Étienne Richard (c. 1621 – 1669) was a
French composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and def ...
,
organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...
and
harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...
ist. Very little is known about his life and work.
He was born in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
and came from a family of organists; apparently he lived and worked in Paris all his life. From 1645 he and his brother Charles were organists to
Chancellor Séguier. In 1651 he succeeded his father as organist of the
Church of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs in Paris, working together with
Nicolas Gigault. In 1652 Etienne lost both his brother and his father. The same year he succeeded the former as organist of
Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, and three years later, in 1655, he took his father's position at St Martin-des-Champs. His career soared by the end of the 1650s, and in 1657 he was employed as harpsichordist and teacher to the King. He also played viola and served as violist to the King's brother. Richard died in Paris in 1669, possibly in May.
[Higginbottom, Grove.]
Although he was exceptionally well regarded at the court, only a few works by Richard survive (and some could be attributed to Charles, Pierre, or another member of either of the two Richard families of musicians that were active in Paris at the time
): two organ preludes, four
allemande
An ''allemande'' (''allemanda'', ''almain(e)'', or ''alman(d)'', French: "German (dance)") is a Renaissance and Baroque dance, and one of the most common instrumental dance styles in Baroque music, with examples by Couperin, Purcell, Bach ...
s, 3
courante
The ''courante'', ''corrente'', ''coranto'' and ''corant'' are some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque era. In a Baroque dance suite an Italian or French courante is typically pair ...
s, two
sarabande
The sarabande (from ) is a dance in triple metre, or the music written for such a dance.
History
The Sarabande evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influences, danced by a lively double line of couples with castanets. A dance called ''zara ...
s and two
gigue
The gigue ( , ) or giga () is a lively baroque dance originating from the English jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th centuryBellingham, Jane"gigue."''The Oxford Companion to Music''. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online. 6 July ...
s, which came to us through the
Bauyn manuscript
The Bauyn manuscript is a manuscript in possession of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris (catalogue number Rés. Vm7 674–675). It is, along with several printed collections and the Parville manuscript, one of the most important so ...
. These pieces all show Richard as an excellent composer who had thoroughly mastered
counterpoint
In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...
and
harmony
In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...
.
[Apel 1972, 504.] The organ preludes successfully combine the older, contrapuntal style of
Jean Titelouze
Jean (''Jehan'') Titelouze (c. 1562/63 – 24 October 1633) was a French Catholic priest, composer, poet and organist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. He was a canon and organist at Rouen Cathedral. His style was firmly rooted ...
with the special attention given to the melody—a progressive trait, since French organ music was later dominated by a melody-based approach. One of the preludes contains several sections, while the other does not.
Of the dance movements, the allemandes are historically important for showing the beginnings of the ornamented style that later French composers used extensively. The gigues exhibit unusual characteristics: one is written in the typical
triple metre
Triple metre (or Am. triple meter, also known as triple time) is a musical metre characterized by a ''primary'' division of 3 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 3 (simple) or 9 ( compound) in the upper figure of the time signature, with , a ...
, but closes with a refrain in 2/2
time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
. The other gigue is in 2/2 time throughout and is virtually indistinguishable from an allemande.
[Apel 1972, 508.]
Notes
References
*
Apel, Willi. 1972. ''The History of Keyboard Music to 1700''. Translated by Hans Tischler. Indiana University Press. . Originally published as ''Geschichte der Orgel- und Klaviermusik bis 1700'' by Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richard, Etienne
1620s births
1669 deaths
French male classical composers
French Baroque composers
French harpsichordists
French classical organists
17th-century French classical composers
Musicians from Paris
17th-century French male musicians
French male classical organists