The Borel Manuscript: A New Source of Seventeenth-Century French Harpsichord Music at Berkeley

During the summer of 2004 John H. Roberts, the head of the music library at the University of California, Berkeley, was able to acquire for our new Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library a particularly interesting seventeenth-century manuscript of French harpsichord music. This article is a preliminary report, concentrating on certain details of the manuscript's makeup and contents, with a brief discussion of the composers named in the source. The Hargrove Music Library already has a series of over a dozen fine French harpsichord manuscripts from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, acquired by Vincent Duckles from the collection of Everett Helm in the late 1960s.¹ The new volume (Hargrove Music Library MS 1365) is a significant addition to this set and seems to date from a slightly earlier period than the other volumes. It was formerly in the collection of the French pianist and conductor Alfred Cortot (1877–1962), a substantial portion of whose music library is also now in Berkeley; the manuscript later passed into the collection of antiquarian music dealer Albi Rosenthal in London.²

Twenty-seven of the more than one hundred pieces are ascribed to composers in the manuscript, leaving about three quarters of the works given anonymously. A handful of further pieces can be identified from concordances. However, most of the contents, including the majority of the works ascribed to a particular composer, seem to be unique to this source. There are new pieces by five of the most famous musicians of the period: d'Anglebert, Chambonnières, Dumont, de La Barre, and Thomelin. There are several new works by de La Pierre, and new versions, including one new title, for known pieces by Louis Couperin. The manuscript also contains works ascribed to five other musicians: Madame de Bieule, Bouat, Brochard, Bremon, and Depins. While it is natural to focus at first on these works by named composers, the anonymous compositions that make up the vast majority of the source's contents are also of exceptional musical value and scholarly interest.

On the cover is the title Liure d'Espinettes (Book for the Espinettes), a phrase amplified on the title page to Liure contenant Plusieurs Pieces D'Espinette (Book containing Various Pieces for the Espinette). In late-sixteenth-century and early-seventeenth-century France, espinette, or épinette, was a standard name for various kinds of keyboard instruments with plucked strings; somewhat like the word "virginals" in England, it was also used in the plural, as here on the cover.³ The court keyboard player in the late sixteenth century was the Joueur d'espinette de la Chambre du Roy (Spinet Player to the King's Chamber), whereas by the 1670s the terminology had shifted to Claveciniste du Roy (Harpsichordist to the King). It would be unwise to imagine that the works in this manuscript were composed for a small instrument just because they are said to be for espinette(s). As we shall see, although everything remains playable on the harpsichord a few of the pieces are equally suitable for organ; some are perhaps even primarily intended for violin or other solo instruments, to be played with keyboard accompaniment.

Borel

At the bottom of the title page there is an elegantly written name, "Borel." It appears to refer to the first—or at least an early—owner, who may or may not have also been the copyist. MS 1365 is therefore now referred to as the "Borel Manuscript."

Several references to musicians of this name are known, although they all seem a little later than the apparent date of the manuscript. On 30 July 1678, a Jean Borel identified as an académiste and musician in L'académie des opéras became godfather to a girl called Anne Fontange. He lived in Paris, in the parish of Saint-Sulpice, in the rue Sainte-Marguerite "dans le carrefour de...