Gigault's Livre de Musique

[steltz]

The work page for this:

http://imslp.org/wiki/Livre_de_musique_ ... MSLP257721

only tags the organ part, but there is this on the title page:

"Contenant les cantiques sacrés qui se chantent en l’honneur de son Divin Enfantement, Diversifiés de plusieurs manières à II. III. et IV. parties, qui peuvent être touchés sur l’Orgue et sur le Clavecin, comme aussi sur le Luth, les Violes, Violons, Flûtes et autres instruments de musique. Une pièce diatonique en forme d’Allemande marquée simple, et avec les ports de voix : pour servir de guide et d’instruction pour les former et adapter à toutes sortes de pièces. Le tout divisé en deux parties. Achevé d’imprimer pour la première fois le 5e jour de décembre 1682."

My French isn't that good, so I can't tell whether it is also for organ with other instruments, or the other instruments play the music without the organ. Either way, should there not be a tag for that version, and if so, what would it be? (Needing help from the French speakers).

[pierre.chepelov]

"Containing the sacred hymns that are sung in honor of his Divine Birth, Diversified in several ways with 2, 3 and 4 parts, that may be played on the Organ and on the Harpsichord; on the Lute, the Viols, Violins, Flutes and other musical instruments as well. A diatonic piece in form of an Allemande marquée simple, and also with the appoggiaturas: in order to serve as a guide and instruction on how to form and adapt it to all kinds of pieces. The whole divided into two parts. Printed for the first time on the 5th day of December 1682."

[Notenschreiber]

From Wikipedia:

Gigault published two collections of organ works. The first, Livre de musique dédié а la Très Saincte Vierge of 1683, contains the earliest known examples of the French noël (a set of variations on a Christmas carol) and an allemande. Gigault's 20 noëls include variations on Christmas songs and church hymns connected to Christmas. These pieces always progress from two-part to four-part settings and feature a somewhat rigid variation technique.[11][12] In the preface Gigault suggests that these pieces can be performed on any instruments: i.e., on a pair of viols, or on a lute, etc. The solitary allemande bears no connection whatsoever to Christmas. It is presented in two versions, the second being set in "ports de voix", showing various common ornamentation patterns.

[steltz]

Thanks for both of these. This would suggest that the tag would be

"pieces ; org ; hpd ; open"

If it is felt that the pieces within the collection should be tagged, then I would add

"carols ; variations ; allemandes"

[Davydov]

Since the keyboard options seem just one of the possible alternatives, I wouldn't specify "hpd" or "org". As the work's own description omits any references to variations, I'd go with just:

"carols ; allemandes ; open"

[steltz]

Done, thanks for everyone's input.

[pierre.chepelov]

May I argue a little bit...
As it is know tagged, the work won't show up in an organ ar keyboard list, and IM(very)HO... it's not a good idea!

Because, despite the 'openness' of the composer's text... this is primarily a book of organ (or harpsichord) pieces.
If you read carefully (and even for a native speaker it is not easy) the text (on p.3 of the first file), in the 2nd paragraph, the composer
1. speaks about organ and harpsichord
2. then about lute, harp...
3. then about viols, violins and flutes, about the fact that one is free to re-write the inner parts separatly, and about the possibility to adapt the octaves when needed.
4. Then, without notice, he speaks about the "Pédales de flûtes" and about the "most brilliant stop"
5. and finally, to some sort of ossias written for the cases when the player plays "with a single manual" instead of the normal "à deux chœurs" writing.
This "à deux chœurs" writing seems common in most of the pieces, with the caracteristic || sign in the middle of the staff, where the player should go from the upper to the lower manual or vice versa.

Points 1, 4 & 5 show that these are
1. 2-manual Organ pieces,
2. Also suitable for the (2-manual) harpsichord,
and 3. that the composer would like to / dreams / hopes that people feel free to play/adapt it on various instruments.

Here the keyboard options are not "just one of the possible alternatives", but the natural ones, and I would favor steltz's proposal.

[Davydov]

A good example of a composer trying to promote his music to the largest possible number of performers! I've amended the instrumentation tags to read "org ; hpd ; open".

[steltz]

Good idea, thanks.