Life
Jacques Gallot, called ‘le vieux Gallot de Paris,’ was a French lutenist and composer born around 1625 and thought to have died around 1695 in Paris. He came from a family of Parisian lutenists, probably the son of the lutenist Antoine Gallot, who served at the Polish court until 1647, and was the brother of the fellow lutenist Alexandre Gallot. Jacques Gallot studied with Ennemond Gaultier. His major surviving publication, Pièces de luth composées sur différents modes, appeared in 1684, dedicated to the Vice Admiral Victor-Marie d’Estrées, though the pieces it contains were likely composed over some thirty years. Following his death, the lutenist Robert de Visée composed a tombeau in Gallot’s memory.
Impact
Jacques Gallot was among the principal developers of the tombeau and the musical ‘portrait’ as lute genres, producing character pieces evoking named individuals such as La Fontange and La Montespan alongside tombeaux for Turenne and Condé. His 1684 collection preserves the late flowering of the French style brisé, and one of his pieces was later orchestrated by Ottorino Respighi in the suite Gli Uccelli, carrying his idiom into the 20th-century concert hall.
Repertoire
Le Tombeau des Muses françaises, c. 1680s
An allemande-tombeau lamenting the decline of the French muses, one of Gallot’s most performed memorial pieces.
Le Tombeau des Muses, Allemande / Jacques Gallot — Performed by Akiko Sato (atelierlakko) · baroque lute
Le Tombeau des Muses françaises (Jacques Gallot). Mauricio Buraglia, luth baroque. — Performed by Mauricio Buraglia · baroque lute
Les Plaintes de Psyché, c. 1680s
A programmatic piece depicting the laments of Psyche, part of Gallot’s tradition of expressive character pieces for solo lute.
Jacques Gallot: ‘Les plaintes de Psyché’ on baroque lute — Performed by Yair Avidor · baroque lute
Jacques Gallot: Les Plaintes De Psyché – Alberto Crugnola: Baroque Lute — Performed by Alberto Crugnola · baroque lute