You are on page 1of 27

Charles-Hubert Gervais's Psiché burlesque and the Birth of the Comic Cantate française

Author(s): Jean-Paul C. Montagnier


Source: The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 520-545
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/763931
Accessed: 12-05-2016 02:58 UTC

REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/763931?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The
Journal of Musicology

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Charles-Hubert Gervais's

Psiche burlesque
and the Birth of the

Comic Cantate franfaise


JEAN-PAUL C. MONTAGNIER

U ntil now, the history of the cantate franfaise


has been written exclusively with reference to French sources (hand-
written and printed scores, pamphlets, and the like). David Tunley,
Gene E. Vollen, and more recently Jer6me Dorival-to name but a few
520 -have thus established that the genre originated from the Italianate
circle of Duke Philippe II of Orlkans, eventually Regent of France.'
By 1700, musicians and poets working at the Palais-Royal, the Duke's
residence, indeed took an active part in adapting the vigorous style
of the contemporary Italian music-which met with growing success in
learned coteries such as those of the Stuarts at Saint-Germain-en-Laye
and of Nicolas Mathieu, priest of Saint-Andr&-des-Arts-to the delicacy
of French taste. Jean-Baptiste Rousseau-whose play La Ceinture magique
was performed by the Duke of Orlkans himself in February 1702 2-first
created a new literary genre in imitation of Italian cantata libretti: the
cantatefranfaise. This kind of refined poem, meant to be set to music,

reunit les qualites de tous les genres, le merveilleux de l' popee, les
passions favorites de la tragedie, I'enthousiasme de l'ode pindarique,
le gracieux de l'ode anacreontique et l'harmonie de la musique. II

Volume XVII - Number 4 ?. Fall 1999


The Journal of Musicology ? 1999 by the Regents of the University of California

David Tunley, The Eighteenth-Century French Cantata (London: Dennis Dobson,


1974); Gene E. Vollen, The French Cantata: A Survey and Thematic Catalog (Ann Arbor:
UMI Research Press, 1982); David Tunley, The Eighteenth-Century French Cantata, 2nd ed.
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997); J6r6me Dorival, La Cantate franfaise au XVIIIe sicle,
Que sais-je? no. 3476 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1999).
2 See Madame Palatine [Elisabeth-Charlotte of Orl6ans], Lettres franfaises, ed. Dirk
Van der Cruysse (Paris: Fayard, 1989), 182 (letter no. 157).

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER

parle tour 'a tour a l'imagination et au coeur: a l'imagination dans les


recits, au coeur dans les airs dont ils sont entremeles.s

brings together the qualities of all genres, the supernatural of epic,


the favorite passions of tragedy, the enthusiasm of Pindaric ode, the
graciousness of Anacreontic ode, and the harmony of music. It speaks
in turn to the imagination and to the heart: to the imagination in
recitatives, to the heart in arias with which they [the recitatives] are in-
termingled.

Like Italian libretti, such a poem "divides into three recitatives alternat-
ing with as many airs; this necessitates a variety of metre in their verses
the lines of which are sometimes long, sometimes short."4
Then Rousseau looked for able composers to set his poetry, and
spontaneously turned to those of the Palais-Royal, notably Jean-Baptiste
Morin, Nicolas Bernier and Jean-Baptiste Stuck (Batistin). In around
17o6 these musicians published the first Livres de cantates franfaises ever
printed in the kingdom, and two of them (Morin and Stuck) naturally
dedicated theirs to their patron, the Duke of Orl6ans. In the "Avis"
opening his book, Morin claimed the honor of pioneering the new
genre and hinted that his cantatas had been written some time before 521
17o6 and were already circulating:

II y a quelques annees que j'eus le dessein d'essayer si notre


langue ne seroit point susceptible de compositions de musique ap-
pelves communement en Italie Cantates, ou sujets differents de poesie,
mel s d'airs et de recitatifs. Quelques unes de celles que j'avais mise
en musique se sont r6pandues en plusieurs endroits; mais comme ce
qui court en manuscrit n'est jamais parfaitement correcte [sic], on
m'a conseille [the duke himself?] de mettre ce recueil aujour.5

Several years ago I planned to compose, if our language would


permit it, that kind of music generally known in Italy as cantatas, in
which poetry is set to recitatives and arias. Several of my works enjoyed
success in various places, but as manuscript copies usually contain
errors, it has been suggested [by the duke himself?] that I publish this
volume.

3 Anonymous Discours sur la poesie lyrique (1761) quoted after Dorival, La Cantate
franfaise, 13. Translations of quoted materials are mine, unless otherwise stated.
4 Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, "Preface" to his (Euvres quoted from J. Bachelier, Recueil
de cantates (The Hague: Alberts & van der Kloot, 1728; reprint ed. Geneva: Minkoff,
1992), "Preface" (no pagination). Translation from Tunley, The Eighteenth-Century French
Cantata, 2nd ed., pp. 17-18: "les [the poems] partager en trois Recits coupez par autant
d'Airs de mouvement; ce qui les [the Italians] oblige A diversifier la mesure de leur Stro-
phes dont les vers sont tant6t plus longs & tant6t plus courts."
5 Jean-Baptiste Morin, "Avis," in Cantates franfaises a une et deux voix, melees de sym-
phonies (Paris: Ballard, 17o6), p. [v]. Translation from Tunley, The Eighteenth-Century
French Cantata, 2nd ed., 47.

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

But Morin cannot blindly be regarded as the first author of cantates


franfaises, because Bernier's first four books-published with a privilge
dated 23 May 17o3-were issued with no publication dates: were they
distributed as early as 1703? Was his first book really engraved later (in
1706), as S6bastien de Brossard gives us to understand in his Catalogue?6
It seems obvious that French cantatas circulated in manuscript copies
in Paris soon after the turn of the century, and that their being printed
was a sort of consecration,7 probably patronized-if not financed-by
the Regent-to-be, who was eager to assert his authority as the new Duke
of Orleans (the former one, his father, having died in 1701) and to
counterbalance the official line of his uncle Louis XIV.8 From about
1694 to 17o6-a key year in the history of the French cantata: is it a
mere coincidence?-he was indeed brushed aside from military cam-
paigning, not to say from any responsibility: this was the fate of the Or-
16ans family since Gaston, Louis XIII's brother, had challenged the
king's power. By promoting the nascent cantatefranfaise, Philippe II of
Orlkans-of whom Louis XIV said "he boasts of himself as a criminal"9
-may have thus attempted to emphasize his autonomy, and to transfer
the musical avant-garde (open to the new Italianate taste) from Ver-
522
sailles to Paris, and to the Palais-Royal in particular. In other words, the
new genre of the cantatefranfaise seems to have been stamped by politi-
cal interests right from its origin. It is indeed noteworthy that none of
the king's musicians showed interest in the cantata, and that those who
obviously placed themselves in his 'camp' (such as Elisabeth Jacquet de
La Guerre and Nicolas Clerambault) waited until 17o8 to compose
some.'o Moreover, the craze for the genre, which reached its apex

6 La Collection Sebastien de Brossard 1655-I730, Catalogue (Departement de la Musique,


Ris. Vm8 20), ed. Yolande de Brossard (Paris: Bibliothbque nationale de France, 1994),
495 and 496. (Brossard owned a manuscript copy of Bernier's first book of cantatas.)
7 Dorival, La Cantatefranfaise, 28-29.
8 See Jean-Paul [C.] Montagnier, Un Mecene-musicien, Philippe d'Orleans, Regent (I674-
1723) (Bourg-la-Reine: Auguste Zurfluh, 1996), 45-48; Dorival, La Cantatefranfaise, 21-
25. In his Comparaison de la musique italienne et de la musique franCoise. Seconde partie (Brus-
sels: FranCois Foppens, 1705; reprint ed.. Geneva: Minkoff, 1972), 350-51, Jean-Laurent
Lecerf de La Vieville de Fresneuse reports an anecdote emphasizing Louis XIV's musical
taste: upon listening to some Italian music, he requested one of his violinists to play "An
air from Cadmus [by Lully]. The violinist played the first one that occurred to him, a sim-
ple, straightforward air"; at the end of it, the king said "that that is my taste, that is my
taste." The incident is quoted in full in Tunley, The Eighteenth-Century French Cantata, 2nd
ed., 4-5-
9 Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, Mimoires. Additions au Journal de Dangeau,
ed. Wes Coirault, Bibliothbque de la Pliade, 4 (Paris: Gallimard, 1985), 904: "c'est un
fanfaron de crimes."

'o In 1711, Jean-Baptiste Rousseau-one among the notorious Philippe of Orleans's


prot6ges-was entangled in an outrageous trial which resembled a witch-hunt. It is possi-
ble that this affair was also a covert attack against the duke himself. See Voltaire, Le Sidcle
de Louis XIV ed. Antoine Adam, 2 (Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1966), 242-47 and
272-73.

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER

around 1713, gradually disappeared after the Duke's death in Decem-


ber 1723.
In this context at least three questions come to mind: (1) Why did
Charles-Hubert Gervais (1671-1744), Orl6ans's Intendant de la musique,
i.e., the most conspicuous musician of the duke, not take part in the
early development of the cantate franfaise? (2) Why did he wait until
1712 to have his own Livre de cantates brought out? (3) Did some of
them circulate in manuscript before that date? Some answers can now
be put forward thanks to a newly discovered source originating in the
Netherlands. In this article, I shall first deal with these three important
issues, and then reassess the role of Charles-Hubert Gervais in the his-
tory of the French cantata, and more particularly in the evolution of
its sub-genre, the comic cantata, whose essential ingredient is the bur-
lesque."

Estienne Roger's 17o9 Recueil d'airs serieux


et d boire de difftrents auteurs
To date, it has been thought that Charles-Hubert
Gervais-still known today for his opera Hypermnestre-took an interest 523
in the genre when "everyone want[ed] to compose a book of [cantatas]
and to have it engraved."12 Following in the footsteps of his colleagues
of the Palais-Royal, he published in 1712 his book of Cantates franfoises
avec et sans symphonies, and dedicated it to the Duke of Orleans, under-
lining that "Nobody knows more thoroughly the art in which I have
dabbled than Your Royal Highness, and this knowledge is only a small
part of those you have. But I hope that your natural kindness, that I
have so often experienced, will save me from your knowledge."'3 This
book contains five works for dessus (soprano) and one for basse-taille
(baritone): Tircis, Arethuse, Celimene, L'Amour vange, Le Triomphe de Bacchus

I For studies on Charles-Hubert Gervais's life and works, see my Ph.D. dissertation,
"The Church Music of Charles-Hubert Gervais (1671-1744), sous-maitre de musique at the
Chapelle Royale" (Duke University, 1994; UMI order no. 9510828); my edition of Ger-
vais's Superflumina Babilonis, Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, vol. 84
(Madison: A-R Editions, Inc., 1998); as well as my book Charles-Hubert Gervais. Un Musi-
cien au service du Regent et de Louis XV (Paris: Editions du CNRS, 2001).
12 L.T. de. [La Tour], "Dissertation sur la musique italienne et franCoise," Mercure de
France (November 1713), quoted after Pierre Bourdelot andJacques Bonnet, Histoire de la
musique et de ses effets, 2nd ed., 1 (Amsterdam: Le Cane, 1725; reprint ed. Graz: Akademi-
sche Druck u. Verlagsanstalt, 1966), 302: "il n'y en a point qui ne veuille faire son livre &
?tre burin&." By 1712, Bernier's books I-III, Stuck's books I-III, Morin's three books and
Andr6 Campra's first book were already issued.
13 Charles-Hubert Gervais, "Epistre," in Cantates franfoises avec et sans symphonies
(Paris: Ballard, 1712), [fol. 2]: "Personne ne connoit plus A fond que V.A.R. I'Art dontje
me suis m?le, & cette connoissance ne fait qu'une petite partie de celles qu'Elle possede:
Mais j'espere que v6tre bonte naturelle que j'ay tant de fois eprouv6e, me sauvera de vos
lumieres."

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

and Tilimaque. From a thorough reading of them it is clear that they


"belong rather to the very first period of the [history of the] cantata,"14
thus leading one to suspect that Gervais's book is a collection of earlier
compositions. Thanks to Estienne Roger's pirated editions, which have
never seriously been taken into account by historians of French baroque
music, the latter hypothesis turns out to be a reality. In July, August,
September and October 1709, Roger published two cantatas, Psiche bur-
lesque and Tircis, by a certain "Mr Gervais" in his Recueil d'airs s rieux et a
boire de diffirents auteurs ... Augmenti considerablement de diffrents airs
manuscrits des plus habiles maitres & des plus beaux airs des op0ra.'5 Since
the score of Tircis is identical to the one found in Charles-Hubert Ger-

vais's 1712 book, and since the title page of Charles-Hubert's first book
bears the attribution "Monsieur Gervais," there is no serious doubt that
the author of Psichi burlesque is Charles-Hubert, i.e., the only "Monsieur
Gervais" of the period to perform conspicuous duties at court.'6 The
other possible candidate would be the obscure Barbeau de Gervais
whose only known work, a handwritten score dated 1710, is Action: bur-
lesque cantate. This composer, however, is far from having met the suc-
cess of Charles-Hubert, and the style of his Action lacks inspiration and
524
is void of comic effects.'7 Moreover, some of Barbeau's musical features
are never found in Charles-Hubert Gervais's output, and as a matter of
fact in Psichi burlesque: Barbeau's use of double stopping (in the second
violin part in order to imitate hunting horns; Example ia) is particu-
larly noteworthy,'8 but lengthy ritournelles (up to 28 measures) and awk-
wardnesses (like the one reproduced in the third measure of Ex. Ib)
must also be mentioned. Since these details are absent from the Roger
print, it can securely be ascertained that Barbeau de Gervais had noth-
ing to do with it. As for Laurent Gervais, he almost always appended to
his name the phrase "de Rouen" to distinguish himself from the Duke

14 Dorival, La Cantate franfaise, 83-84: "son livre appartient plut6t ai la toute pre-
miere periode de la cantate."
'5 [Charles-Hubert] Gervais, "Psiche burlesque," in Recueil d'airs strieux et ci boire de
diffirents auteurs ... Augmenti considerablement de diffirents airs manuscrits des plus habiles
maitres & des plus beaux airs des opira (Amsterdam: Estienne Roger, 1709), July issue, 181-
92 and August issue, 215-29. [Charles-Hubert] Gervais, '"Tircis," in idem, September is-
sue, 253-57 and October issue, 279-86. The volume is deposited at the Koninklijke Bib-
liotheek (The Hague) under the shelf number 4K 36-38. Acknowledgments are due to
Noam Krieger (Amsterdam) for providing me with photocopies of the Estienne Roger
publications.
16 Some musical similarities between Psichi burlesque and Charles-Hubert Gervais's
other works are listed in notes 24 and 25 below.
17 See Barbeau de Gervais, Action: burlesque cantate, F-Pn Vm7 4762. The score is in-
tended for a bass voice, two dessus de violon and continuo. For a brief description of the
work, see Vollen, The French Cantata, 19-20.
18 Double stops are made clear in the accompanying material bound with the score.

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER

EXAMPLE la. Barbeau de Gervais, Action: burlesque cantate, F-Pn Vm7


4762, p. 4. (Original clefs.)

-re

B.c.

525

Lors qu'un Chas-seur de sa troupe e - - r

EXAMPLE lb. Barbeau de Gervais, Action: burlesque cantate, F-Pn Vm7


4762, p. 6. (Original clefs.)

r Irl r. 'r ? CT

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

of Orleans's musician; besides, no Psiche burlesque is listed in his inven-


tory of estates (inventaire apris deces), drawn in 1748 under the supervi-
sion of the music-seller Jean Le Clerc (owner of the shop "' la Croix
d'or"), and in which is meticulously recorded the deceased's works and
the plates of his published volumes.'9
Estienne Roger's Recueil is thus of the utmost importance to our
knowledge of Charles-Hubert's career. It proves that some of his works
were known and valued outside France, that the five other cantatas
published by Ballard in 1712 may have been composed before 1709 (if
not earlier), and that the Ballard print may be the tip of the iceberg:
Gervais probably composed more cantatas than the seven located thus
far. Furthermore another issue needs to be addressed: why Gervais did
not include Psiche burlesque in the Ballard volume. Part of the answer
may lie in the comic nature of its poem, which jars with the more re-
fined and galant verses of the other works: "to me the pleasing and
the burlesque seem to contrast too harshly with the softness of music,"
the anonymous author of the Ecole de la litterature tirie de nos meilleurs
&crivains remarked.2o (Other reasons will be suggested below.)

526
Psich" burlesque: A Comic Libretto
Only ten years after the death ofJean-Baptiste Lully,
the first genuine comedy in music-L'Europe galante by Andre Campra-
was staged at the Academie Royale de Musique with great success. In
1699, Campra went even further in the burlesque vein with Le Carnaval
de Venise, the first ballet a l'intrigue suivie ever composed on a comic li-
bretto. These two works, together with Henry Desmarest's Les Festes
galantes (1698), gave the stimulus to a new, light, and at time frivolous
dramatic genre which was going to flourish during the regency, and
whose most important fruits before Rameau's 1745 Platie are Le Carnaval
et la Folie (Destouches, 1703) and LesFestes de Thalie (Mouret, 1714).
Psiche burlesque is a part of this rich tradition of satire and comedy.
The author of the libretto on which Gervais worked has not yet been
identified, but it may have been written by one of those numerous men
of letters haunting the Palais-Royal. Interestingly, the theme of Psyche
seems to have come back into some sort of favor after the 1703 and
1713 successful revivals of Lully's Psyche at the Academie Royale de

19 See F-Pan Minutier Central, CXVII-775 ("Inventaire/gjuillet 1748").


2o Ecole de la littrature tiree de nos meilleurs ecrivains (1765), quoted after Dorival, La
Cantate franfaise, p. 94: "le plaisant & le burlesque me paraissent contraster trop dure-
ment avec la douceur de la musique." In his 1712 Livre, Gervais nonetheless retained Le
Triomphe de Bacchus, perhaps because this cantata was in keeping with the fashionable airs
i boire.

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER

Musique. To date, six cantatas based on the maiden's legend have been
located: one by Nicolas Bernier (Le triomphe de Psichi, second book, ca.
1703), one by Jean-Baptiste Morin (Psiche et ses sceurs, third book,
1712), one byJean-Baptiste Stuck (Psichi, fourth book, 1714), two by
Thomas-Louis Bourgeois (Psichi and L'Amour et Psichi, both published
in his second book, 1718), and an undated one by Franois Rebel
(L'Amour et Psichi, F-Pc D 12.822 (1)).21
All these works narrate (part of) the history of Psyche in a serious
mood: Psyche was a handsome maiden whose beauty aroused the jeal-
ousy of Venus. The latter condemned her to death. But Cupid, Venus's
own son who had fallen in love with Psyche, eloped with her to a beauti-
ful palace. There he used to rejoin her every night, and promised her
an eternal love on one condition: that she was not to look at his face.

One night, however, she came near Cupid with an oil lamp and saw his
face. The son of Venus woke and fled. After undergoing many hard-
ships, Psyche was reunited with Cupid and made immortal by Jupiter.
Such a myth does not quite match the humorous tone of Psichi bur-
lesque, the poem of which is reproduced in the Appendix below. The
opening recitative, wherein alexandrines and hexasyllables alternate, is
527
pompous and narrative, and seems to come from a tragedy: it is a gen-
uine theatrical ricit relating the events which led Psyche to her dreadful
rock awaiting the monster, and Cupid's stratagem to abduct her. The
following air, however, in which the maiden is casually referred to as
"the beauty" ("la belle"), makes us understand that her fate should not
be taken too seriously. Here, the short lines (hexameters and octosylla-
bles) give place to the final alexandrine (the longest line available:
"Dans un Palais charmant construit pour ses plaisirs") in order to put
forward the key philosophy of the entire cantata-"pleasures" ("plaisirs")
-and to depict Cupid's yearning for Psyche's favors. What a marked
contrast with the previous ricit where "the grandeur of the expressions
answer[ed] to the grandeur of the subject!"22 The next aria goes even
further in this easy manner, the heroine being presented as a "young

2 There are also two cantatilles, one by Louis Le Maire (1741) and another by
Pierre de La Garde (1758), as well as the poem "L'Amour et Psiche, Cantate" by "M. de
B***" printed in Mercure de France (July 1734), 1544-48 (no setting of this poem has
been found). The libretto of Bourgeois's Psychi was written by M1e Marie de Louvencourt;
see Manuel Couvreur, "Marie de Louvencourt, librettiste des cantates franCaises de Bour-
geois et de Clrambault," Revue belge de musicologie XLIV (199o), 25-40. Bernier's, Morin's,
Stuck's and Bourgeois's cantatas are available in David Tunley, ed., The Eighteenth-Century
French Cantata. A Seventeen-Volume Facsimile Set of the Most Widely Cultivated and Performed
Music in Early Eighteenth-Century France (New York, London: Garland Publishing, 1991),
vols. 4, 6, 13 and 14. (Note that the third entrie ofJean-Joseph Cassanda de Mondonville's
1758 ballet Les Festes de Paphos is also titled "L'Amour et Psych&.")
22 Bernard Lamy, La Rhitorique, ou l'art de parler, g3rd ed. (Paris: A. Pralard, 1688),
271: "la grandeur des expressions r6pond A la grandeur du sujet."

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

little lass" ('"jeune Fillette") ready to have fun with the first "handsome
lad" ("beau gar<;on") to arrive in order to pass the time. Here again, the
longest line of the air is the last one, thus emphasizing the (licentious?)
"conclusion" of the heroes' tOte-a-tite. The fourth number of the score

justifies Psyche's behavior and exposes a particularly amusing maxim:


"what a pleasant thing to surrender to the one who is able to charm
everyone." (This is the sort of galant statement the prudish Madame de
Maintenon could not have stood.) The second recitative of the cantata
adds once again to this comic vein, whereas the last aria draws a moral-
istic conclusion: as soon as passions are satisfied, one has to change and
look for another mate ("Tender hearts whom Love favors, remember
this well: as soon as the thing is allowed, it is neglected, it is despised,
and the game is no longer worth the candle."). This hedonistic maxim
is very much in keeping with the easy-going life style of the Duke of
Orl6ans and of the forthcoming regency: in 1720, Charles-Hubert Ger-
vais still had the opportunity to oppose "Constant Love" ("L'Amour
constant") with "Inconstant Love" ("L'Amour volage") in the. prologue
of his ballet Les Amours de Protee.

The overall quality of the poetry deserves notice. The latter is as


528
polished as a comic poem can be, and does not share the vulgarity of,
say, Pierre Abeille's and Barbeau de Gervais's Action, cantate burlesque, in
which lines like "Diane se lavait le cul" ("Diane was washing her arse")
are not rare.23

A "Musical Comedy"
To set to music such a burlesque libretto, Gervais
gave proof of humor and wit, and displayed a variety of musical touches
borrowed from the tragidie en musique and the ballet, as well as from the
air s6ieux and the air a boire. The work, meant for bas-dessus (mezzo-
soprano noted in Ci clef), obbligato instrument (very likely a violin,
given the required range and the writing of its part) and continuo, di-
vides into two ricitatifs and four airs, which are unevenly distributed:

1. Recitative, "La charmante Psich6 sur un Rocher affreux." 13


meas.; G and A minor.
2. Aria, "Ce Dieu plein de desirs." 65 meas.; E minor; ABB'.
3. Aria, "Lajeune Fillette." 61 meas.; A minor; Ii: A :II BB'.
4. Aria, "Le moyen de se deffendre." 34 meas.; E minor; I1: A :11
BB'B'B".

23 See Pierre Abeille, Action, cantate burlesque, F-Pn Vm7 4761, 3, and Barbeau de
Gervais, Action: burlesque cantate, 3. The word "excrement" also appears in the poem.

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER

5. Recitative, "Psich& voulut comme fille bien n6e." 5 meas.; B


minor-D major.
6. Aria, "Tendres coeurs qu'Amour favorise." 66 meas.; B minor;
AA'-BA'B'-AA'.

The general organization of the score-whose unusual key rela-


tionship is striking, and may be another reason that the cantata was re-
jected from the 1712 Livre: the tonal plans of Gervais's other cantatas
are more conventional-does not quite adhere to Rousseau's usual reg-
ular alternation of recitatives and airs: the plot, like those of the con-
temporary ballets, does not need long narrative developments (the
recitatives), but rather proceeds by lyrical tableaux (the arias).
The forms of the latter do not betray obvious Italian influences, as
if Gervais were reluctant to use them-he never fully espoused the Ital-
ian manner-or was not experienced enough to handle them with
ease. The first three airs adopt binary forms inherited from the brunette
and the air s67ieux, forms which were frequently employed in tragidies en
musique, but less often in the cantate. For that matter "Le moyen de se
deffendre," with no violin accompaniment, is (apparently) a genuine
529
air serieux, akin to Gervais's "Beaux yeux, qui voulez dans mon ame,"
published in the August 1699 issue of Ballard's Recueil d'airs seieux et ai
boire (Examples 2a and 2b): both melodic lines share a comparable im-
petus and contour, which may even recall those of the composer's very
first air, "Petits oyseaux dont les chants amoureux" (1695) .24 Such a
stylistic trait is foreign to the cantatefranfaise and substantiates the con-
tention that Psiche burlesque-or at least some of its pages-was written
very early in the century. The B sections of "Le moyen de se deffendre"
also contain some brief harmonic progressions putting forward the
sighing "Ah! Ah!" by means of conventional 9-8 and 7-6 suspensions,
which are often heard in love songs of the time.25
However, the seriousness and nobility of the music-two qualities
shared with the contemporary air seieux-do not fit the galant lines.
The latter belong to "those common places of lascivious Morality" which
Madame de Maintenon denounced as "detestable maxims" ("detestables

24 "Beaux yeux, qui voulez dans mon ame," in Recueil d'airs sriyeux et d boire de differ-
ents auteurs pour l'annie 1699 (Paris: Ballard, August 1699), 148-49; "Petits oyseaux dont
les chants amoureux," in Recueil d'airs serieux et d boire de diffrents autheurs pour l'annie
1695 (Paris: Ballard, December 1695), 232-35. The melodic incipit of "Le moyen de se
deffendre" is also comparable to those of "Charmants Oyseaux" and "C'est vainement
que le depit eclatte" from Charles-Hubert's Tircis.
25 Some turns of phrase also evoke Gervais's duo d boire "0! qu'il est doux qu'il est
charmant," in Recueil d'airs serieux et d boire de diffirents auteurs pour l'annie 1710o (Paris: Bal-
lard, January 1710), 3-6 (see meas. 27-31, pp. 4-5 at "Ah! quelle gloire!").

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

EXAMPLE 2a. Gervais, Psiche burlesque no. 4 ("Le moyen de se def-


fendre"), in Recueil d'airs srieux et a boire de diffrrents au-
teurs pour le mois d'aout de l'annee 1709. Augments conside-
rablement de diffirents airs manuscrits des plus habiles maitres
& des plus beaux airs des opira (Amsterdam: Estienne
Roger, 1709), p. 215, meas. 1-14-

F R .ik- -..
Le moy- en de se def-fen- dre con-tre le Dieu qui fait ai- mer.

Bassecontinue
2 7 6 # 6 6# 6 6 5 6 5 #

mer. Ah Ah ! qu'il est doux- de se ren-dre A ce-

530

# 6 7 5 7 6 6 6 6 5 6 7

rj r
lui qui sait tout char- mer. Ah! Ah! qu'il est doux., de se ren - dre

# # # 5 9 8 7 6 6# 6 6 5
5# 5 4# 4 #

maximes") 26 and which "incurred the enmity of the clergy and the con-
servative professors of the Sorbonne."27 (This may be exactly the point
at which the Duke of Orl6ans and his artists were aiming, since Philippe
and Louis XIV's morganatic wife could not bear each other.) A brief
comparison between "Le moyen de se deffendre" and Sangaride's air
"Quand le peril est agr6able" (Atys, I, 3) will strengthen this position.
The poems are similar in mood:
26 See Boileau, Satire X (1692): "ces lieux communs de Morales lubriques," and
Madeleine Garros, "Mme de Maintenon et la musique," Revue de musicologie, "serie spe-
ciale," 1 (January 1943), 8-17, at o10.
27 James R. Anthony, French Baroque Music from Beaujoyeulx to Rameau. Revised and
Expanded Edition (Portland: Amadeus Press, 1997), 114-

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER

EXAMPLE 2b. Charles-Hubert Gervais, "Beaux yeux, qui voulez dans


mon ame," in Recueil d'airs srieux et a boire de diff&ents
auteurs pour l'annie I699. Imprimi au mois d'aoust 1699
(Paris: Ballard, August 1699), p. 148, meas. 6-12.

Beaux yeux, qui vou- lez dans mon a- me Fai-re nais- tre de

Basse continue 6# 6 6 # 6 6 6

nou - veaux feux,

6 6#

531

Le moyen de se deffendre Quand le peril est agr6able,


contre le Dieu qui fait aimer. Le moyen de s'en alarmer?
Ah! qu'il est doux de se rendre Est-ce un grand mal de trop aimer
A celui qui sait tout charmer. Ce que l'on trouve aimable?

But where Gervais's music is purposely grave, emphatic and inappropri-


ate, Lully's (reproduced in Example 2c) is as light as the lines it sets.
To put it differently, "Le moyen de se deffendre" is a parodistic air
srieux, in which music and words do not quite accord. (True airs srieux
commonly deal with faithful lovers, i.e., not with casual loves and the
pleasures of inconstancy).
Part of the musical wit of "Tendres coeurs qu'Amour favorise" may
lie in its confused shape: because of its mixing up of two forms, listen-
ers get inevitably lost. In order to render lovers' inconstancy, Gervais
composed a sort of rondeau (AA'BA') on which he superimposed what
may be seen as a da capo structure, thus (the return of the first part is
written in full):

Parts: I II da capo I

Sections: rit. A rit. A' rit. B A' rit. B' A rit. A' rit.

Meas.: 1-9 9-14 14-16 16-21 21-24 24-32 32-39 39-42 42-50 50-55 55-57 57-62 62-66
Tonalities: b(b =b-DD- b b -f# b
B minor; D = D major; rit. = ritornello)

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

EXAMPLE 2c. Jean-Baptiste Lully, "Quand le peril est agreable" (I, 3),
Atys (Paris: Ballard, 1689), pp. 58-59-
Sangaride

Quand le pe - ril est a - gre- a- ble, le moy -

B.c.

r, K rF K f
en de s'en al - lar - mer?

532 There is no contrast of any sort between the parts, except that part
I remains in the home key (B minor), whereas part II touches two re-
lated ones (D major and F-sharp minor) and concludes on the domi-
nant of B minor in order to prepare the return of part I. The lack of
dramatic contrasts is typically French, but presenting a material (A) in
the main key (meas. 9-14), restating it in the relative (D major; meas.
32-37) and then recapitulating it back in the home key is an Italian
gesture influenced by the trio sonata. The tight exchanges of motifs be-
tween the dessus and the violin, the octave falls of the opening motif
(meas. 1 and 9 in Example 3) as well as the numerous dissonances may
also be borrowed from Italian models, but the charm and the declama-
tory rhythms of the vocal phrases cannot conceal their French origins.
What an ingenious way to oppose Cupid's frantic behavior toward maid-
ens and his quest of pleasures (the extravagance of the Italian manner)
to Psyche's naivete (the delicacy of the French style)! Therefore, not
only is "Tendres coeurs qu'Amour favorise" the best testimony of the
go^its r'unis found in Psichi burlesque, and the most disconcerting form
of the entire work, but it also remarkably depicts young lovers in chase
of new mates, and invites them insistently to look for new flirtations: the
phrases "Tendres coeurs qu'Amour favorise" and "Et le jeu n'en vaut
plus rien" are repeated no fewer than eight times!
"Ce Dieu plein de desirs" is more grave than the aforementioned
air, and contrasts sharply with its preceding recitative. The (apparent)
refinement of its vocal line and the loose dialogue between the voice

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER

EXAMPLE 3. Gervais, Psiche burlesque no. 6 ("Tendres coeurs qu'Amour


favorise"), in Recueil d'airs serieux et a boire de diff&ents au-
teurs pour le mois d'aout de l'ann&e i709, pp. 218-19, meas.
9-14.

A-FLFI
Ten-dres ceurs qu'A-mour fa- vo- ri - se, De ce -cy sou- ve- nez vous
I.
Basse continue 7 6

bien, Ten - dres coeurs qu'Amour fa- vo - ri - se, De ce - cy sou - ve- nez vous
533

7 6 # 6# 6 7 5 5# 5
# 3

t I ,

bien, De ce - cy sou - -e - nez vous bien.

# 6 # #

and the obbligato instrument are particularly noticeable. Here Gervais


made use of the Italian motto technique, but adapted it to the French
sensitivity. The soloist introduces a four-measure phrase-too long to
be in the hand of an Italian composer of the time-which has just been
anticipated in the opening ritornello. It is echoed at once by the violin,
then restated by the voice and finally expanded by the obbligato instru-
ment, i.e., not the voice as one would have assumed. The concertante
style is indeed restrained and rather simple: the violin merely develops

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

the soloist's phrases in more or less lengthy ritornelli.28 These play an


amusing role in this air. It is obvious that they depict the flight of the
Zephyrs (who, of course, act in complicity with Cupid to seduce Psy-
che); but, given the formal context (a clear-cut binary aria) and the
overall length of the piece (65 measures), these ritournelles are redun-
dant and too extended. It is as if Gervais lost all sense of proportion:
the ritournelles total 42 measures, twice as long as the mezzo-soprano
part (23 measures)! Such an ironic effect may have been imitated from
the one heard in Doris's monologue ("Quel funeste coup pour mon
ame!") in Campra's L'Europe galante, wherein the ritornelli sound artifi-
cial and superimposed on an otherwise pompous recitatif 29 Another in-
gredient of the comedy may consist in the way the word "desirs" is set
apart from the remainder of the vocal line. The upward octave leap in-
evitably puts forward its first syllable too much ("desirs"), resulting in a
coarse and inelegant prosody: Cupid is without any doubt overexcited
in pursuing Psyche's favors. It is likely that this faulty prosody was in-
tended, since "flame nouvelle" provides another example: given the
dotted rhythm of the melisma ( ). ~ : a sort of stylized laugh), the
ridiculous stress on "flime" is hardly avoidable. (See Example 4.)
534
The funniest aria of Psiche burlesque by far is "La jeune Fillette,"
which displays a comic vein and a verve ranking it among the wittiest
pages by Gervais, together with some of his duos d boire and his ballet
Les Amours de Protee. Its syllabic setting and its implied quick tempo (re-
sulting in a crisp delivery) refer to the Italian commedia dell'arte and
opera buffa-the Italians working at the Palais-Royal may have brought
some samples with them, which Gervais may have heard-as well as the
nascent opera comique sung at the Foire Saint-Laurent and Foire Saint-
Germain as early as 1697. The assonances and the irregular length of
the lines (mainly five and seven syllables, plus one final alexandrine)
add to this entertaining tableau: who can resist the cadences putting
forward the "beau gar;on" ("handsome lad") and "a la conclusion" ("to
the conclusion," i.e., a dissolute one)? Particularly valuable is the tight
imitative texture-at times canonic-which links the three protagonists,
a texture also observed in Gervais's seven duos d boire. (Campra used a
comparable fabric in some airs of L'Europe galante: Cephise's aria "Que
n'adressez-vous mieux un langage si tendre," for instance, is a very
good case in point.3o) Such a lively musical style stands out against the

28 The falling seventh d#-e at the violin's cadence, meas. 18-19 (beginning of Ex.
4), sounds quite Italian.
29 Andre Campra, L'Europe galante (Paris: Ballard, 1697), "La France. Premiere en-
tree," sc. 5, 37-43. See also Georgie Durosoir, "Le Recitatif depays6," Cahiers d'histoire cul-
turelleVI (1999), 67-78, at 73.
30 Campra, L'Europe galante, "La France. Premiere entree," sc. 4, 34-35.

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER

EXAMPLE 4. Gervais, Psiche burlesque no. 2 ("Ce Dieu plein de desirs"),


in Recueil d'airs s&ieux et a boire de diff&ents auteurs pour le
mois de juillet de l'ann&e I709, pp. 184-85, meas. 18-24.
(Original time signature: 6/4.)

Ce Dieu plein de de- sirs Que cau- se une fi - me nou-

# # 4# 6 6#
Basse continue 2

vel- le, Ce Dieu

535
f * lJ I i II
# 6

gentleness of "Le moyen de se deffendre" and the rather conventional


melodic inspiration of the two other airs. This is a superb and refined
love scene between Psyche and Cupid, a scene in which the sexual rela-
tion of the lovers is tactfully and wittily rendered. (See Example 5.)
As for the two recitatives, both notated in the Italian C-meter (fairly
standard in the cantate), they share the monosyllabic setting as well as
the dactylic and proceleusmatic declamatory rhythms commonly found
in French scores. Outwardly, then, they borrow from contemporary
tragidies en musique (such as Campra's Hisione, Marais's Alcyone or Ger-
vais's own Miduse), and even anticipate at times the recitatifs of Hyper-
mnestre (1716). The bombastic style of the one which opens the work
accords with the alexandrine lines describing the dramatic situation:
Psyche is awaiting death for being prettier than Venus. Gervais, how-
ever, did not take this seriously, several musical details being exagger-
ated. For instance, the abrupt fall putting "affreux" forward and absurdly
leaving the last syllable of "Rocher" up in the air (meas. 1-2), as well as
the augmented sixth underlining Psyche's fate ("victime")-in 17oo an
unusual chord in France, and a chord heard nowhere else in Gervais's
entire output-are overdone, not to say out-of-place in so short a pas-
sage, as if Gervais wanted to caricature some scenes of contemporary

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

EXAMPLE 5. Gervais, Psich" burlesque no. 3 ("La jeune Fillette"), in Re-


cueil d'airs serieux et a boire de diffrrents auteurs pour le mois de
juillet de l'anne 1709, pp. 189-90o, meas. 1-12.

A4 LZ P I w I
y F rr I
La jeu- ne Fil- let- te, Se trou-vant seu-

Basse 6 6# 6 5 46564 5
continue #

let - te A- vec Cu- pi- don Qui lui pa- rut beau gar- gon.

536

6 # 7 6 # #
5 4#

tragidies en musique and Italian grand scena, by juxtaposing as many of their


ingredients as possible.31 (Had the libretto not been parodistic, Gervais
would certainly have written a major sixth in lieu of the augmented one.)
Similarly, the tonal plan is rather chaotic, owing to several ambiguous di-
minished chords. On this point, the composer took advantage of the
dramatic situation-as he did in "Le moyen de se deffendre"-to create
a comic discrepancy (a "dissonance of style," so to speak) between the
used musical means (which are extravagant in this context) and the po-
etry depicting Psyche's grandeur. (See Example 6.)
The second "Recitatif" shares the same characteristics,32 and adds
another touch of parody to the grandiloquent style just discussed. While
the lines of the first recitative imitated the grand style of Corneille and
Racine, those of the second are mere loving banter: for the sake of de-
cency and morals, Psyche would have preferred to immolate her virtue
on the altar of Hymen, but at the "fatal moment" she took a greater
pleasure in offering it to the "handsome lad." This amusing philosophy,

31 Once again, Gervais may have had in mind the above-mentioned monologue of
Doris in L'Europe galante.
32 For instance, the same means are employed to emphasize "fatal moment" and
"rocher affreux."

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER

EXAMPLE 6. Gervais, Psiche burlesque no. i ("La charmante Psich&"), in


Recueil d'airs srieux et a boire de diff&ents auteurs pour le mois
dejuillet de l'annee 1709, p. 181, meas. 1-5.
Recitatif

La char- man -te Psi-ch6 sur un Ro-cher af-freux At-ten- doit en tremblant le Mon stre fu-ri-

Basse continue

eux, Dont I'oracle vouloit qu'elle fCt lavic -ti-me; Sa beau-td plai soit plus Que cel le de Ve - nus,

,, 3
0 Mo

however, is set in too grave a melodic turn: measures 4-5, indeed,


537
would have been better at home in a tragidie, and do not quite suit
words such as "Mais il euit mieux valu le faire pour l'amant" ("But it
would have been better to do it [i.e., to give up one's virginity] for
lover's sake"). (See Example 7.)
On the whole, then, Gervais's Psiche burlesque is a very witty piece
which draws its humorous character from both literary and musical
means. (For that matter, Gervais particularly enjoyed using exaggerated
or inadequate musical features which do not fit what the words actually
say, thus intermingling the noble of the tragdie and the comic of the
opera-ballet.) This has to be underlined because in most comic cantatas,
"it is the text that conveys the humor in a musical setting indistinguish-
able from the style of... serious cantatas." In Laurent Gervais's Ragotin,
for instance, when "Ragotin, reaching the extreme of absurdity, cun-
ningly tries to win [Mile] Estoile's love by arguing that through family
connections he can secure employment for her (apparently) penniless
parents," the funny situation is rendered by words only.33

33 Tunley, The Eighteenth-Century French Cantata, 2nd ed., 165. Similarly Philippe
Courbois's setting of Dom Quichotte does not add much to the words, and the only gen-
uine comic page of this cantata is the final air "Mardi faut il pour une Ingrate." (Dorival,
La Cantate franfaise, 76-77, provides an interesting analysis of the piece.) Courbois's
score is reprinted in Tunley, ed., The Eighteenth-Century French Cantata. A Seventeen-Volume
Facsimile Set of the Most Widely Cultivated and Performed Music in Early Eighteenth-Century
France, vol. 14. Similar conclusions can be drawn from Pierre Abeille's and Barbeau de
Gervais's settings of Action, cantate burlesque.

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

EXAMPLE 7. Gervais, Psiche burlesque no. 5 ("Psich6 voulut comme fille


bien n6e"), in Recueil d'airs srieux et a boire de diffirents au-
teurs pour le mois d'aout de l'ann&e 7o09, p. 217, meas. 1-5-
Recitatif

Psi- ch vou -lut comrn- me fil- le bien n6 - e, Quand ce vint au fa - tal mo -

6 5
Basse continue

ment, Que tout ce fit au nom de I'Hy -me -nd-e, Mais ii eOt mieux va-lu le fai -re pour I'a- mant

# 6 6 #
4#
2

538

Charles-Hubert Gervais's Role in the Birth


of the Comic cantate franfaise and the
Hypothetical Raison-d'Etre of Psiche
burlesque in View of its Political Context
It would have been odd that Charles-Hubert Gervais,
as Intendant de la Musique of Philippe II of Orleans, did not take part in
the birth of the cantate franfaise, probably the most important non-
operatic genre in early 18th-century France. Even though it can be con-
cluded from his tragidies en musique and his grands motets that he was
not as great an innovator as Andre Campra or FranCois Couperin, he
was nonetheless curious enough to contribute to the musical turmoil
and excitement which animated the Palais-Royal at the discovery of
Italian works and musicians such as Michele Mascitti, Antonio Guido and
Pasqualino Tiepoli. His first known cantata seems to be Psich burlesque,
which may have been written in response to the 1703 revival of Lully's
Psychi, and in the year Bernier is reported to have published the very first
Livre de cantates franfaises. If so, Gervais would have pioneered the genre
of the parodic cantata almost seven years before Philippe Courbois pub-
lished his Dom Quichotte, a piece said to have inaugurated the sub-genre

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER

of the cantate comique.34 (The works which fall into this small category are
listed in Table 1.)
I have suggested elsewhere that some libretti of the 1712 Livre de
cantates may have been chosen by the Duke of Orleans himself:35 he
may also have commissioned Psiche burlesque to ridicule Lully's Psyche,
i.e., a veiled way to attack the lavish and successful spectacle Louis XIV's
best artists performed during the king's heyday,36 and a means of keep-
ing aloof from the Versailles Court.37 It may even be suggested that the
second recitative-in which Psyche gives up her virtue before entering
matrimony-makes a reproachful allusion to those of Louis XIV's ille-
gitimate children (notably the Duke of Maine) who were in position to
contest the Duke's right to rule the kingdom during the forthcoming
regency. (Needless to say that Philippe and his life-long friend Saint-
Simon hated these rivals born out of the royal wedlock.) Psyche's myth
indeed had long been understood as the destiny of the fallen soul and
its everlasting union with Divine love: it may thus be read as a metaphor
of Louis XIV's sexual wanderings before he found genuine love-the
"divine flame," so to speak-with the bigoted Madame de Maintenon.
It may also be regarded as an image of the young Louis XIV-Cupid
abducting his numerous mistress-Psyches to his beautiful palace of Ver- 539

sailles. It is well known that the quest of Love and of Wisdom is one of
the symbolic representations found in the gardens of Versailles; the
labyrinth in particular was devoted to Cupid by king's order, as Charles

34 David Tunley has already pointed out that "A vein of humour, of course, runs
through many a French cantata-for example, Clerambault's L'Amour piqui par une abeille
and Bernier's Le caffr and Lesforges de Lemnos-but such works lack an essential ingredient
of the comic cantata, that is, the burlesque," a paramount element in Gervais's PsichU
burlesque. See Tunley, The Eighteenth-Century French Cantata, 2nd ed., 162-63. Bernier's and
Clerambault's cantatas are also available in Tunley, ed., The Eighteenth-Century French Can-
tata. A Seventeen-Volume Facsimile Set of the Most Widely Cultivated and Performed Music in Early
Eighteenth-Century France, vols. 6, 7 and 9.
35 See my book, Charles-Hubert Gervais, 82.
36 The original version of Lully's PsychU, a trag~die-ballet whose libretto is due to
Moliere, Pierre Corneille and Philippe Quinault, was premiered in the Tuileries Palace
on 17 January 1671. The second version, a tragidie en musique on a libretto revised by
Thomas Corneille and Fontenelle, was first performed at the Academie Royale de Musique
on 19 April 1678. The poem of Lully's Psyche is printed in Pierre Corneille, (Euvres com-
pletes, ed. Georges Couton, Biblioth&que de la Pleiade, 3 (Paris: Gallimard, 1980-87),
1081-151.
37 Even though no direct reference to Lully's 1671 libretto can positively be dis-
closed, some lines and/or themes of PsichU burlesque may be related to Quinault's,
Moliere's and Corneille's poem: "Lui mime avoit dict6 l'oracle" refers directly to
Corneille's line "Lui-mime a dicte cet oracle" (III, 3): "Le moyen de se deffendre/contre
le Dieu qui fait aimer" echoes "Pouvais-je n'aimer pas le Dieu qui fait aimer" (IV, 5); the
maxim of Gervais's final aria (no. 6) takes the opposite view of Psyche's last monologue
(V, 4: "Pauvres amants! Leur amour dure encore,/Tous morts qu'ils sont, l'un et l'autre
m'adore").

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

TABLE 1

Eighteenth-century Comic Cantatesfranfaises


Authors Titles Dates

Charles-Hubert Gervais Psichi burlesque 1709 (composed


in 1703?)
Philippe Courbois Dom Quichotte 1710
ElisabethJacquet de Le Raccomodement comique ca. 1715
La Guerre de Nicole et Pierrot (duet)
Barbeau de Gervais Action, cantate burlesque 1710
Pierre Abeille Action, cantate burlesque no date
Anonymous Action, cantate burlesque no date
Nicolas Regnier Mars et Vinus (parody) no date
(ca. 1719-28?)
Robert Ragotin ou sirenade before 1728
burlesque
Nicolas Racot de Grandval Orphie (parody on 1729
Clerambault's cantata)
540 Anonymous Didon (parody) 1731
Laurent Gervais Ragotin ou sirinade 1732 (composed
burlesque in ca. 1726?)
Michel Corrette Midde (parody on 1735
Clerambault's cantata)
Michel Corrette Jeanne (burlesque cantata) 1738
Michel Corrette L'Amour diable (parody) before 1742
Carolet Midde travestie (parody before 1742
on Clkrambault's cantata)
Francois David Liandre et Hiro (parody on before 1742
Cl6rambault's cantata)
Nicolas Racot de Grandval Liandre et Hiro (parody on 1755 (posth.)
Clerambault's cantata)

Several anonymous parodies on Nicolas Clerambault's cantatas are also avail-


able in the undated manuscript F-Pc D. 14.883.
See David Tunley, The Eighteenth-Century French Cantata, 2nd ed., pp. 142-43,
and Appendix A (i), pp. 218-49-
The poem of Ragotin was published in the Mercure de France in May 1725; see
Tunley, The Eighteenth-Century French Cantata, 2nd ed., Appendix C (ii), p. 263-

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER

Perrault makes clear at the end of his Le Labyrinthe de Versailles (1668).38


In other words, "the promenade [in the labyrinth] is the recommence-
ment of Psyche's adventures in quest of Love."39
Such a political significance for Psiche burlesque may be thought too
far-fetched and even in the realm of speculation, but given the strained
relationship between the king and the Orleans family, this hypothesis
remains plausible, and even comparable to Robert W. Berger's under-
standing-based on Laurent Morelet's 1682 pamphlet La Gallerie de S.
Clou et ses peintures expliquees sur le sujet de l'education des Princes and the
artist's own explanation published in Le Mercure galant40-of the gallery
of Apollo Pierre Mignard painted in 1677-1678 at the Saint-Cloud
palace (the Orleans's chateau near Paris). This gallery is the counter-
part of the one Antoine Le Brun (Louis XIV's official painter) realized
in the Louvre. However, Mignard-following the directions of Philippe
I of Orleans,41 the king's brother and the father of the forthcoming
Regent-conceived a subtle denunciation of some important court
affairs: the fifteen illegitimate children Louis XIV-Apollo had between
1663 and 1678 (the recognition of Phaethon by his father, i.e., not the
famous episode of his fall); the 1668 affair of black masses and the
affair of the poisons which led to the trial of the marquise of Brinvilliers 541

in 1672-1676 (Circe and her philtres). In the salon de Mars, next to


the Apollo gallery, Mignard went even further in his allusions to the
king's adultery, as if Philippe I wanted to avenge himself from being
despised by his brother (Louis XIV never tolerated his brother's homo-
sexuality) .42

38 Charles Perrault, "Le labyrinthe de Versailles," in Contes, ed. Jean-Pierre Collinet,


collection Folio (Paris: Gallimard, 1981), 240-41.
39 Jean-Pierre Neraudau, L'Olympe du Roi-Soleil (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1986), 195:
"La promenade est le recommencement des aventures de Psyche, en qukte de l'Amour."
Neraudau goes on writing that "This reading combines easily with a political reading"
("Cette lecture se combine sans peine avec une lecture politique").
4o Laurent Morelet, La Gallerie de S. Clou et ses peintures expliquees sur le sujet de l'duca-
tion des Princes (Paris: Pierre le Petit, 1682) and reissued in the TraitW de morale pour l'duca-
tion des princes tird des peintures de la gallerie de S. Clou (Paris: Pierre le Petit, 1695); see also
Mercure galant 2 (September 168o), 287.
41 Morelet clearly states in his TraitW de morale pour l'Pducation des princes, pp. I 1 1-12
that "Time shall destroy these beautiful paintings...; but the spirit in which Your Royal
Highness had them painted will never pass away.... [Time] will not have any other effect
on the moral philosophy that Your Royal Highness had had painted there than to render
it more venerable by its antiquity" ("Le temp effacera ces belles Peintures...; mais l'e-
sprit dans lequel V6tre Altesse Royale les a fait peindre, ne passera jamais.... il [time]
n'aura point d'autres effets sur la Morale que V6tre Altesse Royale y a fait peindre, que
de la rendre, par son antiquite plus venerable"). Translation from Robert W. Berger,
"Pierre Mignard at Saint-Cloud," Gazette des Beaux-Arts CXXI/1488 (January, 1993), 1-58,
at 22-23.
42 Berger, "Pierre Mignard at Saint-Cloud," 15-25 (where Morelet is extensively
quoted) and pp. 32-37. See also Gerard Sabatier, Versailles ou lafigure du Roi (Paris: Albin
Michel, 1999), 212.

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

It has been well established that works of art frequently reflected


the current events of the time, and that they had a part in countless po-
litical strategies.43 In Isis (1677), for instance, Philippe Quinault was ac-
cused of having caricatured Madame de Montespan (the jealous king's
maitresse en titre) as Juno, and Madame de Ludres (whom Louis XIV was
then wooing), as 1o.44 Similarly, in 1702 Fenelon sent a letter to Cardi-
nal Gabrielli in which he clearly agreed that in writing Tlmaque-the
educative novel he intended for the Dauphin (the Duke of Bourgogne)
-he "planned to criticize all the faults that kings and their agents
could make in general, but [also] to praise as much as possible all that
was wise in their leadership."45 A sheer number of romans a' clef plays
(such as La Fausse Prude, in which Madame de Maintenon was ridiculed),
paintings and scores (e.g., Cavalli's well-known Ercole amante meant to
celebrate Louis XIV's wedding, and most of the opera prologues) could
be quoted here to substantiate the reasonableness and validity of my
arguments concerning the possible political implications of Psichi
burlesque.
Thus, it may be surmised in this context that Philippe II of Orleans
followed his father's strategy by commissioning Psiche burlesque to his In-
542
tendant de la musique in order to enliven the soirees at the Palais-Royal
and at Saint-Cloud, such as those he offered to a large number of dis-
tinguished people in June 1703 (i.e., a few days after the revival of
Lully's Psyche at the Opera), and during which "the company was enter-
tained by an excellent Music [ensemble]."46 Who else indeed but
Charles-Hubert Gervais could have dared to write such a cantata? He

was Philippe's unique official representative; he was able to act with the
authority of his patron without being worried. Thus Psiche burlesque-
whose humorous and caricaturical character has nothing in common
with the seriousness ofJean-Baptiste Morin's Psiche et ses swurs, Thomas-

43 Among the most recent studies, see Sabatier, Versailles ou la figure du roi; Nerau-
dau, L'Olympe du Roi-Soleil; Nicole Ferrier-Caveriviere, LImage de Louis XIV dans la littirature
francaise de 166o a 1715 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1981); and Peter Burke,
The Fabrication of Louis XIV (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 1992). In the
field of the music composed during the regency, see Wilfrid Mellers, Franfois Couperin
and the French Classical Tradition. New version (London, Boston: Faber and Faber, 1987).
44 See Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Madame de Sevigne, Correspondance, ed. Roger
Duchene, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade, 2 (Paris: Gallimard, 1972-78), passim.
45 Francois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon, Correspondance, ed. Jean Orcibal, 10o
(Geneva: Droz, 1987-92): 256-59; FranCois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon, (Euvres,
ed. Jacques Lebrun, Bibliothique de la Pl6iade, 2 (Paris: Gallimard, 1983-97), 1241-42:
"avait pour projet d'attaquer toutes les fautes que les rois et leurs agents pouvaient com-
mettre en general, mais de louer le plus possible tout ce qui etait sage dans leur con-
duite."
46 See the report published in Mercure galant (June 1703), 350-54 and Montagnier,
Un Mecene-musicien, 58-59: "la Compagnie a este divertie par une excellente Musique."

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER

Louis Bourgeois's Psiche, and FranCois Rebel's L'Amour et Psichi--may


have been an elegant and political guffaw; it is also a beautiful piece
which paved the way for the few cantates comiques to come.

Conclusion

Eighteenth-century French petits maitres often discov-


ered new paths without being able to explore them to their very end
for lack of opportunity and/or genius. Among these Charles-Hubert
Gervais soared, thanks to his opera Hypermnestre and some of his grands
motets (Cantate Domino, Quam dilecta, Beati omnes, Jubilate Deo and Super
flumina Babilonis), which were sung until the end of the ancien regime.
His pioneering role in the cantate franfaise, however, has long been un-
known. The discovery of Psich burlesque in one of Estienne Roger's nu-
merous pirated editions, editions too often overlooked today by schol-
ars of the French baroque, is therefore of some importance for our
understanding of the birth of the cantata. Charles-Hubert Gervais may
not gain as prominent a place as Jean-Baptiste Morin, Nicolas Bernier
and Jean-Baptiste Stuck in the history of the genre, but his contribution
must not be forgotten. The above analysis of Psiche burlesque indeed re- 543
veals that its content extends beyond mere creation of a sub-genre-the
cantate comique-and that it may have been a subversive critique aimed
at Louis XIV and his rather hostile behavior toward the Orleans.
That Psiche burlesque was a sly political tool may have been one more
reason why Gervais did not include it in the 1712 Ballard volume. After
the death of his direct heirs, Louis XIV reconciled with Philippe II of
Orleans who then was ascertained to become Regent of the kingdom:
the cantata's supposed raison d'tre thus vanished. Still, Philippe's future
position turned out to be crucial for the career of Gervais, whom the
Regent promoted to sous-maitre de la musique at Louis XV's Chapelle
Royale in November 1722. But this is another story.

Institut de Musicologie, Nancy-2 Universite

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
THE JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY

APPENDIX

Poem of Psiche burlesque


(Author unknown)

i. R&citatif

La charmante Psiche sur un Rocher affreux


Attendoit en tremblant le Monstre furieux,
Dont l'oracle vouloit qu'elle ffit victime;
Sa beaute plaisoit plus
Que celle de Venus,
Et c'9toit l1i son crime.

La Doesse sensible 'a ce cruel m pris,


Du soin de sa vengeance avoit charge son fils:
Mais loin d'avoir rempli son esperance,
Des beautez de Psich l'Amour devint epris,
Et pour la posseder sans crainte & sans obstacle
Lui meme avoit dicta l'oracle.

2. Air
544

Ce Dieu plein de desirs


Que cause une flame nouvelle,
Sur les ailes des Zephirs,
Avoit fait transporter la belle
Dans un Palais charmant construit pour ses plaisirs.

3. Air

Lajeune Fillette,
Se trouvant seulette

Avec Cupidon
Qui lui parut beau gargon.
Ne pouvant mieux faire,
Ne resista guere,
Et l'on en vint bient6t 'a la conclusion.

4. Air

Le moyen de se deffendre
Contre le Dieu qui fait aimer.
Ah! Qu'il est doux de se rendre
A celui qui sait tout charmer.

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
MONTAGNIER

5. Recitatif

Psiche voulut comme fille bien nee,


Quand ce vint au fatal moment,
Que tout ce fit au nom de 1'Hymenee,
Mais il efit mieux valu le faire pour l'amant.

6. Air

Tendres coeurs qu'Amour favorise,


De cecy souvenez vous bien.
Si t6t que la chose est permise,
On la neglige on la meprise,
Et le jeu n'en vaut plus rien.

545

This content downloaded from 200.17.203.24 on Thu, 12 May 2016 02:58:52 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

You might also like