The
Ranums'
Panat Times
Volume 1, redone Dec. 2014
Why a Glossary of French "Terms of Movement"?
Eighteen years after compiling a glossary of FRENCH TERMS OF MOVEMENT —and having written a book full of quotations from seventeenth- and eighteenth- century sources— I am offering you translations of statements about tempo and "affect" that I collected back in 1981. At the time I did not imagine that the issues raised by these statements would pique my curiosity and eventually result not only in The Harmonic Orator, (published by Pendragon Press) but also in my participation in the Thésée pedagogical project conducted by Les Arts Florissants in September-October 1998.
There are many lacunae for this project. But rather than toss the materials into the shredder, I am making them available here as an appendix to The Harmonic Orator — an appendix that will acquire its full meaning when used in tandem with my book. That is to say, the terms that French composers placed at the top of their compositions during the final decades of the seventeenth century and on into the waning years of the eighteenth century are related to the Art of Rhetoric and the Expression of the Passions (both discussed at length in The Harmonic Orator).
For example, for Baroque players and singers, the term tendrement evoked the mouvements, that is, the "e-motions" of a person whose heart was "animated" by love, tenderness. "Moved" by this passion, the individual's heart beats at a predictably calm and even rate; this calm heartbeat causes him to speak at a similar even rate; and because he is so calm, his throat relaxes and imparts to his voice a "tender" tone. Placing the word tendrement at the top of a composition therefore simultaneously indicated three things: 1) the tempo of the piece, 2) the principal emotion (mouvement) being felt, and 3) the tone of voice (or of instrument).
Consult the Glossary now:
Glossary A-C
Glossary D-F
Glossary G-J
Glossary L-M
Glossary N-P
Glossary R-V