Monsieur de Machy

Monsieur de Machy ( bl. End of the 17th century ), also called Le Sieur de Machy or Demachy , was a French composer , gambist and teacher of instruments.

Live and act

He studied with Nicolas Hotman . He lived in Paris since 1692 at the latest . Machy described himself as the first composer to have works for the viola da gamba printed. This is not entirely correct in so far as Nicolas Métrus's collection Fantaisies pour les violles had already appeared in 1642 ; these and others were, however, for the viol consort written while Machys Pièces de Violle in the tradition of Hotman, (1685) André Maugars and Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe the polyphonic gave game on the solo viol preference. The eight suites handed down by Machy are printed half in musical notation , the other half in tablature . They are preceded by a technical introduction, which is of great musical historical value, since it lists the most important decorations and describes how they are carried out.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Machy was conservative in composition. He expressly opposed new playing techniques such as those used by the Sainte Colombe school (Marais, Le Sieur Danoville , Jean Rousseau ). His view that the thumb of the left hand could be positioned opposite the index finger as well as the middle finger, as with the lute , theorbo or guitar , sparked protests from Rousseau and Danoville. Both wrote mainly polemical writings in which the view that the thumb should only be opposite the index finger only played a subordinate role. Machy, for his part, responded with a pamphlet that is lost; Rousseau's Réponse de Monsieur Rousseau à la lettre d'un de ses amis (1688), which quotes Machy's text in excerpts, was preserved.

literature

• Music in the past and present . New edition. Person part vol. 11, 2001, col. 752.

Web links

• Sheet music and audio files from De Machy, Le Sieur in the International Music Score Library Project
• Tablatures of Suites No. 1–4 (PDF, 8.44 MB)