godfather of french protestant music culture

Guillaume gué-who? Never heard of! I can imagine. Yet, he is the author of a 16th century top hit, you probalby have heard (if you love Renaissance/Early baroque music: The chanson: Susanne un jour, a very popular ‘spiritual song’ . But as a song poet and music publisher, he made his mark, especially for Protestant music culture. An introduction.

Susanne un jour

The story about Susanne comes from a Greek addition to the biblical book of Daniel (h. 13). The beautiful Susanne, wife of Joachim (of Babylon, remember: Marnix Gijssen!), while bathing in her private court, is harassed by two old men, also judges (in Greek: presbuteroi). She resists and starts shouting loudly. When one approaches, the two men accuse her of adultery: they have caught her red-handed with a youth. Who would doubt the word of two respectable aged judges? #MeToo, avant la lettre. So ‘she is guilty to death’. The court hearing is organised on the spot. After all, the case is clear. The men already have the stones in their hands…. Fortunately, there is then suddenly a lucid young man who does not trust the case: Daniel. He interrogates both men separately. They fall through, i.e. they contradict each other when he asks under which tree they allegedly committed the crime.

The first says: under a mastic tree (ὑπο σχίνον, hypo schinon), to which Daniel replies that an angel is ready to cut him in half (σχίσει, schisei). The second says it is under an oak tree (ὑπο πρίνον, hypo prinon), to which Daniel replies that an angel is ready to cut him in half(πρίσαι, prisai).

In 10 lines of 10 syllables (a dizain), Guéroult evokes the situation, and has Susanne outline her predicament with one full sentence. Every self-respecting 16th-century composer (and early 17th-century = Sweelinck) has set this song to music, competing in contrapunctic raffinesse and expressive sonority . So successful was Orlando di Lasso’s setting that many think he is the composer of the original. He is not. The original (1548): is a rather simple 4-voice composition by Didier Lupi Second (musician/composer active in Lyon, with roots in Lucca). Four long notes as an introduction, then a caesura and there we go… : the metric success formula of many a chanson, psalm and air de cour. Here is Lupi’s primal version:

Instrumental versions (with ‘diminutions’) are also uncountable: Bassano, Gabrieli. Here’s one from Susanne van Soldt’s music booklet:

Interested: a list of pitches: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanne_un_jour.

And the odd one out: a tribute by Joel Frederiksen to… Leonard Cohen (who also had something to do with Susanne), reference to Guéroult/Lupi – di Lasso at 1:25

The father of Protestant non-liturgical songbooks

Guillaume Guéroult, born in Rouen (1507), is one of those men you often come across in the Renaissance: a wide range of activities (poet, writer, translator, proofreader, printer and musical). He also had the skills and connections needed to make a mark in the world of the printed book. (Otherwise, we would not know him today).

Of his youth we know nothing. He comes into the picture only when he leaves for Geneva with his uncle, Simon Du Bosc (printer in Rouen), c. 1545¹. Faith reasons? Yes indeed. In the meantime, a song by Guillaume is published: in Paris, in 1545, by Pierre Attaignant: Hélas mon DIeu, ton ire.². This too – a plea not to be forsaken by God – became a hit. In 1546, he attended two sermons by Jean Calvin in Geneva (following the first battles in the War of Religion in Germany) and spontaneously rhymed Psalm 124 (If God the Lord were not with us, then…), and the Te Deum in French. First printed without musical notes, but in 1548 music is added. A French psalm book appears in Strasbourg containing both poems, with melody (probably from one of the German-speaking cantors there: Matthias Greiter or Wolfgang Dachstein)³. In the same year, Guéroult also published his first collection of spiritual songs himself: Le premier livre de chansons spirituelles, provided with music by Didier Lupi Second. You guessed it: this is the collection that also includes Susanne un jour. Lyon is the place of publication (Godefroy brothers and Marcellin Beringen, indeed originally from…). The following reprints take place in Paris (Nicolas Du Chemin, Le Roy & Ballard): 1559, 1561, 1568 – sometimes with altered contents. Here the title page and the page with Susanne un jour, from the Paris edition of 1559. Soprano and Tenor on the left-hand page. Bass and Countertenor on the right. Handy.

From then on, i.e. between 1547 and 1560 (Guéroult’s last collection: La lyre chrestienne), countless collections of polyphonic music on religious French texts appear in Lyon and Geneva (afterwards copied in Paris, Vienne, Rouen, etc..): rhymed psalms, spiritual songs, hymns. Almost always – if you take a longer look – Guillaume Guéroult is the driving force behind these. Given his output, he must have had a large network, because he gathered chansons spirituels and rhymed biblical texts (psalms or other ‘sentences’) from everywhere. His heart apparently beat for that music, given his many exploits in that field. As mentioned, he was a poet himself. So he supplied lyrics. But then you don’t have a song. You have to know musicians. No problem: He was friends with Loys Bourgeois (the man behind many psalm melodies)⁴. He was also on good terms with François Gindron (chapel master of Lausanne Cathedral) and the poet Étienne Jodelle was part of his network. And – relevantly in this context – he was kind to (literally related to) several printers: Balthasar Arnoullet in Lyon was his father-in-law. Simon Du Bosc was his uncle in Geneva. First a proofreader, he later became music editor and finally: publisher. And his Parisian years, he worked with specialised French music printers: Simon Gorlier, Robert Granjon. Since 1555, he has been persona non grata in Geneva. He would not accept the monopoly on sacred songs that Calvin and Bèze had appropriated. He also translated and published Latin and Italian texts, en passant invented the French emblemata books (pictures with moralistic texts, fables), and devoted several books to flora and fauna, always with pictures, always with poems. An independent man, curious, multi-talented, and a convinced ‘French Protestant’.

And what he does has quality: He himself is an above-average poet (who by no means always reaches his highest level. He ‘versifies’ easily, charmingly). His ‘Susanne un jour’ was a hit, not only because of Didier Lupi’s fitting music, but also because of the excellent text. It is simply a good poem.

Collector of French psalm arrangements (Arcadelt, Gindron, Le Bel, Goudimel, Willaert)

I now zoom in on one aspect of his activity: the publication of songbooks for domestic (and courtly) use, with spiritual content. His second anthology had long been known. It is in Bologna, in the music library of the Liceo Musicale (all five voice books), bound together with another of Du Bosc’s music publications from those years, both in French (religious contrefacts of popular Catholic songs, and Latin motets).

Occasionally, by the way, new discoveries are still made. In 1986, for instance, the four-part Psaumes by Richard Crassot were discovered (Lyon : Jean Huguetan, 1565), in 2009 les Salmi cinquanta by Philibert Jambe de fer (Geneva : Antoine Reboul, 1560). In 2011 About the Premier livre des psaumes et sentences (Geneva : Du Bosc et Guéroult, 1554), more below. And in 2018 at last Guëroult’s last contribution in this field, la Lyre chrestienne (music by Antoine de Hauville and Didier Lupi (Lyon : Simon Gorlier, 1560) .⁵ Both the first and the second booklet of psalms and ‘sentences’ (biblical proverbs) were printed in Geneva, and were published by Guéroult with his uncle (Du Bosc).

The Second livre des Psalmes et sentences (1555) contains musical contributions by François Gindron, Claude Goudimel (started as music corrector with Nicolas Du Chemin in Paris in the early 1550s), Jacques Arcadelt (had been papal chaplain at the time of publication of this volume in the service of the Cardinal of Lorraine, Charles de Guise, see this page), and Barthélémy de Bel (before the Reformation cantor at Geneva Cathedral, returned there in his old age). The table of contents speaks volumes. It follows below the image of the title page and the first few pages. You will also see there the beautiful poetic recommendation of this little book by Pierre Vallete (one of the cantors and music teachers in Geneva) and the beginning of the first ‘sentence’ = a setting of a biblical text (Joel 2) by the already mentioned Gindron. The music is always in 4 or 5 voices. The booklets are very small (in-16 (or in-32 – the descriptions differ, oblong. reality: approx. 6 x 9 cm).

Le second livre des pseaulmes et sentences (1555)

full title:

LE SECOND LIVRE DES PSEAVLMES ET SENTENCES, TIREES TANT DV PSALMISTE, Royal que des autres Saincts Prophètes: Mis en musique
en forme de Motetz, par diuers excellens Musiciens.
|| tenor/bassus/contratenor/superius ||
De l’Imprimerie de Simon du Bosc &
Guillaume Gueroult
1555.

PIERRE VALLETE Musicien, aux amateurs de Musique S[alut].	Pierre Vallette musican, to music-lovers Salut.
En ces livretz bien petitz Trouverez grand’ mélodie, En accordz et sainctz escritz Qui rendront l’ame esjouye: Chacun donques se desdie A y chanter hautement, La lettre, & chant, vous convie: Chantez de coeur humblement.	In these little booklets you will find a great melody, in harmony with the holy scriptures that rejoice the heart: Let everyone commit themselves to singing these aloud, the letter, and the song, invite you: Sing humbly from the heart.

TABLE
François GINDRON : (Scripture motets in French. Strong biblical texts, unrhymed. Lutheran composers would call them ‘Kraftsprüche’).
– Convertissez vous à moy (Joël 2)
– Jusques à quant seras tu dissolue (Jeremia 31)
– Que mes yeux soyent jettans larmes nuict et jour (Jeremia 14)
– O Seigneur corrige moy (Jerermia 10,24)

 Claude GOUDIMEL: (Psalmbewerking in motetvorm met verwijzing naar of citaat van de geneefse melodie)
Ps. 5 (en 3 parties)
Ps. 143 (en 2 parties)
Ps. 113 (en 3 parties
Ps. 46 (en 3 parties)
Ps. 86 (en 4 parties)
Ps. 32 (en 4 parties)

Jacques ARCADELT: (idem)
Ps. 138 (en 4 parties)

Barthélémy LE BEL
– Commandements (Marot) en 3 parties
– Prière avant le repas (Marot) – O Souverain Pasteur et Maistre
– Prière après le repas (Marot) – Père éternel qui nous ordonnes
– Oraison dominicale (Marot)

Le premier livre des pseaulmes … (1554)- tenor book found 2011

In an Italian library, the tenor booklet of the first book published by Guéroult and his uncle was found in 2009.⁶. Unfortunately not complete, and without the other voice books you can’t make music from/with it. We knew of its existence simply by virtue of the title of the ‘second’ booklet, but also because of the fact that in 1554 Simon Du Bosc asked the city council of Geneva for permission to publish ‘un petit livret… des pseaulmes’.⁷. But again, the table of contents in itself is telling of the wide distribution that in the mid-16th century the Geneva Psalter, and in particular the texts of Clément Marot (the first 50 rhymes), enjoyed. We come across Jacques Arcadelt again, but now also Clément Janequin (but we already knew that, he had already published his first Psalms in 1549 – Paris, Attaingnant), Gentian (already known from a psalm motet on Psalm 130 – Lyon, Jaques Moderne) Le Contre, and even Adriaan Willaert (Kapellmeister of San Marco in Venice: Psalm 3). For the sake of completeness, I leave the table of contents of this volume too:

Dick Wursten, 3 september 2024

1. In 1547, his uncle was granted “civil rights” in Geneva
2. Long attributed to Janequin, but the setting is by Maillard
3. Psalm book published by Rémy Guédon: Pseaulmes de David, traduictz en rithme francoyse par Clément Marot…
4. Guéroult writes a poem in his first book of polyphonic settings of the Geneva Psalms (1547 – in the form of ‘motets’; same year also ‘note-against-note’), published in Lyon, also by the Beringen Brothers
5. See the various publications by Laurent Guillo
6. source: Jean Duchamp, ‘Le “Premier livre de psaumes” de Du Bosc et Guéroult (1554) retrouvé’, in: Revue de Musicologie 97/2 (2011), pp. 409-424. The booklet is in the library of the ‘Musée des arts et traditions populaires Michele e Luigi Gortani’ in Tolmezzo
7. 22 February 1554, see Pidoux II, p. 67