Adrian Le Roy
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Adrian Le Roy (c. 1520-1598) was an influential French music publisher, lutenist, mandore player, guitarist, composer and music educator.
Life
Le Roy[1] was born in the town of Montreuil-sur-Mer in northern France to a wealthy family. Very little is actually known about his formative years but he was probably a chorister and studied the lute, guitar[2] and cittern with various teachers.
He became an accomplished musician and entered the service of, first, Claude de Clermont, then, Jacques II (Baron de Semblançay and Viscount of Tours), both members of the aristocracy who had influence at court. In 1546 he met the publisher Jean de Brouilly in Paris and married his daughter Denise de Brouilly.
Le Roy and his cousin Robert Ballard (ca. 1525-1588)[3] founded the printing firm "Le Roy & Ballard", and in August 1551 obtained a royal privilege from Henry II to print music.[4] In February 1553, the company was awarded the title of "imprimeur du Roi en musique" (previously held by Pierre Attaignant). This office, which was renewed by successive monarchs, gave the company legal protection against competitors and commercially valuable prestige.[5] Royal patronage was a major factor in the company's success since it ensured both a ready supply of new music from the court musicians and a market for its publications.[5] Over the following two decades other rival companies dropped out of the market and from the 1570s onwards Le Roy & Ballard enjoyed a virtual monopoly in music publishing. The publishing house lasted to the 19th century.[6]
While Robert Ballard looked after the business side, Le Roy was the artistic director. He achieved renown as a composer and arranger of songs and instrumentals, his published work including at least six books of tablature for the lute, 5 volumes for the guitar and arrangements for the cittern. Le Roy also helped to ensure the success of composer Orlande de Lassus, introducing him to court and publishing his music.[7]
Le Roy's book L'instruction pour la mandore gives modern historians hints as to the instruments origins and design. Although lost now, Pierre Trichet commented on things he read in Le Roy's book that tell us the instrument came to France by way of Navarre and Biscay. Trichet also lets us know that Le Roy, the author of a mandore method book did own the instrument which he wrote about.[8]
Le Roy died in Paris in 1598.
Some Published Works
- Premier Livre de Tablature de Luth (1551).
- Briefve et facile instruction (1551).
- Tiers Livre de Tablature de Luth (1552).
- Cinquiesme Livre de Guiterre (1554).
- Second Livre de Guiterre (1556).
- Instruction de Luth (1557).
- Sixiesme Livre de Luth (1559).
- A Briefe and Easye Instrution to Learne the Tableture to Conducte and Dispose the Hande unto the Lute (1568 - 2nd ed. 1574) - English translation by Alford.
- Livre d'air de cours miz sur le Luth (1571): Solo songs with lute accompaniments.[9]
- Les instructions pour le Luth (1574)
- L'instruction pour la mandore (1585)[8]
Notes
- ↑ All Music Guide (Retrieved 26 Aug 2009).
- ↑ In those days "guitar" referred to an instrument with 4 courses - see The Renaissance Guitar at Society of America Lute Society of America (retrieved on 26 Aug 2009).
- ↑ Robert Ballard snr. (ca. 1527-1588), not to be confused with his son Robert Ballard (ca. 1575 - 1645), a distinguished lutenist and composer. In addition there was another Robert Ballard, nephew to the aforementioned lutenist who took over the publishing company of "Le Roy & Ballard" in 1639 (Music and Letters, 1965, Vol. XLVI, No. 4, pp. 375-376).
- ↑ Clair, Colin. A history of European printing (Academic press, 1976), p213.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 See Harr, p172.
- ↑ Pratt, Waldo S. The History of Music: A Handbook and Guide for Students (Kerssinger, 2004), p155.
- ↑ see Adrian Le Roy (at "Virtual Baroque").
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 James Tyler, The mandore in the 16th and 17th Centuries
- ↑ See Buelow, George J. A history of baroque music (Indiana University Press, 2004), pp156 ff.
Further reading
- Calmes, Keith. Guitar Music of the 16th Century (Mel Bay, 2008), pp46 ff.
- Harr, James. European music, 1520-1640 (Boydell Press, 2006)), p172 ff.
- Lesure, Francois & Thibault, Geneviève. Bibliographie des éditions musicales d'Adrian Le Roy et Robert Ballard, 1551-1598 (Paris, 1955).
- Tyler, James & Sparks, Paul. The guitar and its music: From the Renaissance to the Classical era (OUP Oxford, 2007), p17 ff.
External links
- Pages with broken file links
- 1520s births
- 1598 deaths
- People from Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais
- French lutenists
- Composers for lute
- French classical composers
- French male classical composers
- Baroque composers
- French classical musicians
- French guitarists
- Sheet music publishers (people)
- Year of birth uncertain
- 16th-century composers
