| Birth Date: | Between June 1574 and June 1575 |
| Birth Place: | Probably in Brie, France |
| Death Date: | 17 December 1630 |
| Death Place: | Paris |
| Occupation: |
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Gabriel Bataille (between June 1574 and June 1575[1] – 17 December 1630) was a French musician, lutenist and composer of airs de cour. He should not be confused with his son Gabriel II Bataille.
The allusions to Brie in his verse pieces suggest that Gabriel Bataille was a native of this province. He had a brother Louis, a tailor, quoted in an act of 1621[2] and a sister Catherine, married to Didier Dutour, usher of the accounts and treasures in Paris, and died before 1600.[3]
At the time of his marriage with Catherine Carre, on 12 February 1600, he was already a Parisian, but his marriage contract specified that he was then clerk to the parliamentary counselor Germain Regnault; thus he was not yet a professional musician.[4] When in 1608 Pierre I Ballard published the first volumes of his Airs de différents autheurs, he had probably become one: from 1614 he was listed as master of music.
From 1617 to his death, he was master of music of the house of Anne of Austria (1601–1666), by semester, alternating with Antoine Boësset. He had signed a contract with the latter, which also aimed at this post, so that the one who would obtain it would share it with the other (what happened).[5] He had to testify on 9 June 1617 at the trial of Leonora Galigai, and described the exorbitant conditions imposed by the Marshal d'Ancre on the musicians who had applied for the charges of musician of the house of the queen (an entire year of wages).[6]
Bataille inserted a piece of verse to the praise of Jacques Le Fèvre in his Meslanges[7] dated 1613; by will, the latter left him on 22 December 1627, a part of the books of music which collected all his works.[8] In 1617 and 1618, Bataille also published pieces of verses at the beginning of books by Antoine Boësset[9] and Pierre Guédron.[10] It is thus necessary to see these three musicians at the center of his network of friends.
On 5 February 1614, he was a witness at the marriage of Jean Rocher, Sieur de Bréau, agent at the Finance Council.[11] His friendship with Pierre I Ballard, which favored his career, shows in his sponsorship of Marguerite, daughter of the printer and Sansonne Coulon, dated 11 February 1619. On 22 January 1624, Gabriel Bataille was again witness of the marriage of Nicolas Chastelet (like him a musician of the queen) with Marie Sodey[12] then on 5 February of the same year, witness of the bride at the marriage of Thomas Vassetz, notary note-keeper at the Grand Châtelet, with Marie Carré, probably a sister of his wife.[13]
He had four living children:[14] Pierre, ordinary musician of queens' music, Madeleine,[15] Gabriel II, who succeeded him as master of the Queen's music (which suggests that he had obtained this charge in "survival" from his father), and Françoise.
His wife Catherine Carré was buried on 8 February 1624; while he died on 17 December 1630 and was buried in the église Saint-Paul the day after.[16] He lived at (at least since 1611). The inventory of his possessions,[17] drawn up on 14 February 1631, revealed five lutes, 29 packages of music and an interesting library.
The most active period of the production of Bataille was between 1605 and 1620; After that date, and until his death, we have very little information about his life. In 1608 and 1615 he published a collection of court arias composed by the most prominent masters of the moment and arranged by him for voice and lute. It includes six books, some of which have been reissued, a sign of real success. Here is the list:
The ensemble was republished in facsimile by Minkoff in Geneva; In addition, a selection of pieces was published twice: French ayres from Gabriel Bataille's Airs de différents autheurs (1608-1618), ed. Peter Warlock (London : Oxford University Press, ca.1926);Nine pieces appear in Airs de cour pour voix et luth (1607–43), éd. A. Verchaly (Paris:, 1961).They contain mostly airs de cour, autonomous or excerpts of ballets represented at the time to the court of France. There are also nine psalms translated into verses measured by Philippe Desportes.
In these courtly tunes, Bataille took a lot of the works of Pierre Guédron. He of course included in his collections several of his own compositions. He showed himself respectful of the original vocal melody, by decorating it appreciably. At the lute, he respected the original bass part, but more easily adapted the intermediate voices.
Many of the pieces in these collections have been included in collections of contemporary spiritual arias, such as La Pieuse Alouette of printer Jean Vervliet (Valenciennes, 1619–1621), which is a sign of a fairly wide spread.
Gabriel Bataille also composed his own tunes.