Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83

Formant.

The relationship between amplification, or degree of resonance, and frequency, for any device (whether mechanical or electronic) that modifies, transmits or radiates sound. The graph representing the relationship between amplification and frequency is usually called the ‘formant characteristic’.

Three typical examples of the source of a formant will help to clarify the meaning. The body of a violin converts the almost inaudible sound of the strings by a process of resonance and radiation into a very much louder sound, but in so doing it imposes its own formant on the sound; different frequency components in the string vibration are enhanced by different amounts, and so the timbre is changed. Second, the bore characteristics and the size, shape and position of the side holes of a woodwind instrument change the wave-form set up by the reed in the pipe and so impose a formant which leads to a characteristic timbre for each instrument. Third, the cavities of the throat and nose modify the harmonic-rich buzzing sound of the vocal chords and impose formants that are characteristic of the person and also of the different vowel sounds; each vowel sound – regardless of whether spoken by a male or female, adult or child – has formant peaks at well-defined frequencies. Problems arise if the recognizable strong peaks in a formant occur in regions for which no frequencies are present in the basic sound; thus it is difficult to distinguish one vowel from another in a high-pitched human voice, and the timbre differences between instruments are much less pronounced at high pitches than lower down the scale. See also Sound, §6(iv).

CHARLES TAYLOR

Formé, Nicolas

(b Paris, 26 April 1567; d Paris, 27 May 1638). French composer, singer and priest. He was probably educated at the choir school of Notre Dame, Paris. By the time he was 20 ‘his ability in both music and letter’ was such that on 4 July 1587 he was admitted to the Ste Chapelle du Palais as a clerk; in a document of 28 February 1590 he described himself as a chantre ordinaire there. During the next two years the chapter reprimanded him on many occasions for drunkenness, lack of moderation and negligence in carrying out his duties. From the first quarter of 1592 his name appears in the records of the royal chapel as an haute-contre, with a salary of 150 livres. One of the sous-maîtres under whom he worked was Eustache Du Caurroy. As soon as Du Caurroy died, on 7 August 1609, he succeeded him as sous-maître and composer of the royal chapel in alternation with Eustach Picot. Formé held both offices until his death; in the year of his death he was thus able to write in the dedication to Louis XIII of his Mass for double chorus that as well as serving ‘the late King Henry the Great for 18 years’ he had spent ‘28 years of humble service and continual allegiance’ in Louis’ household. He was sensitive and passionately devoted to music to the point of fainting when one of his works was performed in public. Yet he was also eager to obtain honours and lucrative benefices: in 1624 the king made him abbot in commendam of the abbey of Notre Dame de Reclus in the diocese of Troyes, although he resigned in 1634 in favour of his nephew; and on 11 November 1626 he was made a canon of the Ste Chapelle. Apart from these official privileges he assiduously set about increasing his wealth, through property, loans, recognizances and so on, as can be seen from his will, drawn up in 1631, and by the list of his possessions compiled after his death. The text of his epitaph survives (F-Pn fr.8219, p.47).

The numerous anecdotes about Formé sometimes illustrate his irritable, arrogant and undisciplined nature or his lax morals and fondness for drink but also the enthusiasm with which those in high places greeted his music. On the one hand, for example, he was at loggerheads with the other canons of the Ste Chapelle because he lived with his mistress in his own house. On the other hand, Richelieu invited him to direct a concert in his palace, and Dubois de l’Estourmière, Louis XIII’s valet, related in his memoirs how he told Louis XIV of his father’s particular affection for Formé’s motet Nonne Deo subjecta erit anima mea (which is lost). One can also believe Sauval’s report that after Formé’s death, Louis XIII collected his works together and locked them away in a cupboard to which he held the key; it is possibly because of this that some at least of his music has survived. Sauval added that these works subsequently fell into the hands of Jean Veillot, ‘who turned them to his own good account’.

As a composer Formé is known only by sacred works. In the dedication to Louis XIII of his celebrated Mass published in 1638, cited above, he prided himself on being the first Frenchman to write for double choir in the Venetian style, but this is an idle boast, since several others had done so before him, among them Le Jeune, Du Caurroy and d’Ambleville. In this mass, however, and also in the motets Domine, salvum fac regem and Ecce tu pulchra es, amica mea, he did break new ground in his explicit use of the concertante style, contrasting a quartet of soloists with a five-part choir: the style, partly fugal partly homophonic, heralds that of the grands motets of Versailles. There is no mention of instrumental accompaniment in the score. But it seems unlikely that, at a time when the continuo was becoming more and more accepted in France, such fundamentally modern music was conceived for a cappella performance. Moreover the nature of the music implies accompaniment, although it is doubtful if instruments other than organ were used because of the restrictions that the church imposed on the performance of liturgical music, especially masses. There survived in manuscript a series of Magnificat settings by Formé based on the eight church tones. Sections for four voices alternate with Gregorian chant, thus confirming that the works were intended for liturgical use, perhaps in the royal chapel or the Ste Chapelle. They are written in a basically unadorned syllabic style, which is, however, varied by imitative entries based on the chant and by the use of contrasted vocal groups. Formé’s surviving music is fine enough for the loss of his other works to be a matter for regret.

WORKS

Aeternae Henrici magni … missam hanc duobus choris, 4/5vv (Paris, 1638); San and Ag, ed. A. Gastoué (Paris, n.d.); also contains 2 motets: Domine salvum fac Regem; Ecce tu pulchra es, amica mea, ed. D. Launay, Anthologie du motet latin polyphonique en France au début au XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1963)

Messe en contrepoint simple, par b mol, 4vv (Paris, before 1707), lost

8 Magnificats sur les 8 tons, 4vv, F-Pn

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DENISE LAUNAY/JAMES R. ANTHONY