Claude Gervaise (fl. 1540 ? 1560) was a French
composer, editor and arranger of the Renaissance,
who is mainly remembered both for his association
with renowned printer Pierre Attaingnant, as well
as for his instrumental music.
Gervaise's extant output consists of chansons,
mostly for three or four voices, and instrumental
music, mostly dances. He appears to have written
no sacred music at all, an unusual omission for a
composer of the time. In addition to being a
composer, he appears to have been an innovator in
notation of instrumental music: in an instruction
manual for the viol (1548, now lost), he is known
to have produced the first viol tablature in
France.
His chansons are freely composed, and mostly are
settings of long poems (for example huitans). He
published a collection of twenty chansons for four
voices in 1541. The remaining chansons, for three
voices, are arrangements of his previous pieces
for four; this collection came out in 1550.
Stylistically, all are typical of French chanson
composition of the 1540s: polyphonic but concise.
His instrumental music is the most famous portion
of his output. Most of his music is in four parts,
and is intended for dancing. The principal forms
employed are the pavane, galliarde, and branle;
and the varieties of the branle are the courant,
gay and simple. One of his pavanes, the Pavane
passemaize, incorporates the famous, indeed
ubiquitous, passamezzo antico bass line.
The melodies are simple in his instrumental music,
and the texture is almost always homophonic,
making the music ideal for dancing. Text source : Wikipedia (Hide extended text) ... (Read all)
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