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The Music of France
The French BaroqueHenry DumontJean-Baptiste LullyMarc-Antoine CharpentierFrançois CouperinJean-Philippe Rameau
French Baroque InspirationsPierre Fournier, cello
To understand how Baroque music worked in France, we need to understand:
Him!
And this …
Over the course of a 72-year reign, Louis XIV centralized power to a virtually unprecedented degree amongst European monarchs.
Under his rule, the arts were richly and lavishly supported—but they were also just as strongly centralized under state control.
To be a successful musician in Baroque France meant to be successful navigating the politics and personages of the court and its offshoots.
And it was the tastes of the king and his courtiers that largely determined the nature of French baroque music, and distinguishes it from the music of Italy and Germany.
French baroque music began by being largely imported from Italy, but it soon took off into its own directions.
Characteristics of French Baroque Music
❖ Ceremonious
❖ Lavish
❖ Ornamented
The Three Realms of French Baroque Music❖ The Church
❖ Sacred choral works similar to those in other countries
❖ Multi-movement grand motets on religious subjects, comparable in some ways to Handel’s oratorios but meant to be performed as religious services
❖ The Theater
❖ The tragédie lyrique (tragédie en music)—France’s answer to Italian opera, but much more lavish
❖ Ballets and drama with incidental music
❖ The Court
❖ Chamber music of all kinds, from vast amounts of solo keyboard music to works for chamber ensembles and small orchestras
Henry Dumont
Grand Motet: Magnificat Parts 1 - 3
Philippe PierlotRicercar Consort
About Henry Dumont
❖ 1610–1684
❖ Born in the Netherlands
❖ Was Maitre of the Chapelle Royale in Versailles by 1663
❖ Was the originator of the grand motet, an important French genre of quasi-sacred music
About the Grand Motet
❖ Called for double choirs and a full orchestra
❖ Mostly cultivated at Versailles—thus they had a political aspect
❖ A series of choruses, arias, and recitatives
❖ They roughly resemble a Handelian oratorio, although they are based on sacred texts rather than the story-like librettos used by Handel
About the Magnificat
❖ Mary’s song of praise from Luke Chapter 1
❖ From the meeting of Mary with Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist
❖ Text of lines 1 - 2:
❖ Magnificat anima mea Dominum: My soul magnifies the Lord
❖ Et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo: And my spirit has rejoiced in God my savior
Jean Baptiste Lully
Te Deum, LWV 55 Vincent DumestrePoème Harmonique
About Jean-Baptiste Lully
❖ 1632–1687
❖ Italian born (Giovanni Battista Lulli) who settled in France and became a power in the French court
❖ He made himself indispensable to Louis XIV, and as such was able to control music in the French court to his own benefit
❖ He collaborated with Molière on a number of theatrical projects
About the Te Deum
❖ A laudatory text praising God, the Te Deum probably originated in the Ambrosian liturgy, around the 4th century.
❖ It is a popular text for its imagery and its general mood of celebration.
❖ Lully wrote his Te Deum for the French court; during rehearsals he stamped his staff on his foot; gangrene set in, and Lully died some time later from the infection.
Te Deum Text
❖ Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur. ❖ We praise you, O God: we acknowledge you to be the Lord.
❖ Te æternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur.❖ All the earth worships you, the Father everlasting.
Images of Versailles accompany the performance of the first movement
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Médée: Seconde entrée des Démons
William ChristieLes Arts Florissantes
About Marc-Antoine Charpentier❖ 1643–1704
❖ Overshadowed by Lully, but had a fine and successful career nonetheless
❖ Became associated with Molière from about 1672
❖ Among his students were the Dauphin, the future Louis XV, but he was never part of the court of Louis XIV
❖ Later in life became the maître of Saint-Chapelle
About French Baroque Opera
❖ Tragédie lyrique or tragédie mise en musique
❖ Typically based on classical sources
❖ Stage spectacle: choruses and dances along with the singers
❖ Large orchestra for the era, often featuring winds and percussion
About Médée
❖ 1693
❖ Libretto by Thomas Corneille
❖ Major success in its day and has been revived in modern times
Act III
❖ Medea uses her sorcery to summon up demons while she poisons the fabric of a robe in order to kill off a rival for Jason.
Seconde Entrée des Demons
LA JALOUSIE & LA VENGEANCENon, non, les plus heureux amants,Après une longue esperance,N’ont des plaisirs qu’en apparence,En voulez-vous de charmants?Cherchez-les dans la vengeance.
CHOEUR
Non, non les plus heureux amants,Après une longue esperanceN’ont des plaisirs qu’en apparence,En voulez-vous de charmants?Cherchez-les dans la vengeance.
MEDÉE
Vous avez serve mon courroux,C’est assez, retirons-nous.
Médée emporte la robe & les Demons disparoissent.
Second Entrance of the Demons
JEALOUSY AND VENGEANCENo, no, even the happiest lovers,After enduring hope,Enjoy their bliss only in show.Do you want to taste true pleasure?Seek it in revenge.
CHOEUR
No, no, even the happiest lovers,After enduring hope,Enjoy their bliss only in show.Do you want to taste true pleasure?Seek it in revenge.
MEDÉE
You have served my fury,It is enough, let us retire.
Médée takes away the robe and the Demons vanish.
François Couperin
Concerts royaux, 3ième concert: Muzette
Jordi SavallLe concert des nations
About François Couperin
❖ 1668–1733
❖ Born into a prominent musical family—rather like the Bachs in Germany
❖ Wrote instrumental music, mostly for harpsichord or chamber ensembles
❖ A goodly amount of sacred choral music also survives
About the Concerts royaux
❖ Four suites, roughly similar to Bach’s suites
❖ Written specifically for the court of Louis XIV in 1714
❖ The instrumentation isn’t specified
❖ They can be played by harpsichord solo
❖ Or by a chamber group
❖ A Muzette is a piece with a drone suggesting a bagpipe (musette).
❖ They were among the galanteries one found in suites from composers throughout Europe—including Bach, Telemann, and Purcell.
❖ Landscapes by Claude Lorrain accompany the performance.
François Couperin
Pièces de clavecin: Le Tic-Toc-Choc, ou les Maillotins
Christophe Rousset, harpsichord
About Le Tic-Toc-Choc, ou les Maillotins❖ The title refers to clockwork — a “tick-
tock” clock, and “maillotins” apparently means something along the lines of little mechanical hammers falling in sequence — like one of the wind-up music boxes that were all the rage at the time.
❖ It’s a little virtuoso display piece that makes the most of the harpsichord’s glittering sonority.
❖ Images of harpsichords accompany the performance.
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Two Dances from “Castor and Pollux”
William ChristieLes Arts Florissantes
About Jean-Philippe Rameau
❖ 1683–1764
❖ Secretive, miserly man; difficult to get along with, easily angered and irritable.
❖ Writer of extraordinarily fluid and engaging music, however.
❖ Collaborated with Voltaire on several projects.
❖ Author of one of history’s most important books on music theory.
About Castor et Pollux
❖ First performed in 1737
❖ Tragedie en musique in the classic Lullian manner
Baroque Inspirations
Claude Debussy
Images: Hommage à Rameau
Claudio Arrau, piano
About Hommage à Rameau
❖ Second of six Images for solo piano, written between 1901 and 1907
❖ Some of the Images are pictorial (Reflections in the Water, Goldfish) while others are abstract
❖ This stately sarabande evokes the dignity and mystery of the past, without slavishly copying the idioms of the French baroque
ababca
1
1
2
dded
1
2
ab
Maurice Ravel
Le tombeau de Couperin: Prélude
Abbey Simon, piano
About Le Tombeau de Couperin❖ Written between 1914 and 1917❖ Evokes the spirit of the French baroque, in
particular the great harpsichord masters of that era
❖ Each movement is dedicated to an associate or friend’s of Ravel’s who was killed in World War I
❖ The Prelude is dedicated to Jacques Charlot❖ Ravel orchestrated four of the Tombeau’s six
movements, leaving out the Fugue and the Toccata
❖ The same set of harpsichord images as the Couperin work accompany the performance
Pierre Fournier, cello
1906–1986
About Pierre Fournier❖ Was touring Europe by the time he was in
his early twenties❖ Brilliant, aristocratic technique
❖ Was discovered to have been sympathetic with the Nazi regime in France and was banned from public performance for six months
❖ Settled finally in Geneva, where he taught privately
❖ Collaborated on recordings with Arthur Rubinstein and Henryk Szeryng
Johann Sebastian Bach
Cello Suite in G Major, BWV 1007: Prelude
Pierre Fournier, celloRecorded 1961
Landscapes by Paul Cezanne accompany the performance
Richard Strauss
Don Quixote: A Dream of Dulcinea
Pierre Fournier, celloHerbert von Karajan, conductorBerlin PhilharmonicRecorded 1965
