Élisabeth Claude Jacquet de La Guerre (born Jacquet, March 17, 1665 – June 27, 1729) was a French musician, harpsichordist, and composer. She was an important person in French Baroque music, especially in the development of cantatas and keyboard music. She was one of the first women in France to be recognized as a composer, and her music was performed and published widely. She helped create the cantata genre in France by writing some of the earliest examples. She was closely connected to the court of Louis XIV, where support from the royal family and the musical traditions of Versailles influenced her career. Her music combined French music styles with influences from Italian music, especially in her vocal and instrumental pieces.

Life and works

Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet was born on March 17, 1665, in the parish of Saint-Louis-en-l'Île, Paris. She came from a family of musicians and instrument makers. Her grandfather, Jehan Jacquet, and her father, Claude Jacquet, were both makers of harpsichords. Claude taught his children how to live and succeed in the world. Élisabeth learned music from her father. When she was five years old, Louis XIV, known as the "Sun King," noticed her after she performed at his palace in Versailles. This led to her becoming a musician in his court. Most of her music was created with his support. As a teenager, she joined the French court, where her education was guided by the king’s mistress, Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan. She remained with the royal court until it moved to Versailles. In 1684, she married Marin de La Guerre, an organist and the son of Michel de La Guerre, who had previously been the organist at Sainte-Chapelle. After her marriage, she taught, composed, and performed at home and across Paris, gaining great praise.

Jacquet de La Guerre was one of the few well-known female composers of her time. Unlike many of her peers, she wrote music in many different styles. Her talent was recognized by Titon du Tillet, who placed her on his Mount Parnassus at age 26, next to Lalande and Marais and just below Lully. Her first published work was Premier livre de pièces de clavessin, printed in 1687. It included unmeasured preludes and was one of the few harpsichord collections printed in France during the 17th century, alongside works by Chambonnières, Lebègue, and d'Anglebert. In the 1690s, she composed a ballet called Les Jeux à l'honneur de la victoire (around 1691), which was later lost. On March 15, 1694, her opera Céphale et Procris was performed at the Académie Royale de Musique. This was the first opera written by a woman in France. The five-act opera had a libretto by Duché de Vancy. She also experimented with Italian musical forms, such as the sonata and the cantata. In 1695, she composed a set of trio sonatas, which, along with works by Charpentier, Couperin, Rebel, and Brossard, were among the earliest French examples of the sonata.

Her only published opera, Céphale et Procris, was performed five or six times. It was not well-received because the opera relied more on the text than the music. The work was later called tragédie en musique, a type of musical tragedy. French audiences were not ready for her operatic style, which may have been better accepted in Italy, where musical traditions were more open to change. This lack of support ended her career as an operatic composer.

In the years that followed, many of her family members died, including her only son, who was ten years old, her mother, father, husband, and brother Nicolas. Despite this, she continued to perform. In 1707, she published Pièces de Clavecin qui peuvent se jouer sur le Violon, a collection of harpsichord pieces, followed by six sonatas for violin and harpsichord. These works were early examples of a new genre where the harpsichord played an important role alongside the violin, similar to the works of Rameau. The dedication of the 1707 collection honored the continued support of Louis XIV.

She returned to vocal music with the publication of two books of Cantates françaises sur des sujets tirez de l'Ecriture, Book 1 (1708) and Book 2 (1711), also known as the Cantates Bibliques. Her last published work was a collection of secular Cantates Françaises (around 1715). After her death, her possessions included three harpsichords: a small one with white and black keys, one with only black keys, and a large double manual Flemish harpsichord.

Jacquet de La Guerre died in Paris in 1729.

Reception

Even though people did not like her opera, she kept sharing her music and taking chances. Her sonatas, which she wrote later in life, are seen as great examples of this type of music. This is because she helped improve the role of the violin and combined French musical traditions with new ideas from Italy. After she died, people recognized her talent in writing music, her creativity in both vocal and instrumental pieces, and the many different types of music she worked in. Her life and career show that she had a rare chance to succeed as a female composer, and she used it well.

In the 1990s, people became interested in her music again, and many of her works have been recorded.

In 2023, the Dunedin Consort, along with Hera and Mahogany Opera, performed the Cantates Bibliques for the first time in 300 years. The performance, called Out of Her Mouth, took place in Scotland, York, and London. The music was written by a woman, about women, and for women. The mini-operas show the challenges faced by three biblical women—Susanne, Rachel, and Judith—as they fight against male violence and oppression. The stage setup included three singers, four musicians, five watermelons, and seven large blue rolls.

List of works

Jacquet de La Guerre's early trio sonatas and violin/viola da gamba sonatas exist only in handwritten copies found in Paris. Most of her other works were published during her lifetime, though Titon du Tillet noted in his tribute that a piece called Te Deum was lost.

• Les jeux à l'honneur de la victoire (ballet, around 1691), lost
• Céphale et Procris (lyrical tragedy, 1694)

• Cantates françaises sur des sujets tirez de l'Ecriture, livre I (Paris, 1708)
• Also called Cantates Bibliques Esther Le passage de la Mer rouge Jacob et Rachel Jonas Suzanne et les vieillards Judith
• Cantates françaises sur des sujets tirez de l'Ecriture, livre II (Paris, 1711) Adam Le temple rebasti Le deluge Joseph Jepthe Sampson
• La musette, ou Les bergers de Suresne (Paris, 1713)
• Cantates Françoises (Paris, around 1715 [3 cantatas; 1 comic duet]) Semelé L'Ile de Delos Le Sommeil d'Ulisse Le Raccommodement Comique de Pierrot et de Nicole
• Te Deum (1721, lost)
• Various songs published in Recueil d'airs sérieux et à boire (1710–24)

• Les pièces de clavessin, livre I (Paris, 1687)
• Suite in D minor: Prelude / Allemande / Courante / 2d Courante / Sarabande / Gigue / Cannaris / Chaconne l'Inconstante / Menuet
• Suite in G minor: Prelude / Allemande / Courante / 2d Courante / Sarabande / Gigue / 2d Gigue / Menuet
• Suite in A minor: Prelude / Allemande / Courante / 2d Courante / Sarabande / Gigue / Chaconne / Gavott / Menuet
• Suite in F major: Tocade / Allemande / Courante / 2d Courante / Sarabande / Gigue / Cannaris / Menuet

• Pièces de clavecin qui peuvent se jouer sur le violon (Paris, 1707)
• Suite in D minor: La Flamande / Double / Courante / Double / Sarabande / Gigue / Double / 2d Gigue / Rigadoun / 2d Rigadoun / Chaconne
• Suite in G major: Allemande / Courante / Sarabande / Gigue / Menuet / Rondeau

• Sonatas [6], violin and clavecin (Paris [chez l'auteur, Foucault, Ribou, Ballard], 1707)
• Sonata [no. 1] in D minor: Grave / Presto / Adagio / Presto-Adagio / Presto / Aria / Presto
• Sonata [no. 2] in D major: Grave / Allegro / Aria (Affettusos) / Sarabande / Gavotte (Allegro) / Presto
• Sonata [no. 3] in F major: Grave / Presto-Adagio / Presto / Aria / Adagio
• Sonata [no. 4] in G major: [Grave]-Presto-Adagio / Presto-Adagio / Presto-Adagio / Aria
• Sonata [no. 5] in A minor: Grave / Presto / Adagio-Courante-Reprise / Aria
• Sonata [no. 6] in A major: Allemande / Presto / Adagio / Aria / Adagio / Presto-Adagio / Aria

• Trio Sonatas [4], violin, viola da gamba, and basso continuo (around 1695)