For the first time since the reign of Louis XIV, four works by Baroque composer Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre will be performed live. On Thursday, November 19 at 6:00 pm, early music ensemble Sonnambula will bring the long-lost pieces to Columbia University’s St. Paul’s Chapel.
The four “airs” had remained unrecorded and unperformed since the reign of Louis XIV, bound inside a rare 1712 treatise titled Les Amusemens de Monseigneur le Duc de Bretagne, acquired by The Morgan Library & Museum in 2022. Admission is free with advance registration.
Music for a young prince who did not live to hear it
A celebrated court composer at the time, Jacquet de La Guerre wrote the airs for the four-year-old great-grandson of Louis XIV, the young Dauphin, to accompany courtly educational games. However, the prince died shortly after the book appeared so the music stayed buried in a commemorative volume dedicated to his governess.
The French composer was renowned in her lifetime as one of very few women composing at the French court, yet history books have largely favored her male contemporaries.
Luckily, Elizabeth Weinfield, a Juilliard musicology professor and Sonnambula’s artistic director, decided to examine the volume closely, bringing these forgotten gems back to the stage. Her research looks at how women composers moved between elite entertainment, teaching, and public musical life in early 18th-century France.
Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre: Lost Airs from Versailles – program and tickets
These works will be performed on viola da gamba by Weinfield alongside soprano Chloe Holgate (ModernMedieval Voices). The program also highlights works by Jacquet de La Guerre’s contemporaries, such as Marin Marais, François Couperin, and Michel Richard Delalande. Participants can also enjoy a world premiere by Stephen Anthony Weinfield. An upcoming recording and publication will document the project.
Coming to St Paul’s Chapel at Columbia University on Thursday, November 19, the concert starts at 6:00pm. Tickets are free but must be reserved in advance here.
The concert is preceded by a panel discussion on Wednesday, November 18 at 6:00 pm called “Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre: Works Lost and Found”. The panel brings together Elizabeth Weinfield and Robinson McClellan (Morgan Library Curator of Music Manuscripts and Printed Music), alongside Susan Boynton (Columbia University), Anne Higonnet (Barnard College), and Rebecca Cypess (Yeshiva University). Held at La Maison Française at Columbia University, it is also free with advance registration.
More Baroque music in NYC
If you’re looking for more Baroque events in the city, the striking Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity is welcoming several Vivaldi concerts performed by Highline String Quartet, starting October 15. Additionally, Trinity Church is hosting a celebration of Bach’s music on October 21, led by Trinity Choir and Trinity Baroque Orchestra, with Avi Stein on organ.