Promenade Littéraire #12: Pascal Quignard, Hôtel de Ville, Le Havre, Seine-Maritime (76)

#12, Pascal Quignard, Hôtel de Ville. Quignard spent part of his childhood in Le Havre, and has often mentioned the town in his writings and interviews. Le Nom sur le bout de la langue (1993) is one such book.

Pascal Quignard: Tous les matins du monde (1991)

Pascal Quignard's Tous les matins du monde is set in the 17th century and its main character is Monsieur de Sainte Colombe, an essentially reclusive and gifted but austere composer and player of music for the viola da gamba ('la viole de gambe' in French). He rarely performs in concert, and although the king is very interested in his presence in his court he refuses. In time he teaches his daughters Madelaine and Toinette his art, although since the death of his wife when his daughters were young he has largely given up social contact, apart from with the odd friend such as the (obscure artist) Lubin Baugin: (Jean de) Sainte Colombe actually existed, and although little is known of him and Quignard obviously invents things between the spaces, it's clear that the author is something of a cultural medieval archaeologist.

I don't know if Sainte Colombe's daughters existed, but certainly Marin Marais, the shoemaker's son, did. And he was dissatisfied with his lowly existence, became a choirboy in L'Église-Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois in the centre of Paris, but had to withdraw when his voice broke. Then he chose to play the viola da gamba and sought out Sainte Colombe as a teacher, which he was for a brief period.

Sainte Colombe is preoccupied by his dead wife, Marin Marais is preoccupied by music (and briefly sexually by Sainte Colombe's two daughter's), although Marais is eager to join the king's court as a musician, but also to know Sainte Colombe's music which he refuses to publish. It's easy to see why Allain Corneau made a film of this book in the same year of publication, and why it is rooted so firmly in many people's minds.