outside die sphere of lutenists, nor will those of the fine

Tim Crawford German players who worked alongside them at Stras-

bourg, the most eminent being Valentin Strobe! and
Lute music from 17th-century Gumprecht himself. That is not to say mat their music is
worthy of neglect it is in fact unusually well distributed
Strasbourg among die German manuscripts of the period, and even
CEuvres de Gumprecht, ed Christian Meyer and Monique some French ones, which is a good indication of the
Rollin regard in which it was held
(Paris: CNRS-Editions, 1993), FF280 Johann Gumprecht setded in Strasbourg after studying
at Basel University in me late 1630s. His marriage to the
One might be forgiven for wondering how a composer daughter of an eminent citizen in 1643 set him on the
with a name such as Johann Gumprecht, born near road-of civil respectability. He became a member of die
Nuremberg in 1610, should find his way into the Corpus Tanners' Corporation within a few weeks, and worked for
des Luthistes Francais. In fact, he spent almost his entire diat body as a city politician for the rest of his long life,
career as a respected citizen of a region whose national becoming an alderman in the 1650s and frequently hold-
status has changed many times. Although Strasbourg is ing the post of Master of the Corporation. Such facts,
now firmly part of France, it was a German city within established with great thoroughness in Christian Meyer's

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living memory (just), although its present citizenry would biographical study, are not mere pedantic detail.
probably prefer to think of themselves as living in Alsace, Gumprecht died in 1697 a wealdiy man, not the normal
and its international status due to the presence of the condition of a professional musician. He held no official
European Parliament is unusually prominent post as a musician, though he is regularly described as
Just as the excellent wines of Alsace, though produced such in documents. Unlike his colleague Strobe! (who
in the French tradition, have very much their own char- worked in Strasbourg between 1638 and 1670), he was not
acter yet have the unfortunate—and unfounded—reputa- formally employed to teach the lute to die university stu-
tion of 'travelling badly', so the music of this archetypical dents, aldiough widi his lutenist son, also Johann, he was
crossroads city is little known to the world of early music active in opposing the French lutenist Bethune, who
Poised simultaneously between France and Germany as attempted to poach some of diis lucrative work in 1681.
between northern and southern Europe, Strasbourg and Gumprecht's reputation as a player seems to have been
its musicians acted in the 17th century as a lively and wide during his lifetime. He is listed among the great
industrious conduit for the infusion of French styles into masters of the lute in a list written in Re'ne' Milleran's lute
the music of Germany. manuscript around me time of his deadi. But diis reputa-
Nowhere is this truer than in lute music For most of tion apparendy faded quite quickly in die i8di century,
the 17th century the lute was thought of as a 'French' when new musical styles became fashionable in Germany,
instrument, since the majority of the most eminent play- where most activity on die instrument was now based
ers were French, and the Parisian style prtfieux in lute The style of die 40 or so solo pieces collected in diis
playing and composition swept Europe before it German edition is essentially French widi a German accent, like
lutenists of the later 17th century wrote in an altogether diat of die music of Gumprecht's illustrious compatriot,
French style, based explicitly on the models of the Esaias Reusner, although it is on die whole less complex.
Parisians—the Gaultiers, Germain Pinel, Charles Mouton His melodic lines generally move by step, and die music
and Jacques Gallot—and also, less famously although at is less dense than die continuous diree-part "broken' tex-
least as importantly, on that of Francois Dufaut, a lutenist ture favoured by Reusner and by Dufaut himself, whose
who travelled throughout Europe, gaining an enviable influence on bodi Germans is dear. Gumprecht is not as
reputation everywhere he visited fine a composer as Reusner, rimer in his originality or his
Some less starry lutenists of the French school estab- clarity of expression. But diere is a melodic gift in evid-
lished careers in Strasbourg, which for most of the cen- ence, and nodiing fells below a high standard of execu-
tury enjoyed the status of a 'free' imperial city but was tion. There is a hint diat many of die pieces might be in a
always conscious of its provincial relationship with the deliberately 'simple' style, perhaps designed for pupils
French capital. Such figures as Bocquet, Vignon and radier dian demonstrating the highest achievements of a
B&hune will no doubt never become household names great player. One or two are more complex and require a

EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 1 9 9 5 513

more thorough understanding of the French idiom than sequence of notes. These transcriptions adopt the con-
the rest Christian Meyer and Monique Rollin make the vention of presenting all the notes as semibreves, which
point that the music rarely goes above the fifth fret on the gives an odd appearance, and could mislead players into
first string, which further suggests that it is for players of performing them far too slowly. (This is reminiscent of
modest skills. Seven of the pieces—three allemandes, one contemporary keyboard preludes, but it lacks the essen-
courante and three sarabandes—are supplied with a tial 'slurs' which delineate the polyphonic texture.) For
double in one of their sources. These are not especially myself, black noteheads without stems would have been
virtuoso, but require nimble fingers and an ear alert to less confusing, since they would then convey an impres-
the initially somewhat confusing conventions of the sion of unspecified duration rather closer to the original
genre. in intention. The transcription of the dance movements is
The confusion comes, of course, from the term style generally well done; their texture is as a rule less complex
bust, a modern coinage that attempts to define the dis- than much of the lute music of the time, and the ten-
tinctive unwillingness of lutenists, and keyboard players dency towards a treble-and-bass polarization helps to
imitating them, to sound more than one note at a time. make it clearer stilL
Chords tend to be 'broken' continuously, and much of Gumprecht was one of the composers whose lute
the texture is explicitly notated thus in the tablature. But music was arranged for two violins and continuo in a
we know that even chords written out unbroken were printed book of 1658, published by Johann Ernst Rieck,

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often (if not usually) spread in performance. In some the organist of St Thomas's church in Strasbourg. No
manuscript sources, such chords are sometimes provided doubt the fact that Gumprecht is known to have con-
with oblique slashes to indicate separie performance, tributed generously to the organ fund five years before
which was probably done in fairly precise rhythm, rather influenced Rieck's selection not at alL All the pieces in
than the vague arpiger suggested here and in the other Rieck luckily survive in lute versions, and the dual
volumes of the CNRS series. accounts of these pieces give a fascinating glimpse into
For lute players, these performance matters are mostly contemporary attitudes to transcription. The editors
a matter of getting used to the conventions (or the best might have paid more attention to Rieck's versions—all
guess we can make at them; there is much we do not seven of which (two allemande/courante/sarabande suites
know, of course), but for the transcriber they can be a and an isolated gavotte) they print in an appendix—espe-
minefield. Meyer and Rollin follow the normal CNRS cially in the allemande no.3 and its double, the opening of
procedure, and omit the separie signs entirely from the whose second strain they garble somewhat
transcription, which is set out in parallel with the tabla- Another appendix gives the additional bonus of lute
ture. This way, at least, the musical logic is clearer when duet versions of six of Gumprecht's dances, some of
the music is not too bust, but keyboard players need to be which appear in the Rieck trio collection, and were pre-
aware of the inherent compromise here. The question of sumably among Gumprecht's more popular pieces. Lute
broken chords becomes paramount, of course, in lute duets at this time were constructed by adding a second
preludes, of which there are three nice examples by part (the contrepartie) to a previously composed and
Gumprecht At least, / think there are three; Meyer and unaltered solo piece. The contrepartia are similar in range
Rollin seem to disagree, giving the two in A minor the and texture to the other lute parts, and the overall effect is
numbers 2a and 2b, rather than the expected 2 and 3. The one of amplification of the sound rather than of a subtle
Notes sur Vceuvrc mention 'similitudes certaines', but, interplay between performers; this may have been pre-
beyond a similar opening phrase (very stereotypical, this) cisely what was intended, though it needs careful han-
and a virtually identical final cadence, the pieces go very dling in performance.
much their own ways. In general this volume is well produced, although the
Unmeasured lute preludes did have their own kind of music-setting, apparently by computer, contains some
polyphonic logic, like those for keyboard. The notion that alarmingly strange spacings that should have been cor-
they were some kind of 17th-century aleatoric music is, of rected before printing. The music would make an excel-
course, utterly false. They simply represent the point at lent introduction to the world of French lute music for a
which musical notation gives up the unequal struggle to player happier in the world of the German Baroque, but
represent the subtleties of performance of this essentially it also merits close consideration as an attractive reper-
improvised genre in favour of a bald prescription of the tory in its own right

514 EARLY MUSIC AUGUST I 9 9 5

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The Lily and The Lamb
- chant and polyphony from medieval England
CD: HMV 907125 MC: HMV 407125
Released August I 995

516 EARLY MUSIC AUGUST 1995