{"id":570,"date":"2016-05-13T19:20:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T23:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/?p=570"},"modified":"2017-01-02T15:05:39","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T20:05:39","slug":"suid155","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/?p=570","title":{"rendered":"J. B. A. Suard, M\u00e9langes de Litt\u00e9rature<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
\n
Performer Name:<\/dt>\n
Perfetti; Metastasio; Corilla; Karsch<\/dd>\n
Performance Venue:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Performance Date:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Author:<\/dt>\n
Suard, J[ean] B[aptiste] A[ntoine]<\/dd>\n
Date Written:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Language:<\/dt>\n
French<\/dd>\n
Publication Title:<\/dt>\n
M\u00e9langes de Litt\u00e9rature<\/dd>\n
Article Title:<\/dt>\n
Des Improvisateurs<\/dd>\n
Page Numbers:<\/dt>\n
3:346-78<\/dd>\n
Additional Info:<\/dt>\n
2nd rev. edn; available at https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/mlangesdelitt03suaruoft<\/dd>\n
Publisher:<\/dt>\n
Dentu<\/dd>\n
Place of Publication:<\/dt>\n
Paris<\/dd>\n
Date Published:<\/dt>\n
1806<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Text:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

[346] Il est plus difficile qu'on ne croit de faire un nouveau mot; mais il est encore plus difficile de le faire recevoir, m\u00eame lorsqu'il est bien fait.<\/p>\n

On s'\u00e9tonne aujourd'hui de trouver dans l'encyclop\u00e9die les mots improvisteur<\/i> et improvister<\/i>, pour improvisateur<\/i> et improviser<\/i>. L'auteur de l'article les fait d\u00e9river de notre mot improviste<\/i>; au lieu qu'ils ont \u00e9t\u00e9 transport\u00e9s de l'italien improvisare<\/i>, improvisatore<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Le mot improviser<\/i> est depuis long-tems re\u00e7u dans notre langue; on le trouve dans les po\u00e9sies de Saint-Amant, dans le Mascurrat de Naud\u00e9, dans M\u00e9nage, etc.<\/p>\n

Quelques auteurs ont \u00e9crit improviseur<\/i>; mais le mot improvisateur<\/i> est aujourd'hui g\u00e9n\u00e9ralement \u00e9tabli. Puisque les italiens semblent poss\u00e9der exclusivement la chose, il est naturel que nous prenions d'eux le mot qui la d\u00e9signe.<\/p>\n

On trouve dans les lettres de J. B. Rousseau, le mot improvisade<\/i>, pour d\u00e9signer [347] des pi\u00e8ces de vers faites impromptu; ce mot n'a pas \u00e9t\u00e9 adopt\u00e9, et ne le m\u00e9ritait gu\u00e8res.<\/p>\n

Le talent d'improviser<\/i> semble \u00eatre une production naturelle du sol de l'Italie. Il para\u00eet tenir \u00e0 deux causes: la premi\u00e8re est la facult\u00e9 de se donner \u00e0 soi-m\u00eame un degr\u00e9 d'exaltation, capable de r\u00e9veiller dans l'esprit une multitude d'id\u00e9es avec une rapidit\u00e9 dont n'ont pas m\u00eame l'id\u00e9e les hommes d'une imagination froide et tranquille; la seconde cause est une langue abondante et flexible dont on s'est rendu toutes les formes famili\u00e8res.<\/p>\n

[Suard notes that improvisation is common among savage peoples and in Greek antiquity; he provides an extended discussion of Italian improvisatori and improvisatrici from the Renaissance onward.] <\/p>\n

[364] Lorsque Perfetti se livrait aux inspirations de sa verve, il \u00e9tait oblig\u00e9 de boire de tems en tems un peu d\u2019eau, moins pour se rafra\u00eechir, que pour temp\u00e9rer l\u2019ardeur de son imagination. Lorsqu\u2019il avait fini, il restait sans mouvement et \u00e0 demi-mort. Il passait la nuit que suivait, sans dormir; et ce n\u2019\u00e9tait qu\u2019apr\u00e8s un long intervalle de tems, que l\u2019agitation v\u00e9h\u00e9mente de son sang se calmait.<\/p>\n

[Suard describes Metastasio’s precocious but dangerous talent for improvising, and gives a sympathetic account of Corilla Olimpica. Why has only Italy produced improvisers? The suppleness of the language is a more likely explanation than the hot climate.]<\/p>\n

[376] Nous ajouterons seulement qu'il est assez singulier que, tandis que la France enti\u00e8re n'a pas produit un seul improvisateur<\/i>, l'Allemagne seule ait offert \u00e0 l'Europe, dans une femme, un exemple rare de ce talent extraordinaire: nour voulons parler d'Anne-Louise Karch<\/i> [sic] [A brief biography of Karsch follows.]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nThe “Avertissement” at the beginning of vol. 1 provides the publication history of this essay: Suard and Fran\u00e7ois Arnaud took over the Journal \u00c9tranger<\/i> in 1760 after a two-year interruption; it continued for two and a half years. The government then charged them with editing the Gazette de France<\/i> and demanded they abandon Journal \u00c9tranger<\/i>, for which they substituted the Gazette Litt\u00e9raire<\/i> for two years. Contributions by the editors on a variety of subjects were collected in 1768 as Vari\u00e9t\u00e9s Litt\u00e9raires<\/i>. M\u00e9langes<\/i> is a re-issue of the sold-out Vari\u00e9t\u00e9s<\/i> with the addition of unedited pieces by Arnaud (d. 1784), other friends of Suard, and Suard himself.\n <\/div>\n
\n
Collected by:<\/dt>\n
AE<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from a literary journal that Suard co-edited in the 1760s, this comprehensive essay surveys forms of the word “improviser” in French and other languages, the nature of poetic improvisation and its history in Italy, and exponents of improvisation elsewhere in Europe. Foremost among these is Anna-Louisa Karsch, of whom the essay includes a brief biography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,134],"tags":[67,87,70,58],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=570"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3195,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions\/3195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}