Messe Des Morts

JJeanean GGilles’silles’s MMessesse ddeses MMorts:orts: A SStudytudy iinn CContextualontextual PPerioderiod PPerformanceerformance Mark Ardrey-Graves The Requiem Mass of Jean Gilles is certainly not a workhorse of the concert hall or even the Baroque fes- tival, but it has nevertheless enjoyed a comfortable performance history both throughout the eighteenth century and again since the 1950s.1 Even with its interpretation on record and in concert by a number of leading Baroque performance ensembles, however, Gilles’s Messe des Morts has yet to be thoroughly explored or presented in an historically informed contextual man- ner that grounds the composition in its ritual-liturgical roots. Mark Ardrey-Graves Doctoral Student in Choral Conducting James Madison University [email protected] CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 54 Number 11 9 Jean Gilles’s Messe des Morts BBackgrouackgrou nndd musique at the Cathedral of St. Etienne Gilles’s most famous work and has been in Toulouse. Although the archival re- considered so since soon after his death. Jean Gilles was born on January 8, cord enigmatically suggests attempts by The composition of the Messe des Morts 1668, in Tarascon, Provence, a small vil- Gilles to secure a position at the larger most likely dates from the last two or lage near Avignon.2 In 1679, Gilles was Cathedral in Avignon,3 he appears to three years of his life. Gilles was com- accepted as a chorister at the Cathedral have held the post in Toulouse until his missioned to compose the work for the of Saint-Sauveur in Aix, fi fty-eight miles death in 1705 at the age of thirty-seven. funeral of a Toulouse government offi cial, away. Due to illness, however, he was An early eighteenth-century account but the offi cial’s son refused to pay the assigned a probationary period before of his grave marker, no longer extant, expense for the instrumental forces he could begin active participation; this reads, “Here lies Jean Gilles, cleric of this that the composition required. Gilles, was the fi rst indication of the fragile church, no less distinguished in the art of therefore, stated that the Mass would health that would plague him through- his music than for his harmonious mode not be performed until after his own out his short life. In 1687, at the age of of life.” Surviving works attributable to death. It is reasonable to assume that the nineteen, Gilles was accepted to stay on him are three masses (one discovered in Mass was performed at Gilles’s funeral in the employ of the Cathedral, one year an archive in Belgium and authenticated in Toulouse.5 later assuming the rank of sous-maître. only in the year 20074), thirteen Grands Following Gilles’s death, his music— Six years later, he replaced his retiring Motets (including a Te Deum and a set- the Messe des Morts in particular—re- teacher, Poitevin, as maître de musique at ting of the Lamentations), and numerous ceived notoriety across France. The the Cathedral but held the post for less Petits Motets. Archival records list the German theorist and composer Johann than two years. In early 1695 he took a names of other motets either lost or as Mattheson commented on a perfor- teaching position in nearby Agde, and in of yet unidentifi ed. mance of the work in Grenoble in 1726. late 1697 he was hired as the maître de The Messe des Morts is arguably It received a number of performances between 1749 and 1770 at the Concert Spirituel, an important public subscrip- tion concert series in Paris.6 In 1756 it was performed at a memorial Mass for the harpsichordist Pancrace Royer (who had directed the Concert Spirituel from 1748). It received another notable liturgical performance in Paris in 1764 at a funeral mass for Jean-Philippe Rameau, and ten years later for no less an occa- sion than the burial offi ce of King Louis XV. In Provence, the work continued to be sung as late as 1805, in a pastiche ver- sion that combined it with movements from the Messe de Requiem of Gilles’s countryman André Campra.7 AMERICAN The Messe des Morts exists in a num- CLASSICAL ber of eighteenth-century manuscripts, the earliest dating from Toulouse c. 1731. Following the performance for Rameau’s MUSIC memorial service, the score was published by Michel Corrette, who claimed to have published it as Gilles wrote it. In Weston Noble was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame for 2013 during its earliest extant form (both the 1731 2014 North Central ACDA Conference in Des Moines, Iowa. The award was presented manuscript and the 1764 publication), by Vance Wolverton. the Messe des Morts is scored for four- 10 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 54 Number 11 A Study in Contextual Period Performance presentation at the burial of King Louis “Given the documentation of the Messe des Morts’s XV in 1774. One cannot even assume that lively performance history throughout the eighteenth the notes themselves would be the century, the notion of an historically informed common thread. At Rameau’s funeral, for example, not only was the work modern performance immediately encountersers a reorchestrated with oboes, horns, daunting problem: performers can approachh and bassoons, but certain movements Gilles’s Mass from a number of equally (such as the Kyrie) were even rewrit- ten.11 That being said, a researched, viable entry points. historically informed performance study is neither futile nor unproductive but simply in need of a careful and nuanced approach that focuses on contextual part orchestra (with fl utes doubling the edition edited and published by Michel particulars. Gilles’s Messe des Morts is dessus de violon) and fi ve-part choir. Ex- Corrette.10 A scholarly performing edi- a wonderful candidate for an explora- tensive solo and ensemble-solo passages tion of the Mass, edited by John Hadju tion of numerous and equally legitimate predominate the texture for fi ve vocal Heyer, was published by A-R Press historical performance practices. For the soloists: two dessus (trebles), haute- in 1984 as Volume 47 of the Recent purpose of this brief study, the liturgical contre (high tenor), basse, and taille haute Researches in the Music of the Baroque performance in Toulouse in 1705 takes (tenor). The inclusion of a solo part for Era series. This publication remains the primacy of place and will be the focus taille haute, although not completely uncontested critical modern edition of discussion. In many ways, the 1705 unknown in French vocal music of the of the work. Both full score and vocal Toulouse context raises perhaps the early eighteenth century, is nevertheless score of Heyer’s edition are available most interesting performance practice uncommon and one way that Gilles’s for purchase from the publisher; instru- questions; unfortunately, they are also work bears a distinctive stamp. mental parts are available for rental. The the most unanswerable. The modern conductor and re- published score is also widely available searcher are fortunate to have ready in university libraries. access to the music of the Messe des Given the documentation of the PPerformanceerformance PPracticeractice Morts in both manuscript facsimile Messe des Morts’s lively performance CConsiderationsonsiderations score and scholarly performing edi- history throughout the eighteenth tion. A manuscript of Concert Spirituel century, the notion of an historically Gilles’s Mass setting includes com- provenance, dated to 1762, is available informed modern performance imme- posed concerted music of the following online from two different sources: at diately encounters a daunting problem: sections: Introit (Requiem aeternam), the International Music Score Library performers can approach Gilles’s Mass Kyrie, Gradual (Requiem/In memoria Project (IMSLP) and at Gallica, the online from a number of equally viable entry aeterna), Offertory (Domine Jesu Christe/ database of the Bibliothèque nationale points. The work’s fi xture in the French de France.8 The Gallica database also musical consciousness for over eighty contains three manuscript scores from years suggests that it witnessed and was the eighteenth century, dating to 1731, subject to the changing face of perfor- c. 1740, and 1753.9 The 1731 copy, like mance practice during the eighteenth that of 1762, was at one time in the rep- century. Anyone interested in the notion ertoire archives of the Concert Spirituel. of a contextual “period” performance of Like most music manuscripts from the this work must fi rst ask which period is RISERS, FOLIOS, BOARDS & Baroque era in France, these scores are in question. The funerary performance MORE @ DISCOUNT PRICES! written in a meticulously neat hand and of the mass in Toulouse in 1705 would FREE MUSIC PRODUCTS CATALOG are quite legible for the modern reader have marked differences from its con- 1-800-280-40701-800-573-6013 (once clefs are taken into account). Also cert life at the Parisian Concert Spirituel www.valiantmusic.com available at Gallica is the 1764 printed in the 1750s, and different still from its CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 54 Number 11 11 Jean Gilles’s Messe des Morts Hostias et preces), Sanctus and Bene- dictus, Agnus Dei, and Communion The Messe des Morts began its life as an instrument (Lux aeterna). At the Concert Spirituel, “ the work would have been performed of ritual and prayer, a part of the larger ceremonial thus—one movement following anoth- fabric that was the Requiem Mass and Burialal Offi ce er in progression, just as the work exists in the manuscript and modern edition of the Roman Catholic Church, rather than scores and as one might expect to ex- as art music to be pondered and perience it in a modern concert hall or on recordings.12 In the liturgical context appreciated in a concert hall.

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