A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Baltazarini

by George Grove

BALTAZARINI (or Baltagerini), an Italian musician; the best violinist of his day. He was brought from Piedmont in 1577 by Marshal de Brissac to Catherine de' Medicis, who made him intendant of her music and her first valet de chambre, and changed his name to M. de Beaujoyeulx, which he himself adopted. He seems to have been the first to introduce the Italian dances into Paris, and thus to have been the founder of the ballet, and, through the ballet, of the opera. He associated the best musicians of Paris with him in his undertaking. Thus in the entertainment of 'Circe,' produced by him at the marriage of the Duc de Joyeuse and Mlle. de Vaudemont, on Sunday Oct. 15, 1581, known under the title of 'Ballet comique de la royne,' etc. (Paris, 1582), he states in the preface that the music was by Beaulieu and Maistre Salmon. Several numbers from it are given by Burney (Hist. iii. 279–283); and the Ballet in all its details and its connexion with the opera has been made the subject of a work 'Les origines de l'Opéra, etc.; par L. Cellier' (Paris, 1868).^[1] The MSS. of others of Baltzarini's ballets are in the Bibliothèque Nationale.

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1. The air which of late years has been somewhat in vogue abroad and at home, under the title of 'Gavotte de Louis XIII,' is taken from this Ballet, where the first strain appears as 'Le son de la Clochette auquel Circé sortit de son jardin'—'un son fort gay.' The trio to the 'Gavotte' has been added by the modern arranger.