Pierre de Niert

Pierre de Niert, also written Nyert, Niel or Denièle, was a French nobleman born in Bayonne around 1597 and who died in Paris on 12 February 1682. Although his life unfolded at court, his name deserves attention for the influence he exerted on French singing in the seventeenth century. He was an enthusiastic amateur musician whose interest in the Italian vocal renewal of the early part of that century ended up transforming vocal music in France by the middle of the century.

In 1633 he accompanied the Maréchal de Créqui, French ambassador to the Holy See, on his journey to Rome. There he heard the new Italian style of dramatic singing in the operas of the Barberini family and, it is believed, struck up acquaintance with several Italian singers, with whom he came to study. He returned to France in 1635 and afterwards held posts in the royal household: first valet de chambre of the wardrobe of Louis XIII from 1638 and, later, first valet de chambre of Louis XIV. He took part in ballets de cour, and a song of his, Si vous voulez que je cache ma flame, survives. It is said that Luigi Rossi was so moved on hearing him sing that he wept, although this episode comes solely from an addition to Bacilly's treatise published in editions after the first.

Around 1640 his influence was already considerable among the court musicians, such as Lambert and Bacilly, who trained with him and adopted his preference for natural prosody, clear pronunciation and subtle declamation. He further proposed that the diminutions of the second verses should be more agile and better related to the meaning and structure of the poem. His precepts are reflected in the radical change in the style of the airs after 1640 and in the praise with which many court composers dedicated their works to him. His prestige also reached non-musicians, such as Jean de La Fontaine, who wrote him an epistle in 1677.