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Talk:Nicolas Vallet

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Category advice

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Don't really know enough about this composer - haven't heard o'Dette's recordings, even- just thought there should be a page up. I see that de:Nicolas Vallet does use the category Baroque composer; I was wondering if I am also right to do so - his birth and death dates are (apparently) just on the border of that 1600 guideline (where the compositions and "thrived"..., not birth, I'm guessing, should be) - so his inclusion in that category seems reasonably clear, but not absolutely so, as witness his continued use of the Renaissance lute. Not seriously in doubt though. Schissel | Sound the Note! 15:50, 5 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am not an expert, but I find the following unsourced statement in the article about the type of lute Vallet used quite dubious:
'It was among the last compositions to appear for this instrument, before it was supplanted by the Baroque lute.'
As far as I can tell, there was not some kind of abrupt change in the construction of the instrument itself in the early 1600s, somehow changing it from 'the Renaissance lute' to 'the Baroque lute' (except of course the invention of the archlute and theorbo, which are not relevant here). The point that this sentence is probably intended to convey, is that Vallet was one of the last French lutenists to use the Renaissance tuning, as lutenists in France were experimenting with new tunings, eventually settling on the customary Baroque D-minor tuning. Of course, the lute itself also changed over the years, but as far as I know, there is no reason to assume Vallet's 10-course lute was of a construction substantially different from the 10-course lutes used in 1638, when the first pieces in D-minor tuning were published. Hopefully someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this. 133.45.197.77 (talk) 03:51, 27 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I should add that stylistically, too, Vallet's music is not at all conservative, although I am of course merely an amateur. While there are also some fantasias one may or may not classify as backward-looking, it seems to me that the majority of his pieces fit quite naturally within the developing French baroque style, with many dances with fully written-out ornamented repeats in the style brisé. 133.45.197.77 (talk) 04:01, 27 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]