Denis Gaultier (1597 or 1602/3 – 1672) was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 lutenist and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

. He was a cousin of Ennemond Gaultier

Ennemond Gaultier

Ennemond Gaultier was a French lutenist and composer. He was one of the masters of the 17th century French lute school....

.

Life

Gaultier was born in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

; two conflicting sources point to either 1597 or 1603 as the year of birth. The former can be deduced from an account by Thorian, who claimed that Gaultier died in 1672 at the age of seventy-five. However, an archival document from the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris

Hôtel-Dieu de Paris

The Hôtel-Dieu de Paris is regarded as the oldest hospital in the city of Paris, France, and is the most central of the Assistance publique - hôpitaux de Paris hospitals. The hospital is linked to the Faculté de Médecine Paris-Descartes...

 hospital states that Gaultier was twenty-three at the time of his convalescence in the hospital, which was from 24 October 1626 to 12 December 1626.

Very little is known about Gaultier's career. He may have studied under Charles Racquet

Charles Racquet

Charles Racquet was a French organist and composer, best known for his monumental organ Fantaisie.He came from a large family of Parisian organists and himself was appointed organist of Notre Dame de Paris at an early age, in 1618. He held the post until shortly before his death and was succeeded...

, since he commemorated the lutenist's death with a tombeau

Tombeau

A tombeau is a musical composition commemorating the death of a notable individual. The term derives from the French word for "tomb" or "tombstone". The vast majority of tombeaux date from the 17th century and were composed for lute or other plucked string instruments...

. Until at least 1631 Denis's career was closely linked to that of his older cousin, Ennemond; so much that contemporary writers referred to either composer by surname only, making no attempt to distinguish between them. Both lutenists had connections with Blancrocher

Charles Fleury

Charles Fleury, Sieur de Blancrocher was a French lutenist. Known principally under the name Blancrocher , he was one of the leading performers of his day, active in Paris. Whether he composed or not is unknown; a single dance movement survives, attributed to him, in the so-called Manuscrit Vaudry...

 and Henri de L'Enclos, and both secured a high reputation comparable to that of François Dufaut

François Dufault

François Dufault was a French lutenist and composer.Dufault was born in Bourges, France. As a student of Denis Gaultier, he enjoyed an excellent reputation as an instrumentalist, what is demonstrated in many contemporary sources where he was described as one of the greatest lutenist of his time...

, Jacques Gallot

Jacques Gallot

Jacques Gallot was a French lutenist and composer....

, or Charles Mouton

Charles Mouton

Charles Mouton was a famous French lutenist and lute composer.There is only little information known about him. He was born probably in Rouen, studied probably with Denis Gaultier and early in his career, he worked at the court of the dukes of Savoy in Turin. In the 1660s, he taught lute Paris...

. In 1635 Denis married Françoise Daucourt. Their son Philippe Emmanuel would later become advisor to the king, but there is no evidence that Gaultier himself ever held a court position, even though his cousin did. Denis most probably gained fame and income through salon

Salon (gathering)

A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...

 playing.

Works

Denis and Ennemond are confused in many contemporary manuscripts and prints, leading to numerous attribution problems. A number of pieces are signed simply with the surname, some are attributed to Denis in one collection and to Ennemond in another, and still others are now known to have been be misattributed. Gaultier's output, as is to be expected from a 17th-century French lutenist, consists mainly of dance suites for the lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....

. In general, Gaultier was a masterful melodist, effortlessly writing graceful melodic lines with clear phrase structures, but his music is less inventive harmonically than that of some other French lutenists of the era, such as René Mesangeau

René Mesangeau

René Mésangeau was a French composer and lutenist. He is considered to be one of the finest lutenists of the 17th century.In 1619, he settled in France and married the daughter of the spinet maker Jean Jacquet...

 or Pierre Dubut.

Three published collections of Gaultier's music have come down to us, all from his late years. La rhétorique des dieux (1652) contains 12 parts, each named after one of the Greek modes, but the actual harmonic procedures of the pieces are not connected to the modes. Many of the pieces reference Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

. The collection, compiled under the patronage of Anne de Chambré, also contains engravings after Le Sueur

Le Sueur

-People:* Charles Alexandre Lesueur, French naturalist/artist* Eustache Le Sueur, a French painter* Hubert Le Sueur, a French sculptor* Jacques-François le Sueur, French Jesuit missionary* Jean-François Le Sueur, a French composer* Jean Le Sueur, a French priest...

, Abraham Bosse

Abraham Bosse

Abraham Bosse was a French artist, mainly as a printmaker in etching, but also in watercolour.-Life:...

 and Robert de Nanteuil. Two other collections, Pièces de luth sur trois différens modes nouveaux (c. 1669) and Livre de tablature [...] de Mr. Gaultier Sr. de Nève et de Mr. Gaultier son cousin (c. 1672) both begin with basic instructions on lute playing. All three manuscripts consist principally of dances. The one other genre Gaultier made an important contribution to is the tombeau

Tombeau

A tombeau is a musical composition commemorating the death of a notable individual. The term derives from the French word for "tomb" or "tombstone". The vast majority of tombeaux date from the 17th century and were composed for lute or other plucked string instruments...

.

An adequate assessment of Gaultier's music and influence is difficult due to attribution problems. According to recent research, La rhétorique des dieux may consist of works not composed by Denis Gaultier, or original works by him changed by unknown scribes. The 1672 collection was completed after Gaultier's death by his pupil Montarcis, and contains music by two different Gaultiers. Other pieces, found in various manuscripts, also pose numerous attribution problems. Nevertheless, Gaultier was an important exponent of the French style brisé

Style brisé

Style brisé is a term for broken, arpeggiated texture in instrumental music. It usually refers to French Baroque music for lute, keyboard instruments or the viol. French Baroque musicians referred to this type of texture as style luthé , since it originated in lute music...

, and as such an influence on harpsichordists such as Johann Jakob Froberger

Johann Jakob Froberger

Johann Jakob Froberger was a German Baroque composer, keyboard virtuoso, and organist. He was among the most famous composers of the era and influenced practically every major composer in Europe by developing the genre of keyboard suite and contributing greatly to the exchange of musical...

. Around 1680 a few of Gaultier's works were included in anthologies by Perrine

Perrine (music theorist)

Perrine was a French music theorist and lute teacher. He is only known by his surname. Three theoretical works by him are extant, all dealing with the practice of lute playing, which Perrine sought to revive by replacing the traditional lute tablature with staff notation:* Livre de musique pour le...

, a French theorist who experimented with the writing of lute music in staff notation.