Les Barricades Mystérieuses Explained

Les Barricades Mystérieuses (The Mysterious Barricades) is a piece of music that François Couperin composed for harpsichord in 1717. It is the fifth piece in his Ordre 6ème de clavecin in B-flat major, from his second book of collected harpsichord pieces (Pièces de Clavecin).[1] [2] It is emblematic of the style brisé characteristic of French Baroque keyboard music.[3]

Music

The work is in rondeau form, employing a variant of the traditional romanesca in the bass in quadruple time rather than the usual triple time. In the view of Tom Service,

Title

Les Barricades Mystérieuses was originally published with the spelling 'Les Baricades Mistérieuses' ["single r" in the first word, and "i" rather than "y" in the second word]. All four possible spelling combinations have since been used with "double r" and a "y" being the most common. The intended meaning of the phrase has remained an enigma (an example of how musical allusions can remain hidden over time).[4]

There has been much speculation on the meaning of the phrase "mysterious barricades", but no direct evidence appears to be available.[5] The harpsichordist Pascal Tufféry has suggested that, in keeping with the bucolic character of other pieces in Couperin's Ordre 6ème de clavecin, the pounding rhythm may represent the stamping of grapes in winemaking (given that the French word barrique means 'barrel', and barriquade was a designation adopted by viticulturalists of the day in France).[5] In this view, the "mysterious" epithet could allude to the significance of wine in the Mysteries of Bacchus (as well as in the sacrament of the Eucharist[6]).[5] Some of the less likely interpretations of the "mysterious barricades" proposed over the years – sometimes in relation to the salonnières of the 17th century - include women’s eyelashes, underwear and even chastity belts.[5]

A plausible attempt to link the title to features of the music itself has been provided by the harpsichordist Luke Arnason:[5]

While the title reflects the musical structure, there may be more at play. The suggestion of barricades is "a double entendre referring simultaneously to feminine virginity and the suspensions [of] harmonic [progressions] of the music, [whose] lute figurations [from the [[style brisé]]] are imitated to produce an enigmatic stalemate", as Judith Robison Kipnis explained the work's title and its interpretation by her husband Igor Kipnis.[7]

Other suggested intended meanings for the title include:

Legacy

Claude Debussy, who considered François Couperin to be the "most poetic of our [French] harpsichordists" and an influence on his own piano études, expressed particular admiration for Les Barricades Mystérieuses.[10] In 1903, Debussy wrote:

Homages and references in other works

The piece has been used as a source of inspiration across different artistic fields including music, visual arts and literature.[5]

Music

Visual arts

http://www.as.miami.edu/personal/sevnine/MystBarrVisArt.htm http://www.as.miami.edu/personal/sevnine/MystBarrFilm.htm

Film

Literature

http://www.as.miami.edu/personal/sevnine/MystBarrFiction.htm http://www.as.miami.edu/personal/sevnine/MystBarrNon-fiction.htm http://www.as.miami.edu/personal/sevnine/MystBarrPoetry.htm

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Baumont, Olivier. French. Olivier Baumont. Couperin: Le musicien des rois (Couperin: The musician of kings). . 339 . Gallimard. Paris. January 1998. 74. 2070533123.
  2. Book: Tunley, David. François Couperin and the perfection of music . limited. Aldershot, England . Ashgate . 2004 . 113, 115 . 0754609286.
  3. Book: Bond, Ann. A guide to the harpsichord. limited. 1. Amadeus Press. Portland, Oregon. 1997. 155 . 1574670638.
  4. Cyr M . Mysterious Titles, Hidden Meaning . Early Music America . 2014 . 20 . 3 . 32-36 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220514140452/https://www.proquest.com/openview/f64a5b354fbfca7b4b97220b95f1b58a/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=28725 . 14 May 2022 . en.
  5. Web site: Evnine . Simon J . The Mysterious Barricades: The Piece and its Title . https://web.archive.org/web/20210307091159/https://simonevnine.com/the-piece-and-its-title/ . 7 March 2021 . live .
  6. Web site: Tuffery P . Les Barricades Mystérieuses . www.clavecin-en-france.org . https://web.archive.org/web/20220327075949/https://www.clavecin-en-france.org/spip.php?article331 . 27 March 2022 . fr . 2020 . live.
  7. Igor Kipnis, French Baroque Music for Harpsichord, EPIC LP cat.no. BC1289, 1964, Library of Congress r64001444 Permalink http://lccn.loc.gov/r64001443, also http://catalog2.loc.gov/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=207082&recCount=25&recPointer=3&bibId=9856129
  8. The mirror of human life': Reflections on François Couperin's Pièces de Clavecin by Jane Clark and Derek Connon (Redcroft, King's Music, 2002), cited in Evnine.
  9. (François Couperin and the French Classical Tradition, new version, London, Faber and Faber, 1987, pp. 400–2). Cited in Evnine.
  10. Book: Wheeldon M . Debussy's Late Style . 2009 . Indiana University Press . 978-0-253-35239-2 . 67-68 . en.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Les Barricades Mystérieuses".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.