in Versailles, and he continued to support her work as a composer until his death in 1715, three decades after she had left the court. Her published compositions were dedicated to the King and written under a royal privilege. These works include collections of sacred and secular cantatas, two books of harpsichord music, a collection of violin sonatas, instrumental chamber music, a ballet, and her grand staged tragédie lyrique, Céphale et Procris.
Resources
Sources
Cessac, Catherine. “Jacquet de La Guerre, Elisabeth.” Grove Music Online. 2001.
Porter, Cecilia Hopkins. Five Lives in Music: Women Performers, Composers, and Impresarios from the Baroque to the Present. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2012.
Works Featured on Expanding the Music Theory Canon
“Presto” from Sonata 2 in D Major
Excerpt
Pages: Intervals, Suspensions
“Aria” from Sonata 1 in D Minor
Excerpt
Pages: Intervals, Simple Meters, Suspensions
Aria from Sonata 5 in A Minor
Excerpt
Pages: Triads, Cadences, vii°6, vii°7+Inversions
Presto from Sonata 1 in D Minor
Excerpt
Pages: Simple Meters, Sequences
“Courante” from Sonata 5 in A Minor
Excerpt
Pages: Compound Meters, Suspensions, Sequences
“Presto” from Sonata 6 in A Major
Excerpt
Page: Suspensions
Sonata 5 in A Minor
Excerpt
Pages: Cadences, 6/4 Chords
“Aria” from Sonata 6 in A Major
Full Score
Page: Predominant