Jean Boyer, a Parisian composer, was known as a viola da gamba player and may have been employed by Duke Henri I of Savoie-Nemours and his wife, Anne de Lorraine.
Interpretation
These airs were almost never performed exactly as written; vocalists were expected to ornament the songs, similar to Italian diminution practices.
Compositional Technique
The lute parts for these songs were often published in tablature, sometimes in two versions: one unadorned for amateurs and professionals to improvise, and one highly ornamented for more capable amateurs.
Composition History
Jean Boyer's Recueil d'Airs à boire et danser, published in 1636, belongs to a French genre of drinking and dance songs, a lighter form of the courtly secular strophic song known as air de cour.
Composer Biography
By early 1636, Jean Boyer succeeded Gabriel Caignet l'aîné as viola da gamba player in the Chambre du roi and was also secretary of the chamber and ordinaire of the music for King Louis XIII and Queen Anne of Austria.
Composer Biography
Jean Boyer was likely a Lutheran, as he published a psalm, two prayers for the Protestant service, and several sacred contrafacta.
Instruments
Jean Boyer's instrument collection included three viols, a lute, three theorboes, two guitars, an oboe, a musette, and several recorders, all of which he most probably played.
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