Back to search

New Zealand School of Music

The Music of Rene Drouard de Bousset (1703-1760): a Source Study and Stylistic Survey, with Emphasis on His Sacred Output : a thesis submitted to the New Zealand School of Music in fulfilment of the degree of Master of Music in Musiology

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Rene Drouard de Bousset (1703-1760) was an admired composer and an organist of renown. This thesis examines this musician's life and work, and attempts to bring Bousset's music, hitherto largely unknown, to the attention of musicologists and performers today. Primarily a source study, the thesis makes a survey of all known copies of Bousset's published works, addressing questions of dates, reprints and corrections. Historical context and musical style are also discussed. Particular emphasis is given to Bousset's sacred music in the French language two volumes of sacred cantatas and eight settings of Odes sacrees by Jean-Baptiste Rousseau - and its place within the French tradition of Psalm paraphrase settings. The figure of J.B. Rousseau is also examined, as the librettist of Bousset's Odes, and as an important literary contributor to French music at the turn of the eighteenth century. The source study is supplemented by a catalogue in the style of the Philidor Oeuvres database produced by the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, containing all Bousset's known works, extant and lost. This exposition of Bousset's compositional output is prefaced by a biographical overview assembled principally from eighteenth century publications and archival documents. Volume II of this thesis comprises a critical performing edition of Bousset's first volume of Cantates spirituelles (1739).

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Music
Level thesis:degree_level
Masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Musicology
Grantor dc:publisher
New Zealand School of Music
Year dc:date.issued
2008

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Smith, Felicity

Subjects

dc:subject × 6

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • The Author
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Identifier
hdl:10179/1114

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Massey University
Base URL
mro.massey.ac.nz/server/oai/request
Last updated
2026-08-21
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Smith, Felicity. The Music of Rene Drouard de Bousset (1703-1760): a Source Study and Stylistic Survey, with Emphasis on His Sacred Output : a thesis submitted to the New Zealand School of Music in fulfilment of the degree of Master of Music in Musiology. Masters thesis, New Zealand School of Music, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10179/1114