Jean Baptiste Loeillet (1688-c.1720) - Sonata (III, G-Dur) à une flûte & basse-continue, Premier ouvrage (c.1710)
Performers: Ferdinand Conrad (blockflöte); Johannes Koch (viola da gamba);
Hugo Ruf (1925-1999, cembalo)
Further info: Jean Baptiste Loeillet (1688-c.1720) - Recorder Sonatas
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Flemish composer, son of Pieter Loeillet (1651-1735). He was the eldest
son of Loeillet by his first wife, Marte (née Nortier). Loeillet de
Gant, as he styled himself on all his published compositions, went to
Lyons in the service of the archbishop, Paul-François de Neufville de
Villeroy, and died there at an early age – before 1729 and probably
about 1720. He has often been confused with his cousin Jean Baptiste
Loeillet (1680-1730). 48 sonatas for recorder and continuo, together
with some other works, were composed by Loeillet de Gant and published
in Amsterdam between about 1710 and 1717, and republished in London by
Walsh & Hare between about 1712 and about 1722. His sonatas are in
the Italian style of Corelli and are generally of the sonata da chiesa
type, although some (especially op.3 onwards) include several movements
with named dances such as allemanda, sarabanda, gavotta and giga and
have more than four movements. The bass parts are more independent than
those of John Loeillet of London, not only in the fugal second
movements, where they may play an equal part, but also in the slow
movements, where they often have their own rhythmic patterns throughout
the movement; his basses often start a movement with two or three bars
solo before the recorder enters. Loeillet de Gant had a stronger
contrapuntal sense than his two cousins; occasionally his fugal
movements have clearly differentiated countersubjects but they lack the
skill shown by many of his contemporaries. Unlike John Loeillet,
Loeillet de Gant ornamented many of his slow movements in the French
manner, with flourishes of demisemiquavers and notes perdues (the
‘little note that does not enter into the bar’; Marais: Pièces à une et à
deux violes, 1686).
