I fear this title may arouse false hopes of an account of a glittering evening in a Paris salon, attended by Rameau, Campra, de Lalande, de La Fontaine and other admirers of the brilliant and, on evidence of the portrait by François de Troy, beautiful Mme. de la Guerre, née Jacquet.
The word “reception”, sadly in this case, has nothing to do with repartee over glasses of champagne and improvisations on a fully-decorated double-manual harpsichord. I actually should have spelled it Rezeption, because in the present sense it goes back to German Rezeptionsästhetik of the 1960s. This focussed on readers’ role in creating meaning, and intersected later in the US with French deconstructionism. I hardly need articulate my view of these trends, but the word has entered general parlance, meaning (according to ChatGPT) “the historical process by which a work is understood, interpreted, and valued by successive audiences”, and should serve its purpose here.
The work by Mme. Élisabeth which I wish to understand, interpret and value is her Prelude in A minor from Les Piéces de Claveßin De Mad.elle de la Guerre of 1687. The only extant copy of this publication was discovered at the Venice Conservatory towards the end of the previous century. There is a generational difference between it and ÉJdlG’s only other print (1707). In 1687 we are still in the world of Monsieur Couperin (Louis, Charles, François (i) ) and d’Anglebert. By 1707 Rameau’s influence is already unmistakable. (See Article 22 for a possible autograph of an unknown prélude by EJdlG.)
I took up Madame for the first time in many years while searching for repertoire for an upcoming concert by my wife, Naoko Akutagawa, in Tokyo. My opinion of her preludes had not been all that high, except for the last of the four in the 1687 book, called Toccade –– an unique and fascinating link with Froberger. The other three are largely in white notation with added hints, in the manner of d’Anglebert. While the notes are in the correct order (unlike the disasters of the Bauyn and Parville manuscripts), I found them diffuse and lacking in expressive power. But A minor was the desired key, so I set about working the piece out. By the end of the process I was ashamed of having underestimated the formidable lady.
Since discovering “Louis” Couperin (but see Article 1) in Brunold’s edition at the Juilliard school library back in 1969, I have been obsessed with the proper organization of préludes non mesurés. From the beginning I objected to the vague, drifting, chaotic way they are usually performed. Gustav Leonhardt’s historic performance (April 1971) at Alice Tully Hall on Hugh Gough’s Ruckers, together with the American releases of his early Harmonia Mundi recordings, opened the door to a more rigorous approach. Later studies, especially of the preludes of François Couperin and the con discrezione sections of works by Froberger, convinced me that there is a clear correspondence between pieces notated without rhythmic indications and those written out in common time, intended to be played, as François le Grand put it, “without staying too attached to the meter”. Common (C, four-four) time is as natural as breathing in and out, or walking with alternate feet. ÉJdlG’s prelude, like all the others, lends itself to metrical transcription in common time, with plenty of room for flexible tempo (as most copiously indicated in the recercatas of Sebatián Albero) and expanded or contracted bars.
I offer here a recording based on my manuscript thought-experiment, attached along with the first page of the original. Far from intending these to be definitive to any degree, I only mean to show how such pieces can (and I think should –– “Jeder nach seiner Façon”, as Frederick the Great said about religion) be fitted into the strait jacket of metrical notation in order to serve as a framework for a quasi-improvisational way of paying them. Recognizable harmonic relationships at logical distances function as the glue holding together the varied melodic gestures.
These pieces are simply not as free as is often thought. Duchess Sibylla said Froberger had an exact way of playing his works, the same every time. In some ways it is unfortunate that the Couperin brothers chose a keyboard version of French lute notation for their preludes. It has thrown generations of players off track.
19 December, 2025
Jacquet Prelude" - click  to listen (mp3 file)
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