Jean-Baptiste Loeillet (1680-1750)
Type of harpsichord not mentioned in the documentation but at is mentioned recorded November-December 1971 at Radio Lugano on a Neupert harpsichord.
Released 1971 by Erato order number STU 70727

Face 1
Suite N° 1 en Sol mineur
00:00 Allemande
02:32 Courante
04:31 Sarabande
06:26 Air (presto)
07:55 Menuet
10:43 GIgue
Suite N° 4 en Re majeur
13:10 Allemande
15:47 Courante
18:00 Sarabande
19:58 Gavotte
22:05 Menuet
24:19 Gigue

Face 2
Suite N° 2 en La majeur
27:21 Allemande
29:57 Courante
32:40 Sarabande
35:24 Air
37:15 Menuet
39:35 Gigue
Lesson N° 3 en Sol mineur
42:15 Air
44:40 Hornpipe
46:06 Cibel
Lesson N° 1 en Mi mineur
48:07 Allemande (sorry I could not recover this little crash)
50:25 Air
51:33 Courante
54:04 Menuet
55:21 Gigue
An attempt to write the history of musical dynasties in the 17th and 18th centuries might be tantamount to writing a nearly exhaustive history of music. By that tirne numerous composers are to be counted in the same family but among those
of the same name scarcely more than one became famous. For instance we should mention the Couperins in France and the . Bachs in Germany: in a cantor’s or an organist’s home children are likely to be early .initiated in their father’s job. Besides we
must not forget that in France charges were hereditary and transmitted from father to son for generations. .
In this history of musical dynasties we ought to mention in good place sorne members of the Loeillet ‘family who had been living in Gand since the 17th century. Modern publications of this family’s musical productions have been known for a long tirne, but
the right attribution of such work to such member seerns very embarrassing. The reason is that any member of the family should usually take the Christian name of the most famous one among them. On the other hand they ail write in the same Italianized
style and they ail confine within the field of charnber music. The preface to the modern edition of the works for harpsichord, which is the foundation of our recording, (Monumenta Musicae Belgicae Vol. I, Anvers 1932), still attributes to that Loeillet of
London the music of his cousin Jean-Baptiste which was but taken again by printers of London.
The thematic catalogue of Loeillets works by Brian Priestman (in Belgian Review Musicology VI, 1952 p. 219-274) quotes three members of the family who alone left works that have reached us Jean-Baptiste, baptized in Gand Saint-Jacques Church on
november 18th 1680,. He died in London in 1730 and he signed his last work John. He is the author of harpsichord pieces. Ïn his History of Music, Charles Burney does set him carefully against a cousin, born in Gand in 1688, whose Christian name was also Jean-Baptiste and whose works dedicated to French noble
personalities were ail printed by Roger in Amsterdam. Following them in the catalogue appears Jacques (1685-1746), a brother of the first one and a cousin of the second one. He was a musician of Max Emanuel, a Prince Elector of Bavaria, then an oboe-player in Versailles court. He signed two collections of sonatas Jacob, Jean-Baptiste Loeillet de Gand

Jean-Baptiste (John) Loeillet (1680-1730) and his harpsichord

music. At last another mistake is to be pointed out: Daniel Wright, a Music Printer in London, published without a date towards 1715 Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinet … Composed By Mr. Baptist Lully. We know no music for harpsichord from the famous Florentine, however such a menuet belonging in fact to the Gand master was attributed to the author of Atys. The homonymy created by the English pronounciation of Lully and, Loeillet was the reason of the confusion. We do ignore whether the editor made it on purpose or not. In the following collections we find Jean Luly of Gant, then, having become English, he signs John Loeillet.

We know .all about ,his activity in London since 1705 when he was belonging to the
orchestra of the Queen’s Theatre of Haymarket not as a player on the harpsichord but as an oboist and flutist (in that time the two instruments never appeared in the same time in scores, they were both played by one musician). He did bring the transverse flute into vogue in England instead of the fipple one. As a famous teacher he gave private concerts in his house since 1710. According to the historian John Hawkins, one of Burney’s contemporaries, he was the first to introduce into England Corelli’s Sonatas, which proves his liking for Italian music. Hawkins also tells us that during his career Loeillet succeeded in saving up sixteen thousand pounds sterling, a considerable amount for a musician in that time.
One year before his death he bequeathed his best instruments to his cousin Jean – Baptiste Loeillet of Gand.

#Neupert #LucianoSgrizzi