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Guillaume Franc

Guillaume Franc (c. 1505 – 1571) was a French musician and composer active in Geneva and Lausanne. He was instrumental in the development of both the Genevan Psalter and the Vorlage:Ill.

Life

Franc was born in Rouen around 1505, the son of Pierre, whose profession is not known. He was for some time in the service of Georges d'Armagnac, the future cardinal, as 'cantor and servant'. He married the noble Catherine de Solages, a former nun of the Abbey of Millau who had converted to the Reformation.

The family, with several children, moved to Geneva, probably to find refuge there, like many French Protestants at the time.

Geneva

Franc's life in Genevy is recorded in the registers of the Council of Two Hundred The first entry, dated 17 June 1541, is about him obtaining permission to teach music ("tenyr eschole de musique"), in the same year that the Council decided to promote congregational singing in worship. Franc began instructing children to sing the psalms. On 2 May 1542, Franc was commissioned by the Council to teach children to sing the Psalmen Davids, with an [annual] salary of 24 florins. He published La Forme des prières et chantz ecclesiastiques the same year, the first Reformed hymnal containing psalms with melodies.

In April and May 1543, several mentions concern the increase of his wages from 10 to 25 florins per 'quartemps' [term]. He is also deputy 'maystre des escoles pour apprendre la note', which suggests a supervisory role over the small schools of Geneva. In May 1545, the Council refused to increase his wages beyond 100 florins per year. On 3 August he requested his leave, declaring that he was not able to live on 100 florins. He moved to Lausanne.

Lausanne

Guillaume Franc to the readers (Les Pseaumes mis en rime françoise, Lausanne 1565)

Franc is first mentioned in the manual of the Council of Lausanne in January 1546. His salary was significantly higher than in Geneva, since he was both cantor of the Church of Lausanne, paid by the city, and a teacher at the college paid by the Bernese government, responsible for the seventh grade and having to instruct the children in the singing of the psalms. He was paid in money, wheat and wine. He was first housed by the Council, then in 1552 he was given a house which remained with in the family until 1847. He published his Psalms (Les Psaumes) in 1565. By the end of 1570, Franc was weakening, and he wrote his will on 26 January 1571, which remains the last trace of him.

Work

The 1542 melodies

Title page of La Forme des prières et chants ecclésiastiques (Geneva : 1542).

Although there is no formal proof, it is generally accepted that Franc was responsible for the first melodies adapted to the psalms of the Church of Geneva. Between the return of John Calvin to Geneva in September 1541 and the publication by Vorlage:Ill in 1542 of La Forme des prières et chantz ecclesiastiques (The form of church prayers and chants), Franc was the only cantor mentioned in the registers of the Geneva Council.

Psaulmes de David. – Ordonné pour aultant que l’on paracheve les psalmes de David et qu’il est fort nécessaire de composer ung champ gracieulx sur icyeulx, que maystre Guillaume, le chantre, est bien propre pour recorder les enfans [...].-->

The 1542 Forme des prières included 30 psalms, l’Oraison dominicale, the Credo by Marot, and, by Calvin, five 5 psalms, the Cantique de Siméon and the Commandements. Franc wrote 13 new melodies for the 1542 collection. They were retained in the Genevan Psalter, with only minimal alterations.

The psalms of the Church of Lausanne

In 1565, three years after the publication of the official and complete Genevan Psalter, Franc published a revised edition:

Les Pseaumes mis en rime françoise, by Clément Marot, & Théodore de Bèze, avec le chant de l’Église de Lausanne. [Geneva] : Jean Rivery, 1565. 8°, [16]-470 p..

Bibliography

• Pio Pellizzari: Franc, Guillaume. In: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz.
• Moritz Fürstenau: Franc, Wilhelm. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Band 7, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, S. 204 f.
• Guillaume Franc, in Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
• R. Barilier. Les Psaumes de Lausanne. In Bulletin de la Société d’Histoire du Protestantisme Français 141 (1995) Vorlage:Pp..
• Pierre Pidoux. Franc - Bourgeois - Davantès : leur contribution à la création des mélodies du Psautier de Genève. - Unpublished dissertation, deposited in several libraries by the author. Geneva : 1993.
• Laurent Guillo. Les Éditions musicales de la Renaissance lyonnaise. Paris : Klincksieck, 1991.
• Jacques Burdet. La Musique dans le pays de Vaud sous le régime bernois, 1536-1798. Lausanne : Vorlage:Ill, 1963 (Vorlage:Pp.).
• Pierre Pidoux, Le Psautier huguenot du XVIe. Basel : Bärenreiter, 1962. 2 vol.
• GLN-16 : bibliographie des livres imprimés à Genève, Lausanne et Neuchâtel au XVIe. Online database.
• Franc, Guillaume MGG

{{DEFAULTSORT:Franc, Guillaume}} [[Category:16th-century French musicians]] [[Category:16th-century French composers]] [[Category:Musicians from Rouen]] [[Category:Date of birth missing (XVIth century)]] [[Category:1571 deaths]] (nicht signierter Beitrag von LouisAlain (Diskussion | Beiträge) 20:13, 3. Okt. 2021 (CEST))