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Welcome to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani. We’re continuing our look at the French family of music printers who were named “official printers to the king” …over a span of 200 years! The title was first granted in 1552 under Henry II to printers Robert Ballard and Adrian Le Roy, or, as they are sometimes known in English-speaking countries, LeRoy and Ballard. The title continued into the late 18th century. As succeeding generations took over the family business, they adapted to meet the musical tastes of each King’s court, while still using the same printing technology the family had used since the mid-16th century. This hour, we’ll hear music printed for French kings in the Bourbon dynasty, including Louis XIV, by later generations of the Ballard printing empire.

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Le trésor d'Orphée
Fritz Mühlhölzer, lute
Ars Musici 1991 / AM10122
Antoine Francisque
Tr.1 3 Branles simples (4:50) [4:45]

Lutenist Fritz Mühlhölzer played three simple branles by Antoine Francisque. The branle was a popular dance form in 16th and early 17th century France. We heard pieces published in 1600 by the Ballard printing firm from [Le tresor d’Orphée, or] The Treasure of Orpheus.

After the deaths of its founders, Robert Ballard I and Adrian Le Roy,or Le Roi, Ballard’s wife and son Pierre took over their printing empire, renewing their royal privilege with King Henri IV of the Bourbon dynasty. They continued to publish secular popular songs, but with changing musical tastes in the early 17th century, the forms of these songs shifted. In the court of King Henri IV, the trending style was the air de cour, or courtly air, consisting of solo song usually accompanied by the large, extended-necked lute called the theorbo. One prolific composer of this style was Etienne Moulinié, who taught singing to many of the nobility and those aspiring to be in the noble class.

Airs avec la tablature de luth. Premier livre (1624)
Suzie Le Blanc, soprano ; Stephen Stubbs, lute
CBC Records 1996 / MVCD1095
Etienne Moulinié
Tr.1 Air: Alles tristes soupirs (2:19)
Tr.21 Air: Enfin la beaute que j'adore (6:21)

Suzie Le Blanc, soprano and Stephen Stubbs, lute performed French airs by Etienne Moulinié. First, we heard “Alles tristes soupirs” followed by “Enfin la beaute que j'adore.” These airs were published by Ballard in 1624 in a collection called Airs de cour avec la tablature de luth: premier livre.

Robert Ballard III, grandson of the firm’s founder, took over the business in 1639. King Louis XIII granted him the more specific title of “sole printer” to the king for music, a privilege which stayed with the family through other monarchs for more than a century. Under the leadership of Ballard number three, there was a shift in the styles and genres of sacred music that they published. Lush unaccompanied vocal motets for 4-6 voices by Lassus and his contemporaries were no longer printed, replaced by collections of motets featuring only 1-4 voices accompanied by organ and sometimes other instruments such as violin and flute. These motets kept some of the imitative vocal texture of earlier time periods, but with more modern harmonies, and extended sections for solo voice and accompaniment similar to practices in secular genres.

Motets pour la messe du roy
Ensemble Pierre Robert
Alpha 2002 / ALPHA021 Alpha
Henry Du Mont
Tr.13 Ave regina caelorum (3:30)
Tr.6 Venite ad me (5:12)

Ensemble Pierre Robert performed two motets by Henry Du Mont: Ave regina caelorum followed by Venite ad me. Both works were originally published by Robert Ballard III in the collection Motets a II. III. et IV. parties pour voix et instruments from 1681.

You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani. I’d like to take a moment this week to say a special thanks to our studio engineer Michael Paskash, who just retired after over thirty years of making our Harmonia programs sound fantastic. Mike will be much missed by our production team, and we wish him a long and happy retirement! Thanks, Mike!

L'âme-son: suites françaises / Henry Grenerin
Bruno Helstroffer, baroque guitar
Alpha 2023 / ALPHA1007
Henry Grenerin
Tr.1 Suite in A Minor: I. Prélude (excerpt of 1:37)

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Welcome back… we’re listening to music of the French Baroque as represented by the publications of the (royally sanctioned) Ballard printing firm.

By the mid-17th century, the French nobility had developed a taste for the new styles in Italian music and art. Italian musical genres and styles were in fashion at court, and therefore, were reflected in the publications of the Ballard firm. The Ballards published several works by French composer and theorist Sébastien de Brossard, including a book of motets. His book included works for solo voice with basso continuo,a term describing a group providing bass and harmonic accompaniment on various instruments. The motets feature constantly shifting emotions, or affects, set in different meters, keys, and textures (in order) to best reflect the text, imitating the Italianate style of the 17th century. Brossard felt the Italianate musical terms needed more explanation for French musicians and musical amateurs, so Christophe Ballard also published Brossard’s Dictionaire de Musique in 1703.

4 spiritual vocal works. Concerto in G major for recorder, strings and continuo
Helmut Krebs
Archive Production 1962 / ARC3193
Sébastien de Brossard
Tr.3 Quemadmodum desiderat cervus (9:42)

Tenor Helmut Krebs sang Sébastien de Brossard’s motet Quemadmodum desiderat cervus with members of Schola Cantorum Basiliensis …on an LP from 1962(!). This motet was published in Christophe Ballard’s book Élévations et motets à voix seule: avec la basse-continue from 1695.

The Italian musical influence in the French court was most present in the genre of opera. In the early 17th century, the French court had a strong tradition of large dramatic musical works in the form of court ballet. Initially, these French ballets were performed by courtiers who were expected to have skills in the most current forms of courtly dance. Under the powerful absolute monarchy of Louis XIV, however, courtiers were becoming rebellious. The King then began to house them at Versailles for extended stays and occupied them with performance rehearsals, limiting the time they had to plot against him. Ironically, the theme in these ballets, and later the operas, was often focused on the power and importance of one central monarch. Composers working under Louis XIV, like Jean-Baptiste Lully, combined this court dance tradition with characteristics from popular Italian operas to create a distinctive form of opera in France.

Atys / Jean-Baptiste Lully.
Chœur du Marais; Simphonie du Marais; Hugo Reyne, conductor
Musiques à la Chabotterie 2010 / 605008
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Atys, Acte II
CD2 Tr.1 Scène I. Ritournelle -- Célénus: "N'avancez pas plus loin" (02:57)
CD2 Tr.4 Cybèle: "C'est Atys que je veux choisir" (02:18)
CD2 Tr.11 Choeur des Peuples et des Zéphyrs: "Que devant vous" (02:29)

Excerpts from Act II of Lully’s Atys performed by Chœur du Marais and Simphonie du Marais, conducted by Hugo Reyne. The score to this work was published by the Ballard firm in 1689.

You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.

Our featured release this hour is titled Oh, ma belle brunette, a recording of 17th- and early 18th-century French Baroque music recorded performed by tenor Reinoud van Mechelen and ensemble A Nocte Temporis. This album features music from several publications produced by Christophe Ballard during the firm’s most prolific time. At this time At this point, the Ballards owned four presses and had more than eleven employees including nine helpers and two apprentices. Most of the prominent composers and genres were printed by Ballard, including works by Lully, Campra, Charpentier, Couperin, Hotteterre, Lalande, Marais, and Montéclair.

Oh, ma belle brunette
Reinoud van Mechelen, tenor; A Nocte Temporis
Alpha 2022 / ALPHA833
Jacques Cochereau
Tr. 11 Ballard: Sur le bord de la Seine (4:06)
Tr.18 Ballard: Les Rossignols par leur tendre ramage (1:38)
Tr.3 Cochereau: Airs sérieux et à boire: Plaignez-vous ma Muzette (3:07)

Music from popular songbooks printed by the Ballard firm in the early 18th century, performed by tenor Reinoud van Mechelen and the ensemble A Nocte Temporis on our featured recording, Oh, ma belle brunette released in 2022 on the Alpha label.

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Harmonia is a production of WFIU and part of the educational mission of Indiana University.
Support comes from Early Music America: a national organization that advocates and supports the historical performance of music of the past, the community of artists who create it, and the listeners whose lives are enriched by it. On the web at EarlyMusicAmerica-dot-org.

Additional resources come from the William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

We welcome your thoughts about any part of this program, or about early music in general. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org. You can follow us on Facebook by searching for Harmonia Early Music.

The writer for this edition of Harmonia is Devon Nelson.

Thanks to our studio engineer Michael Paskash, and our production team: LuAnn Johnson, Aaron Cain, and John Bailey. I’m Angela Mariani, inviting you to join us again for the next edition of Harmonia.

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