Release Date: 01 January 2001
Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 636943451427
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: CHARPENTIER
Description
Marc-AntoineCharpentier (1643-1704) No?½ls and ChristmasMotetsAfter nearly two hundred years of almost total neglect, the music ofMarc-Antoine Charpentier is now well established both on the concert stage andin recordings. Relatively little, however, is known about his early life andeven his date of birth has been open to conjecture. His father was a copyistand the gifted son obviously inherited his father's calligraphic skills, as canbe attested by the script of the 28 autograph volumes of his works.Shortly after his eighteenth birthday Charpentier went to study in Rome,spending three years as a pupil of the famous Italian composer GiacomoCarissimi. Carissimi was distinguished for his Latin and Italian oratorioswhich played an important part in Roman religious life, as the oratorios ofCharpentier were subsequently to do in Paris. Carissimi's reputation wassecured with his 1649 oratorio Jephte, and the style of this and otherworks left its Italianate mark on Charpentier. In both composers we hearflowing melodies, dramatic use of silence, and chromatic and descriptiveharmonies with harsh dissonances and expressive modulations.Charpentier was a close contemporary of King Louis XIV (1638-1715). Itwas in part because of illness on the day of official auditions for the post ofsous-ma?«tre for the Chapelle Royale in Versailles and in part because ofthe overwhelming influence of Jean-Baptiste Lully at the court that Charpentierreceived few royal commissions, although he was granted a generous pension bythe king as a consolation for his failure to gain an official court position.It may, indeed, have been because of Lully's monopoly over the performance ofstage works that Charpentier turned to religious oratorios and the church foremployment. From the early 1680s until his death, he was, like his teacherbefore him, employed by the Jesuits, establishing himself as one of the mostimportant composers of French sacred music.Of the 34 Latin oratorios by Charpentier, the six celebrating Christmasare the most modest. They have an equal balance of French and Italianinfluence, with instrumental ritornelli, choruses (some called chansonsand resembling popular no?½ls) and recitative narrative by shepherds,angels or evangelists. The texts are adaptations of the nativity account fromthe Gospel of St Luke2:8-16.Many French composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had aparticular fondness for setting traditional and popular Christmas carols, knownin French as No?½ls. There are arrangements for organ by Gigault (1683),Leb?¿que (1685) and Geoffroy (1690). In addition there is a famous orchestralsetting by Michel-Richard Delalande for the Chapelle Royale. The liturgy of theChristmas Midnight Mass had long allowed the singing of these popular carols,but whereas they had often been incorporated into vocal compositions in thesixteenth century, by the time of Charpentier instrumental arrangements werethe norm.Charpentier's no?½ls are to be found in two groups whic
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yumiko Oshima Ryan
Yang Liu
Wolfgang Weigel
