Pierre Attaingnant (or Attaignant) (c. 1494 – late 1551 or 1552) was a French
music publisher
A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers started to play a role in the management of the intellect ...
, active in Paris.
Life
Attaingnant is considered to be first large-scale publisher of single-impression
movable type
Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuation m ...
for music-printing, thus making it possible to print faster and cheaper than predecessors such as
Ottaviano Petrucci
Ottaviano Petrucci (born in Fossombrone on 18 June 1466 – died on 7 May 1539 in Venice) was an Italian printer. His '' Harmonice Musices Odhecaton'', a collection of chansons printed in 1501, is commonly misidentified as the first book of sheet ...
. Attaingnant is often credited with being the first to develop this technique; however, theoric assert exists to suggest that John Rastell, an English printer in London, was the first to use single-impression printing in 1520. Unfortunately, none of his scores were ever found.
[King, A. 1971. The Significance of John Rastell in Early Music Printing. ''The Library'' 26(3).] Attaingnant published over 1500
chansons
A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic so ...
by many different composers, including Paris composers
Claudin de Sermisy Claudin de Sermisy (c. 1490 – 13 October 1562) was a French composer of the Renaissance music, Renaissance.Isabelle Cazeaux, "Claudin d Sermisy", "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians", ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. (London, Macmillan ...
,
Pierre Sandrin and
Pierre Certon
Pierre Certon (ca. 1510–1520 – 23 February 1572) was a French composer of the Renaissance. He was a representative of the generation after Josquin and Mouton, and was influential in the late development of the French chanson.
Life
Most likel ...
, and most prominently
Clément Janequin
Clément Janequin (c. 1485 – 1558) was a French composer of the Renaissance. He was one of the most famous composers of popular chansons of the entire Renaissance, and along with Claudin de Sermisy, was hugely influential in the development o ...
with five books of chansons by
Josquin Desprez
Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez ( – 27 August 1521) was a composer of High Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he was a central figure of the ...
. Attaingnant acquired
royal privileges for his music books, which were renewed many times. Eventually he was named ''imprimeur et libraire du Roy en musique'' (printer and bookseller of the King for music).
Works
Attaingnant's major contribution to music printing consists in his popularizing the single-impression method for music printing, which he first employed in his 1528 publication ''Chansons nouvelles en musique à quatre parties''. In this system, the individual
note
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened version ...
s were printed directly onto segments of
staff, and so the notes, staff lines, and text could all be printed with one send through the
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
. The main disadvantage of this method was the alignment of the staff lines, which often had a “bumpy” look—-some being slightly higher or slightly disjointed from others. Nevertheless, this method became standard music printing across
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Attaingnant learnt the printing trade by printing first "livres d'heure" with the printer Philippe Pigouchet who sold them to Simon Vostre book shop located in St John the evangelist street near the
Sorbonne University
Sorbonne University (french: Sorbonne Université; la Sorbonne: 'the Sorbonne') is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sor ...
in the Parisian student district. Later Pigouchet became Attaingnant's father in law when he married his daughter
Apart from his 36 collections of chansons, he also published books with pieces in
lute or keyboard
tablature
Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches.
Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuela, as well as many fr ...
, as well as
Masses and
motets.
Among the most important documents for keyboard music in general and for French Renaissance keyboard music in particular are the seven volumes published by Attaingnant in Paris in the spring of 1531:
# ''Dixneuf chansons musicales reduictes en la tabulature des Orgues Espinettes Manichordions, et telz semblables instrumentz musicaulx... Idibus Januraii 1530'' (sic).
# ''Vingt et cinq chansons musicales reduictes en la tabulature des Orgues Espinettes Manichordions, et telz semblables instrumentz musicaulx... Kal. 1530'' (sic).
# ''Vingt et six chansons musicales reduictes en la tabulature des Orgues Espinettes Manichordions, et telz semblables instrumentz musicaulx... Non. Frebruaii 1530'' (sic).
# ''Quatorze Gaillardes neuf Pavennes, sept Branles et deux Basses Dances le tout reduict de musique en la tabulature du jeu d'Orgues Espinettes Manicordions et telz semblables instrumentz musicaulx...'' (February 1531 ?).
# ''Tabulature pour le jeu d’Orgues, Espinettes et Manicordions sur le plain chant de Cunctipotens et Kyrie Fons. Avec leurs Et in terra, Patrem, Sanctus et Agnus Dei...'' (March 1531).
# ''Magnificat sur les huit tons avec Te Deum laudamus et deux Preludes, le tout mys en tabulature des Orgues Espinettes et Manicordions, et telz semblables instrumentz... Kal. Martii 1530''.
# ''Treze Motetz musicaulx avec ung Prelude, le tout reduict en la Tabulature des Orgues Espinettes et Manicordions et telz semblables instrumentz... Kal. Aprilis 1531''.
In popular culture
One of the pieces published by Attaingnant has been used three times in 20th- and 21st-century popular music:
* "Donna ti voglio cantare" by Italian singer-songwriter
Angelo Branduardi
Angelo Branduardi (born 12 February 1950) is an Italian folk/folk rock singer-songwriter and composer who scored relative success in Italy and European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Greece.
Biography
Branduardi wa ...
, recorded in his 1979 album ''
Cogli la prima mela'';
* "Play Minstrel Play" by Renaissance band
Blackmore's Night, in their 1997 album ''
Shadow of the Moon
''Shadow of the Moon'' is the debut studio album by the group Blackmore's Night, released June 2, 1997. It stayed on the German charts for 17 weeks. It received a gold certification in Japan for 100,000 albums shipped to stores.
Track listing ...
'';
* "The March Of The Swordmaster" by
Rhapsody
Rhapsody may refer to:
* A work of epic poetry, or part of one, that is suitable for recitation at one time
** Rhapsode, a classical Greek professional performer of epic poetry
Computer software
* Rhapsody (online music service), an online m ...
, included in their 2002 album ''
Power of the Dragonflame
''Power of the Dragonflame'' is the fifth studio album released by Rhapsody. It was released on 23 April 2002 by Limb Music. It is the last chapter in the Emerald Sword Saga. In 2017, '' Loudwire'' ranked it as the 9th best power metal album of ...
''.
Another melody published by Attaingnant is used in several songs:
* "Eternal Wait" by Finnish Folk metal band "
Ensiferum";
* "Ethelion" by British
Progressive Rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...
band "
Gryphon
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon ( Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and ...
";
* "O Sonar das Augas" by Spanish Neoclassical darkwave band "
Narsilion";
* "Tourdion" by German medieval folk bands "
Die Streuner
Die Streuner (''The Strays'' in English) is a German band focusing in medieval music formed in 1994, which regularly plays at markets and festivals.
Music style
The musical style of Die Streuner is focused in medieval music, and in particula ...
", "
Corvus Corax
The common raven (''Corvus corax'') is a large all-black passerine bird. It is the most widely distributed of all corvids, found across the Northern Hemisphere. It is a raven known by many names at the subspecies level; there are at least e ...
" and "
dArtagnan".
The original can be heard below, in the first sample, ''Quand je bois du vin clairet''. An alternative version for lute solo also exists, in Attaingnant's printed works.
References
*D. W. Krummel and
Stanley Sadie, ''Music Printing and Publishing''. New York: W. W. Norton, 1990.
Further reading
*
Heartz, Daniel
Daniel Heartz (1928–2019) was an American Musicology, musicologist and professor emeritus of music at the University of California, Berkeley.
Heartz studied at Harvard University. He lived in Berkeley, California.
Honors
* Recipient of Gugg ...
. ''Pierre Attaingnant, Royal Printer of Music: A Historical Study and Bibliographical Catalogue''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.
External links
*
*
Free scores (Kantoreiarchiv)* Listen t
fro
{{DEFAULTSORT:Attaingnant, Pierre
1490s births
1550s deaths
Renaissance music printers
French music publishers (people)
16th-century French businesspeople