Jean-Laurent Le Cerf de La Viéville

Jean-Laurent Le Cerf de La Viéville (* 1674 in Rouen ; † November 10, 1707 ibid) was a French writer in the field of music essays and poets. In a literary dispute with François Raguenet , he wrote a book that is sometimes considered to be one of the first works of music criticism and is helpful for understanding the musical feeling of the time.

Life

Le Cerf was trained by the Jesuits and then studied philosophy and law. In 1696 he inherited the position of the garde des Sceaux ( keeper of the seal ) at the Parliament of Rouen from his father , a job that gave him the freedom to pursue personal interests. This included - as he claims - the attendance of 400 to 500 opera performances , which probably enabled him to do the work Parallèle des Italiens et des François en ce qui regarde la Musique d'Opéra (parallel between the Italians and the French regarding opera music, 1702 ) of Raguenet, who also lives in Rouen, to oppose his work Comparaison de la musique italienne et de la musique françoise (comparison of Italian music and French music), published in Brussels in 1704/06 . While contemporaries either praised or condemned pieces of music in their utterances, Le Cerf tried to convince and thereby provided the basis of the argumentation models for the coming decades. From his point of view, the music should be moderate, regular and simple - like the French. In Raguenet's eyes and ears, Italian music was free, bold and by no means simple-minded and therefore more admirable. He set up the Défense du Parallèle (defense of the parallel, 1705), to which Le Cerf responded with the Réponse à la Défense du Parallèle (answer to the defense of the parallel). The zeal with which he fought out this dispute, however, took his health with it: at the age of 33 he died of a cerebral haemorrhage.

Individual evidence

^ Wilhelm Seidel: Le Cerf de La Viéville Seigneur de Fresneuse, Jean Laurent . In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Person part 10 . Bärenreiter-Verlag, second, revised edition, Kassel u. a. 2003, p. 1405 f.
↑ J.-Ch. Maillard: LE CERF DE LA VIÉVILLE DE FRÉNEUSE or LE CERF (» Jean-Laurent «) . In: J.-P. Lobies / Y. Chiron (ed.): Dictionnaire de Biographie Française , Tome vingtième, Librairie Letouzey et Ané, Paris 2011, p. 398 f.

personal data
SURNAME	Le Cerf de La Viéville, Jean-Laurent
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French writer and musicologist
DATE OF BIRTH	1674
PLACE OF BIRTH	Rouen
DATE OF DEATH	November 10, 1707
Place of death	Rouen

[1] Wilhelm Seidel: Le Cerf de La Viéville Seigneur de Fresneuse, Jean Laurent . In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Person part 10 . Bärenreiter-Verlag, second, revised edition, Kassel u. a. 2003, p. 1405 f.

[2] J.-Ch. Maillard: LE CERF DE LA VIÉVILLE DE FRÉNEUSE or LE CERF (» Jean-Laurent «) . In: J.-P. Lobies / Y. Chiron (ed.): Dictionnaire de Biographie Française , Tome vingtième, Librairie Letouzey et Ané, Paris 2011, p. 398 f.