Marcelle Benoit quotes a document of 1695 from the Archives Nationales where
the surviving papers of the royal household are kept. It is from the
"Secrétariat de la Maison du Roi" and on march 14th 1695, f° 38v in the series
O.1 39 there is this allusion to Jourdan :
"Retenüe de joüeur de guitarre du Roy, pour le Sr de la Salle
Ayant egard aux services que feu Bernard Jourdan de la Salle nous a rendu
depuis l'année 1650 que nous le choisismes pour nous enseigner a joüer de la
guitarre, nous avons bien voulu, en cette consideration, conserver lad. charge
a Louis Jourdan de la Salle, son fils, et luy contnuer les gages ordinaires de
1200 livres tournois qui y sont attribuez..."
We learn that Louis XIV started to learn the guitar when he was 12 years old
and that his teacher, who had come to France 10 years before the king's
marriage with his Spanish cousin Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche, was dead by 1695
("feu Bernard Jourdan de la Salle").
Marcelle Benoît in her "Dictionnaire de la musique en France aux XVIIe et
XVIIIe siècles" writes that he was a native a Sanlucar de Barrameda in the
province of Cadiz, as Monica justly quotes. Louis, his son who succeded him in
his functions, was born in 1659 and Louis XIV was his godfather and Anne
d'Autriche - the king's mother - his godmother. Bernard married a certain
Elizabeth Lesueur and had a daughter Elizabeth Laurente in 1660.
That's about the only facts we have about Bernard Jourdan de la Salle, who was
naturalized in 1681, and the act where this is recorded says that he was
"natif de St Luc en Espagne (=Sanluccar) faisant profession de la Religion
catholique, apostolique et romaine" (O.1 25, f° 203 & 242)
In 1684 he was paid 600 lt, like Champion, Ithier, Marais etc... and was
qualified "La SAlle, maître à jouer de la guitarre".
Same thing in 1686.
In 1688 he received 1200 lt, wheres the other musiciens of la Chambre had only
600 lt.
In 1689, he had only 600 lt.
In 1691, he received 1200 lt. againn more than Michel Lambert, the singer and
Lully father-in-law who only got 720 lt...
In 1693, he is called "Sieur de la Salle" and is listed for a sum of 600 lt
with a comment "n'a pas été payé faute de de fonds dans l'estat de
distribution" ( ;-) public money shortage not a new problem it seems...)
Eventually, in 1695 the money (1200 lt.) is delivered to "Louis Jourdand de la
Salle, maistre à jouer de la guitarre du Roy, au lieu de feu Bernard Jourdan de
la Salle son père".
Louis XIV must have been a rather gifted sutdent as, after his death, his
brother's wife Elisabeth-Charlotte de Bavière wrote in a letter : "il ne
connaissait aucune note de musique, mais il avait l'oreile juste et il jouait
de la guitare mieux qu'un maître, arangeant sur cet instrument tout ce qu'il
voulait"...
According to M. Benoit, Francisque Corbett (= Corbetta) seems to have been
Bernard Jourdan's successor in spite of Louis Jourdan, legal heir of his
father's functions.
End of story. No music so far has been unearthed that could be attributed to
one of the two Jourdan de la Salle...
We were more lucky with another Spaniard who had settled inFrance, Luys de
Briceño, but that is another story ;-) !
All the best,
Jean-Marie
PS: all the information is to be found in Marcelle Benoit, "Versailles et les
musiciens du roi" and "Musiques de cour, chapelle, chambre, écurie; recueil de
documents", Paris : Picard, 1971 and her Dictionnaire, Paris : Fayard, 1992
--------------
>I can only tell you what James Tyler has said in his book "The guitar and
>its music" (2002) p. 108 as I don't have a copy of Benoit.
>
>Jourdan de la Salle had been Louis XIVs' "Maitre de guittarre" at least
>since 1650 and
>he died in 1695. He was then succeeded by his son Louis who died in 1620.
>Louis Jourdan was succeeded by De Visee.by which time of course Louis XIV
>had died and Louis XV had succeeded him.
>
>Jourdan apparently was from Sanlucar de Barrameda in the province of Cadiz.
>This is a small town on the coast.
>
>The reference which Jim gives is Benoit "Dictionnairede la musique en France
>aux XVIIe et XVIIIe" 1992 p. 728
>
>I am not sure about this and perhaps Jean-Marie can enlighten us - but I
>wonder if "Maitre de guitarre" doesn't necessarily mean that he actually
>taught Louis to play. More that he was there to play to the King in his
>leisure hours. He may not have been a composer but a lot of stuff in
>manuscript is anonymous and it may have been difficult to get guitar music
>printed in France before engraving rather than printing from musical type
>became common.
>
>Best
>Monica
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Peter Danner" <peter...@aol.com>
>To: "Monica Hall" <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk>
>Cc: "Lutelist" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
>Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2014 3:04 PM
>Subject: [LUTE] Re: De Visee
>
>
>> Monica is quite right in pointing out that de Visee was never Louis XIV's
>> official guitar teacher, which brings up another question. It has been
>> years since I looked into the matter, but I find this in my notes. Perhaps
>> someone can remind me of the Benoit citation. It identifies de la Salle as
>> Spanish:
>>
>> From 1650 Bernard Jourdan de la Salle, a native of Saint-Luc, was the
>> King's teacher of the guitar. He was replaced by his son Louis Anne in
>> 1695.
>> "1681. Juillet. Naturalité pour Bernard Jourdan dit la Salle, natif de St.
>> Luc en Espagne, faisant profession de la Religion catholique, apostolique
>> et romanine." Benoit, p.79.
>>
>> Just who was this Bernard Jourdan de la Salle, and where was Saint-Luc?
>> Why is there no surviving music by him?
>>
>> Peter Danner
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
