TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
9th Biennial Conference on Baroque Music
ABSTRACT
Charles-Hubert Gervais's Psiché burlesque and the Birth of the Comic
Cantate française
Jean-Paul Montagnier
Since the works of G. E. Vollen (1970) and D. Tunley (1974; revised 1996),
it has been accepted that the genre of the cantate française was
pioneered by Jean-Baptiste Morin and Nicolas Bernier around 1703, and that
its subgenre, the comic cantata, was inaugurated in 1710 by Philippe Courbois
(Dom Quichotte) and later by Laurent Gervais "de Rouen" (Ragotin, 1732).
The newly discovered Psiché burlesque, one of the wittiest pieces
ever written by Charles-Hubert Gervais, makes this chronology obsolete.
Published by Estienne Roger in the 1709 issue of the Recueil d'airs sérieux
et à boire, Gervais's Psiché burlesque may very likely have
been composed as early as 1703, the year Jean-Baptiste Lully's Psyché
was revived at the Académie Royale de Musique. As a detailed analysis
of the poem and of the score shows, Philippe of Orléans (eventually
Regent of France) may have commissioned Psiché burlesque to his
superintendent C.-H. Gervais in order to ridicule Lully's Psyché,
i.e. a veiled manner to attack the lavish and successful spectacle Louis
XIV's best artists performed during the king's heydays, and a manner to
keep aloof from the Versailles Court. From about 1694 to 1706, Philippe
of Orléans was indeed brushed aside from military campaigning, not
to say from any responsibility: this was the fate of the Orléans
family since Gaston (Louis XIII's brother) had challenged the king's power.
By promoting the nascent cantate française, and more particularly
Psiché burlesque, Philippe of Orléans thus attempted to emphasize
his autonomy as the new duke of Orléans (his father died in 1701),
and to transfer the musical avant-garde from Versailles to Paris. As a
conclusion, this paper states (1) that the contents of Psiché burlesque
extend beyond mere creation of a subgenre-the cantate comique -and that
it was a subversive critic aimed at Louis XIV and his rather hostile behaviour
towards the Orléans; (2) that Roger's Recueils, which are too often
neglected by scholars, are valuable sources to deepen our knowledge of
the history of French baroque music; and (3) that Ch. H. Gervais's role
in the creation of the multi-faced cantate française may have been
more important than has been thought thus far.
Last updated on 22 March 2000 by Yo
Tomita