Chambonnieres, Pieces de Clavecin (1670)

Jacques Champion de Chambonnieres (1601-1672) was the first of the celebrated school of French harpsichordists (claveçinists) in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As a curiosity that pleases me but which is hardly an odd bit of news about someone involved in the French court in that era, Chambonnieres was also an excellent dancer.

Near the end of his life, Chambonnieres published a number of volumes of his compositions. In this series of posts, I will look at pieces from Les Pieces de Clavecin Livre Second (1670), using the edition and notation of Steve Wiberg (Due West Editions, 2008) available on IMSLP: link. Apologies for artifacts introduced in editing the graphics for use here.

The second book consists of six suites, and as it happens there is something of interest to us in every one of them. The posts in the series cover five topics:

Simple lines from ^5 (includes V: ^5-^8 to end first strain)
Long lines (6th or more) from below to ^8
Line from below but where ^9 is clear above
Line up to ^9 to end first strain
Others  

I will augment the demonstration with similar examples (not analyzed) from book 1, which also was published in 1670 and is laid out in the form of five suites (six if you separate out the final three pieces in G major from those in G minor preceding them).

To begin then, here is a simple ascending line from ^5 in the first of three courantes in the second suite of book 2. The line F: ^6-^7-^8 is both clear and simple, but in addition this courante is of interest here because it shows a characteristic—and very strong—tendency to shape melodic units of 3 to 5 measures or more in entirely or mostly unidirectional lines. The line that opens this courante is typical, as is the wave-like motion of the whole: first up in vigorous manner, then down and up again to close.

Additional examples of simple lines to close a section or to end a composition will be found in the next post.