Robert de Visée was a lutenist, guitarist

Baroque guitar

The Baroque guitar is a guitar from the baroque era , an ancestor of the modern classical guitar. The term is also used for modern instruments made in the same style....

, theorbist

Theorbo

A theorbo is a plucked string instrument. As a name, theorbo signifies a number of long-necked lutes with second pegboxes, such as the liuto attiorbato, the French théorbe des pièces, the English theorbo, the archlute, the German baroque lute, the angélique or angelica. The etymology of the name...

 and viol player

Viol

The viol is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The family is related to and descends primarily from the Renaissance vihuela, a plucked instrument that preceded the...

 at the court of Louis XIV, as well as a singer, 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...

 for lute, theorbo and guitar.

Biography

Robert de Visée’s origin is unknown, although a Portuguese origin of his surname had been suggested. He was likely to have studied with Francesco Corbetta

Francesco Corbetta

Francesco Corbetta was an Italian guitar virtuoso, teacher and composer. He spent his early career in Italy. He seems to have worked as a teacher in Bologna where the guitarist and composer Giovanni Battista Granata may have been one of his pupils...

. He was first mentioned in 1680, and at about that time became a chamber musician to Louis XIV, in which capacity he often performed at court. He was appointed in 1709 as a singer in the royal chamber, and in 1719 he was named “Guitar Master of the King” (Maître de Guitare du Roi). Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...

 reported in a letter of 1688 that he was a respected musician at Versailles, and also played the viol (Strizich and Ledbetter 2001).

Visée published two books of guitar music which contained twelve suites between them, as well as a few isolated pieces: Livre de guitare dédié au roi (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...

, 1682) and Livre de pièces pour la guitare (Paris 1686). He composed many suites of pieces for theorbo

Theorbo

A theorbo is a plucked string instrument. As a name, theorbo signifies a number of long-necked lutes with second pegboxes, such as the liuto attiorbato, the French théorbe des pièces, the English theorbo, the archlute, the German baroque lute, the angélique or angelica. The etymology of the name...

 and Baroque 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....

 (the bulk of which are preserved in the Saizenay Ms.), as well as a collection of ensemble pieces.

Works

Complete index of de Visée’s pieces for the guitar:

• 1682 “Livre de Guitarre, dédie au roi”:
• Suite № 1 in A Minor

Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Gigue
Passacaille
Gavotte
Gavotte
Bourrée

• Suite № 2 in A Major

Allemande
Courante
Sarabande

• Suite № 3 in D Minor

Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Courante
Sarabande
Sarabande
Gigue
Passacaille
Gavotte
Gavotte
Menuet Rondeau
Menuet Rondeau
Bourrée

• Suite № 4 in G Minor

Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Double de la Courante
Sarabande
Gigue
Menuet
Gavotte

• Suite № 5 in G Major

Sarabande
Sarabande
Gigue

• Suite № 6 in C Minor

Prélude
Tombeau de Mr. Francisque Corbet
Courante
Sarabande
Sarabande en Rondeau
Gavotte

• Suite № 7 in C Major

Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Gigue, a la Maniere Angloise
Gavotte
Menuet

• Chaconne
  Chaconne
  A chaconne ; is a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and...
  
   (F Major)

• Suite № 8 in G Major

Prélude
(Accord Nouveau)
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Gigue
Sarabande
Chaconne
Gavotte
Menuet
Bourrée

• 1686 Livre de Pieces pour la Guitarre:
• Suite № 9 in D Minor

Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Gigue
Gavotte
Bourrée
Menuet
Passacaille
Menuet

• Suite № 10 in G Minor

Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Gigue
Menuet
Chaconne
Gavotte
Bourrée
Menuet

Sarabande (A Minor)

Gigue (A Minor)

Sarabande (A Major)

Menuet (A Major)

• Suite № 11 in B Minor

Prélude
Allemande
Sarabande
Gigue
Passacaille

Suite № 12 in E Minor
Sarabande
Menuet
Passacaille

Menuet (C Major)

• Manuscript Pieces:

• Pieces in A minor

Prélude
Allemande
Villanelle (& Contrepartie)

• Pieces in A major

Prélude
Rondeau

• Pieces in C major

Courante
Gigue

• Pieces in D minor

Allemande “La Royalle”
Sarabande
Masquerade
Gigue
Gavotte
Chaconne

• Pieces in D major

Sarabande
Gavotte
Chaconne
Gavotte Rondeau (& Contrepartie)

• Pieces in G minor

Prélude
Prélude
Allemande
Sarabande
Gavotte
Gavotte en Rondeau
Ouverture de la Grotte De Versaille (de Lully)
Entrée d’Appollon (de Lully)

• Pieces in G major

Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Gigue
Gigue
Musette (Rondeau)

Sources

• Strizich, Robert, and David Ledbetter. 2001. "Visée, Robert de". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie
  Stanley Sadie
  Stanley Sadie CBE was a leading British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , which was published as the first edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.Sadie was educated at St Paul's School,...
  
   and John Tyrrell
  John Tyrrell (professor of music)
  John Tyrrell was born in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia in 1942. He studied at the universities of Cape Town, Oxford and Brno. In 2000 he was appointed Research Professor at Cardiff University....
  
  . London: Macmillan Publishers.

External links

• Media:theorbo pieces played by Yair Avidor