(b Montreuil-sur-Mer, c1520; d Paris, 1598 ). French music printer, lutenist and composer. He was born into a wealthy
merchant family from northern France. As a young man he entered successively the service of two members of the
aristocracy close to the French throne, Claude de Clermont and Jacques II, Baron de Semblançay and Viscount of Tours.
In March 1546 he became acquainted with the editor Jean de Brouilly in Paris, bought some properties from him in St
Denis and married his daughter Denise (d before 1570). He moved to Brouilly's house at the sign of Ste Geneviève (later
the sign of Mount Parnassus) in the rue St Jean-de-Beauvais – an address which was to become famous as the home of
one of the greatest of the French music printing establishments.
On 14 August 1551 Le Roy and his cousin Robert Ballard obtained a privilege from Henri II to print and sell all kinds of
music books. Their first publication appeared at the end of the same month. On 16 February 1553, the king gave Le Roy
& Ballard the title of royal music printer, which had been vacant since Attaingnant's death in 1552; it was renewed in
1568 and 1594. The association flourished, and Ballard's heirs continued to dominate French music printing until the
middle of the 18th century. Le Roy acted as artistic director, while Ballard handled the business side.
Some of the printing firm's success can be attributed to the access both Le Roy and Ballard had to court circles,
including the Valois monarchs Henri II, Charles IX and Henri III. Le Roy was a regular member of the salon of Catherine
de Clermont, Countess of Retz. There he met artists, musicians and the poets Ronsard, Baïf and Melissus, who wrote
dedicatory verses for some of his collections. Le Roy himself wrote a few dedications to Charles IX and the Count of
Retz.
Greater artistic success came to Le Roy, however, as a composer of chansons and music for lute, guitar and cittern,
instruments on which he was an accomplished virtuoso. He wrote instruction books for the lute (Instruction … de luth,
?1557, Eng. trans., 1568; Instructions pour le luth, 1574) and guitar (Briefve et facile instruction, 1551) as well as
several books of tablature for lute (at least six), guitar (five) and cittern containing arrangements of four-voice chansons
and psalms, plus several dances and two fantasias. The lute books include highly ornate versions of songs by Arcadelt,
Certon, Sandrin and other contemporaries, following the virtuoso style of Albert de Rippe in ornamentation by
diminution, arpeggiation and an incipient style brisé. As Le Roy explained in his Instructions of 1574, the technique of
arrangement may be simple intabulation (as in his arrangements of chansons by Lassus) or more ' finely handled'
divisions with ornate variation and diminution. His five books for four-course guitar include preludes, two 'fantasies'
and several dances (some followed by more ornate divisions), as well as arrangements of Latin psalms, chansons and
voix de ville (two books presenting a separate fully texted vocal line which is doubled in the tablature). The vocal line is
doubled too in his Livre d'airs de cour (Paris, 1571) for solo voice and lute, the first publication in which the term air de
cour was used; many of these airs offer more declamatory monodic arrangements of four-voice strophic chansons or
voix de ville by La Grotte and others, while some songs are followed by alternative more ornate versions. Le Roy's own
surviving four-voice songs are limited to two chansons (O que d'ennuis, RISM 155426, and En un chasteau, RISM
155616), one strophic air (Quel feu par les vens animé , RISM 15763) and a Premier livre de chansons en forme de vau
de ville (Paris, 1573) containing 23 chansons, most of which reharmonize melodies from Certon's Premier livre de
chansons (1552) with the tenor part transposed to the superius. In addition Le Roy left a treatise, Traicté de musique
(1583), with chapters on the rules of counterpoint, consonance, dissonance, syncopation, cadences and modes.
Le Roy's friendship with musicians helped assure the firm's pre-eminence. Certon, Arcadelt, Le Jeune, Costeley and
Goudimel were personal acquaintances. The most valuable friendship of all was that with Orlande de Lassus, who
stayed in Le Roy's house during a visit to Paris and whom Le Roy introduced at court. A letter dated 14 January 1574,
from Le Roy to Lassus, describes the delight that Charles IX took in Lassus's music and tells him that the king wanted to
make him composer of the royal chamber and had urged Le Roy to print his music as soon as possible for fear that it
otherwise might be lost. Le Roy & Ballard were chiefly responsible for making Lassus's older music well known in France
and for disseminating his newest works to the rest of the musical world.
After Ballard's death in July 1588 the firm did not publish anything until 1591, when three books of songs appeared
under Le Roy's name alone. After another pause publishing began again in 1593 and continued until Le Roy's death.
During this period 15 more books were printed, this time under the name of Adrian Le Roy and the widow of Ballard. Le
Roy died childless, turning over his interest to Ballard's heirs.
Le Roy was respected as a pedagogue, but perhaps his most lasting contribution to music history is the influence he
exercised as a publisher on French musical taste.
