Essay On Jacique De La Guerre

Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre was a 17th century composer, harpsichordist, and organist from France, who was thriving in Versailles at that time. What makes her remarkable is that she was the first women to have an opera, Céphale et Procris, staged at the Acadéimie Royale de Musique, the prestigious opera house in Paris. Her outstanding talent as a harpsichordist, singer and accompanist was commended greatly by the Versailles royalty. As stated by the Paris Mercure gallant, “Mademoiselle Jaquet from the tenderest youth made known her talents and her extraordinary disposition for music and art of playing the harpsichord…”.
During this essay I will look at Jacquet’s contribution to Baroque music. To do this I will first look at Jacquet's background and influences growing up, as well as the time she was writing in. I will also make reference to Jacquet’s Cantatas and Céphale et Procris.
Jacquet was born in 1665, in Paris, France. She was born into a family of artisans, who were master instrument builders, instrumentalists and singers. It was from her father, Claude Jacquet, that she got her first professional music training. She was fortunate that her parents valued her music education, as at that time it was rare that girls received the same high-quality education as boys.

It is evident that Jacquet was heavily influenced by the Italian style of music. After the death of Lully, composers had the opportunity to express themselves more and delve into different styles of music, Italian being most popular. The fact that Louis XIV, enjoyed Italian music helped to develop this style as well. Jacquet was not solely inspired by Italian music, but also from the poet Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, which she based many of her cantatas. The Italian style of her cantatas included “ robust, inventive themes and fluid melodic lines coupled with unexpected harmonic