Tombeau
Encyclopedia
A tombeau is a musical composition (earlier, in early 16th century, a poem) commemorating the death of a notable individual. The term derives from the French word for "tomb" or "tombstone". The vast majority of tombeaux date from the 17th century and were composed for lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....

 or other plucked string instruments. The genre gradually fell out of use during the 18th century, but reappeared in the early 20th.

History

"In instrumental music, tombeau signifies a musical 'tombstone' (French le tombeau = tomb). The musical genre of tombeau is generally connected with music for the lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....

 of the 17th and 18th centuries. Of some 60+ surviving pieces, most are intended for the lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....

 or theorbo
Theorbo
A theorbo is a plucked string instrument. As a name, theorbo signifies a number of long-necked lutes with second pegboxes, such as the liuto attiorbato, the French théorbe des pièces, the English theorbo, the archlute, the German baroque lute, the angélique or angelica. The etymology of the name...

, 5 for the baroque guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, 7 for the viola da gamba and 3 for harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...

. The earliest example of this genre seems to be the Tombeau de Mezangeau (1638) by French lutenist Ennemond Gaultier
Ennemond Gaultier
Ennemond Gaultier was a French lutenist and composer. He was one of the masters of the 17th century French lute school....

."

"Musical predecessors are memorial pavans like those by Anthony Holborne
Anthony Holborne
Anthony Holborne was a composer of English consort music during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.-Life:Holborne entered Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1562. He was admitted to the Inner Temple Court in 1565. Holborne married Elisabeth Marten on 14 June 1584. On the title page of both his books he...

 (Countess of Pembrokes Funeralle, 1599). In France, where this musical genre emerged first, strong influence of literary models, particularly of memorial poems that were popular from the 16th to the end end of 17th centuries, may have been another important factor."

"The tombeau preeminently comes in two forms, as a slow elegiac allemande
Allemande
An allemande is one of the most popular instrumental dance forms in Baroque music, and a standard element of a suite...

 grave in 4/4 or as a pavan
Pavane
The pavane, pavan, paven, pavin, pavian, pavine, or pavyn is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century .A pavane is a slow piece of music which is danced to in pairs....

, a tri-partite renaissance dance
Renaissance dance
Renaissance dances belong to the broad group of historical dances.During the Renaissance period, there was a distinction between country dances and court dances. Court dances required the dancers to have been trained and were often for display and entertainment, whereas country dances could be...

 already long out of date for the era of tombeaux, but with all the trappings of the allemande (cf. Denis Gaultier
Denis Gaultier
Denis Gaultier was a French lutenist and composer. He was a cousin of Ennemond Gaultier.-Life:...

, Tombeau pour M. Racquette). There are also a few unique tombeaux that appear as gigue
Gigue
The gigue or giga is a lively baroque dance originating from the British jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th century and usually appears at the end of a suite...

s; that is because the gigue grave resembles the allemande in a number of respects."

"As opposed to the Italian lamento, the tombeau should not have used expressive elements of mourning, which were skeptically viewed in France. Nevertheless, certain typical onomatopoetic features were used: repeated note motifs depicting the knocking of Death at the door, ascending or descending diatonic or chromatic scale
Musical scale
In music, a scale is a sequence of musical notes in ascending and descending order. Most commonly, especially in the context of the common practice period, the notes of a scale will belong to a single key, thus providing material for or being used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical...

s which depict the soul's tribulation and transcendence. Froberger's Lamentation on the Death of Ferdinand III or the Meditation sur ma Mort Future would be a prime example of such a form. Some tombeaux include a motif of four descending notes, a metaphor for grief given influential expression by John Dowland in his Lachrimae (1604). These genres offered many suitable expressive characteristics: the suspirans figure (a three-note upbeat), dotted rhythms, particularly in repeated notes, and slow-moving harmonies in the minor mode whose gravity is heightened by a tendency to settle on pedal points. Later examples also tend to use chromatic progressions related to the lamento bass. The few courante tombeaux exploit the same rhythmic features in triple metre."

"Developed by Parisian lutenists (Denis Gaultier
Denis Gaultier
Denis Gaultier was a French lutenist and composer. He was a cousin of Ennemond Gaultier.-Life:...

, Charles Mouton
Charles Mouton
Charles Mouton was a famous French lutenist and lute composer.There is only little information known about him. He was born probably in Rouen, studied probably with Denis Gaultier and early in his career, he worked at the court of the dukes of Savoy in Turin. In the 1660s, he taught lute Paris...

, Jacques Gallot
Jacques Gallot
Jacques Gallot was a French lutenist and composer....

, François Dufault
François Dufault
François Dufault was a French lutenist and composer.Dufault was born in Bourges, France. As a student of Denis Gaultier, he enjoyed an excellent reputation as an instrumentalist, what is demonstrated in many contemporary sources where he was described as one of the greatest lutenist of his time...

), the genre was soon taken over by clavecinists (Johann Jakob Froberger
Johann Jakob Froberger
Johann Jakob Froberger was a German Baroque composer, keyboard virtuoso, and organist. He was among the most famous composers of the era and influenced practically every major composer in Europe by developing the genre of keyboard suite and contributing greatly to the exchange of musical...

, Louis Couperin
Louis Couperin
Louis Couperin was a French Baroque composer and performer. He was born in Chaumes-en-Brie and moved to Paris in 1650–51 with the help of Jacques Champion de Chambonnières. Couperin worked as organist of the Church of St. Gervais in Paris and as musician at the court...

, both on the death of their friend Blancrocher
Charles Fleury
Charles Fleury, Sieur de Blancrocher was a French lutenist. Known principally under the name Blancrocher , he was one of the leading performers of his day, active in Paris. Whether he composed or not is unknown; a single dance movement survives, attributed to him, in the so-called Manuscrit Vaudry...

 in 1652) and was then spread into Central Europe (Jan Antonín Losy
Jan Antonín Losy
Jan Antonín Losy, Count of Losinthal ; also known as Comte d'Logy , was a Bohemian aristocrat, Baroque lute player and composer from Prague. His lute works combine the French style brisé with a more Italian cantabile style...

, Sylvius Leopold Weiss
Sylvius Leopold Weiss
Silvius Leopold Weiss was a German composer and lutenist.Born in Grottkau near Breslau, the son of Johann Jacob Weiss, also a lutenist, he served at courts in Breslau, Rome, and Dresden, where he died...

)."

"Interestingly, tombeaux flourished in Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 territories, where there was dearth of elaborate funeral music. At the end of the 18. [sic] century, the tombeau faded and was redicovered [sic] only at the opening of 20th century (cf. Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...

, Le Tombeau de Couperin
Le Tombeau de Couperin
Le tombeau de Couperin is a suite for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, composed between 1914 and 1917, in six movements. Each movement is dedicated to the memory of friends of the composer who had died fighting in World War I...

, 1919). The tombeaux from the 20th century are often homages to the baroque era, even though some of them are dedicated to historical figures (cf. Roman Turovsky-Savchuk
Roman Turovsky-Savchuk
Roman Turovsky-Savchuk is an American painter and lutenist-composer born in Ukraine.-Biography:Turovsky was born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1961, when it was part of the Soviet Union. He studied art from an early age under his father, the painter Mikhail Turovsky and at the Shevchenko State Art School...

)."

Lute and other plucked string instruments

  • François Dufaut
    François Dufault
    François Dufault was a French lutenist and composer.Dufault was born in Bourges, France. As a student of Denis Gaultier, he enjoyed an excellent reputation as an instrumentalist, what is demonstrated in many contemporary sources where he was described as one of the greatest lutenist of his time...

    : Tombeau de Monsieur Blancrocher
  • Jacques Gallot
    Jacques Gallot
    Jacques Gallot was a French lutenist and composer....

    : Tombeau de Condé, Tombeau de Madame, Tombeau de Turenne
  • Denis Gaultier
    Denis Gaultier
    Denis Gaultier was a French lutenist and composer. He was a cousin of Ennemond Gaultier.-Life:...

    : Tombeau de Monsieur Blancrocher, Tombeau de Mlle Gaultier, Tombeau de Mr. Lenclos, [Pavane ou] Tombeau de Mr. Raquette
  • Ennemond Gaultier
    Ennemond Gaultier
    Ennemond Gaultier was a French lutenist and composer. He was one of the masters of the 17th century French lute school....

    : Tombeau de Mezangeau
  • Jan Antonín Losy
    Jan Antonín Losy
    Jan Antonín Losy, Count of Losinthal ; also known as Comte d'Logy , was a Bohemian aristocrat, Baroque lute player and composer from Prague. His lute works combine the French style brisé with a more Italian cantabile style...

    : Tombeau
  • Charles Mouton
    Charles Mouton
    Charles Mouton was a famous French lutenist and lute composer.There is only little information known about him. He was born probably in Rouen, studied probably with Denis Gaultier and early in his career, he worked at the court of the dukes of Savoy in Turin. In the 1660s, he taught lute Paris...

    : Tombeau de Gogo, Tombeau de Madame,
  • Robert de Visée
    Robert de Visée
    Robert de Visée was a lutenist, guitarist, theorbist and viol player at the court of Louis XIV, as well as a singer, and composer for lute, theorbo and guitar.-Biography:...

    : Tombeau de Mr. Francisque Corbet, Tombeau de Dubut, Tombeau du Vieux Gallot, Tombeau de Mr. Mouton, Le Tombeau [de Tonty], Tombeau de Mesdemoiselles de Visée
  • Silvius Leopold Weiss: Tombeau sur la mort de M. Cajetan Baron d'Hartig, Tombeau sur la mort de M. Comte de Losy
  • Jacques de Saint-Luc
    Jacques de Saint-Luc
    Jacques de Saint-Luc was a Flemish lutenist and composer.Saint-Luc was born in Ath in 1616; nothing is known about his early years. In 1639 he was invited to become a musician at the court in Brussels, and two years later he had his portrait painted by Gerard Seghers...

    : Tombeau sur la mort de Mr Francois Ginter

Viola da gamba

  • Charles Dollé
    Charles Dollé
    Charles Dollé was a French viol player and composer. Very little is known about his life. He was active in Paris and was a sought-after teacher of viol...

    : Tombeau de Marin Marais
  • Marin Marais
    Marin Marais
    Marin Marais was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe for 6 months. He was hired as a musician in 1676 to the royal court of Versailles...

    : Tombeau de M. Lully, Tombeau pour Marais le cadet, Tombeau de M. Meliton, Tombeau de M. de Ste-Colombe
  • Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe
    Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe
    Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe was a French composer and violist.It is speculated by various scholars that Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe was of Lyonnais or Burgundian petty nobility; and also the selfsame 'Jean de Sainte-Colombe' noted as the father of 'Monsieur de Saint Colombe le fils.This assumption...

    : Tombeau 'Les regrets, Tombeau pour Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe le père
  • Roman Turovsky-Savchuk
    Roman Turovsky-Savchuk
    Roman Turovsky-Savchuk is an American painter and lutenist-composer born in Ukraine.-Biography:Turovsky was born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1961, when it was part of the Soviet Union. He studied art from an early age under his father, the painter Mikhail Turovsky and at the Shevchenko State Art School...

    : Tombeau de Telemann, Tombeau de Forqueray

Harpsichord

  • Jean-Henri d'Anglebert
    Jean-Henri d'Anglebert
    Jean-Henri d'Anglebert was a French composer, harpsichordist and organist. He was one of the foremost keyboard composers of his day.-Life:...

    : Tombeau de M. de Chambonnières
  • Louis Couperin
    Louis Couperin
    Louis Couperin was a French Baroque composer and performer. He was born in Chaumes-en-Brie and moved to Paris in 1650–51 with the help of Jacques Champion de Chambonnières. Couperin worked as organist of the Church of St. Gervais in Paris and as musician at the court...

    : Tombeau de Monsieur Blancrocher
  • Johann Jakob Froberger
    Johann Jakob Froberger
    Johann Jakob Froberger was a German Baroque composer, keyboard virtuoso, and organist. He was among the most famous composers of the era and influenced practically every major composer in Europe by developing the genre of keyboard suite and contributing greatly to the exchange of musical...

    : Tombeau fait à Paris sur la mort de Monsieur Blancrocher

Further reading

  • Art. Tombeau, in: Brockhaus-Riemann Musiklexikon, 2. Aufl. 1995,: Bd. 4, S. 247
  • Art. Lamento, in: Brockhaus-Riemann Musiklexikon: 2. Aufl. 1995, Bd. 3, S. 9
  • Günther Birkner, Art. Tombeau, in: MGG, Kassel 1986, Bd. 13, S. 477-478
  • M. Brenet: ‘Les tombeaux en musique’, RHCM, iii (1903), 568–75, 631–8
  • W. Mellers: François Couperin and the French Classical Tradition (London, 1950/R)
  • M. Rollin: ‘Le tombeau chez les luthistes Denys Gautier, Jacques Gallot, Charles Mouton’, XVIIe siècle, nos.21–2 (1954), 463–79
  • M. Rollin: ‘Les tombeaux de Robert de Visée’, XVIIe siècle, no.34 (1957), 73–8
  • R.T. Dart: ‘Miss Mary Burwell's Instruction Book for the Lute’, GSJ, xi (1958), 33–69
  • C. van den Borren: ‘Esquisse d'une histoire des “tombeaux” musicaux’, Académie royale de Belgique: bulletin de la classe des beaux-arts, xliii (1961); abridged in SMw, xxv (1962), 56–67
  • C. Wood: ‘Orchestra and Spectacle in the tragédie en musique, 1673–1715: Oracle, sommeil and tempête’, PRMA, cviii (1981–2), 25–46
  • D. Ledbetter: Harpsichord and Lute Music in Seventeenth-Century France (diss., U. of Oxford, 1985)
  • C. Goldberg: Stilisierung als kunstvermittelnder Prozess: die französischen Tombeau-Stücke im 17. Jahrhundert (Laaber, 1987)
  • P. Vendrix: ‘Le tombeau en musique en France à l'époque baroque’, RMFC, xxv (1987)
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