Claude Gervaise

Very little is well known with any certainty approximately the life span of Claude Gervaise, despite his importance in sixteenth century French secular music. It’s stated that he offered being a violist and chamber musician to kings François I and Henri II, but all that’s known with any self-confidence is normally that Gervaise was energetic between approximately 1540 and 1558 as an editor for music publisher Pierre Attaignant and afterwards Attaignant’s widow, who overran the business. Gervaise supervised Books 3, 4, and 5 of Attaignant’s Danceries, and he composed Reserve 6 himself. This comprises almost completely of four-part dances, generally pavanes, gaillardes, and different types of branles. His agreements of various other composers’ dances possess suggested for some musicologists that he previously experience composing or organizing polyphonic vocal parts. Gervaise can be credited using the initial printed reserve of viol tablature in France, released before 1548 and once again in 1554, however now lost.