A New Treatise on Accompaniment With the Harpsichord, the Organ, and With Other Instruments (Publications of the Early Music Institute)

Monsieur [Michel] de Saint Lambert, translated and edited by John S. Powell

ISBN 10: 0253345618 / ISBN 13: 9780253345615

Published by Indiana Univ Press, 1991

About this Item

6 x 9 inches. xvii, 155 pages. 1st printing of this translation with complete number line on copyright page. Condition is Very Good; Very clean inside & out. STK.

Seller Inventory # 19264

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A New Treatise on Accompaniment With the Harpsichord, the Organ, and With Other Instruments (Publications of the Early Music Institute)
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Press
• Publication Date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0253345618
• ISBN 13: 9780253345615
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: First printing.
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Music

About this title

Synopsis

Saint Lambert's Nouveau traité de l'accompagnement de clavecin, de l'orgue, et des autres instruments of 1707 supplements his earlier harpsichord treatise, Les Principes du clavecin of 1702. The Nouveau traité is a method book specifically designed for the accompanist rather than the solo performer. It offers practical suggestions to help the accompanist play the correct harmony without having to read all the notated parts at the same time.

Saint Lambert discusses accompanying from unfigured and partly figured basses, and his was one of the first attempts to codify bass progressions into specific formulas, for which he assigns appropriate harmonies. He describes possible departures from the usual rules of accompaniment and examines performance techniques used by "tasteful" accompanists in order to create not merely a correct but an artistic accompaniment.

John Powell presents Saint Lambert's text in a readable English translation with musical examples in modern notation. He compares Saint Lambert's text in a readable English translation with musical examples in modern notation. He compares Saint Lambert's concepts of realization with those of contemporaneous sources and traces the influence of this treatise on later authors.