The Gendering of the Lute in Sixteenth-Century French Love Poetry

Renaissance Quarterly, Autumn, 2000 by Carla Zecher

(1.) Poems that describe or invoke a lute became popular with English poets too, especially toward the end of the century; see Hollander, 128-33.

(2.) Ibid., 129.

(3.) The first printed books of music for the lute appeared in Venice in 1507. The first French publication came from the press of Pierre Atraingnant in Paris in 1529, about the time of the arrival of the Mantuan virtuoso lutenist Alberto da Ripa at the court of Francois I.

(4.) In this period, singing to the accompaniment of the lute combined the best of two musical worlds: the clear text declamation afforded by accompanied monody, with the expressive qualities of vocal polyphony. During the second half of the fifteenth century it became more common to play with the fingertips than with a plectrum, although the two techniques coexisted for a time. This allowed soloists to realize polyphonic vocal compositions by singing one part and playing the others on the lute. Further, at about the turn of the century the lute's range was expanded (and therefore its expressive capabilities) when a sixth course of strings was added. For his ideal courtier, Castiglione favors solo singing to the accompaniment of a string instrument over participation in vocal polyphony (Haar, 174). In Tyard's Solitaire second the Solitary also endorses solo singing over polyphony, although without entirely condemning the latter (1980, 312-15). The Solitary's rejection of polyphony is partly based on his cont ention that musicians lack a knowledge of letters and poets a knowledge of music - a common humanistic complaint. On the status of the lute in French musical culture from the Middle Ages to the sixteenth century see Vaccaro, chapter 1.

(5.) On musical activity in sixteenth-century Lyons, see Dobbins.

(6.) Poets closely associated with music include Saint-Gelais, who led an exemplary career as a poet-musician; Labe, whose skill as a lutenist was frequently praised by her contemporaries; and Tyard, whose Solitaire second of 1555 was one of the earliest and most comprehensive general treatises on music to appear in the vernacular in France. Others such as Sceve, Du Bellay and Ronsard favot images of music in their works, but there is no evidence to suggest that they possessed any remarkable musical talent themselves. In fact Du Belay and Ronsard both suffered from partial deafness, Ronsard beginning in his youth and Du Bellay later in life.

(7.) Allem, 2:203, 1-5: "Quand je la vois si gentille et si belle / Si doucement les langues manier / Du luth aimable, et sa voix mariner / Au son mignard que dit la chanterelle: // D'aise ravi tout le cteur me sautelle." I have adopted the following citation style for all quotations of poetry: (volume [if applicable]: page number of cited edition, line numbers). If the entire poem is quoted, or mentioned in passing, line numbers are omitted.

(8.) The texts by Saint-Gelais, Sceve Tyard, Labe and Aubespine considered here are all love poems. Du Bellay's sonnet A son luth (2:261) alludes to an illness he suffered during the course of a journey from France to Italy. Ronsard's odes to the lute, lyre and guitar -- longer texts which incorporate aspects of the genre -- treat largely of his aims for a new French poetry and his aspirations for a career at court (2:155, 1:162, and 1:229). Additionally, there are sixteenth-century poems that praise the lute or treat the subject of lute-playing without addressing the instrument directly, such as the ode that Jacques Grevin dedicated to Guillaume Morlayc (Morlayc, xix-xx).