Jean-Pierre Freillon Poncein

Jean-Pierre Freillon Poncein was a French writer on music and composer active between 1700 and 1708, although the exact dates of his activity are uncertain and poorly documented. His name is chiefly associated with a didactic treatise that marked a milestone in the teaching of wind instruments in France during the Baroque era.

According to Fétis, Freillon Poncein held the post of prévost (deputy) of the oboes in the grande écurie of the French court. However, this office does not appear in the court records, so the claim should be treated with caution. His principal work, La veritable maniere, was published in Paris in 1700 and was the first French method printed for the oboe, the baroque recorder and the flageolet. It is dedicated to Pierre Bérulle, Viscount of Guyancourt, an official in the province of Dauphiné, which suggests that the author lived there rather than in Paris.

The method was aimed at those who could not gain access to the best teachers, and it sought to teach both the musical fundamentals and the basics of dance composition: movement of the bass, adding a second voice a third or sixth above, and cadences. Its exposition is often confused, something the author himself acknowledged when he apologised for his linguistic limitations. He adopted equal temperament for wind instruments, although he admitted the existence of major and minor semitones. His indications on ornamentation and articulation are especially valuable, following the approach of Loulié and Jacques Hotteterre in using the syllables tu and ru for the tongue.

The treatise includes forty-one preludes, some of them useful as exercises for mastering wide intervals, as well as four short pieces in a pleasing and consonant style. Among them are L'Embarras de Paris, in six parts, and Bruits de guerre, in three parts, with indications of instrumentation for violins, oboes, violone, bassoons, trumpets and timpani.

Freillon Poncein also wrote an Abrégé de géographie, published in Paris in 1708. His legacy rests on his method, which offers direct testimony of French instrumental practice at the beginning of the eighteenth century.