A tombeau is a musical composition commemorating the death of a notable individual. The term derives from the French word for "tomb" or "tombstone". The vast majority of tombeaux date from the 17th century and were composed for lute or other plucked string instruments. The genre gradually fell out of use during the 18th century, but reappeared in the early 20th.
History
"In instrumental music, tombeau signifies a musical 'tombstone'. The musical genre of tombeau is generally connected with music for the lute of the 17th and 18th centuries. Of some 60+ surviving pieces, most are intended for the lute or theorbo, 5 for the baroque guitar, 7 for the viola da gamba and 3 for harpsichord. The earliest example of this genre seems to be the Tombeau de Mezangeau by French lutenistEnnemond Gaultier." "Musical predecessors are memorial pavans like those by Anthony Holborne. In France, where this musical genre emerged first, strong influence of literary models, particularly of memorial poems that were popular from the 16th to the end of the 17th centuries, may have been another important factor." "The tombeau preeminently comes in two forms, as a slow elegiac allemande grave in 4/4 or as a pavan, a tri-partite renaissance dance already long out of date for the era of tombeaux, but with all the trappings of the allemande. There are also a few unique tombeaux that appear as gigues; that is because the gigue grave resembles the allemande in a number of respects." "As opposed to the Italian lamento, the tombeau should not have used expressive elements of mourning, which were skeptically viewed in France. Nevertheless, certain typical onomatopoetic features were used: repeated note motifs depicting the knocking of Death at the door, ascending or descending diatonic or chromatic scales which depict the soul's tribulation and transcendence. Froberger's Lamentation on the Death of Ferdinand III or the Meditation sur ma Mort Future would be a prime example of such a form. Some tombeaux include a motif of four descending notes, a metaphor for grief given influential expression by John Dowland in his Lachrimae. These genres offered many suitable expressive characteristics: the suspirans figure, dotted rhythms, particularly in repeated notes, and slow-moving harmonies in the minor mode whose gravity is heightened by a tendency to settle on pedal points. Later examples also tend to use chromatic progressions related to the lamento bass. The few courante tombeaux exploit the same rhythmic features in triple metre." "Developed by Parisian lutenists, the genre was soon taken over by clavecinists and was then spread into Central Europe." The tombeau genre went into decline at the end of the 18th century. It reappeared in the 20th century with Maurice Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin. Other 20th century tombeaux include Manuel de Falla's Le Tombeau de Debussy for solo guitar, Arthur Benjamin's Le Tombeau de Ravel for clarinet and piano, and the last movement of Pli selon pli by Pierre Boulez. Surely between the tombeau and the hommage the instrumentalCantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten by Arvo Pärt and for Morton Feldman by Stephen L. Mosko. In the 21st century a series of tombeaux was written by Roman Turovsky-Savchuk.
Jacques Gallot: Tombeau de Condé, Tombeau de Madame, Tombeau de Turenne
Denis Gaultier: Tombeau de Monsieur Blancrocher, Tombeau de Mlle Gaultier, Tombeau de Mr. Lenclos, Tombeau de Mr. Raquette
Ennemond Gaultier: Tombeau de Mezangeau
Jan Antonín Losy: Tombeau
Charles Mouton: Tombeau de Gogo, Tombeau de Madame,
Robert de Visée: Tombeau de Mr. Francisque Corbet, Tombeau de Dubut, Tombeau du Vieux Gallot, Tombeau de Mr. Mouton, Le Tombeau , Tombeau de Mesdemoiselles de Visée
Sylvius Leopold Weiss: Tombeau sur la mort de M. Cajetan Baron d'Hartig, Tombeau sur la mort de M. Comte de Losy
Jacques de Saint-Luc: Tombeau sur la mort de Mr Francois Ginter
Roman Turovsky-Savchuk: Tombeau sur la mort de Omelyan Kovch
