A Performance Guide to lisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre’s Cantate Fran oise: Semel

This study explores one of the French cantatas, Semel , composed by lisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre (1665–1729) to provide an analysis of her sophisticated text painting and a performance guide for singers. The cantata genre originated in Italy and by the early-eighteenth century, it flourished in France as well: approximately eight hundred French cantatas were composed between 1700 and 1730. lisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre was among the French composers who adopted the genre, along with Jean-Baptiste Morin (1677–1745), Nicholas Bernier (1664–1734), Fran ois Couperin (1668–1733), and Louis-Nicolas Cl rambault (1676–1749). In 1715, Jacquet de La Guerre published the third volume of her Cantates fran oises, dedicated to her new patron, Elector Maximilian Emanuel II of Bavaria (1662–1726), who resided in France. This book contains three secular cantatas: Semel , L’Isle de D los, and Le Sommeil d'Ulisse, all of which were based on mythological stories. These cantatas were written for solo soprano, but each used different instrumentation. In addition to the three secular cantatas, she also added a short comic duet, Le Raccommodement comique de Pierrot et de Nicole, for soprano and bass with basso continuo. My investigation will focus on Jacquet de La Guerre’s first cantata, Semel , including an analysis of the music and of Jacquet de La Guerre’s masterful text painting. I also provide a singer’s performance practice guide for Semel , including tempi recommendations, identification of stylized French dances, instructions for rhythmic alterations, suggestions for ornamentation, an overview of seventeenth-century French pronunciation, and interpretations of Jacquet de La Guerre’s often ambiguous intentions regarding instrumentation.