Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers

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Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers (* around 1632 in Paris ; † November 30, 1714 in Paris) was a French composer , organist and music theorist .

Live and act

Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers was the youngest child of Antoine Nivers from the Paris parish of Saint-Paul and his second wife Geneviève Guignard . He received his musical training from Jacques Champion de Chambonnières (1601 / 1611–1672) and possibly also from Henri Du Mont (1610–1684). He also studied theology at the St. Sulpice Seminary . Between 1651 and 1653 he was appointed titular organist (post holder) at the main Paris church of St-Sulpice ; He held this position until 1702. In 1661 he received the academic degree of Maître des arts from the University of Paris . On September 21, 1668 he married Anne Esnault († 1688). The only child of this marriage, the son of Gabriel-Joseph Nivers , became a priest in the order of the Lazarists and died in 1691. King Louis XIV appointed Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers on June 19, 1678 as one of four organists of the newly created positions at the Chapelle Royale (royal chapel), together with Nicolas Antoine Lebègue (1631–1702), Jacques Thomelin (around 1635–1693) and Jean-Baptiste Buterne (around 1650–1727). In this position Louis Marchand (1669-1732) was his successor in 1708. In 1681 he became the queen's music master ( maître de musique ) as successor to Henri Du Mont and shared this post with Paolo Lorenzani (1640-1713) until the queen's death in 1683 .

Nivers applied for the office of Sous-maître de la chapelle royale in 1683 , albeit unsuccessfully, but in 1686 became organist and maître de chant (singing teacher) at the Maison Royale de Saint-Louis in Saint-Cyr-l'École , an educational institution for the daughters of impoverished aristocrats, a monastery founded by Louis XIV and Madame de Maintenon (1635-1719). Here he also worked, together with Jean-Baptiste Moreau (1656–1733), as a harpsichordist in the performances of the plays Esther and Athalie by Jean Racine (1639–1699). This position went in 1704 to Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749). In addition, Nivers applied for the position of Maître de musique at the Saint-Chapelle in 1698 , but his competitor Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1634–1704) was ultimately successful here. On the organist position in Saint-Sulpice Nivers was replaced in 1702 by his nephew Jean-Baptiste Totin ; this position was later also transferred to Clérambault . Despite his obligations at the French royal court, Nivers remained closely connected to the community of Saint-Sulpice , near which ( rue Férou ) he lived until his death. He had good contacts here with several religious orders, in particular with the Religieuses du Saint-Sacrament , in whose church he was finally buried. He left property and an extensive library with 200,000 books.

meaning

Nivers was one of the most important organists of his time. In his successor to Louis Couperin (around 1626–1661), he created standardized sentence patterns with specific registration instructions in his three livres d'orgue , which exhausted the possibilities of the current instruments of French national organ building (about 100 pieces in the first volume, eight - summarized up to ten-sentence cycles); they are among the earliest prints of organ compositions in France since Jean Titelouze (1563–1633). The types of movement mentioned include Prelude , Plein jeu , Grand jeux , Fugue grave , Fugue gaye , Duo and the verses à deux chœrs , the later model of the Dialogues . Only the compositions by Lebègue , which appeared a little later and which was more based on the style of Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687), have increased the number of these types of movement (for example Récits en taille ). The second volume contains organ masses with movements from the Mass Ordinarium and hymns according to the regulations of the Caeremoniale Parisiense . The third collection contains functionally free movements that are again bundled cyclically, always in the order of the church modes. The types of movement presented by Nivers and Lebègue had a style-forming effect on the concertante style well into the 18th century ( François Couperin , Nicolas de Grigny ).

After Nivers was officially commissioned with the standardization of Gregorian chant in France, the antiphonaries and graduals he published contain, in addition to partially abbreviated and modified traditional chants, also unison chants by himself ( plain chant musical ); these editions saw numerous new editions and remained valid until the beginning of the 19th century. In his polyphonic works, Nivers mainly created motets with a few voices and the typically French motet à voix seule ; this type later changed under the influence of the more virtuoso Italian style.

With his Traité d'accompagnement , published at the end of the Motets of 1689, one of the first theoretical writings of its kind in France, Nivers left an important work and an extremely useful source for knowledge of the musical theory and practice of his epoch. This also includes his treatise Observations sur le toucher et jeu d'orgue in the second volume of his Livres d'orgue (Paris 1667), which contains reflections on key theory and special questions about playing practice, such as fingering, ornamentation, inequality and registration. In other theoretical writings, which received a lot of attention in his time, Nivers turned against the solmization and advocated the introduction of modern tonality .

Works (selection)

The place of publication of all publications is Paris .

  • Vocal music
    • Motets à voix seule, accompagnée de la basse continue et quelques autres motets à deux voix, propres pour les religieuses, avec l'Art d'accompagner sur la basse continue, pour l'orgue et le clavecin , 1689
    • Airs spirituels et arrangements pour la Maison royale Saint-Louis de Saint-Cyr , (contains Cantique sur la conformité à la volonté de Dieu, Chants de Jephté, Le Temple de la paix, Opéra de la vertu, Opéra de Sceaux )
    • Te Deum (compare Mercure gallant , February 1687)
  • Instrumental music
    • Livre d'orgue contenant cent pièces de tous le tons de l'eglise , 1665 [1667]
    • Deuxième livre d'orgue contenant la messe et les hymnes de l'eglise , 1667
    • Troisième livre d'orgue des huit tons de l'eglise , 1675
    • Livre d'orgue de Marguerite Thierry (contains compositions attributed to Nivers)
    • Allemande, Courante and Gigue (in lute tablature)
  • Liturgical books
    • Passions and Lamentations
      • Passiones DNJC cum lamentationibus Jeremiae Prophetae [editions of 1670 and 1683 lost], 1684, 1698, [ Passiones and Lamentationes in separate prints:] 1719, 1723, 1741
      • Les Lamentations du prophète Jérémie , 1704
    • For the parish and seminary of Saint-Sulpice
      • Chants for the offices of the seminary of Saint-Sulpice , around 1664, library of the Compagnie des prêtres de Saint-Sulpice
      • Officia propria Seminarii Sancti Sulpicii , 1668
      • Chants d'église, à l'usage de la paroisse de S. Sulpice , 1707
    • Chants of the Benedictine Sisters, Augustine Sisters and Franciscan Sisters
      • Graduale romano-monasticum ... in usum monialium [it follows depending on the edition:] sub regula SPN Benedicti militantium / Ordinis Sancti Augustini / Francisci , 1658, 1671, 1687, 1696, [1734]
      • Antiphonarium monasticum [romanum] ... in usum monialium [it follows depending on the edition:] Ordinis Sancti Benedicti / Augustini / Francisci , 1671, 1687, 1696, [1736]
      • Le Processionel avec les saluts , 1706, [1736]
    • For the Maison royale Saint-Louis de Saint-Cyr
      • Les Offices divins à l'usage des dames et demoiselles , 1686
      • Chants et motets à l'usage de l'église et communauté des dames ... mis en ordre et augmenté et quelques motets par Mr Clérambault , 2 volumes, 1733
      • Manuscripts made during Nivers' lifetime (including autograph graduals) in archives in Paris and Yvelines
    • Other liturgical chants
      • Antiphonarium praemonstratense , 1680
      • Graduale praemonstratense , 1680
      • Antiphonarium monasticum ad usum sacri ordinis Cluniacensis , 1693
      • Graduale romanum, juxta missale sacro-sancti Concilii Tridentini , 1697, [1706]
      • Antiphonarium romanum, juxta breviarium sacro-sancti Concilii , 1701, [1723]
      • Processionale romanum , 1723
  • Writings and textbooks
    • Table and Remarques sur les huit tons de l'église. Observations on the toucher et jeu d'orgue. Denombrement des jeux ordinaires de l'orgue. In: Livre d'orgue , 1665
    • Méthode facile pour apprendre à chanter la musique, par un maistre celebre de Paris , 1666, [1670, 1682, 1696, 1702] (attribution)
    • Traité de la composition de musique , 1667, [1712], Dutch 1697
    • Dissertation sur le chant grégorien , 1683
    • Observations [on the accompaniment, decorations and the arrangement of the motets], in: Motets à voix seule , 1689
    • L'art d'accompagner sur la basse continue pour l'orgue et le clavecin. In: Motets à voix seule , 1689
    • Méthode certaine pour apprendre le plein-chant de l'eglise , 1698, [1699, 1706, 1708, 1711, 1745, 1749]
    • Manière de toucher l'orgue dans toute la propreté et delicatesse qui est en usage aujourdhy à Paris (attribution)
    • La Musique des enfans , lost (attribution)

Literature (selection)

  • M. Garros: L'art d'accompagner sur le basse continue, d'après G.-G. Nivers. In: Fs. P.-M. Masson, Paris 1955, volume 2, pages 45-51
  • M. Garros: Notes biographiques sur G.-G. Nivers (1632–1714) In: 2e livre d'orgue (see 1956 edition)
  • P. Hardouin: Quatre parisiens d'origine: Nivers, Gigault, Jullien, Boyvin. In: RMI 39-40, 1957, pp. 73-78
  • M. Garros: Les Motets à voix seule de G.-G. Nivers. In: Congress report Cologne 1958, Kassel / Basel 1959, pages 108–110
  • W. Apel: History of organ and piano music until 1700 , Kassel and others 1967; Reprint (with afterword by S. Rampe) there in 2004
  • G. Beechey: G.-G. Nivers: His Organ Music and His "Traité de la composition". In: The Consort 25, 1968/69, pages 373-383
  • W. Pruitt: Bibliography des œvres de G.-G. Nivers. In: Recherches sur la musique française classique 13, 1973, pages 133-156
  • W. Pruitt: The Organ Works of G.-G. Nivers In: Recherches sur la musique française classique 14, 1974, pages 7-81 and 15, 1975, pages 47-79
  • G. Beechey: G.-G. Nivers and His "Litanies de la Sainte Vierge". In: Recherches sur la musique française classique 15, 1975, pages 80-90
  • M. Espinach: L'Education musicale des Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr de 1686 à 1793 , dissertation at the University of Paris-IV 1979 (typewritten)
  • G. Morche: Patterns and Imitation: An Investigation of Classical French Organ Music , Bern / Munich 1979 (= New Heidelberg Studies in Musicology 8)
  • P. Lescat: Méthodes et traités musicaux en France 1660-1800 , Paris 1991
  • D. Launay: La Musique religieuse en France du concile de Trente à 1804 , Paris 1993
  • B. Gustafson: France. In: Keyboard Music before 1700 , edited by A. Silbiger, New York 1995, pp. 90-146
  • J. Duron (editor): Plain-chant et liturgie en France au XVIIe siècle , Versailles 1997
  • M. Brulin: Le Verbe et la voix, la manifestation vocale dans le culte en France au XVIIe siècle , Paris 1998
  • L. Guillo: Pierre I Ballard et Robert III Ballard, imprimeurs du roy pour la musique (1599–1673) , 2 volumes, Liège 2003
  • C. Davy-Rigaux: G.-G. Nivers, un art du chant grégorien sous le règne de Louis XIV , Paris 2004
  • Almonte Howell and Cécile Davy-Rigaux: Nivers, Guillaume-Gabriel , Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, July 10, 2011

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The music in past and present (MGG), Volume 12, Bärenreiter Verlag Kassel and Basel 2004, ISBN 3-7618-1122-5
  2. ↑ Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): The great lexicon of music. Volume 6: Nabakov - Rampal. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 1981, ISBN 3-451-18056-1 .
  3. ^ The lexicon of the organ , edited by Hermann J. Busch and Matthias Geuting, 2nd edition, Laaber Verlag Laaber 2008, ISBN 978-3-89007-508-2
personal data
SURNAME Nivers, Guillaume-Gabriel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French organist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH 1631 or 1632
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 1714
Place of death Paris