Julien Belin was a French composer and

lutenist A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can refe ...

active in the second half of the 16th century; he died after 1584.

Biography

The only information about his life comes from the ''Bibliothèque de La Croix Du Maine'', in which he is said to be a ''Manceau'', therefore a native of

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

or surroundings in 1584 in the

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

. His collection, published in 1556, gives René de Saint-François, archdeacon of Le Mans, as a probable protector, and shows him as a capable lutenist, developing his own style, notwithstanding the influence of lutenists

Francesco Canova da Milano Francesco Canova da Milano (Francesco da Milano, also known as ''Il divino'', ''Francesco da Parigi'', etc.) (18 August 1497 – 2 January 1543) was an Italian lutenist and composer. He was born in Monza, near Milan, and worked for the papal cou ...

and Albert de Rippe.

Works

In 1556, he published his ''Premier livre contenant plusieurs motetz, chansons & fantasies reduictz en tabulature de leut'' by Nicolas Du Chemin in Paris with a dedication to René de Saint-François. (read onlin
here
. Modern edition by Michel Renault: Éditions du

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

, 1976 (series ''Le Chœur des Muses : Corpus des luthistes français''). The collection contains: *Six very ornamented songs transcribed for the lute, by

Jacques Arcadelt Jacques Arcadelt (also Jacob Arcadelt; 14 October 1568) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in both Italy and France, and principally known as a composer of secular vocal music. Although he also wrote sacred vocal music, he wa ...

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 ...

, Roger Pathie called Rogier (2) and Pierre

Sandrin Sandrin (Pierre Regnault) (c. 1490 – after 1561) was a French composer of the Renaissance. He was a prolific composer of chansons in the middle of the 16th century, some of which were extremely popular and widely distributed. Life He was ...

(2). *A transcript of the

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

''Cantate Domino'' (Anonymous, not ornamented and probably attributable to Belin himself); *A transcription of the song ''Les Bourguignons'' (same remarks); *Seven fantasies, fairly short, two of which are described as "trio" and written in three parts. They are less ornamented than the transcriptions of the songs and written in a rigorous

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

. Five of the fantasies have been taken up, grouped and in the same order, in the ''Thesaurus musicus continens selectissima Alberti Ripae, Valentini Bacfari et aliorum praestantissimorum carmina ad usum chelys...'' published in Louvain by

Petrus Phalesius the Elder Peeter van der Phaliesen, Latinised as Petrus Phalesius, French versions of name Pierre Phalèse and Pierre de PhaleysSusan Bain and Henri Vanhulst, "Phalèse Family", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by ...

, publisher, in 1574. The analysis of the pieces reveals that Belin was influenced by the style of Albert de Rippe (of whom he was perhaps a pupil).Amoric (pp. 249-254).

Discography

*Four pièces are recorded in ''Julien Belin & Robert Meigret : compositeurs du Maine au XVIe siècle'', by the Ensemble vocal du Maine; Jean-Dominique Abrell, choir leader; Michel Amoric, lute. A CD in addition to the article Amoric 2002, quoted in reference. *The ''Second trio'' is recorded in ''La Magdalena: lute music of Renaissance France'', performed by Christopher Wilson. A CD Virgin Veritas, réf. B000005GGS, EAN 0724354514029 (2000). *’''Mille ans de musique''. Mastership of the Cathedral of Le Mans, dir. Philippe Lenoble. Pieces by Jehan Daniel, Jacques Peltier, Julien Belin, André Pechon,

Innocent Boutry Innocent Boutry was a French chapel master, active in several towns between 1657 and 1680 and notably in Le Mans. Biography He was born around 1634, in the diocese of Chartres. He acceded to priesthood around 1663-1664. He was received at the ...

Pierre Bouteiller Pierre Bouteiller (1655–1717) was a French Baroque composer. His surviving works comprise 13 petits motets The ''petit motet'' ("little motet") was a genre of domestic sacred chamber music popular in France during the baroque era. It was the sa ...

and others. 1 CD Editions Art et Musique, 2006, réf. B00139P31G.

References

Bibliography

*François Grudé de La Croix du Maine. ''La Bibliothèque...'' (1584). Reissue of Paris, 1772, ed. Rigoley de Juvigny. *Michel Renault. "Julien Belin" in ''Grove Dictionary of Music'', online edition. *Michel Amoric, ''Robert Meigret, Julien Belin : deux compositeurs manceaux de musique profane de la Renaissance'', ''Revue historique et archéologique du Maine'', série 4, volume 2 (2002), (pp. 243–260). * François Lesure and

Geneviève Thibault de Chambure Geneviève, comtesse Hubert de Chambure Thibault (20 June 1902, Neuilly-sur-Seine – 31 August 1975, Strasbourg) was a French musicologist associated with the revival of interest in early music. She graduated from the Sorbonne in 1920 with a the ...

. ''Bibliographie des éditions musicales publiées par Nicolas Du Chemin (1549-1576)'', ''Annales musicologiques'' 1 (1953) (pp. 269–273) + suppl.

External links

De mes ennuys [prenés compassion], Julien Belin, 1556, d'après Jacques Arcadelt
on YouTube
Julien Belin
on data.bnf.fr {{DEFAULTSORT:Belin, Guillaume French Renaissance composers 16th-century French composers French lutenists