Pierre Beauchamp

This article is about the musician and dancer Pierre Beauchamp. For the astronomer, see Pierre Joseph Beauchamp .

Pierre Beauchamp

Pierre Beauchamp , also known as Charles or Charles-Louis Beauchamp , (born October 30, 1631 in Paris , † February 1705 in Paris) was a French violinist , composer , dancer and choreographer .

biography

Pierre Beauchamp (Beauchamps) comes from a dancer dynasty. Beauchamp made his debut in 1648 at the court of Louis XIV in the Ballet du dérèglement des passions . He worked there with Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Baptiste Molière , where the Comédie-ballet (ballet comedy) was created by merging music, text, dance, costumes and sets . Beauchamp was a dancer, violinist, composer and choreographer. He choreographed a. a. for the most important operas by Robert Cambert and Pierre Perrin . From the death of Lully (1687) he worked mainly for Jesuit colleges. He trained numerous dancers, such as Blondy, Jean Favier , Louis Pécour and others. a.

At the suggestion of the king, Beauchamp developed a dance notation, which was first published by Raoul-Auger Feuillet in 1700. Beauchamp wanted to sue for his right to invent this font in court. The lawsuit was dismissed on July 28, 1704. Due to Beauchamp's death in 1705, no further submission of the application was made. Thus, Feuillet was considered the inventor of this notation for a long time. Since this fact became known, the notation in dance studies has now been called the Beuachamp-Feuillet notation (Richardson 1947). Beauchamp is considered to be the inventor of the five positions , as they are still taught in a slightly modified form in classical ballet to this day.

In the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, both the libretti and the music he composed for his ballets are preserved. However, there is no choreography that can be proven to have been composed or recorded by him. Three choreographies are associated with his name: 1) “Sarbande de Mr. de Beauchamp”; 2) Rigaudon "de mr bauchand"; 3) Rigaudon "de mr bauchand".

The manuscript of the "Sarbande de Mr. de Beauchamp" is in the Derra de Moroda Dance Archives of the University of Salzburg (catalog no. 244). It is a sarabande notated on 12 (unnumbered) pages. This sarabande differs from all other sarabande choreographies and from the standard repertoire of the dances handed down in Beuachamp-Feuillet notation due to its length, its technical difficulties and the peculiar notation of some steps. Despite the assignment to Beauchamp's person in the title, the authorship of the Sarabande must remain open until further notice. A full publication (facsimile, transcription and critical report) is still pending.

Apart from this sarabande, two Rigaudons “de mr bauchand” are ascribed (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 14884, p. 180), which in direct succession form a Danse à Deux . However, the attribution was made in a different hand than the notation of the choreography and seems extremely doubtful (Little / Marsh, p. 134). In addition, it can be stated that this choreography differs from choreographies such as Louis Pécours and Jean Ballons by certain peculiarities and archaisms and can possibly be dated to 1680–1700. The music is anonymous and may have come from the choreographer, a practice that was common practice.

Works (libretto / music)

• 1653: Ballet royal de la nuit , Divertissement (Isaac de Benserade / Lully and Jean de Cambefort)
• 1654: Ballet royal des noces de Pélée et de Thétis (Benserade / Lully)
• 1654: Ballet royal des proverbes (Benserade / Lully)
• 1656: La galanterie du temps (- / Lully)
• 1659: La pastorale en musique (Abbé Pierre Perrin / Cambert)
• 1661: Ballet royal des saisons (Benserade / Lully)
• 1661: Les Fâcheux (Molière / Lully)
• 1661: Ariane ou le mariage de Bacchus (Perrin / Cambert)
• 1663: Ballet des arts (- / Cambert and Lully)
• 1664: Les amours déguisés (Benserade / Lully)
• 1667: Les muses (Benserade / Lully)
• 1669: Flore (Molière / Lully)
• 1670: Les amants magnifiques (Molière / Lully)
• 1670: Ballet des jésuites (Beauchamp)
• 1670: Pomone (Perrin / Cambert)
• 1671: Les fourberies de Scapin (Molière / Lully)
• 1671: Psyché (Molière et Cornaille / Lully)
• 1671: Les peines et les plaisirs de l'amour (Perrin / Cambert)
• 1672: Les femmes savantes (Molière / Marc-Antoine Charpentier)
• 1672: Cedesias (Beauchamp)
• 1672: Pastorale des fêtes de l'Amour et de Bacchus (?)
• 1673: Le malade imaginaire (Molière / Charpentier)
• 1673: Zénobie (Beauchamp)
• 1673: Cadmus et Hermione (- / Lully)
• 1674: Alceste (Philippe Quinault / Lully)
• 1680. Amphitryon (Beauchamp)
• 1681: Le triomphe de l'amour (Benserade / Lully)
• 1685: Armide (Quinault / Lully)
• 1685: Le temple de la paix (Quinault / Lully)
• 1685: La jeunesse de MR Delalande (Beauchamp)
• 1686: Atys et Galathée (- / Lully)

Bibliography (chronological)

• PJS Richardson: The Beauchamp mystery: some fresh light on an old problem . In: Dancing times . cdxxxviii (March 1947), pp. 299-302 and cdxxxix (April 1947), pp. 351-357.
• Friderica Derra de Moroda : Chorégraphie: the dance notation of the eightheenth century: Beauchamp or Feuillet? . In: The book collector . Volume XVI / 4, 1967, pp. 450-476.
• Friderica Derra de Moroda: The dance script of the 18th century . In: Mask and Kothurn . Volume 13, 1967, pp. 21-29.
• J.-M. Guilcher: André Lorin et l'invention de l'écriture chorégraphique . In: Revue d'histoire du théâtre . Volume XXI, 1969, pp. 256-264.
• M. Drąbecka: Elementy choreotechniki hiszpanskiej w kompozycjach sarabandy z początku XVIII wieku . In: Muzyka . Volume 15/1, 1970, pp. 47-57.
• Régine Kunzle: The illustrious unknown choreographer, Pierre Beauchamp . In: Dance scope . Volume VIII / 2, 1974, pp. 32-42 and Volume IX / 1, 1975, pp. 30-45.
• Régine Astier: Pierre Beauchamps and the ballets de collège . In: Dance chronicle . Volume VI, 1983, pp. 138-163.
• Meredith E. Little and Carol G. Marsh: La Danse Noble. An inventory of dance sources . Broude Brothers Ltd., Williamstown & c. 1992.
• Kaspar Mainz: To the Sarabande de Mr. de Beauchamp . In: Sibylle Dahms (ed.): The dance - one life: in memoriam Friderica Derra de Moroda (= dance research. Derra de Moroda Dance Archives 4), Salzburg 1997, pp. 209–215.
• Ken Pierce: Uncommon Steps and Notation in the Sarabande de Mr. de Beauchamp . In: Proceedings of the Twenty Sith Annual Conference of the Society of Dance History Scholars, Limerick June 26-29, 2003 , 2003, pp. 91-98 ( article online ).

Web links

• Homepage The ballets of Beauchamp