A non-jeopardized prelude , also a tactless prelude ( fr. Prélude non mesuré ) is a genre of instrumental music (originally for lute , later for viola and gamba and harpsichord ) and a type of compositional technique in France of the 17th century. The name is explained by the fact that the meter (clock characteristics, clock size) in such preludes was not recorded, and the rhythm was recorded conventionally, only as an outline for the melodic-rhythmic improvisation of the performer.
Brief Feature
Nonmetrized preludes are found in French lute players of the 17th century ( J.Pinel , D.Gautier , etc.), gambists ( Demachis , Saint-Colombe ), most often in early harpsichordists ( J.-A. d'Anglebert , L. Couperin , N. Lebesgue , E. Jacquet de la Guerre , G. le Roux ). There are about 50 such preludes. In the first decades of the 18th century, unrhythmic preludes are found in L. Marcain (1702), F. Cooperin (L'art de toucher le clavecin, 1716), J.-F. Ramo (in the First Book, 1706). Non-neutralized preludes (or stylistic imitations of such preludes) are occasionally found among German clavier music authors who have experienced French influence ( I.Ya. Froberg , later IKF Fisher ).
The prelude can be one-part, entirely with a non-stressed rhythm (such as the prelude from the suite G-dur d'Anglebert, see the musical example), or multipart, where sections with fixed rhythm are combined with sections with non-fixed rhythm. An example of the second kind is the three-part “Prelude imitating Froberger” ( fr. Prélude and l'imitaion de Mr. Froberger ) a-moll by L. Coopen, in which the first and third sections of the form are non-metric, and the second is a small metric fugue (rhythm and beat size written out). The harpsichord suites, laments ( Italian lamenti ) and tombo ( fr. Tombeaux , musical epitaphs) by Froberger himself are metrized (there is a clock size and clock features), but nonetheless imply a “rapsodic” (quasi-improvisational) rhythmization in the manner of French lute preludes.
The interpretation of the unmetrized prelude, of this peculiar baroque aleatorica, is the exclusive responsibility of the performer, therefore every “authentic” performance of such a prelude is unlike the other.
Literature
- Curtis A. Unmeasured preludes in French Baroque instrumental music. Diss., Univ. of Illinois, 1956.
- Prevost P. le. Le prélude non mesuré pour clavecin (France 1650-1700). Baden-Baden, 1987.
- Tilney C. The art of unmeasured prelude for harpsichord: France 1660-1720. London 1991
- Zenaishvili T. The French Tactless Prelude // Academy of Music. 1999. № 2.
- Moroney D. Prélude non mesuré // The New Grove Dictionary of Music. London; New York, 2001.
- Krivitskaya E. The History of French Organ Music. Moscow, 2003.