Caprice

• This piece was composed in 1711. It is scored for 3 violins, cello and continuo and contains two movements, 1. Gravement and 2. Vivement.¹
• This piece is another of Rebel’s choreographed instrumental works (today we’d just call it a ballet). In Rebel’s time, most ballets appeared within operas or other dramatic works. The composition of stand-alone instrumental works devoted solely to ballet was an innovation of Rebel’s.²
• This piece was written for Françoise Prévost (1680-1741), one of the foremost ballerinas of her time. She was appointed the prima ballerina at the Paris Opera in 1705.³

“All the advice which, after long meditation, we can offer in regard to our art is contained in a single one of her dances.”

Dancing master Pierre Rameau on Françoise Prévost (1725) ⁴

• Fun fact: In 1733, Françoise Prevost’s daughter Anne married Jean-Fery Rebel’s son François. ⁵

1. Mario Lord, trans. Ilene McKenna. Liner notes to Rebel: Les Plaisirs champêtres, Arion Baroque Orchestra, Daniel Cuiller, EMCCD7765, CD, 2007, Accessed January 7, 2020, http://www.early-music.com/rebel-les-plaisirs-champetres/. 
2.  Catherine Cessac, “Rebel family,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed January 7, 2020, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000023001. 
3. Lord, trans. McKenna. Liner notes to Rebel: Les Plaisirs champêtres.
4. Quoted in Ibid.
5. Ibid.