Étienne Loulié
Encyclopedia
Étienne Loulié was a musician, pedagogue and musical theorist.
and musical theory as a choir boy at the Sainte-Chapelle
of Paris, under the learned maître de musique René Ouvrard
. In 1673 Loulié left the Chapel and entered the service of Marie de Lorraine, duchesse de Guise
, as an instrumentalist (harpsichord
, and organ
, viol
, recorder
and perhaps transverse flute
as well), performing chiefly in her household ensemble. From 1673 to late 1687, he therefore performed many of the compositions of Marc-Antoine Charpentier
, the Guises' household composer. During the late 1680s, Loulié became involved in musical pedagogy and wrote a series of coordinated method books for music teachers. During these same years, he formed a lifelong friendship with Sébastien de Brossard
, who became a famed collector of musical scores and preserved Louliè's papers by including them in his donation to the Royal Library (today, the Bibliothèque nationale de France
).
The Duchesse de Guise died in 1688. From that date until 1691, Loulié collaborated with mathematician Joseph Sauveur
to prepare a course of study for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
, at the time known as the "Duke of Chartres."
One of the few musicians of the day who knew thoroughly both the practice and the theory of music, Loulié worked with Sauveur (circa 1693-1699) under the aegis of the French Academy of Sciences
, studying acoustics and working out a "new system" of tuning and musical notation. The collaborative venture ended when Loulié and the musicians working with him became exasperated with the minute units upon which Sauveur based his system and which, the musicians insisted, could neither be heard nor replicated by even the sharpest human ear and the best-trained voice.
An admirer of Jean-Baptiste Lully
, Loulié allied with Henri Foucault, a music seller, to copy Lully's works and disseminate them in manuscript (circa 1691-1702). The son and brother of craftsmen, Loulié invented several devices during the 1690s: a device for tracing music staves on paper, a metronome-like chronomètre
based on the Galilean
seconds pendulum
and a sonomètre
for tuning harpsichords that used the monochord
as a point of departure. The first of these devices clearly was prompted by his copying business; the latter two inventions appear to have been inspired by his work with Chartres and Sauveur. All three devices received the approbation of the French Académie des Sciences, and in 1699 Loulié personally presented his sonomètre before that august body.
Loulié's contacts with René Ouvrard and with collector François Roger de Gaignières
of the Hôtel de Guise, and his collaboration with Joseph Sauveur, stirred Loulié's curiosity about "ancient" music (la musique ancienne). He eventually broke with Sauveur over the utility of theory for practicing musicians, and he spent his final years as a historian of musical practice.
Loulié strove to reconcile theory with the musical practices of the 1690s, and to do so as succinctly as possible. His manuscripts reveal a researcher who was very familiar with the writings of Marin Mersenne
and of musical theorists who flourished prior to 1600. In his personal quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns
, Loulié took the position of a "Modern."
Life
Born into a family of Parisian sword-finishers, Loulié learned both musical practiceand musical theory as a choir boy at the Sainte-Chapelle
Sainte-Chapelle
La Sainte-Chapelle is the only surviving building of the Capetian royal palace on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris, France. It was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of Passion Relics, including the Crown of Thorns - one of the most important relics in medieval...
of Paris, under the learned maître de musique René Ouvrard
René Ouvrard
René Ouvrard was a French priest, writer and composer.Ouvrard was born in Chinon. He received orders and became kapellmeister of the cathedral of Bordeaux, Narbonne and the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris, then he was a canon in Tours. He became a priest in 1862...
. In 1673 Loulié left the Chapel and entered the service of Marie de Lorraine, duchesse de Guise
Marie, Duchess of Guise
Marie de Lorraine was the daughter of Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Guise and Henriette Catherine de Joyeuse and the last member of the House of Guise, a branch of the House of Lorraine.-Biography:...
, as an instrumentalist (harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
, and organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, viol
Viol
The viol is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The family is related to and descends primarily from the Renaissance vihuela, a plucked instrument that preceded the...
, recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
and perhaps transverse flute
Transverse flute
A transverse flute or side-blown flute is a flute which is held horizontally when played. The player blows "across" the embouchure hole, in a direction perpendicular to the flute's body length....
as well), performing chiefly in her household ensemble. From 1673 to late 1687, he therefore performed many of the compositions of Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, , was a French composer of the Baroque era.Exceptionally prolific and versatile, he produced compositions of the highest quality in several genres...
, the Guises' household composer. During the late 1680s, Loulié became involved in musical pedagogy and wrote a series of coordinated method books for music teachers. During these same years, he formed a lifelong friendship with Sébastien de Brossard
Sébastien de Brossard
Sébastien de Brossard was a French music theorist.Brossard was born in Dompierre, Orne. After studying philosophy and theology at Caen, he studied music and established himself in Paris in 1678 and remained there until 1687. He briefly was the private tutor of the young son of Nicolas-Joseph...
, who became a famed collector of musical scores and preserved Louliè's papers by including them in his donation to the Royal Library (today, the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
).
The Duchesse de Guise died in 1688. From that date until 1691, Loulié collaborated with mathematician Joseph Sauveur
Joseph Sauveur
Joseph Sauveur was a French mathematician and physicist. He was a professor of mathematics and in 1696 became a member of the French Academy of Sciences.-Life:Joseph Sauveur was the son of a provincial notary...
to prepare a course of study for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Philippe d'Orléans was a member of the royal family of France and served as Regent of the Kingdom from 1715 to 1723. Born at his father's palace at Saint-Cloud, he was known from birth under the title of Duke of Chartres...
, at the time known as the "Duke of Chartres."
One of the few musicians of the day who knew thoroughly both the practice and the theory of music, Loulié worked with Sauveur (circa 1693-1699) under the aegis of the French Academy of Sciences
French Academy of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research...
, studying acoustics and working out a "new system" of tuning and musical notation. The collaborative venture ended when Loulié and the musicians working with him became exasperated with the minute units upon which Sauveur based his system and which, the musicians insisted, could neither be heard nor replicated by even the sharpest human ear and the best-trained voice.
An admirer of Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
, Loulié allied with Henri Foucault, a music seller, to copy Lully's works and disseminate them in manuscript (circa 1691-1702). The son and brother of craftsmen, Loulié invented several devices during the 1690s: a device for tracing music staves on paper, a metronome-like chronomètre
Chronomètre of Loulié
The chronomètre is a precursor of the metronome. It was invented circa 1694 by Étienne Loulié to record the preferred tempo of pieces of music...
based on the Galilean
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...
seconds pendulum
Pendulum
A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced from its resting equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the equilibrium position...
and a sonomètre
Sonomètre of Loulié
The sonomètre is a tuning device invented circa 1694 by Étienne Loulié to facilitate the tuning of stringed instruments. Sébastien de Brossard considered this device to be "one of the finest inventions" of the seventeenth century....
for tuning harpsichords that used the monochord
Monochord
A monochord is an ancient musical and scientific laboratory instrument. The word "monochord" comes from the Greek and means literally "one string." A misconception of the term lies within its name. Often a monochord has more than one string, most of the time two, one open string and a second string...
as a point of departure. The first of these devices clearly was prompted by his copying business; the latter two inventions appear to have been inspired by his work with Chartres and Sauveur. All three devices received the approbation of the French Académie des Sciences, and in 1699 Loulié personally presented his sonomètre before that august body.
Loulié's contacts with René Ouvrard and with collector François Roger de Gaignières
François Roger de Gaignières
François Roger de Gaignières , French genealogist, antiquary and collector, was the grandson of a merchant at Lyon and the son of Aimé de Gaignières, secretary to the Count of Harcourt, a member of the Elbeuf branch of the House of Guise. In the late 1660s, he was named écuyer to Louis Joseph,...
of the Hôtel de Guise, and his collaboration with Joseph Sauveur, stirred Loulié's curiosity about "ancient" music (la musique ancienne). He eventually broke with Sauveur over the utility of theory for practicing musicians, and he spent his final years as a historian of musical practice.
Loulié strove to reconcile theory with the musical practices of the 1690s, and to do so as succinctly as possible. His manuscripts reveal a researcher who was very familiar with the writings of Marin Mersenne
Marin Mersenne
Marin Mersenne, Marin Mersennus or le Père Mersenne was a French theologian, philosopher, mathematician and music theorist, often referred to as the "father of acoustics"...
and of musical theorists who flourished prior to 1600. In his personal quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns
Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns
The quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns was a literary and artistic debate that heated up in the early 1690s and shook the Académie française.-Description:...
, Loulié took the position of a "Modern."
Writings
- Éléments ou Principes de musique mis dans un nouvel ordre (Paris, 1696), a handbook on musical notation
- Abrégé des principes de musique, avec leçons sur chaque difficulté de ces mesmes principes (Paris 1696), a simplified handbook on musical notation
- Nouveau sistème de musique ou nouvelle division du monocorde [...] avec la description et l'usage du sonomètre (Paris, 1698), a facet of Loulié's work with Joseph Sauveur and the "new system" of music that he was working out.
- A variety of manuscript pedagogical treatises and methods on elementary composition, solfègeSolfegeIn music, solfège is a pedagogical solmization technique for the teaching of sight-singing in which each note of the score is sung to a special syllable, called a solfège syllable...
, and how to play the violViolThe viol is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The family is related to and descends primarily from the Renaissance vihuela, a plucked instrument that preceded the...
and the recorderRecorderThe recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
, plus a history of music (Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. n.a. fr. 6355) - An incomplete "discourse" on the history of "ancient" music (Bibliothèque royale, Brussels)