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Naïve 9933

 

The Sainte Colombe Enigma

Jonathan DUNFORD

Sainte Colombe an obscure 17th century violist, forgotten for let a handful of viola da gamba aficionados and musicologists suddenly was thrust center stage with the release of the film “Tous les Matins du Monde” in 1991. The scenario of this film was based on the novel by Pascal Quignard by the same name[1].

The film depicts an austere musician, raising two daughters by himself, living in an isolated castle and refusing the pomp and security of a fixed job at the court of Louis XIV. The novel as well as the film were based on the scarce documentation that was available to musicians and musicologists in 1991.

How close was the film character to the real Sainte-Colombe? We may never know with absolute certainty, but years of patient research[2] have unveiled leads as to who he was and how he lived. This essay will not give conclusive answers; at the moment there are none. However, the documentation presented here will hopefully correct certain mistakes and misconceptions that have slipped in over the past decade concerning the biography and works of this illusive genius as well as serve as a point of departure for future researchers.

The film was an overwhelming commercial success, winning seven French Césars. It brought world-wide recognition to the viola da gamba and its music. While the hitherto unknown Sainte Colombe was receiving so much attention an article claiming to have discovered Saint Colombe’s real identity appeared on the first page of the Le Monde.[3] According to the musicologist who wrote the article, Saint Colombe’s real name was Augustin D'Autrecourt and he lived in Lyons in the 1650's. However, a close look at the original sources revealed this to be a misinterpretation. Indeed, there had been a music teacher who also taught the viol and who lived in Lyons in the 1650's. According to the archives of the Hospice de Charité in the year 1657:

Acte de reception du Sieur de Ste Colombe, Maitre musicien, pour la maison.

Sieur Augustin Dandricourt dict Sainte Colombe, maître musicien à Lyon, a esté recu par la compagnie appres avoir esté informée de ses bonnes vies mœurs et cappacité pour enseigner et establyr la musique aux enfans adoptifs de ceste maison au nombre nécessaire maintenir celle des filles de Sainte Catherine aussi adoptives, et à ceux qu’il verra les plus proprres leur apprendre la composition et la viole, et leur fire les leçons tous les jours affin de faire au plus tos qu’il se pourra ung cœur de musique complet, et venir assister aux divins offices pour les festes acoustumees, et pour les deffuncts bienfacteurs, ce qu’il a promis de faire et de s’en aquiter le mieux qu’il luy sera possible. A remercie lesdits sieurs recteurs qui lui ont accordé pour ses gages la somme de cent cinquante livres par an, quartier par quartier.

The name D’Autrecourt mentioned in Le Monde was a misreading of the cursive hand-writing in the 17th century archives in Lyons. Rather, it was a Monsieur Dandricourt[4] who, as proven in this document, used the pseudonym Sainte Colombe or Sainte Culumbe (an important family by the name of Saint Colombe was benefactor to the Hospice de la Charité[5] and it can be assumed that there may have been some connection between the music teacher and this family). Since the publication of this article in Le Monde the misread name ‘D’Autrecourt’ has proliferated and can be found in articles, books, record sleeves, etc. It is high time to eradicate all association of the name D’Autrecourt with that of the musician Sainte Colombe.

We know too that Sainte Colombe studied with Hotman in Paris[6]. Would he have regularly made such a long journey from Lyons to Paris and back? Moreover, it seems highly unlikely that this modestly paid choir director (Dandricourt), who as part of his job taught a few girls to play the viol as a continuo instrument to sustain the choir, was the same Sainte Colombe who later, in 1678, was proclaimed in the Mercure de France to be ‘si celebre pour la viol’[7] and who was performing in Paris and teaching highly gifted students such as Marin Marais and Jean Rousseau[8].

Further search for the real Saint Colombe led to the "Insinuations de Châtelet"[9] in the French National Archives where I discovered a Françoise de Sainte-Colombe who married in 1669[10] . Her father was a certain “Jean de Sainte Colombe bourgeois de Paris” and one of the witnesses to her marriage was an organist by the name of Nicolas Caron (organist at St. Thomas de Louvre and at the Eglise St Oppurtune). Later I discovered that Jean de Saint Colombe had stood as witness to Caron’s own marriage in 1658.

Looking further I found that in the 1650’s and 1660’s Jean de Sainte Colombe had two daughters, Brigide and Françoise and lived on the Rue de Betizy (today the Rue de Rivoli) in the Saint Germain l’Auxerois district. This street intersects the Rue de la Monnaie and the Rue Bertin Poirée, curiously enough two of the first addresses of the young Marin Marais. Moreover on the Rue Saint Germain l'Auxerrois, one street over, was the residence of the celebrated violist Du Buisson's.

In his Parnasse François (1732) Evrard Titon du Tillet gives us a vivid account of Sainte-Colombe the man. From him we learn that the composer "gave Concerts at his home in which two of his daughters participated, one on the treble viol, the other on the bass, forming with their father a Consort of three Viols.[11]" Could these daughters have been Jean’s two daughters Françoise and Brigide? Again, further research unveiled that Jean’s eldest daughter, Françoise de Sainte-Colombe married Jean Varin, a teacher of mathematics to the King who was appointed to a post in Belfort while her sister, Brigide, married Louis Lebé, a secretary for the Marquis de Segnelay, who was stationed in Versailles. The Lebés, a family of printers of both books and music, were closely associated with the famous Ballard family. We also know that Saint Colombe the musician had close ties to a family of publishers named "Allain" (cf. the Concert a deux violes called "L'allain")[12]. It is interesting to note that several of the names associated with Jean de Sainte-Colombe were confirmed protestants.

These many documents all make a strong case for Jean de Sainte Colombe and yet, in my many years of searching through the French archives I have never found Jean de Sainte Colombe referred to as a musician but consistently as a "bourgeois de Paris". The possible protestant connection is an important one; antagonism against non-Catholics was quite prevalent after the 1685 revocation d’Edit de Nantes. Could Sainte Colombe have been protestant and, consequently, slighted in the official registers? Until we find at least one document referring to the musician as Jean, or referring to Jean as a musician, we cannot be certain that this was the revered French musician.

Then there is the claim to a son or sons, perhaps illegitimate and consequently not in the official registers. In his work Réflexions sur l’Opéra published in 1742 the writer, Rémond de Saint-Mard claims to have known one of Sainte-Colombe’s sons. He referred to him as "a simple man...who had not enough imagination to tell a lie[13]."

Six suites for solo bass viol by "Mr de Sainte Colombe le fils"[14] are to be found in the Durham Cathedral library. They are part of a volume of 300-odd pages of solo bass viol music, including works by Marais, Dubuisson, Simpson and many other composers. The music had all been copied by an amateur violist and protestant minister by the name of Phillip Falle.[15] Curiously, markings in red ink are found only on the music by Sainte Colombe le fils. Could Falle have been a student of Saint Colombe le fils, who we know lived in Edinburgh which is not far from Durham?[16]

The Durham library also houses a theological dissertation in Latin by a Henri Auger de Sainte-Colombe who was a protestant minister originally from the Béarn region in France[17]. His birth record indicates that he was born near Pau, in France, on the 1st of June 1680 to Monsieur le Baron Jean de Sainte Colome (one "m", no "b") and Marie de Landorte.

Many letters have been left by Henri Auger and, oddly, he can be found in London at the same time as Sainte Colombe le fils. Sainte Colombe‘le fils’is mentioned in a London newspaper, "The Daily Courant," in 1713 in a notice for a "concert benefice for Mr Sainte Colombe" held at the Hickford Room in London[18]. Were they perhaps related? Given the dates they could have been cousins. A viol teacher in London in 1716 by the name of "Mr Cynelum,"[19] may well be the same Sainte Colombe le fils, his name anglicized for easier pronunciation for English speakers.

It would seem that there were at least two branches of the original Sainte Colombe family, one protestant and from the Béarn region of France and the other Catholics from Lyons. The Paris Protestant archives have a mention in the "repertoire Haag" of a Parisian Sainte Colombe (no first name) mentioned in 1700 as being “fort suspect de religion.”

A list of Parisian musicians compiled in 1692 by Abraham du Pradel gives a Sainte-Colombe but rather than an address there is a dotted line[20] and this Sainte-Colombe’s name is not to be found in the tax register of musicians from 1696. [21]

The Tombeau de Sainte Colombe of course is in Marais’ second book of Pièces de Viole published in 1701. But the same book contains the Tombeau for Lully who of course died in 1687. This suggests that Sainte Colombe may have died some time between 1686 – 1700.

A few years ago a correspondent indicated an article by a certain Claude Astor, “Musique et Musiciens à Saint Julien au XVIIe siècle, Un Sainte-Colombe à Brioude”[22]. The article includes a testament as well as an inventory of Marie d’Estoupe widow to Le Sieur de Sainte Colombe who had been buried in Brioude by the 13th of November 1688 in the cemetery of the Saint Julien church[23]. This musician, who arrived in Brioude at an unknown date, brought with him an impressive number of musical instruments. The list contains two portative organs, two spinets, seven viols (four basses and three trebles) and a lute. Unfortunately his first name is never mentioned in any of the documents.

With more patient and meticulous research we may come up with firm and conclusive evidence that gives a birth as well as a death date and perhaps even a genealogy for this great maître de viole. In France many archives have literally vanished in smoke both in Paris as well as in the provinces. Perhaps research in Great Britain, where many archives remain for the most part intact, will one day resolve the Sainte Colombe enigma.

Works

All the extant music by Monsieur de Sainte Colombe is to be found in four books:

- Two books of solo viol music (106 pieces) in the Scottish National Library. They are not signed but in an inventory from 1685 the two books are described as “viole lessons of Mr. St. Columbe in two books”[24].

- One book of solo viol music (144-odd pieces) in Tournus (Burgundy), known as the Tournus manuscript. This manuscript is not signed but about seventy of the pieces are also found in the Scottish manuscripts. This and the style of the music make it clear that it is the work of Sainte Colombe.

- Les Concerts a Deux Violes Esgales, a collection of 67 duos now housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris. About fourty of these pieces are found in solo versions in the above mentioned manuscripts.

It has been proposed that the solo manuscripts are missing a second viol part. However, there is strong reason to believe that, rather, these works were part of a long tradition of solo viol music prevalent in 17th-century Europe. In France alone there is, to begin with, the large solo repertoire of Hotman, who left us with approximately forty-five solo bass viol pieces and Dubuisson whose surviving works amount to over one hundred pieces. This tradition continued with the solo music of Demachy and later Marin Marais and Sainte-Colombe’s own son. Marais’ first book of viol pieces were for solo viol and was published in 1686. By 1688 Jean Rousseau reported in a letter that “everyone is playing [Marais’] music”. It was only in the following year, 1689, that Marais took an unprecedented step and published a ‘basso continuo’ part for his first book. This was the first time an accompaniment was published for the viol or for any other instrumental music in France thus beginning a new trend which would continue into the 18th century.

The bass viol in seventeenth century French society was, I believe, heard like its close cousin the lute, as an unaccompanied solo instrument[25] and Sainte Colombe’s music was very much in the continuing 17th-century tradition of solo unaccompanied viol music. As the century ended he began exploiting and developing his own new form, the duos for two viols.

The tradition of turning a solo piece into a duo for two bass viols started in France with Nicolas Hotman[26], but it is well documented in England as well with pieces for solo or duo viols by Hume, Corkine and Ferrabosco and many others. In fact, a few of the solo pieces by Sainte Colombe can be found rewritten as duos in his Concerts à Deux Violes Esgales. Often the second viol part in the Concerts is the more demanding one. One might imagine the solo part being given to a student with whom Sainte Colombe would improvise a more virtuosic second part[27].

Sainte Colombe is credited with having added the 7th string to the bass viol in France as well as inventing the wound bass strings "... we owe to him this beautiful left hand position which brought viol playing to perfection [and] allowed him to imitate the greatest qualities of the human voice ... ; we also owe to M. de Sainte Colombe the 7th string which he added to the viol. Finally, he ... introduced the use of silver-spun strings in France, and he continually works to find anything to improve this instrument, if it were possible."[28] Whether this is true or not is irrelevant. Sainte-Colombe’s music speaks for itself. It is the first music in France that uses the seventh string, evident from the very first prelude for solo viol in the Tournus Manuscript. The virtuosity required to play this music highly exceeds predecessors such as Hotman or contemporaries such as Dubuisson. Both the solo music as well as the duos show Sainte-Colombe’s flair for improvisation and a highly agile “diabolic” bow stroke that drew the admiration of disciples such as Marin Marais.

Sainte Colombe’s reputation and innovation surely led to the viol’s prominent place as a solo instrument in France under the ‘ancien regime’. Moreover, he must have had an influential role in the evolution of 17th-century French viol repertoire from solo unaccompanied music to, by the end of the century, music for solo bass viol accompanied by a second viol continuo. His extensive collection of duos, of extraordinary length and beauty, are crucial in this development but should not overshadow the fabulous solo repertoire by which it was preceded. It is only to be hoped that more of this exceptional composers viol repertoire will come to light.


Editions

Jean (?) de Sainte Colombe

Recueil de Pièces pour Basse de Viole Seule

Fac-similés des manuscripts MS 9469 et MS 9469

National Library of Scotland, Edimburgh

(Manuscrits Panmure)

Editions Minkoff Genève 2003

Jean (?) de Sainte Colombe

Recueil de Pièces pour Basse de Viole Seule

Fac-similé du manuscript M.3 de la Bibliothèque municipale de Tournus

(Manuscrit de Tournus)

Editions Minkoff Paris 1998

Concerts à Deux Violes Esgales du Sieur de Sainte Colombe

Paris

Société Française de Musicologie 1998

Sainte Colombe the younger

Five suites for solo bass viol

ed. Jonathan Dunford,

Les Cahiers du Tourdion, Strasbourg, 1998.


Articles


Claude ASTOR

Musique et Musiciens à Saint Julien au XVIIe siècle, Un Sainte-Colombe à Brioude

Almanach de Brioude et de son arrondissement 1993 Pages 89 – 107

Jonathan DUNFORD

Articles :

Le point sur Sainte Colombe

L’Écho de la viole, 2, 1999, p. 2-4

(Société Française de Viole)

Les musiciens français antérieurs à Marin Marais

L’Écho de la viole, 4, 2000, p. 2-3.

(Société Française de Viole)

F.P. GOY

Préfaces :

Jean (?) de Sainte Colombe

Recueil de Pièces pour Basse de Viole Seule

Fac-similés des manuscripts MS 9469 et MS 9469

National Library of Scotland, Edimburgh

(Manuscrits Panmure)

Editions Minkoff Genève 2003

Jean (?) de Sainte Colombe

Recueil de Pièces pour Basse de Viole Seule

Fac-similé du manuscript M.3 de la Bibliothèque municipale de Tournus

(Manuscrit de Tournus)

Editions Minkoff Paris 1998

Concerts à Deux Violes Esgales du Sieur de Sainte Colombe

Paris

Société Française de Musicologie 1998

Article :

Jean de Sainte-Colombe et le Manuscrit de Tournus dans l’histoire de la musique pour viole seule en France

Société des Amis des Arts et des Sciènces de Tournus

Tome XCIV

Année 1995

p. 61 - 76

Corinne VAAST

Préface :

Concerts à Deux Violes Esgales du Sieur de Sainte Colombe

Paris

Société Française de Musicologie 1998

Articles :

M. de Sainte Colombe Protestant?

Bulletin de la société de l’histoire du Protestantisme Français

Tome 144, 1998 p. 591-601

A propos de M. de Sainte-Colombe

Bulletin de la société de l’histoire du Protestantisme Français

Tome 145, 1999 p. 189-191

[1] Pascal Quignard Tous les Matins du Monde, Editeur – Gallimard ISBN 2070724743

[2] This research has been conducted since 1992 by a team consisting of Stuart Cheney, François-Pierre Goy, Corinne Vaast and myself.

[3] L'envol de Sainte-Colombe, Pierre Guillot, Le Monde 18 January 1992 pages 1 and 13. The newspaper Le Monde corrected it’s previous erroneous article from 1992. See Enfin, des nouvelles du sieur de Sainte-Colombe by Renaud MACHART, Le Monde, 5 January, 1996; p. 19.

[4] For more on Dandricourt see Jean-Marc BAFFERT, Les orgues de Lyon du XVIe au XVIIe siècle, 1974, Cahiers et mémoire de l'orgue, 11, p. 51

[5] Paul de Rivérieulx, Vte de VARAX Généalogie de la Maison de Sainte Colombe, Lyon Imp. générale 30 rue Condé, (1881)

[6] Jean Rousseau Traité de la Viole 1687

« De tous ceux qui ont appris à joüer de la Viole de Monsieur Hotman, on peut dire que Monsieur de Sainte COLOMBE a esté son Ecolier par exellence, & que mesme il l’a beaucoup surpassé.. »

and

Jean Rousseau Réponse de Monsieur Rousseau, Paris 1688

« … car Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe & tous ceux qui ont appris de Monsieur Hotteman… »

[7] Mercure de France février 1678

Il y a eu icy ce Carnaval plusieurs sortes de Divertissements mais un des plus grands que nous ayons eus a esté un petit Opéra intitulé Les Amours d'Acis et de Galatée, dont M. de Rians, Procureur du Roy de l'ancient Chastelet, a donné plusieurs représentations dans son Hostel avec sa magnificence ordinaire. L'Assemblée a esté chaque fois de plus de quatre cens Auditeurs, parmy lesquels plusieurs Personnes de la plus haute qualité ont quelquefois eu peine à trouver place. Tous ceux qui chanterent et joüerent des Instrumens furent extrêmement applaudis. La Musique estoit de la composition de M. Charpentier dont je vous ay déjà fait voir deux Airs. Ainsi vous en connoissez l'heureux talent par vous-mesme. Madame de Beauvais, Madame de Boucherat, Messieurs les Marquis de Sablé et de Biron, M. Deniel, Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, si celebre pour la Viole et quantité d'autres qui entendent parfaitement toute la finesse du Chant ont esté des admirateurs de cet Opéra. (pp. 131-132)

[8] Another key date is the publication of a Sarabande de Mr de Sainte Colombe, published in Paris by Bénigne de Bacilly in Recueil des plus beaux vers qui ont esté mis en chant Third part Paris (c 1665), p. 139 (Unfortunately the words for the song are printed without the music!).

[9] Archives Nationales Série Y

[10] Archives Nationales, Minutier Central XCI (365) 22 septembre 1669

[11] Evrard Titon du Tillet Vies des Musiciens et autre Jouers d'Instruments du règne de Louis le Grand edition Le Promeneur, Gallimard, 1991 pages 84 - 85.

[12] Concerts à Deux Violes Esgales , revised edition Société Française de Musicologie, Paris 1998 (article by Corrine Vaast)

[13] Rémond de Saint-Mard Réflexions sur l'Opéra (oeuvres mêlées, 1742).

[14] See edition of Five suites for solo bass viol, ed. Jonathan Dunford, Les Cahiers du Tourdion, Strasbourg, 1998.

[15] Margaret Urquhart Prebendary Philip Falle (1656 –1742) and the Durham Bass Viol Manuscript A. 27 Chelys, vol 5 pages 7 – 20.

[16] The Younger Sainte-Colombe in Edinburgh, Ian Woodfield Chelys - Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society, Volume 14, 1985 pages 43 - 44.

[17] Exercitatio Theologica de Lege et Evangelio Ad Elucidationem Loci Evangelii Johannis Cap 1 vers 17….Respondente H. Auger de Ste Colome, Bearnis Gallo

[18] Daily Courant, London 11 May 1713 "For the benefit of Mr. Ste Columbe : a consort of vocal and instrumental musik will be performed on Thursday, being the 14th of May, at the Hickford dancing room over the tennis court on James street, Hay-Market to begin exactly at 7 o'clock. Tickets may be had at St James Coffee house."

[19] Dudley Ryder 1715-1716: Extracts from the Diary of a Student Viol Player - Ian Woodfield Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society of America Volume XXI - 1984 pages 64 - 68.

[20] Pradel (Abraham du), Le livre commode des adresses de Paris pour 1692.

[21] Archives Nationales Z1H657 Capitation 13 Janvier 1696 Musiciens Simphonistes

(among others listed)

De La Grauveuse – Violes

Forcroy père

Forcroy fils

Machy

Rousseau

Le Moyne

[22] Almanach de Brioude et de son arrondissement 1993 Pages 89 - 107

[23] Testatment de Marie d’Estoupe, veuve du Sieur de Sainte-Colombe 13 novembre 1688

« A esté présente honeste femme Marie d’Estoupe, veuve de feu M (en blanc) Saincte-Colombe, vivant maistre de musique de l’esglise Sainct Julien de ceste ville de Brioude,…

Prie et supplie humblement Madame de Brinai vouloir faire enterrer sondict corps au tumbeau où est enterré ledict feu sieur de Saincte-Colombe dans le cimetiere de ladicte esglise Sainct-Julien…

Donne et lègue à nos seigneurs les comptes et chapitre de ladicte eglise Sainct Julien pour l’entretien de leur maistrise et instruction des enfans de chœur, tous les instrumens de musique qu’elle a en ladicte mestrise, consistans en deux orgues, trois basses et trois dessus et d’un autre.

Donne aussi à Messire Louis Eyssamas, prebstre semi-prébandé de ladicte esglise, à présent maistre de ladicte mestrise, pour les agréables services qu’elle a reçus et reçoit journellement de luy, d’une paire d’espinettes, autre basse de violon qu’il pourra choisir entre touttes celles qu’elle a en ladicte mestrise… et le travail de musique dudict feu de Saincte Colombe. »

Inventaire avant décès de Marie d’Estoupe 14 novembre 1688

« …2 paires d’orgues

…une paire d’espinettes, 4 violes

3 dessus, un luc (luth)

[24] See article Patrick CADELL La musique française classique dans la collection des comtes de Panmure, Recherches sur la musique française classique, XXII (1984) pp. 51 - 52 et 56 - 58

[25] We must remember that Sainte Colombe’s teacher Nicolas Hotman was both a lutenist and violist. Sainte Colombe also persisted in this predeliction for plucked instruments as reported by Rousseau in Réponse de Monsieur Rousseau, Paris 1688 :

Page 9

« Il dit que je n’ay point parlé de pincer la Viole, je n’ay pas cru le devoir faire, parce que ce n’est pas un jeu de la Viole qui soit en usage & qui n’y doit pas estre, j’avoue que Monsieur de Sainte Colombe s’y fait admirer, mais c’est un divertissement particulier qu’il se donne par l’usage qu’il a des Instruments à pincer ».

[26] See Courante VDGS 9 (solo in A-ET Goëss B) (folio 63 (A)), second viol part VDGS 27 in F-Pc MS Rés 1111, 267

[27] Look at Gigue « l’aisé » Concert « La Conférence » (VIII), or the concerts Pierotine (XV), or Les Couplets (X).

[28] Jean Rousseau Traité de la Viole 1687 Page 24.



 Reference: The viola da gamba by Kirk Mcelhearn

 

  

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