Gaultier, Denis (EN)

Gaultier, Gautier Denis, also known as Jeune Gaultier, Gaultier Le Jeune, Gaultier de Paris, *1603 or December 1602, †January (?) 1672 Paris, French lutenist and composer, his relationship to Ennemond, sometimes referred to in sources as his “cousin,” has not been established. It is believed that he was a student of Ennemond Gaultier and Ch. Racquet. He was active in Paris, where he married in 1635 and had a son, but it seems that he was not closely associated with the royal court or any other court.

Gaultier was already confused with Ennemond Gaultier by his contemporaries, which makes it difficult to navigate their biographies and compile a list of the works of both composers. Their works are very similar, so that the characteristics of Ennemond Gaultier’s works also apply to those of D. Gaultier. However, one difference is that D. Gaultier himself prepared his collections of works for publication (the second was completed after his death by his pupil, Montarcis) and at least participated in compiling the manuscript of La rhétorique des Dieux. In all collections, the dances, sometimes preceded by an unmeasured prelude, are arranged according to key. This illustrates the early stage of the suite’s development, when the set of dances was not yet conceived as a whole and could be rearranged or omitted altogether. Although the works of D. Gaultier (like those of Ennemond) are clearly based on the major-minor system, La rhétorique distinguishes 12 parts named after modes, from Dorian to Hypoian. However, this is only an attempt to show off knowledge of these names as part of the fashion for antiquity, as, for example, all the pieces in the hypodoric part are in A major, and in the Phrygian part – in F sharp minor (the ‘Lydian part’ of the collection does not contain a single piece).

Literature: O. Fleischer Denis Gaultier, „Vierteljahrsschrift für Musikwissenschaft” II, 1886; E. W. Häfner Die Lautenstücke des Denis Gaultier, Endingen, 1939; D. J. Buch The Coordination of Text, Illustration, and Music in a Seventeenth-century Lute Manuscript: La rhétorique des dieux, “Imago musicae” VI, 1989; D.J. Buch On Dating the Lute Music in La rhétorique des dieux: New Evidence from Watermarks, “Journal of the Lute Society of America” XXV, 1992.