Honnêtes Gens as Musicians: The Amateur Experience in Seventeenth-Century Paris

This dissertation examines the musical practices and experiences of honnêtes gens, a large and influential community of amateur musicians active in seventeenth-century Paris. I first undertake a complete review of the dozens of treatises that make up the honnêteté discourse to position music within the constellation of pursuits deemed essential or worthy of honnêtes gens. I show that French theorists praised music above all for its social utility, for they understood it to be an ingratiating practice beneficial to ambitious men and women drawn to the newly centralized court in Paris. I then reconstruct the social choreography underpinning musical performances by honnêtes gens, which allows for a clearer understanding of music as an agent in the construction of performed identity. The final chapters explore the significance of honnêtes gens for vocal performance and the development of amateur repertoires. From Bertrand de Bacilly’s treatise L’art de bien chanter I recover the lost performance practices endemic to French amateur singers during the seventeenth century. As I demonstrate, a fear of grimacing marred the pronunciation of text by honnêtes gens and affected the vocal quality of their singing. The final chapter situates Francesco Corbetta’s final two publications for baroque guitar within a broader discourse of ease prevalent in Paris. Honnêtes gens, who constituted a large portion of guitar players at this time, cloaked their engagement with music in an “easy air.” For these musicians, music that required practice, persistence, and concentration proved antithetical to pleasure or social distinction. I argue that Corbetta’s work and nearly the entirety of the French baroque guitar tradition demonstrate an increasing awareness of honnêtes gens and their musical practices.