Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS Rés 475

Description

• Composer: Jean-Nicolas Geoffroy (1633-1694)
• Editor: Mary Tilton
• Format: Critical Edition
• Binding:
• ISMN: 9790300576909
• Size: 9.1 x 12.0 inches
• Pages: 480
• Urtext / Critical Edition

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Description

Paris, BnF Ms. Rés. 475 preserves an extraordinary harpsichord manuscript linked to Jean Nicolas Geoffroy: 213 pieces copied in stages and completed after his death in 1694. At its core is a cycle of fourteen suites in Minor and Major keys on the naturals from C to A, plus in B Minor and B-flat Major, alongside transposed versions that make remote keys playable. The collection ranges from strikingly inventive allemandes, courantes, gigues, and rondeaux to Major set pieces such as the Passacaille en A mi la, the deeply expressive Tombeau en forme d’allemande, two large dialogues for viols and keyboard, and excerpts from a lost Grande Pièce de Joye. While authorship of every item cannot be confirmed, the manuscript offers one of the richest and most harmonically adventurous windows onto late-seventeenth-century French keyboard writing. This edition presents the complete contents in modern notation, prepared for both performance and study.

Published as part of The Art of the Keyboard, a series of critical editions designed for performers and students of early keyboard music, the volume combines rigorous editorial standards with clarity and readability, making Geoffroy’s long-overlooked repertoire newly accessible today.