Jacquet de la Guerre, composer, biography, discography

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	Jacquet de la Guerre





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Guerre, Jacquet de la


	JACQUET DE LA GUERRE

Jacquet published nothing between 1694 and 1707. Discouraged by Céphale et Procris’ reception, she gave up all ambition of writing for the theatre. The Premier Livre for harpsichord had raised hopes for a second volume, but none appeared. The gazettes that had lavishly sung her praises were silent. What accounted for these changes? Perhaps they were the result of the difficult, despondent years in which Jacquet’s loved ones—her father, her mother, her husband, and her brother Nicolas—died one after another. The most tragic event of this period was undoubtedly the death of her only child, a harpsichord prodigy as she had been, at the age of ten. After her husband’s death, the widow La Guerre signed a lease in 1705 for rooms on the rue Regrattière on the Île Saint-Louis, on the corner of the Quai Bourbon. Her financial situation appears to have been comfortable. The apartment she rented was large, and she continued to give concerts and lessons there. Alone in life from this point on, and even though she had inherited money from her husband, she had only herself to rely upon. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, however, a widow was a free woman who no longer had to ask her husband’s permission for the smallest legal matter; she could also dispose of her belongings as she saw fit, sign any contract she chose, and make decisions in her own name. Elisabeth Jacquet took full advantage of this autonomy in the twenty-five remaining years of her life. She began to think seriously of composition again, and projects were not long in appearing. Although no more operas appeared, she wrote instrumental music, harpsichord pieces and sonatas, all of which she planned to publish. She also composed vocal music, cantatas in the Italian style, which were beginning to interest the French. In the four years between 1707 and 1711, Jacquet brought out a volume of Pièces de Clavecin qui peuvent se joüer sur le Viollon (harpsichord pieces which can be played on the violin or the harpsichord), six Sonates pour le Viollon et pour le Clavecin, and two books of cantatas.

The dedication shared by the Pièces de Clavecin and the Sonates indicates Jacquet’s continuing devotion to Louis XIV: “What happiness it would give me, Sire, if my latest work were again to receive from Your Majesty the glorious welcome that I myself received from you when I had scarcely left the cradle, for, Sire, allow me to remind you that you did not scorn me as a child: you took pleasure in watching develop a talent which I dedicated to you; and you even honored me then with your praise, whose value I did not yet know. My weak talents grew the while: I tried, Sire, to deserve more and more your approbation, which represented everything to me; and I count among the only lovely days of my life, those days on which I could give Your Majesty fresh proof of my respectful zeal, and of the complete devotion with which I am, Sire, Your Majesty’s most humble and most obedient servant, and your most faithful subject, Elisabeth Jacquet”.

The Pièces de Clavecin consists of two suites that demonstrate the development of the suite form in the eighteenth century. The expanded number of movements in the D minor suite prefigures François Couperin’s Livres, while the concise G Major suite can be compared with the Italian sonata da camera. The most innovative aspect of the book appears in its title: Pièces de Clavecin qui peuvent se joüer sur le Violon. In 1687 the Mercure Galant had asserted, regarding the interpretation of Jacquet’s Premier Livre, that “most of the pieces are suitable for the violin or viola da gamba, with a bass accompaniment”. These works are the first known example of accompanied harpsichord music, and were written a full fifteen years before Dieupart’s Six Suittes de Clavessin. Jacquet’s prophetic pieces of 1687, and especially those of 1707, thus prefigured a genre that would be widely developed in the eighteenth century and would include such works as Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville’s Pièces de Clavecin en sonates, avec accompagnement de Violon and Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Pièces de Clavecin en Concerts.

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