Charpentier's Quam Pulchra Es
Chris Sprague
I'm looking for more information on this composition. I have a recording of
it performed by the Maitrise des Hautes de Seine (Paris Opera Boys Choir),
and its a very, very beautiful work with some outstanding and moving
harmonies. However, the information on the net pertaining to it seems to be
scant at best. Could anyone help me with finding out what larger work its a
part of, and even better, where I could find other recordings and sheet
music for it?
Thanks in advance,
Christopher Sprague.
The Bibliographer
Chris Sprague <spra...@aNdOeSlPpAhMia.net> wrote:
>I'm looking for more information on this composition.
Yes. The text is from the "Song of Songs," see below. See below that for
some material on M. A. Charpentier from the <New Grove's>, with
(imporantly) a valuable bibliography.
Canticum Canticorum Salomonis (Song of Songs, Song of Solomon)
(Vulgate)
4
1 quam pulchra es amica mea quam pulchra es oculi tui columbarum
absque eo quod intrinsecus latet capilli tui sicut greges caprarum
quae ascenderunt de monte Galaad 2 dentes tui sicut greges tonsarum
quae ascenderunt de lavacro omnes gemellis fetibus et sterilis non est
inter eas 3 sicut vitta coccinea labia tua et eloquium tuum dulce
sicut fragmen mali punici ita genae tuae absque eo quod intrinsecus
latet 4 sicut turris David collum tuum quae aedificata est cum
propugnaculis mille clypei pendent ex ea omnis armatura fortium 5 duo
ubera tua sicut duo hinuli capreae gemelli qui pascuntur in liliis 6
donec adspiret dies et inclinentur umbrae vadam ad montem murrae et ad
collem turis 7 tota pulchra es amica mea et macula non est in te 8
veni de Libano sponsa veni de Libano veni coronaberis de capite Amana
de vertice Sanir et Hermon de cubilibus leonum de montibus pardorum 9
vulnerasti cor meum soror mea sponsa vulnerasti cor meum in uno
oculorum tuorum et in uno crine colli tui 10 quam pulchrae sunt mammae
tuae soror mea sponsa pulchriora ubera tua vino et odor unguentorum
tuorum super omnia aromata 11 favus distillans labia tua sponsa mel et
lac sub lingua tua et odor vestimentorum tuorum sicut odor turis 12
hortus conclusus soror mea sponsa hortus conclusus fons signatus 13
emissiones tuae paradisus malorum punicorum cum pomorum fructibus
cypri cum nardo 14 nardus et crocus fistula et cinnamomum cum
universis lignis Libani murra et aloe cum omnibus primis unguentis 15
fons hortorum puteus aquarum viventium quae fluunt impetu de Libano 16
surge aquilo et veni auster perfla hortum meum et fluant aromata
illius
______________________________________________________________________
(KJV)
4
1 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast
doves' eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that
appear from mount Gilead. 2 Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that
are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear
twins, and none is barren among them. 3 Thy lips are like a thread of
scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a
pomegranate within thy locks. 4 Thy neck is like the tower of David
builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all
shields of mighty men. 5 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that
are twins, which feed among the lilies. 6 Until the day break, and the
shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the
hill of frankincense. 7 Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot
in thee. 8 Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon:
look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from
the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards. 9 Thou hast
ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart
with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. 10 How fair is thy
love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and
the smell of thine ointments than all spices! 11 Thy lips, O my
spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue;
and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. 12 A
garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain
sealed. 13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant
fruits; camphire, with spikenard, 14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus
and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with
all the chief spices: 15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living
waters, and streams from Lebanon. 16 Awake, O north wind; and come,
thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.
Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.
______________________________________________________________________
Charpentier, Marc-Antoine
(b in or nr Paris, 1643; d Paris, 24 Feb 1704). French composer.
Although he never held a position at the court of Louis XIV, his
ability, reliability and productivity won him important posts in Paris
and considerable renown. Overshadowed during his lifetime by his more
strategically placed contemporary, Lully, and soon forgotten, it was
only in the 20th century that he came to be acknowledged as one of the
most gifted and versatile French composers.
1. Life.
2. Sacred music.
3. Stage music.
4. Chamber music.
WORKS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
H. WILEY HITCHCOCK
1. Life.
The year of Charpentier's birth, long uncertain, has been determined
convincingly, if without explicit documentation, by Patricia Ranum
(1987). His father was a Parisian master scribe, descended from a
family of notaries and merchants in Meaux. Facts about Charpentier's
youth and education remain unknown, but there is indirect evidence
that he was taught by the Jesuits. No documentation exists for the
frequently repeated claims that he came from a family of artists and
went to Rome initially to study painting. He seems to have arrived
there between May 1666 and December 1667, and according to the Mercure
galant of February 1681 he studied for three years with Carissimi.
Research has raised doubts that Carissimi actually taught him, but
there is no doubt about the young composer's thorough absorption of
mid-century Italian music. Among his extant autographs are copies of
Carissimi's Jephte (F-Pn Vm1 1477) and the unpublished Missa mirabiles
elationes maris for four choirs (F-Pn Vm1 260) by Francesco Beretta;
other Roman composers whose music he must have known include Domenico
Mazzocchi (whose Sacrae concertationes of 1664 includes Latin
dialogues prefiguring Charpentier's), Stradella, Bonifatio Gratiani,
Francesco Foggia and Pasquini. Sebastien de Brossard, a reliable
source, commented in 1724 on his `prodigious' musical memory and
mentioned his having brought back to Paris copies of various Italian
motets and several oratorios by Carissimi.
According to Titon du Tillet, Charpentier, on his return to Paris from
Rome (by Lent 1670), was given an apartment in the vast Hìtel de Guise
by Marie de Lorraine, known as `Mademoiselle de Guise'. This pious
noblewoman boasted one of the largest private musical establishments
in France, especially after inheriting the family fortune in 1675.
Charpentier seems to have served as her composer-in-residence and as a
singer (haute-contre) until shortly before her death in 1688; in March
that year the Mercure galant remarked that he had `lived at the Hìtel
de Guise for a long time'. For her musicians Charpentier wrote several
dramatic motets (`oratorios'), two pastorales on the Nativity story,
other motets and psalm settings, and Idyle sur le retour de la santÇ
du roi, celebrating, early in 1687, Louis XIV's recovery from an anal
fistula. Also for her ensemble, which eventually included seven female
and seven male singers plus instrumentalists, he composed six secular
theatre works, including a reworking of the original prologue of Le
malade imaginaire under the title of La couronne de fleurs. These
miniature operas (as they have been called) may, however, have been
commissioned by Madame de Guise, the less single-mindedly devout
daughter-in-law of Mademoiselle de Guise and wife of the Duke of
Guise, for performance in her luxurious residence in the Palais du
Luxembourg.
It may have been thanks to his connections with the Guise family that
Charpentier began in 1672 a long association with the troupe of
Moliäre - the `Troupe du Roy', renamed in 1680 the ComÇdie-Franáaise.
The fruitful collaboration between Moliäre and Lully had dissolved
when Lully embarked, with monopolistic royal privileges, on his career
as an opera composer. When La comtesse d'Escarbagnas, first given at
court on 2 December 1671, was played before the Parisian public on 8
July 1672, it had an overture by Charpentier and, instead of preceding
the Ballet des ballets with music by Lully (as it had the previous
December), it preceded a revival of Le mariage forcÇ with new
entr'acte intermädes by Charpentier. Completely set to music by him
were the lengthy pastoral prologue, intermädes and other scenes in
Moliäre's last play, Le malade imaginaire, first performed on 10
February 1673. After Moliäre's death (that very day) Charpentier
continued to write for the company for about two decades (see
illustration). He replaced earlier music (mostly by Lully) for plays
by Moliäre and others with new material that conformed to the
restrictive terms of several increasingly draconian ordinances,
obtained from Louis XIV by Lully, limiting the troupe's use of
musicians. He also composed original music for the first runs of seven
other stage works.
Already, by the late 1670s, Charpentier was in demand by others. The
Mercure galant of September 1679 reported his having provided music on
the Feast of St Louis for a solemn Mass sponsored by the court artist
Charles Le Brun; in April 1680 it recounted how, during Holy Week,
crowds had gone to the Cistercian convent of the Abbaye-aux-Bois to
hear Tenebrae compositions by him. He wrote treble-voice motets for
the nuns of other convents as well, including Port-Royal de Paris, for
which he also composed a mass including not only the usual Ordinary
items but also Propers relevant to that convent's favoured saints,
Francis and Margaret. In 1679-80, and again in 1682-3 and later,
Charpentier was called upon for sacred music for the chapel of the
young dauphin, which was separate from the chapel royal of Louis XIV;
motets by him were said to please the king, according to the Mercure
galant for March 1681 and May 1682. Probably also for the dauphin's
musicians were a huge dramatic motet on the death in 1683 of Queen
Marie-ThÇräse, In obitum augustissimae nec non piissimae gallorum
reginae lamentum and its similarly massive companion-piece, a De
profundis (no.189). It seems to have been for the same musicians that
Charpentier composed two theatre pieces on courtly subjects, Les
plaisirs de Versailles and La fàte de Rueil, the latter at the behest
of Armand-Jean du Plessis de Vignerot, Duke of Richelieu, on the
centenary of his grand-uncle, the cardinal and statesman.
In 1683 Louis XIV, reorganizing the royal chapel, held a competition
among composers for appointment to the newly created quarterly posts
of sous-maåtre (music-director and composer). Charpentier was one of
16 who survived a first round of 35 competitors, but he had to
withdraw from the second because of illness (according to the Mercure
galant for April). Two months later the king awarded him a pension,
perhaps in gratitude for his services to the dauphin. This was as
close as Charpentier came to royal patronage, although about a decade
later, in 1692-3, he was again on the periphery of the court circle as
music teacher to Philippe d'OrlÇans, Duke of Chartres, a nephew of the
king and future Regent of France. For the duke, according to Brossard,
Charpentier wrote the brief Rägles de composition and an appended
`summary' of the principles of accompaniment from figured bass
(no.551). According to early sources, the two men collaborated on an
opera, Philomäle, which was played three times in the duke's
apartments in the Palais-Royal, but he wished it not to be published
and it is not extant.
By that time Charpentier had been connected for about a decade with
the Jesuits, first, according to Titon du Tillet, as maåtre de
chapelle at their Colläge de Clermont (renamed in 1683 the Colläge de
Louis-le-Grand) and then as maåtre de musique of the principal Jesuit
church in Paris, St Louis (later named St Paul-St Louis). Brossard
spoke of the latter post as being `among the most brilliant' in French
musical life; Le Cerf de la ViÇville called St Louis `l'Çglise de
l'opÇra' (and in fact some of Charpentier's manuscripts of sacred
music from this period name singers associated with the OpÇra - the
AcadÇmie Royale de Musique - such as the bass-baritone Jean Dun).
Besides composing many religious works for St Louis until at least the
mid-1690s, Charpentier also contributed to the sacred dramas of the
Jesuit Colläge d'Harcourt (no.498) and the Colläge de Louis-le-Grand.
For the latter he composed Celse Martyr in 1687 (only the published
libretto is extant) and in 1688 David et Jonathas, its music surviving
in a full score of 1690 copied by the king's music librarian, AndrÇ
Danican Philidor l'aånÇ. Both works were full-scale Lullian tragÇdies
en musique, in five acts with prologue.
Even before 1687-8 the Jesuits had become powerful enough for such
fully scored large-scale dramatic works not to be subject to the
restrictions on music in theatres outside the AcadÇmie Royale de
Musique controlled by Lully. With Lully's death in 1687, the way was
opened for tragÇdies lyriques by others to be introduced even at the
OpÇra. One by Charpentier was heard there: MÇdÇe, with a libretto by
Thomas Corneille, younger brother of Pierre and a poet with whom
Charpentier had collaborated in earlier dramatic works (CircÇ, 1675;
L'inconnu, 1675; La pierre philosophale, 1681). MÇdÇe received its
premiäre on 4 December 1693. Although the king had accepted its
dedication, and even though the sets were by Jean Berain (successor to
Carlo Vigarani, longtime designer for the OpÇra), and the title role
was sung by the great Marthe Le Rochois (creator of several of Lully's
heroines, notably that of Armide), it was not a great success. Writing
in 1724, Brossard ascribed its poor reception to `cabals of the
envious and ignorant', surely meaning Lullists jealous of the threat
posed by the `italianized' Charpentier to their late hero. But, said
Brossard, `without exception, it is from this opera, more than any
other, that one can learn the essentials of good composition'; it was
also `without a doubt the most expert and refined of all those that
have been printed, at least since the death of Lully'.
On 20 May 1698 the post of maåtre de musique of the Sainte-Chapelle,
the exquisite Gothic chapel in the Palais de Justice, fell vacant with
the death of Franáois Chaperon. Brossard hoped to be named to the
post, second in French sacred music only to the royal chapel at
Versailles; according to him, however, Charpentier got the Duke of
Chartres to intercede successfully on his behalf, and on 28 June he
was named Chaperon's successor. Charpentier held the position until
his death. His duties were to direct the music at all services and
ceremonies, to compose music for them and to teach the choirboys
solfäge, plainsong, counterpoint and vocal technique. Charpentier
composed some of his richest and most impressive works for the
Sainte-Chapelle, judging by the few of his scores for it that survive.
Among them are the Motet pour une longue offrande (1698-9) and the
dramatic motet Judicium Salomonis (1702), both written for the annual
`Messe rouge' of the Parlement (named after the judiciaries' scarlet
robes); massive settings for Holy Week in 1699 of Psalms lxxi, xxvii
and xvi (nos.228-30); and the masterpiece among his masses, `Assumpta
est Maria'.
According to Titon du Tillet, Charpentier was buried in the
Sainte-Chapelle, but the grave's location is unknown. To posterity he
left an enigmatic and poignant Epitaphium Carpentarij (no.474), a
strange, semi-sacred dramatic cantata to a Latin text, its date
unknown, in which `the shade of Charpentier' speaks to two wanderers
in the underworld. It includes this rueful assessment: `I was a
musician, considered good by the good ones, scorned as ignorant by the
ignorant. And since those who scorned me were much more numerous than
those who lauded me, music became to me a small honour and a heavy
burden. And just as at my birth I brought nothing into this world, I
took nothing from it at my death'.
Very little of Charpentier's music was published during his lifetime:
some airs from CircÇ (Paris, 1676), a few airs sÇrieux et Ö boire and
(by the music publisher who enjoyed a royal monopoly, Christophe
Ballard) the full score of MÇdÇe (Paris, 1694); Ballard also published
some small vocal works in issues of his periodical Meslanges.
Fortunately Charpentier was a meticulous caretaker of his manuscripts,
which were carefully written in ink and gathered in numbered sheafs
(cahiers), and he bequeathed them to a nephew, Jacques Edouard, who
was a printer and bookseller. Edouard published in 1709 a collection
of 12 petits motets; then, having sought but failed to interest
private purchasers in all his uncle's manuscripts, sold them, no
longer completely intact, to the king's library in 1727. These
`meslanges autographes', as they came to be known, were bound in 28
large volumes (now F-Pn RÇs.Vm1 259); publication in a facsimile
edition began in 1990.
2. Sacred music.
The course of Charpentier's career and the musical posts he occupied,
including his service as composer for the devout Mademoiselle de
Guise, occasioned much more sacred music - for churches, private
chapels and convents - than any other kind. Almost 500 religious works
survive, covering a wide range of genres. The vocal church music
includes 11 mass settings and about 140 other liturgical works; 84
psalm settings; and 207 motets of various types, among them the
dramatic motets that are usually termed oratorios. About 30
instrumental ensemble compositions for the church survive.
In almost every category of the sacred music there is great diversity
among the individual works in length, number of performers required,
compositional techniques and forms. The masses, for example, range
from the delicate Messe pour le Port Royal (no.5) for three soprano
soloists, unison soprano chorus and continuo to the immense Messe Ö
quatre choeurs (no.4) - obviously modelled on the Roman polychoral
style of Benevoli and others - calling for 20 soloists, four SATB
choirs, doubling strings and four continuo groups, each with its own
organ. Similarly, perhaps the two most notable Magnificat settings are
no.73 for haute-contre, tenor and bass soloists (a favourite medium
for Charpentier), trumpets, strings and continuo, based entirely on 89
repetitions of an italianate ostinato consisting of a descending
tetrachord, and the mighty Magnificat Ö 8 voix et 8 instruments (i.e.
for double chorus, double orchestra and eight solo singers). The
latter is constructed as a grand motet resembling those by such court
composers as Du Mont, Pierre Robert and Lalande, with multiple
movements and alternation of both vocal and instrumental petit choeur
passages with others for grand choeur.
Among Charpentier's most original and perhaps influential sacred works
are his Tenebrae compositions for Holy Week. Many of the lessons are
rooted, in part, in the Gregorian `tonus lamentationis', but even more
deeply in the airs de cour (especially their highly ornamented
doubles) of Antoine and Jean-Baptiste Boâsset and Michel Lambert.
These Tenebrae lessons seem to have initiated a distinctive French
style in the genre (termed by some the `high melismatic style'),
culminating in Franáois Couperin's single extant set of three. The
responsories are less extravagantly ornamented, more cantabile.
Equally French in style (drawing on that of the grand motet) are
Charpentier's four extant settings of the Te Deum. The one deservedly
best known (no.146), with eight soloists, SATB chorus, woodwinds,
trumpets, timpani and strings, reflects in its scoring the models of
Lully and Lalande. The key is D major - a `joyous and martial' key
according to Charpentier's Rägles de compostition, in which he set
down perhaps the first list of `key feelings' (`Çnergie des modes') -
and the work begins with an attractive preludial marche en rondeau and
proceeds through several contrasting movements to a blazing, climactic
conclusion.
About half of Charpentier's psalm settings were conceived for
liturgical use, the others as paraliturgical additions to Mass or
Office services - as motets, in short. The earliest, composed in the
early 1670s, are fairly lacklustre and quite italianate; most are for
SATB with two treble instruments (violins or recorders) and continuo.
A later group, dating from the late 1670s to the early 1680s
(nos.170-9, 181 and 185-8), is more assured, with bolder dissonance
and more assertive word-painting; most are in petit motet style for
vocal trios, with a pair of violins and continuo for the ritornellos
and often a prelude anticipating the vocal entries to follow. Other
psalms of the early to mid-1680s, for the Dauphin's musicians, are
more ambitious in both scoring and length. One such is the De
profundis of 1683 on the queen's death (no.189), cast in the
`official' grand motet style with scoring Ö la Lully (including five
string parts) and length to match (more than 500 bars). Similar in
self-assurance, if not grandeur, are many motets of the 1680s and
early 1690s composed for the Jesuits; these show Charpentier at the
height of his powers. They are marked by more subtle relationships
between music and text, more daring harmonic language and a unique
fusion of French respect for perfect declamation and an italianate
bent for lyrical, vocally grateful melodic lines.
Charpentier's motets, more than 200 in all, resist generalization,
being even more diverse in media and styles than the psalm settings.
They may be classified in four main genres: Elevation motets, `Domine
salvum' motets, occasional motets and dramatic motets. Elevation
motets and `Domine salvum' motets were conventional components of the
king's Mass services and, as such, emulated in other chapels. The
Elevations, performed ÉÖ l'heure qu'on läve l'hostie' (as Charpentier
comments in the manuscript of no.256), were conceived as brief
punctuating highlights between the first `Hosanna in excelsis' of the
Sanctus and the `Benedictus qui venit'. Charpentier's 48 Elevations
are settings of a wide variety of texts, but almost all are hushed,
gentle and reverent petits motets, in keeping with the most mystical
moment of the Mass. By contrast, his 25 `Domine salvum' motets, to be
sung at the conclusion of the ceremony, are settings of but a single
text, Psalm xx.9: `O Lord, save the king, and hear us in the hour when
we call upon thee'. They are considerably diverse in length and
expressive content.
The `occasions' of Charpentier's 85 occasional motets are of many
kinds: saints' days or church feasts; special catechism services or
Corpus Christi processions; and seasons, celebrated in the MÇditations
pour le Caràme (nos.380-89) and the Chant joyeux du temps de PÉques.
Gratitude for the restoration to health of the king or the dauphin
(nos.341 and 326) and lamentation on the death of the queen (no.331)
have sacred counterparts in many motets addressing the Virgin, the
Trinity or Mary Magdalene, to whom Charpentier returned several times
in poignant, not to say voluptuous, works, notably the extensive
Magdalena lugens (1686-7) for solo soprano. The majority of the
occasional motets are petits motets. Among the larger ones, especially
masterly are In honorem Sancti Xaverij canticum, which, with its
virtuoso operatic solos (ex.1), was certainly composed for St Louis;
In honorem Sancti Ludovici Regis Galliae canticum, a late work of
exceptional pomp, circumstance and musical braggadocio; and the Motet
pour l'offertoire de la Messe Rouge, retitled Motet pour une longue
offrande (no.434) - a long offertory, indeed: almost 800 bars and
lasting about 25 minutes.
Charpentier's dramatic motets number 35. They are more commonly known
as oratorios - a misnomer, since they were composed as Latin motets
for sacred services, not for meetings in oratories or for spiritual
concerts. Diversity reigns in this genre, as in others treated by
Charpentier. The largest, indebted in various ways to the Old
Testament Latin oratorios of Carissimi, are works such as Judith,
Sacrificium Abrahae and the very late Judicium Salomonis. Others,
often termed by the composer `cantica' (`canticum' meaning `song'),
are more modest and on different subjects; four (nos.394, 397, 413 and
415) are centred on the early Roman martyr Cecilia (patron saint of
music), another four on the Nativity (nos.393, 414, 416 and 421).
Tending to be even slighter are motets in the Italian dialogue
tradition (nos.406 and 417). Common to all is Charpentier's ability at
portraying character and his affective realization of dramatic
situations. Among the most remarkable in this regard is Le reniement
de St Pierre. (Its French title, anomalous since the text is in Latin,
is perhaps attributable to Brossard, who may have made the unique
copy.) It builds to a quasi-operatic quartet in which Peter
hysterically denies his association with Christ, while his accusers
just as insistently identify him as a disciple; and it concludes with
a celebrated chorus, of sovereign linear integrity, describing how
Peter wept bitterly over his betrayal. It was partly such masterly
control of contrapuntal textures that led Brossard to acclaim
Charpentier as `the most profound and learned of modern musicians'.
His harmonic audacity - commented on by his contemporaries, some with
admiration (`Neuviämes et tritons brillärent sous sa main'), some with
distaste (`Quels tristes accords Çcorchent nos oreilles') - is
frequently put at the service of dramatic intensity, as in the
wrenching augmented 6ths and augmented octaves (marked with asterisks
in ex.2) of the lament in Mors SaÅlis et Jonathae with which the
chorus grieves over the deaths of Saul and Jonathan.
About 20 sacred instrumental compositions include a Messe pour
plusieurs instruments (no.513), sets of pieces for Corpus Christi
street-altar ceremonies and consecrations of bishops, offertories and
alternatim versets for Masses, antiphons for Office services and two
groups of carol settings for Christmas week. As a whole, in their
exceptionally precise and completely written-out manuscripts, these
reveal Charpentier as a gifted orchestrator and a colourist. His
orchestral mass - apparently unique in French Baroque music as a
substitute for the more common organ mass - betrays a youthfully
demonstrative control over a dazzlingly varied group of instrumental
ensembles. Its offertory `Ö deux choeurs' resembles the italianate
Offerte pour l'orgue et pour les violons, flñtes et hautbois (no.514)
in its massive block-like opposition of winds and strings, its drone
basses and its sectional, canzona-like design. Much more purely French
are the ten delicate Noâls sur les instruments for flutes, four-part
strings and continuo. A group of three of these (no.531) was
apparently composed for performance along with the grandest of the
Christmastide dramatic motets, In nativitatem Domini canticum
(no.416); the other group of seven (no.534) were specifically intended
for performance with the so-called O Antiphons (nos.36-43) preceding
Christmas.
3. Stage music.
Music by Charpentier for some 30 theatre pieces survives. One group
consists of overtures, intermädes and incidental music for spoken
dramas produced, almost without exception, by the ComÇdie-Franáaise; a
second group is of self-contained musico-dramatic entertainments -
pastorales, operatic divertissements and tragÇdies en musique - for
various other places and patrons.
To his compositions for the ComÇdie-Franáaise the `profound and
learned' Charpentier brought remarkably keen wit, Çlan and sense of
theatre, initially in collaborations with Moliäre. They first worked
together on musical revisions of La comtesse d'Escarbagnas and Le
mariage forcÇ (1672), then on the first production of Le malade
imaginaire, with its extensive music culminating in the final,
hilarious `CÇrÇmonie des mÇdecins', its orchestration genially
including apothecaries' mortars, scored as if for timpani. Other
collaborations with the company, after Moliäre's death, were less
extensive, except for Thomas Corneille's CircÇ (1675), an elaborate
work `ornÇe de machines, de changements de thÇÉtre et de musique' (an
overture, many dances, and vocal solos and ensembles); the 1680 comedy
Les fous divertissants, with three intermädes, one of them including a
very funny `laughing trio'; and Pierre Corneille's tragÇdie Ö
machines, Andromäde (1682).
For the musicians of Mademoiselle de Guise, Charpentier composed eight
theatre works between about 1684 and 1687, mostly pastorales with
ballet entrÇes (nos.481-4 and 486-9). All are chamber works, and most
are scored for a small, conservative instrumental ensemble including
recorders and/or viols. Two are Christmastide pastorales emphasizing
the shepherds (and shepherdesses!) of Judea and the barnyard beasts of
the birth at Bethlehem. Another is the 40-minute Ovidian pastorale in
six scenes, ActÇon (1683-5), revised as ActÇon changÇ en biche to
change the title role from haute-contre (probably sung by Charpentier)
to soprano. The last Guise work in which Charpentier sang (upstaged in
the title role by an haute-contre new to the ensemble) was La descente
d'OrphÇe aux enfers (?1686), similarly based on Ovid. Though probably
incomplete in the two acts that survive, it has proved viable; calling
for ten singers and flutes, violins, viols and continuo, it has a
deeply affecting lament and several seductive airs for Orpheus, who
departs the underworld leaving its shades lamenting the loss of his
enchanting voice.
Two light, frothy and amusing entertainments that may be termed
`operatic divertissements' are Les arts florissants and Les plaisirs
de Versailles (the latter composed not for the Guise musicians but
probably for the dauphin's). Each is in one act and several scenes;
Les arts lasts about 45 minutes, Les plaisirs about 30. Both are
allegorical fantasies dealing with the arts and other leisure-time
pleasures, and in both Music has a leading role.
Three massive Lullian tragÇdies lyriques represent the climax of
Charpentier's works for the theatre. Celse Martyr (music lost) and
David et Jonathas, both for the Jesuits, preceded by a few years the
masterwork, MÇdÇe, of 1693, produced at the OpÇra. Charpentier's
characterization of the several personae of the heroine - lover,
mother, jealous wife, furious and malignant sorceress - is
extraordinary. The elements of his mature style shine throughout: a
synthesis of warmly italianate vocalism and precise French
declamation; solo rÇcits in an arioso manner poised between aria and
recitative; dances for orchestra with carefully fashioned inner parts,
buoyant and full of appealing rhythmic interplay of voices; a rich
harmonic palette abounding in pungent chromaticism and evocative
dissonances; a flair for unusual orchestral colours; and a magisterial
command of instrumental and choral polyphony. Brossard's high opinion
of MÇdÇe was ultimately vindicated, through recordings and stage
productions, 300 years after its first performance.
4. Chamber music.
Charpentier left a small body of secular chamber compositions, airs
sÇrieux et Ö boire, cantatas and miscellaneous instrumental ensemble
works.
More than 30 airs survive, mostly in 17th- and 18th-century prints.
They constitute a virtual compendium of the chamber song as it existed
during Charpentier's life. He composed about two dozen examples of the
air sÇrieux (or air tendre), successor to the air de cour as the
principal genre of small-scale but sophisticated French song. Most are
for solo soprano and continuo, their texts diverse but in the oldest
tradition of French lyric poetry, with love the main topic, shepherds
and shepherdesses the main characters. Perhaps most unusual is a set
of three on stanzas from Corneille's Le Cid; although published
separately in successive issues of the Mercure galant, they belong
together as a multipartite air, virtually a dramatic soliloquy.
A few bacchic airs Ö boire, with texts of rough humour and music of
almost folkish charm, include several contrafacta of an air composed
by Charpentier to replace Lully's `Qu'ils sont doux, bouteille jolie'
in Moliäre's Le mÇdecin malgrÇ lui; one of these is the well-known
noâl `Un flambeau, Jeanette-Isabelle!' (`Bring a torch,
Jeanette-Isabella').
Eight other secular vocal works may be termed cantatas for lack of a
better term. Five have Italian texts, and four of these are indeed
rooted in the Italian cantata. The substantial wedding cantata
(no.473) for the brother-in-law of the dauphin is, however, a
different kind of work, scored very grandly with winds, brass, drums
and strings. Along with the odd, enigmatic and autobiographical
Epitaphium Carpentarij, the most important cantata is OrphÇe
descendant aux enfers. Composed in 1683 for three male singers, two
violins, flute, recorder and continuo, it has been claimed as `the
first genuine cantata in the French style' (Tunley, 1974).
Fewer than a dozen secular instrumental ensemble pieces by Charpentier
survive, several of them (including two triumphal `airs de
trompettes', no.547) perhaps not chamber works but intended for
outdoor performance. The most important are a Concert for an ensemble
of four viols without continuo (perhaps the earliest genuine French
Baroque suite of dances, with six contrasting movements) and a sonata
(no.548) for eight instruments. The sonata anticipates Couperin's Les
nations in combining elements of sonata and suite; its preludial first
movement and two virtuoso rÇcits, one showing off the bass viol, the
other the bass violin, as well as the six other dance movements,
reveal a confident mastery of independent instrumental compositions
that Charpentier, regrettably, had little occasion to demonstrate.
WORKS
The numbering system is that used in Hitchcock's catalogue (1982).
Titles given are Charpentier's own, followed by text incipits where
different. For untitled works the text incipit is given either alone
or with an editorial title in square brackets. Generic scoring (e.g.
ww, str) indicates that although parts were written out specific
instruments are not stipulated. Roman numerals in the Source column
refer to volumes of Charpentier's autographs (F-Pn RÇs.Vm1 259; 28
vols.); they also correspond to the volume numbers in ser.I of the
complete edition.Edition: Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Oeuvres complätes,
ed. H.W. Hitchcock, ser.I-III (facs.), IV (Critical Commentary, Index)
(Paris, 1990-)Sources: Recueil d'airs sÇrieux et Ö boire (Paris,
1695-1704) [Recueil] Motets melÇz de symphonie (Paris, 1709) [Motets
(1709)] Meslanges de musique latine, franáoise et italienne (Paris,
1726-9) [Meslanges]
Hc haute-contre
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bulletin de la SociÇtÇ Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1989-)
catalogues and bibliographical items
source material
biography and criticism
liturgical music
oratorios
vocal
chamber music
stage works
instrumental music
theoretical works
catalogues and bibliographical items
?J. Edouard: `Memoire des ouvrages de musique latine et franáoise de
dÇfunt Mr Charpentier, Me de musique de la Ste Chapelle de Paris
dÇcÇdÇ en 1701' (MS, F-Pn RÇs. Vmb 71); ed. in RMFC, xxiii (1986),
5-34 J. Ecorcheville: Catalogue du fonds de musique ancienne de la
Bibliothäque nationale (Paris, 1910-14/R), iv, 2-74 H.W. Hitchcock:
Les oeuvres de Marc-Antoine Charpentier: catalogue raisonnÇ (Paris,
1982) [index in RMFC, xxiii (1986), 34-44]
source material
J. Guiffrey: `Testament et inventaire de Mademoiselle de Guise, 1688',
Nouvelles archives de l'art franáais, 3rd. ser., xii (1896), 200-33 A.
Desautels: `Un manuscrit autographe de M.-A. Charpentier Ö QuÇbec',
RMFC, xxi (1983), 118-27 P.M. Ranum: Vers une chronologie des oeuvres
de Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Les papiers employÇes par le compositeur:
un outil pour l'Çtude de sa production et de sa vie (Baltimore, 1994)
biography and criticism
Anthony FBMGG1 (D. Launay) J.L. Le Cerf de la ViÇville: Comparaison de la
musique italienne et de la musique franáoise (Brussels, 1704-6/R) S.
de Brossard: Catalogue des livres de musique (MS, 1724, F-Pn
RÇs.Vm821) E. Titon du Tillet: Description du Parnasse franáois
(Paris, 1727), 144-6 C. Crussard: Un musicien franáais oubliÇ:
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, 1634-1704 (Paris, 1945) E. Borrel: `La vie
musicale de M.-A. Charpentier d'apräs le Mercure galant (1678-1704)',
XVIIe siäcle, nos.21-2 (1954), 433-41 J. Duron: `L'orchestra Ö cordes
franáais avant 1715: nouveaux problämes: les quintes de violon', RdM,
lxx (1984), 260-69 H.W. Hitchcock: `Les oeuvres de Marc-Antoine
Charpentier: post-scriptum Ö un catalogue', ibid., 37-50 J. Duron:
`L'orchestre de Marc-Antoine Charpentier', RdM, lxxii (1986), 23-65
P.M. Ranum: `A Sweet Servitude: a Musician's Life at the Court of Mlle
de Guise', EMc, xv (1987), 346-60 Y. de Brossard: `Quelques
commentaires de Brossard concernant Lully et Charpentier', XVIIe
siäcle, no.40 (1988), 387-92 C. Cessac: Marc-Antoine Charpentier
(Paris, 1988; Eng. trans., 1995) H.W. Hitchcock: Marc-Antoine
Charpentier (Oxford, 1990) J. Duron: `Charpentier, Marc-Antoine',
Guide de la musique sacrÇe et chorale profane: l'Ége baroque
1600-1750, ed. E. Lemaåtre (Paris, 1992), 297-342
liturgical music
Y. Rosketh: `Un Magnificat de Marc-Antoine Charpentier', JRBM, i
(1946-7), 192-9 C.H. Barber: The Liturgical Music of Marc-Antoine
Charpentier (1634-1704): the Masses, Motets, `Leáons de TÇnäbres'
(diss., Harvard U., 1955) E. Lebeau: `La musique des cÇrÇmonies
cÇlÇbrÇes Ö la mort de Marie-ThÇräse, reine de France, 1683', Le
`Baroque' musical: WÇgimont IV 1957, 200-19 T. KÑser: Die Leáon de
TÇnäbres im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert unter besonderer BerÅcksichtigung
der einschlÑgigen Werke von Marc-Antoine Charpentier (Berne, 1966) G.
Massenkeil: `Marc-Antoine Charpentier als Messenkomponist', Colloquium
amicorum: Joseph Schmidt-Gîrg zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. S. Kross and H.
Schmidt (Bonn, 1967), 228-38 R.B. Petty: `Charpentier's Mass Assumpta
est Maria', MAn, 1 (1972), 39-60 H.W. Hitchcock: `Some Aspects of
Notation in an Alma Redemptoris Mater (c. 1670) by Marc-Antoine
Charpentier (d. 1704)', Notations and Editions: a Book in Honor of
Louise Cuyler, ed. E. Boroff (Dubuque, IA, 1974), 127-41 J. Duron:
`Les deux versions de la messe Assumpta est Maria de Marc-Antoine
Charpentier', RdM, lxx (1984), 83-5 J.R. Burke: Marc-Antoine
Charpentier (c1634-1704): Sources of Style in the Liturgical Works
(diss., U. of Oxford, 1985) C.J. Lowe: The Psalm Settings of
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (diss., U. of Cambridge, 1992)
oratorios
SmitherHOM. Brenet: `Note sur le "Jugement de Salomon" et son auteur
M.-A. Charpentier', Tribune de Saint-Gervais, xx (1914), 128-30 K.
Nef: `Das Petrus-Oratorium von Marc-Antoine Charpentier und dei
Passion', JbMP 1930, 24-31 H.W. Hitchcock: `The Latin Oratorios of
Marc-Antoine Charpentier', MQ, xli (1955), 41-65 D. Loskant:
Untersuchungen Åber die Oratorien M.-A. Charpentiers (diss., U. of
Mainz, 1957) B. Nielsen: `Les grands oratorios bibliques de
Marc-Antoine Charpentier', DAM, v (1966-7), 29-61 A. Fiaschi: Les
histoires sacrÇes de Marc-Antoine Charpentier (Lille, 1991) J. Duron:
`Marc-Antoine Charpentier: "Mors SaÅlis et Jonathae" - "David et
Jonathas", de l'histoire sacrÇe Ö l'opÇra biblique', RdM, lxxviii
(1992), 221-68
vocal chamber music
H. Quittard: `OrphÇe descendant aux enfers', RHCM, iv (1904), 495-6 H.
Quittard: `La couronne de fleurs de M.-A. Charpentier sur des vers
inconnus de Moliäre', RHCM, viii (1908), 482-91 D. Tunley: The
Eighteenth-Century French Cantata (London, 1974)
stage works
J. Tiersot: La musique dans la comÇdie de Moliäre (Paris, 1922) J. de
Froberville: `L'ActÇon de Marc-Antoine Charpentier', RdM, xxvi (1928),
75-6 L. de La Laurencie: `Un opÇra inÇdit de M.-A. Charpentier: La
dÇscente d'OrphÇe aux enfers', RdM, x (1929), 184-93 S. Spycket:
`Thomas Corneille et la musique', XVIIe siäcle, no.21-2 (1954), 442-55
L. Maurice-Amour: `Les musiciens de Corneille, 1650-1699', RdM, xxxvii
(1955), 43-75 M. Barthelemy: `La musique dramatique Ö Versailles de
1660 Ö 1715', XVIIe siäcle, no.34 (1957), 7-18 R.W. Lowe: Marc-Antoine
Charpentier et l'opÇra de colläge (Paris, 1966) H.W. Hitchcock:
`Problämes d'Çdition de la musique de Marc-Antoine Charpentier pour Le
malade imaginaire', RdM, lviii (1972), 3-15 H.W. Hitchcock:
`Marc-Antoine Charpentier and the ComÇdie-Franáaise', JAMS, xxiv
(1971), 255-81 J.S. Powell: Music in the Theatre of Moliäre (diss., U.
of Washington, 1982) J.S. Powell: `A New Source for the Premier
Intermäde of Le malade imaginaire', Papers in Romance, v (1983), 23-36
L'avant-scäne opÇra, no.68 (1984) [MÇdÇe issue] D. Launay: `Les deux
versions musicales d'Andromäde: une Çtape dans l'histoire du thÇÉtre
dans ses rapports avec la musique', Pierre Corneille: Rouen, 1984, ed.
A. Niderst (Paris, 1985) 413-41 A. Parmley: The `Pastorales',
`Intermädes' and Incidental Music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier (diss.,
U. of London, 1985) E. Lemaåtre: `L'orchestre dans le thÇÉtre franáais
chez les continuateurs de Lully, 1687-1713', RMFC, xxiv (1986), 107-27
P.M. Ranum: `Marc-Antoine Charpentier et la "Feste de RÅel" (1685)',
XVIIe siäcle, no.40 (1988), 393-9 C. Mazouer: `Moliäre et Marc-Antoine
Charpentier', Cahiers de l'Association internationale des Çtudes
franáaises, xli (1989), 145-60 J.S. Powell: `La "SÇrÇnade" pour "Le
Sicilien" de Marc-Antoine Charpentier et le crÇpuscule de la
comÇdie-ballet', RdM, lxxvii (1991), 88-96 J.S. Powell: `Music,
Fantasy and Illusion in Moliäre's Le malade imaginaire', ML, lxxiii
(1992), 222-43 [correspondence, ibid., 509-10] C. Mazouer: Moliäre et
ses comädies-ballets (Paris, 1993) J.S. Powell: `Music and the
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy in Moliäre's Le mariage forcÇ', EMc, xxi
(1993), 213-30 MÇdÇe, Marc-Antoine Charpentier (Caen, 1994) [incl. C.
Cessac: `Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704): le musicien de la
ville', 38-44; H.W. Hitchcock: É"MÇdÇe", le chef-d'oeuvre d'un
musicien "savant"', 47-52; C. Kintzler: `Un thÇÉtre rÇgulier', 54-61;
W. Christie: `"MÇdÇe: l'apogÇe de la tragÇdie lyrique', 127-21] C.
Cessac: `La musique de Marc-Antoine Charpentier pour les piäces Ö
machines (1675-1682)', LittÇratures classiques: thÇÉtres et musique au
XVIIe, xxi (1994), 115-24 J.S. Powell: `La mÇtamorphose d'un intermäde
du Malade imaginaire', Revue d'histoire du thÇÉtre, ii (1994), 155-78
F. Sebastiani: `La musique dans l'"Andromäde" de Pierre Corneille
(1650): l'usage, le goñt et la raison', LittÇratures classiques:
thÇÉtres et musique au XVIIe, xxi (1994), 195-205 S.H. Fleck: Music,
Dance, and Laughter: Comic Creation in Moliäre's Comedy-Ballets
(Paris, Seattle and TÅbingen, 1995)
instrumental music
H.W. Hitchcock: `The Instrumental Music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier',
MQ, xlvii (1961), 58-72 J.A. Sadie: `Charpentier and the Early French
Ensemble Sonata', EMc, vii (1979), 330-35 C. Grand: Un opÇra jÇsuite:
David et Jonathas de Marc-Antoine Charpentier (Paris, 1983) A.P. Rose:
` Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Premier Leáon du Vendredy Saint: an
Important Source of Music for Solo Treble Viol', Chelys, xiii (1984),
47-60 T. Van Essen: La musique instrumentale sacrÇe de Marc-Antoine
Charpentier (1643-1704): H.508 Ö H.539 (diss., U. of Rouen, 1993)
theoretical works
C. Crussard: `Marc-Antoine Charpentier, thÇoricien', RdM, xxiv (1945),
49-68 L.M. Ruff: `Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Rägles de composition',
The Consort, xxiv (1967), 233-70
--
Regards, Frank Young
tip...@wam.umd.edu 703-527-7684
Post Office Box 2793, Kensington, Maryland 20891
"Videmus nunc per speculum in aenigmate... Nunc cognosco ex parte"