French collections of airs de cour published between 1578 and 1629 contain a small but striking repertory of songs in Spanish. A count of their documented appearances in the collections discussed here yields thirty-six printed settings in that period; this includes songs published more than once in different formats. A further air appeared in a collection by Étienne Moulinié in 1668, bringing the count to thirty-seven printed appearances through that year. These are counts of appearances, not of thirty-seven different songs. Their presence in French prints tells a story of musical exchange across a politically contested border. Some tunes and texts have parallels in Spanish or Italian sources, while French publishers and musicians adapted them for polyphonic singing, solo voice with lute, or voice with guitar.
Abraham Bosse, Le Bal (1634). Musée du Louvre, Paris.
The chronology matters. Pieces by Fabrice-Marin Caiétain (1578) and Guillaume Tessier (1582) precede those published under Henri IV. Gabriel Bataille’s collections appeared in the years before and after Anne of Austria arrived in France in 1615; later prints by Antoine Boësset and Moulinié belong to the reign of Louis XIII, when the Spanish-born queen was at the French court. Political relations changed during these decades, but the publication of songs in Spanish continued. A later war between France and Spain began in 1635. This historical framework follows the research of Rico Osés and Ana Beatriz Mujica Lafuente.
The earliest examples occur in polyphonic books. Caiétain’s Second livre d’airs, chansons, villanelles napolitaines & espagnolles (1578) includes the four-part songs “Falsa mes la spiga” and “Madre à l’amor.”
Title page of Fabrice-Marin Caiétain, Second livre d’airs, chansons, villanelles napolitaines & espagnolles, Paris: Adrian Le Roy and Robert Ballard, 1578.
Guillaume Tessier’s Premier livre d’airs tant françois, italien qu’espagnol (1582; reprinted 1585) contains three Spanish songs: “No ay en la tierra”, “De unos ojos bellos,” and “Como harán dos.” Their syllabic text setting, refrains, and rhythmic turns invite comparison with Spanish song traditions. The alto partbook of the 1582 print is lost, so a modern four-part performance requires editorial reconstruction. Charles Tessier added “Alla nel monte” and “Una pastor’ hermosa” to his Airs et villanelles (1604).
Guillaume Tessier, Premier livre d’airs tant françois, italien qu’espagnol
Paris: Adrian Le Roy and Robert Ballard, 1582; reprinted 1585.
In Gabriel Bataille’s collections, solo voice and lute bring these songs into another French publishing format. The anonymous “Passava amor su arco desarmado”, setting words associated with Jorge de Montemayor’s Diana, appeared in the 1608 Airs de différents auteurs. Bataille’s second book (1609) includes ten songs in Spanish, among them “Vuestros ojos tienen d’amor” and “El baxel esta en la playa”.
Mujica Lafuente’s detailed study of the 1609 book finds both affinities with its French airs and distinctive rhythmic features. The Spanish-language songs often have short ranges and predominantly syllabic melodies, while their treatment of rhythm can evoke traditions from outside the French court. Their inclusion therefore need not be understood as straightforward composition of new “French music” to Spanish words: in some cases, concordances point to earlier circulation and adaptation.
Title page of Gabriel Bataille, Airs de différents autheurs mis en tablature de luth, second book, Paris: Pierre Ballard, 1609.
The fifth book of Bataille’s anthology (1614) includes “Yo soy la locura”, attributed to Henri de Bailly, and “Si sufro por ti morena”. The former is printed as a Pasacalle, la folie and linked to a court ballet whose title has not been identified. The latter appeared in a four-voice version in Pierre Ballard’s collection of 1613 before its publication for voice and lute in 1614. These multiple settings show how a song could move between domestic, courtly, and printed forms.
Henri de Bailly, “Yo soy la locura,” in Gabriel Bataille, Airs de différents autheurs mis en tablature de luth, fifth book, Paris: Pierre Ballard, 1614.
Antoine Boësset’s “Una musica le den” (1617) and “Frescos ayres del prado” (1624) extend the sequence. The first stages a playful exchange involving Pedro and Joanica; a specific performance for Anne of Austria remains a possibility rather than a documented occasion. “Frescos ayres del prado” survives in both a polyphonic print and a version for voice and lute. A related source in Florence adds another point of comparison for the movement of Spanish-language songs across Europe.
Antoine Boësset, “Frescos ayres del prado”
Quatrième livre d’airs de cour à quatre et cinq parties (Paris: Pierre Ballard, 1624).
“Frescos ayres del prado”
Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS Ricc. 2793.
Étienne Moulinié’s “Embiame mi madre” appeared in his polyphonic book of 1625, a different publication from the collection of six Spanish-language airs printed in 1626. The heading à trois identifies it as a work for three voices. Although the taille partbook survives, its staves for this air are blank: taille was apparently not one of those three voices. The dessus supplies the surviving notated part, while the other two voices of the indicated three-voice setting would need to be reconstructed for a complete performance. The text draws on a familiar lyric situation: a young woman sent to fetch water finds herself drawn into the language of love. Related verses occur in Spanish and Portuguese traditions, including versions in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.
Étienne Moulinié, “Embiame mi madre”
Airs de cour à quatre et cinq parties (Paris: Pierre Ballard, 1625).
“Baile de las Cantarillas”
Biblioteca Nacional de España, MS 16291, p. 220.
The 1626 and 1629 publications took different forms. Moulinié’s third book of 1629, whose title page appears below, included lute and guitar tablature; the six earlier Spanish-language airs in the 1626 anthology were printed with a single notated vocal line.
Title page of Étienne Moulinié, Airs de cour avec la tablature de luth et de guitare, third book, Paris: Pierre Ballard, 1629.
A Parisian collection of 1626 transmits six Spanish-language songs attributed to Moulinié with a single notated vocal line. This tells us how they were printed in that collection, not every form in which they might have circulated. “Repicavan las campanillas,” for example, reappeared in Moulinié’s 1629 book with guitar tablature. Other airs de cour are likewise known in different vocal or accompanied settings; further versions of the remaining 1626 songs are possible, although the 1626 print alone does not establish that lost voice parts existed. “Ojos si quereis vivir” combines contrasting rhythmic gestures with a more elaborate melodic line; a source in Madrid offers a related version. “Si negra tengo la mano” turns a blackened hand and heart into an image of love’s fire. These pieces show that “Spanish” in a French collection can describe language, poetic material, or audible musical features without implying that every work had the same route into print.
“Ojos si quereis vivir”
Septième livre d’airs de cour et de différents autheurs (Paris: Pierre Ballard, 1626).
“Ojos si quereis vivir”
Related version: Biblioteca Nacional de España, MS M/1370.
The Spanish guitar also entered the Parisian print market. Luis de Briceño’s Método mui facilissimo para aprender a tañer la guitarra a lo español (1626) gives song texts and chord symbols without supplying their melodies. Its “tono francés,” “Ay amor loco”, and the folia-related “Serrana si vuestros ojos” illustrate another way of circulating this repertory. Comparable text-and-chord practices occur in Italian sources, including “Si queréis que os enrrame”. Briceño’s print is valuable context for performance, although its contents should not automatically be counted among the French airs de cour catalogued by Rico Osés.
“Ay amor loco,” in Luis de Briceño, Método mui facilissimo para aprender a tañer la guitarra a lo español, Paris, 1626.
Moulinié’s third book of airs de cour with lute and guitar tablature (1629) contains five songs in Spanish. In “Orilla del claro Tajo”, the river landscape becomes part of the song’s imagined setting. The guitar gives these pieces a different sound from earlier lute accompaniments, but its presence alone cannot establish a single Spanish model for all five songs. The new version of “Repicavan las campanillas” also names “Anna y Luis,” connecting the text to the royal couple, Anne of Austria and Louis XIII.
Étienne Moulinié, “Repicavan las campanillas”
Airs de cour avec la tablature de luth et de guitare, third book (Paris: Pierre Ballard, 1629).
After 1629, the next example identified in these printed collections is Moulinié’s “Clori sobr’el lido del mar,” in his Sixième livre d’airs à 4 & 5 parties avec la basse continue (1668). The haute-contre partbook survives, but its staves for this air are empty, with the words printed beneath them. Only the dessus supplies a notated vocal line in the surviving material examined here. The blank staves suggest that a haute-contre was not intended to sing this piece, rather than demonstrating that its notes have been lost. Any reconstruction of additional voices must therefore be identified as editorial.
Étienne Moulinié, “Clori sobr’el lido del mar”
Sixième livre d’airs à 4 & 5 parties avec la basse continue (Paris: Robert Ballard, 1668).
What draws me to these songs is the practical work of bringing them back into performance. Missing partbooks, alternate texts, and parallel settings call for different kinds of editing and reconstruction. I am continuing to prepare editions of this repertory; some examples can be heard in this playlist, and available scores are listed in the Early Music Scores shop.
References
Baron, J. H. (1977). Secular Spanish solo song in non-Spanish sources, 1599–1640. Journal of the American Musicological Society, 30(1), 20–42.
Devoto, D. (1994). Un millar de cantares exportados. Bulletin Hispanique, 96(1), 5–115.
Durosoir, G. (1991). L’air de cour en France, 1571–1655. Mardaga.
Martínez Torner, E. (1966). Lírica hispánica: Relaciones entre lo popular y lo culto. Castalia.
Mujica Lafuente, A. B. (2019). Les airs de cour en espagnol du Second livre d’airs mis en tablature de luth par Gabriel Bataille (Paris, 1609): Un cas de transfert culturel? [Master’s thesis, Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès]. https://dante.univ-tlse2.fr/id/eprint/7478
Mujica, A.-B. (2020). Un cas de transfert culturel au début du XVIIe siècle: Les dix « airs espagnols » du Second livre d’airs de Gabriel Bataille. Musurgia, 27(1), 55–81. https://doi.org/10.3917/musur.201.0055
Rico Osés, C. (2014). Los “airs de cour” en español publicados en Francia: 1578–1629. Cuadernos de Música Iberoamericana, 27, 49–69. https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/CMIB/article/view/58866
