Jean-Henry d'Anglebert

Jean-Henry D'Anglebert was a French composer of keyboard music from the Baroque period. D'Anglebert might have been a student of Jean Champion de Chambonnières, the founder of what the early French harpsichord school. In any case, both these harpsichordists have had a major impact on keyboard music, and in particular the keyboard suite.  Only one publication of D'Anglebert, one from 1689, is known to survive. This collection consists of 57 works - original works and transcriptions of orchestral parts and arias from operas by Jean-Baptiste Lully - for harpsichord in 4 suites, and 5 works for organs and 5 educational pieces for keyboard accompaniment. The suites are quite long due the inclusion of transcriptions of works by Lully and vaudevilles (popular melodies), to fill the pages. This strive for using the space of the pages most optimally can also be found in his own music, which is strongly modified making the pages black with all the notes and embellishments. This creates a very thick, musical texture. The keyboard arrangements of the full, five part orchestral works by Lully, too, influenced D'Anglebert's own dances. In his allemanes and gigues he made use of thick, five-voiced chords and cramped elaborations within the work itself. His gigues are remarkably fast in tempo and his two polyphonic gigues in 12/8th measure are the first of their kind in France.