Amanda Babington’s debut solo album introduces you to the intriguing world of musette, a delicate French bagpipe whose fortunes rose and fell with French aristocracy in the 17th and 18th centuries. Works on the disc range from rustic dances to French suites and Italianate sonatas. The disc features three of the most prominent exponents of the musette, brothers Esprit-Philippe and Nicolas Chédeville and their relative Jacques Hotteterre, as well as an extract from the only known work composed by the elusive musette virtuoso Colin Charpentier. Amanda’s insightful interpretation is underpinned by her research into the instrument and its repertoire, and all the works on this disc are recorded here for the first time.

Amanda Babington, musette
Claire Babington, cello
David Smith, harpsichord

Music for French Kings (DXL 1188) Digital Booklet

NICOLAS CHÉDEVILLE, Les Deffis; ou l’étude d’amusement
1 L’Italiene 01:54
2 Les Plaisirs Militaire 02:07
3 Menuet 01:28
4 Les tendres fleurettes 03:33
5 Le Chinois 01:20
6 Les Tourbillons 01:50

BORJON DE SCELLERY
7 Branle de Normandie 01:35
ESPRIT-PHILIPPE CHÉDEVILLE, Sonatille Galant , No. 6
8 Lentement 02:53
9 Allemande 01:43
10 Ariette 01:32
11 Gayement 01:34

JEAN HOTTETERRE, Pièces pour la Muzette
12 Marche des Bergers 00:54
13 Bourée 01:00
14 Sarabande 01:20
15 Menuet, Autre Menuet 01:37
16 Muzette 01:45
17 Branle 00:19
18 Rondeau Champêtre 01:30

COLIN CHARPENTIER, Premier Amusement
19 Ouverture, Loure 03:40
20 Gavotte 01:30

ANON. Suite No. 4 from Les Amusements de Chambre
21 Rondeau 01:43
22 Air gay 00:35
23 Un peu gay 01:01
24 Musette 00:42
25 Gay 00:39
26 Gracieusement 01:09
27 Menuet 01:03
28 Air gay 00:34
29 Tembourin 00:49

DOMENICO SCARLATTI, Sonates pour les clavecins Op. 4, No. 6
30 Adagio 02:34
31 Allegro 02:25
32 Pastorale 03:35
33 Allegro 01:47

ANON., Les Amusements de Chambre
34 Pot poury 02:43

Amanda Babington is a musette player, baroque violinist and recorder player. She is Artistic Director of Baroque In The North and has played and recorded with many of the leading British and European period-instrument ensembles, as well as with chamber ensembles AB24,Four’s Company and Aberdeen Early Music Collective. A Lecturer in Music at the Royal Northern College of Music,
Amanda has published various articles on G. F. Handel, and is regularly invited to give lectures at Göttingen International Handel-Festival. Her edition of Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum and Dettingen Anthem for the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe was published by Bärenreiter in 2016. More recently, however, her research has focused on French Baroque music pertaining to the musette, and she is currently researching musette repertoire at the Stuart court in Rome, c. 1733-1744.