Ballard Robert, *ca. 1575, †after 1640 or after 1650, son of publisher Robert (I), French lutenist and composer. He may have studied music with A. Le Roy, his cousin and co-owner of his father’s publishing company. From 1598, he worked in Paris as a virtuoso and lute teacher. Between 1612 and 1618, he held these positions at the court of Queen Regent Marie de Medici, also teaching the future King Louis XIII. In the following years, he maintained looser relations with the court, collaborating on the musical setting of various ceremonies.
Of particular importance in Ballard’s lute works are the ballets de cour; these are the only known lute arrangements not of individual ballet pieces, but of cycles, sometimes comprising as many as eight parts, known as les chants. Some cycles show the beginnings of a certain pattern of dance arrangement and material connections between parts, thus representing one of the initial stages in the development of the suite.
Compositions:
(preserved mainly in two lute books, published in Paris in 1611 and 1614, as well as in several printed anthologies and manuscripts)
9 entrées de luth
47 courantes
11 various branles
7 voltas
3 galliards
allemandes
preludes
24 lute arrangements of ballets de cour melodies
Editions:
Premier livre (1611), ed. A. Souris, S. Spycket, introduction by M. Rollin, «Corpus des Luthistes Français», Paris 1963, 2nd edition 1976
Deuxième livre (1614) et pièces diverses, ed. A. Souris, S. Spycket, J. Veyrier, «Corpus des Luthistes Français», Paris 1964, 2nd edition 1976
