“And if I want to try [to] play a few times…” Pierre de Brach or the doubts of a bard from the time of the Wars of Religion

Member of the Bordeaux’s Parliament, Pierre de Brach was fully committed in the litterate circles of his time. His Triomphe de Diane (1576) was played for Diane de Foix. This composition offers one of the most accomplished example of the masquarade, which mixes music and poetry. However, this exquisite entertainment was but a parenthesis during the troubled years of religious wars and the rest of Brach’s poetry mourns his impossibility to catch again with such a graceful inspiration.