Graham Sadler / Shirley Thompson: the Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’S Chromatic Harmony Schriftenreihe Analecta Musicologica

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Graham Sadler / Shirley Thompson: The Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Chromatic Harmony Schriftenreihe Analecta musicologica. Veröffentlichungen der Musikgeschichtlichen Abteilung des Deutschen Historischen Instituts in Rom Band 52 (2015) Herausgegeben vom Deutschen Historischen Institut Rom

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Graham Sadler and Shirley Thompson

»Charpentier revêtu d’une sage richesse Des cromatiques sons fit sentir la finesse, Dans la belle harmonie il s’ouvrit un chemin, Neuviémes & tritons brillerent sous sa main.« (Jean de Serré de Rieux, La musique, 1714)1

For the modern listener, one of the most striking and attractive features of the music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643–1704) is its harmonic boldness. This was never theless an aspect of style that proved controversial among his contemporaries. In the passage quoted above, for example, Serré de Rieux seems to relish Charpentier’s rich harmonies, yet elsewhere he refers to them more equivocally as »les charmes déplacez d’une haute science«.2 Such ambivalence is symptomatic of the on-going aesthetic debate in France at the end of the seventeenth century concerning the respective roles of melody and harmony – a debate which revolved around such matters as simplicity versus complexity, liberty versus restraint, the natural versus the artificial.3 Here Charpentier occupied a position diametrically opposite that of Jean-Baptiste Lully. Whereas »le beau naturel« of Lully satisfied the prevailing taste among French music lovers, the appeal of Charpentier’s music was evidently limited mainly to those with some level of musical education or talent. He and his music were categorized as savant (learned,

1 »Charpentier, adorned with an erudite richness, | Revealed the subtleties of chromatic sounds: | In beauteous harmony he opened up a path; | Ninths and tritones sparkled in his hands.« The present citation is from an undated edition in F-Pn, Ye 8980, p. 21. 2 »the misplaced charms of advanced learning«. Serré de Rieux, La musique, p. 11. 3 For a recent discussion, see Don Fader, The Honnête homme as Music Critic: Taste, Rhetoric and Politesse in the 17th-Century French Reception of Italian Music, in: The Journal of Musicology 20/1 (2003), pp. 3–44.

546 Graham Sadler and Shirley Thompson erudite),4 a label which sometimes proved a stumbling block in that it tended to alienate the ordinary listener.5 The adjective savant also brought with it connotations of Italian styles and tech- niques. This is implicit in the Parfaict brothers’ description of Charpentier’s music as being characterized »d’une harmonie et d’une science jusqu’alors inconnues aux François«.6 Indeed, one feature of seventeenth-century Italian music which many in France found most difficult to accept was its audacious harmonic language. As one of the first native composers to adopt elements of that language, Charpentier earned the particular scorn of Jean Laurent Le Cerf de La Viéville:

Comment ont réüssi ceux de nos Maîtres qui ont été les admirateurs zélez, & les ardens imitateurs de la manière de composer des Italiens? Où cela les a-t-il menez? A faire des Piéces que le Public & le tems ont déclaré pitoyables. Qu’a laissé le sçavant Charpentier pour assurer sa mémoire? Médée, Saul & Jonathas. Il vaudroit mieux qu’il n’eût rien laissé.7 From the tone of this and other criticisms,8 many of Charpentier’s contemporaries evidently believed that he had sold out to the Italians. With the benefit of hindsight, however, it is clear that he merely sought to enrich his native French style with elements imported from Italy. In more modern times, the Italian influence on Charpentier’s harmony has frequently been acknowledged. Yet the composer’s use of certain specific chords and harmonic procedures has never been systematically traced back to its Italian roots. This is the aim of the present article, which draws particular attention to the composer’s role in pioneering the use of chromatic chords and related harmonic procedures in France. Given that the majority of examples discussed below are from

4 Sébastien de Brossard, for example, in his Catalogue des livres de musique (F-Pn, Rés. Vm8 20, fol. 226), described Charpentier as »le plus profond et le plus sçavant des musiciens modernes«; quoted in Hugh Wiley Hitchcock, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Oxford 1990, p. 6. 5 Charpentier himself acknowledged as much in Epitaphium Carpentarii, H. 474, in which his own ghost claims that, »since those who scorned me were more numerous than those who praised me, music brought me small honour and great burdens«. The original Latin text of this work appears in Catherine Cessac, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, revised and enlarged edition, Paris 2004, pp. 457–460; English translation of the first edition by E. Thomas Glasow, Portland 1988, pp. 379–381. See also Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Vocal Chamber Music, ed. John S. Powell, Madison 1986, pp. xx–xxi and 77–98. 6 »A harmony and technical knowledge hitherto unknown to the French«. Claude and François Parfaict, Histoire de l’Académie Royale de Musique, F-Pn, ms. nouv. acq. 6532, p. 80. 7 »What success have those of our masters had who were the zealous admirers and ardent imita- tors of the Italian manner of composing? Where has it led them? To write pieces which the public and time have declared pitiable. What has the learned Charpentier left to keep his memory alive? Médée, Saul et Jonathas. It would have been better to have left nothing at all.« Jean Laurent Le Cerf de La Viéville, Comparaison de la musique italienne et de la musique françoise, Brussels 1705–1706, vol. 2, p. 347. 8 See, for example, those quoted in Pierre Mélèse, Le théâtre et le public à Paris sous Louis XIV, Paris 1934, pp. 266 s.

The Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Chromatic Harmony 547 his earliest works, such aspects of his harmonic language can be seen to anticipate comparable usage by his contemporaries and successors.9

* * * Charpentier was virtually unique among French musicians of his immediate genera- tion in travelling abroad to complete his studies. As is well known, he spent about three years in Rome during the late 1660s, sometime between 1666 and 1669.10 Although we have little information on his specific activities there, he is known to have placed himself in the orbit of Giacomo Carissimi and the Collegium Germani- cum.11 When Charpentier first arrived in Italy, the contrast between the musical idioms he encountered there and those he had experienced during his youth in France must have seemed enormous. In terms of harmonic practice, French music of the mid-seventeenth century was extremely conservative. With the notable exception of Louis Couperin, the general character of both sacred and secular music was harmonically restrained. In the vocal repertory of the 1650s and 1660s, chromatic chords and progressions are virtually non-existent, and the quantity of strong dissonance limited. This is not to suggest that such music is necessarily inexpressive, as can be seen in Example 1, from Henry Du Mont’s setting of »Quemadmodum desiderat cervus« (Psalm 41/42). The exact date of this motet is not known,12 but its harmonic idiom is that of the mid-century. In setting the emotive text »fuerunt mihi lacrimae« (»my tears have been my bread night and day«), Du Mont limits his use of dissonance to a range of orthodox suspensions and passing notes. The result is suit- ably poignant, though without recourse to compositional extreme.

9 For a comprehensive study of the dating of Charpentier’s music, see Catherine Cessac, Chrono- logie raisonnée des manuscrits autographes de Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Essai de bibliographie matérielle, in: Bulletin Charpentier 3 (2010–2013), http://philidor.cmbv.fr/bulletin_charpentier (accessed 15 Oc- tober 2013). 10 See Patricia M. Ranum, Portraits around Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Baltimore 2004, pp. 527 s.; eadem, Some Hypotheses about Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Stay in Rome: the French Colony in Rome, 1666–1669, http://ranumspanat.com/html%20pages/rome_hypotheses.html (accessed 16 June 2012). 11 For a summary of the recent debate about whether or not Charpentier actually studied with Carissimi, see Graham Sadler, Charpentier’s Void Notation: the Italian Background and its Implications, in: New Perspectives on Marc-Antoine Charpentier, ed. Shirley Thompson, Farnham 2010, pp. 31–61: 46. 12 A setting of »Quemadmodum« by Du Mont entered the repertory of the Chapelle du Roi in 1678. See Lionel Sawkins, Chronology and Evolution of the grand motet at the Court of Louis XIV: Evi- dence from the Livres du Roi and the Works of Perrin, the sous-maîtres and Lully, in: Jean-Baptiste Lully and the Music of the French Baroque. Essays in Honor of James R. Anthony, ed. John Hajdu Heyer, Cambridge 1989, pp. 41–79: 56. See also Laurence Decobert, Henry Du Mont (1610–1684): maistre et compositeur de la musique de la Chapelle du Roy et de la Reyne, Wavre 2011, p. 437.

548 Graham Sadler and Shirley Thompson ™ œ ˙ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ &c ŒÓ ∑ Œ œ œ J œ œ ˙ fu- e - runt mihi la- cri-mae me - œ œ œ ˙ ˙ ™ œ ˙ ˙ ™ c œ œ ˙ Œ œ œ œ œ ˙ &‹ J J fu- e -runt mihi la- cri-mae, fu- e - runt mihi la- cri-mae ™ œ ˙ œ ™ ˙ œ c œ œ œ œ œ ˙ ∑ Œ œ ˙ œ &‹ J J fu-- e runt mihi la- cri-mae pa- nes di- e ac ™ j c œ ˙ œ œ œ ™ j ™ œ w w &‹ œ œ# œ ˙ ˙ fu- e - runt mihi la- cri-mae me - ae ™ ?c ˙ ˙ œ œ ˙ w ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙# œ œ œ J fu- er-runt mihi la- cri-mae me - ae pa --

™ & w ∑ ˙ œ w œ# œ ˙ ˙ œ# - ae, pa- nes di -- e ac noc - tes ˙ ˙ w œ œ & ˙ ˙ w ˙ ˙ ‹ me - ae pa- nes di -- e ac noc- tes ˙# ˙ ™ &‹ ˙ ˙ œ œ ˙ ˙ ˙ œ œ ˙ ˙ noc - te, pa - nes di - e ac noc- te ™ ∑ ˙ Œ &‹ œ ˙ ˙ œ œ œ œ w pa- nes di™ - e ac noc- te ? ˙ ™ ˙ ˙ ˙# ˙ œn wb w ˙ - nes di -- e ac noc - te

Example 1: Henry Du Mont, »Quemadmodum desiderat cervus« (doubling instrumental lines omitted), in: Motets pour la chapelle du roy, Paris 1686 13

As it happens, Charpentier would have discovered on arrival in Rome that the harmonic idiom of his mentor Carissimi was, for the most part, little more colourful than that of Du Mont, though it does include a number of chromatic chords and progressions which we shall discuss in due course. But over and above any contact he may have had with Carissimi, Charpentier also had the opportunity to immerse himself more widely in the city’s musical culture. We can be sure that, as one who was to devote much of his adult life to the composition of sacred music, he would have explored the musical riches freely available at many of the churches in Rome. Indeed, Jean Lionnet identified a number of Roman composers whose music anticipates features of Charpentier’s mature style.14 One of these was Francesco Foggia, maestro di cappella at San Lorenzo in Damaso during the Frenchman’s time in Rome.

13 This example is transcribed from André Philidor’s copy of the motet in Grands motets de M.r Dumon, F-Pn, Rés. F 927, p. 144, available at: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k109663q (accessed 17 June 2012). 14 See Jean Lionnet, Charpentier à Rome, in: Marc-Antoine Charpentier: un musicien retrouvé, ed. Catherine Cessac, Sprimont 2005, pp. 71–83: 78–83.

The Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Chromatic Harmony 549 Foggia’s output includes occasional chromatic progressions like the one shown in Example 2, from a volume of Vespers music published in 1667. Here the simultaneous chromatic descent is of a kind which, at that date, Charpentier would never have encountered in the music of his native France, and certainly not in vocal music. Extended chromaticism occurs occasionally in keyboard music of the mid-century, notably in the Fugues et caprices of François Roberday (1660), but never so prolonged or with all parts simultaneously involved in the chromaticism.

œ œ j j œ# œn œn œb ˙ Œ œ &b œn œb œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ# œ œ œ œ œn œb œ mi- se - ri-cor-di - ae, mi- se - ri - cor-di-ae su- ae, mi- se - ri - cor-diae, mi- se --ri cor[diae] œ œ œ# œn œn œb &b ÓŒ œ# œn œn œb ˙ ˙ ˙ ÓÓŒ w mi- se - ri-cor-di - ae su- ae, mi- se - ri-cor-di - ae œ œ œ# œn œn œb œ œb œ œ ™ ?b Œ œ# œn œn œb ˙ ˙ ˙ Ó Œ œ mi- se - ri - cor-di - ae su- ae, mi- se - ri-cor-di - ae,mi- se - ri -cor[diae] ° ˙ œ# œn ? ˙ œ# œn ˙ œn œb œ œb ˙ œ™ ¢ b œn œb ˙ ˙ ˙ § ! 6 #6 §6 §6 !6 6 # § 6 #6 §6 #6 §6 §6 !6 5 !

Example 2: Francesco Foggia, Magnificat à 5, in: Psalmodia vespertina, Book 2, Rome 166715

Whether Charpentier knew this specific example of Foggia is immaterial: such use of sustained chromaticism was abundant in Italian music and dates back well into the previous century.16 More important is the fact that, soon after his return to France in or around 1670, Charpentier began to include similarly complex chromatic progressions in a number of early vocal compositions.17 The debt to Italian models is immediately clear in Example 3, from his Salve regina à trois chœurs, H. 24, in which the imitative chromatic descent characterizes the words »in hac lacrymarum valle«

15 This example is based on a transcription by Jean Lionnet in the library of the Centre de Mu- sique Baroque de Versailles (F-Vmb, Ms Lio 266). The present authors are grateful to Mme Livia Li- onnet for permission to consult her late husband’s many transcriptions of mid-seventeenth-century Italian sacred music. 16 For representative earlier examples of chromatic imitation akin to that in Example 2 above, see the opening of Cipriano de Rore’s secular motet »Calami sonum ferentes« (Antwerp 1555) and the section »misericordia eius« in Monteverdi’s psalm setting »Laudate Dominum omnes gentes«, SV 272 (Venice 1640). 17 See, for example, passages in the Mass H. 1 and the Tenebrae setting H. 95. The former is believed to date from c. 1670–1672 and the latter from c. 1673. They appear in the composer’s Mélanges autographes (F-Pn, Rés. Vm1 259), the source of all subsequent examples of his music in this chapter unless otherwise stated. Facsimile edition, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Meslanges autographes, published under the direction of Hugh Wiley Hitchcock, Paris 1990–2004. The aforementioned passage in H. 1 is located in vol. 14, fol. 40 (starting at »passus«), and that in H. 95 in vol. 1, fol. 61 (starting at »Mulieres in Sion«).

550 Graham Sadler and Shirley Thompson (»in this vale of tears«).18 It must also be significant that this passage occurs in a poly- choral work, itself inspired by Italian models.

w ˙ ™ & ˙# C w# Ó w# ˙n œ ˙ ˙ ˙b ˙ ˙ ˙# w ‹ et ﬂen- tes in hac la- cry - ma - rum val -- le. ˙ C wb w ∑ Ó ˙ ™ & w# ˙n œ ˙# ˙ œn œ ˙ w# ‹ et ﬂen- tes in hac la- cry - ma - rum valle. ? ˙ w# ˙n ™ œ ˙# ˙ wn ™ C w ˙ œ ˙ ˙ wb w in hac la- cry - ma - rum valle, la- cry - ma - rum valle. ° ? ˙ w# wn w# wn ¢ C w w ˙ ˙ wb w # §5 #4 #5 §6 §6 !6 6 7 #6 # 2 # 4 #3 #4

Example 3: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Salve regina à trois chœurs, H. 24, in: Mélanges autographes, vol. 3, fol. 3

Such chromaticism was to become an established part of Charpentier’s style. It reap- pears at its most mature, for example, in the opening symphonie of his dramatic motet In nativitatem D[omi]ni canticum, H. 416, to evoke the eerie stillness of the Bethlehem hillside on the eve of Christ’s birth.19 It would be a mistake, however, to assume that Charpentier’s experience of Italian music was restricted to pieces he heard in Rome in the 1660s. The more we learn about the milieux within which Charpentier worked on his return to Paris, the more we appreciate why these Italianisms remained so strong. Once he returned to France, the composer was associated with patrons, organizations and individuals with Italian links and sympathies, and this kept him in contact with later developments in Italian musical style.20 He evidently belonged to the Italophile circle headed by the abbé Nicolas Mathieu, a priest at Saint-André-des-Arts in Paris, who had established weekly concerts »où l’on ne chantoit que de la Musique Latine composée en Italie par les grands Maîtres qui y brilloient depuis 1650«.21

18 Interestingly, Charpentier had already incorporated a remarkably similar passage of chromaticism in another setting of this antiphon, the Salve regina à trois voix pareilles, H. 23, likewise at the words »in hac lacrymarum valle«. Mélanges autographes (see note 17), vol. 2, fol. 97. Both works appear to date from 1677, though H. 23 is the earlier of the two. 19 Mélanges autographes (see note 17), vol. 9, fol. 51v. The chromatic writing in this symphonie, and particularly the passage over a dominant pedal, strikingly anticipates the orchestral interludes towards the end of the chorus »Que tout gémisse« in Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Castor et Pollux, written some four decades later, in 1737. 20 See Shirley Thompson, Charpentier and the Language of Italy, in: La musique à Rome au XVIIe siècle. Études et perspectives de recherche, ed. Caroline Giron-Panel and Anne-Madeleine Goulet, Rome 2012, pp. 417–432. 21 »where only Latin music was sung, composed in Italy by the great masters who flourished there since 1650«. Jean de Serré de Rieux, Les dons des enfants de Latone, Paris 1734, p. 112 – cited

The Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Chromatic Harmony 551 Interestingly, Mathieu’s posthumous inventory mentions a »paquet de motets de mr Charpentier«.22 Moreover, the composer is known to have had contacts with the Italian order of Theatine priests and their church of Sainte-Anne-la-Royale.23 Most importantly, perhaps, he was kept in constant touch with Italy during the seventeen years he resided at the Hôtel de Guise: his aristocratic patron Mademoiselle de Guise had spent almost a decade in exile with her family in Florence, and after her return to France she maintained direct links with the peninsula. The Hôtel de Guise was regularly visited by agents from Florence, who responded to the duchess’s requests for (among many other things) Italian music. In 1686, for instance, she instructed her agent Domenico Zipoli to obtain the complete works of the Ferrarese composer Giovanni Battista Mazzaferrata, published in Bologna. The fact that no fewer than five surviving letters from Zipoli refer to this request indicates the strength of Mad- emoiselle de Guise’s desire to obtain these sacred and secular works (»tanto latine che vulgare«).24 Music of this kind would thus have been available at the Hôtel de Guise for Charpentier to study. Furthermore, among his surviving manuscripts are copies in his own hand of works by Italian composers – notably Carissimi’s Jephte 25 and a four-choir mass by Francesco Berretta.26 We also know that when Charpentier’s manuscripts were sold to the Bibliothèque du Roi in 1727, they included a setting of »Beatus vir« by Francesco Alessi and an extract from Giovanni Antonio Borretti’s opera Marcello in Siracusa, performed in Venice in 1670, both now lost.27 We can thus be confident that Charpentier kept himself well informed about developments in Italian music, even after his return from Rome. Moreover, it becomes clear from a broad study of his music that he was conversant not only with Italian sacred works but also secular ones, including opera. Indeed, Italian dramatic music was a source of influence of special importance in the context of chromatic chords and procedures.

* * *

in: Michel Le Moël, Un foyer d’italianisme à la fin duXVII e siècle: Nicolas Mathieu, curé de Saint-André- des-Arts, in: Recherches sur la musique classique française 3 (1963), pp. 43–48: 43. 22 Ibid., p. 47. 23 Évelyne Picard, Les théatins de Sainte-Anne-la-Royale (1644–1790), in: Regnum Dei. Collecta- nea Theatina Roma 36 (1980), pp. 99–374, and eadem, Liturgie et musique à Sainte-Anne-la-Royale, in: Recherches sur la musique française classique 20 (1981), pp. 249–254. See also Raymond Dar- ricau, Les Clercs réguliers théatins à Paris: Sainte-Anne-la-Royale, 1644–1793, Rome 1961. 24 Patricia M. Ranum, Un »foyer d’italianisme« chez les Guises: quelques réflexions sur les oratorios de Charpentier, in: Marc-Antoine Charpentier: un musicien retrouvé (see note 14), pp. 85–109: 104 s. 25 F-Pn, Vm1 1477. 26 Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Missa mirabiles elationes maris sexdecim voc[ibus] del Beretta, F-Pn, Rés. Vm1 260. 27 See Mémoire des ouvrages de musique latine et françoise de défunt M.r Charpentier, an inventory of the composer’s manuscripts dated 25 February 1726, F-Pn, Rés. Vmb. Ms. 71, fol. 14v − transcribed in: Patricia M. Ranum and Shirley Thompson, »Mémoire des ouvrages de musique latine et françoise de défunt M.r Charpentier«: A Diplomatic Transcription, in: New Perspectives (see note 11), pp. 315–339: 337.

552 Graham Sadler and Shirley Thompson In exploring the Italian roots of Charpentier’s treatment of specific chromatic chords, standard modern terminology is adopted here for the sake of convenience. Although such terminology had not yet been coined, the composer generally treats these chords in what has since come to be regarded as the classic manner, as can be seen in the music examples below. The chords in question are the Neapolitan sixth, augmented sixth and diminished seventh; some consideration is also given to the use of augmented and diminished octaves and of quarter-tones. To illustrate the extent to which the composer pioneered or extended the use of these features in France, special emphasis is placed on works written in the years immediately following his return from Rome in c. 1670. We are of course aware that, in drawing a contrast between the harmonic practices of France and Italy, some of the usages which we categorize as Italian were simultaneously in use elsewhere in Europe. There is, however, no specific evidence that Charpentier was aware of such developments.

Neapolitan sixth Although some would argue that the use of this chord was anticipated by Fran- co-Flemish composers of the previous century,28 the Neapolitan sixth in the form in which we would nowadays recognize it – a first inversion triad on the flattened supertonic – emerged in Italy in the mid-seventeenth century.29 Significantly, one of the first composers to exploit it was Charpentier’s mentor Carissimi, whose treatment of this chord is often strikingly bold. The Jesuit theorist Athanasius Kircher devotes considerable space in his treatise Musurgia universalis to a discussion of its use in Carissimi’s oratorio Jephte.30 Given that, as noted, Charpentier made a copy of Jephte, we can be certain that he was fully conversant with Carissimi’s extensive use of the Neapolitan sixth in this work, as at the asterisk in Example 4.

FILIA * c œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ ™ & J R R J J J J J J ˙ œ# w et in af- ﬂic - ti - o - ne cor- dis me- i u- lu - la - te. ° ? ˙# ˙ ˙ ˙ ¢ c ˙ ˙ w 6 §5 !6 6 4 #3

Example 4: Giacomo Carissimi, Jephte, after Charpentier’s copy, F-Pn, Vm1 1477, fol. 20

28 See Robert Lang, Entstehung und Tradition des Begriffs Neapolitan Sixth, in: Die Musikfor schung 52 (1999), pp. 306–317. 29 For a recent discussion, see Mark Ellis, A Chord in Time: the Evolution of the Augmented Sixth from Monteverdi to Mahler, Farnham 2010, pp. 15–21. 30 Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia universalis sive Ars magna consoni et dissoni, Rome 1650. See also the section »Kircher’s Discussion of Mode in Carissimi’s Jephte«, in: Eric Thomas Chafe, Monteverdi’s Tonal Language, Michigan 1992, pp. 50–53.

The Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Chromatic Harmony 553 Charpentier had indeed begun to use the Neapolitan sixth within a year of his return from Rome. The first volume of his Mélanges autographes includes a setting from Lamentations, Autre leçon de ténèbres (H. 92), in which this chord is used to colour the words »felle et labore« (»with bitterness and hardship«).31 Given that this work is believed to have been written for Holy Week 1670, the Neapolitan sixth here may well be the earliest known instance of this chord by a French composer.32 A further early use of the Neapolitan sixth occurs in Judith sive Bethulia liberata (H. 391) during the heroine’s prayer to Jehovah.33 This piece has strong Italian associations. It was Charpentier’s first »dramatic motet«, a genre which to all intents and purposes he invented, modelling it broadly on the oratorios of Carissimi and his contemporaries.34 Furthermore, an Italian connection may be seen in the cir- cumstances of the work’s creation: Judith has been convincingly shown to have been written for performance at the Theatines’ church in 1675.35 Although the term ›Neapolitan sixth‹ was not coined until much later, the chord itself had already come to be associated with Italy in particular, well before the end of the seventeenth century. Henry Purcell, for instance, notes that »the flat sixth before a close is a favourite note with the Italians, for they generally make use of it«.36 Charpentier himself, in his Règles de composition, makes the same link at the point where he gives an example of the Neapolitan sixth, asterisked in Example 5.37 f b* & w ˙ ˙# w

bf ? ˙ ˙ w w

Example 5: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Règles de composition, fol. 4

31 Mélanges autographes (see note 17), vol. 1, fol. 7, last system. 32 A rare early example of the Neapolitan sixth occurs near the beginning of Du Mont’s Dialogus de anima at the words »Anima mea in dolore est«. However, the text of this work does not appear in the Livres du Roi until 1677, which suggests that Du Mont’s use of the Neapolitan sixth post-dates that of Charpentier; on the dating of this dialogue, see Decobert, Henry Du Mont (1610–1684) (see note 12), pp. 269 and 454. 33 See Mélanges autographes (see note 17), vol. 2, fol. 9v. 34 See Hugh Wiley Hitchcock, The Latin Oratorios of Marc-Antoine Charpentier, in: The Musical Quarterly 41 (1955), pp. 41–65. 35 Ranum, Un »foyer d’italianisme« (see note 24), pp. 91–98. 36 See John Playford, An Introduction to the Skill of Musick, 12th edition, corrected and emended by Henry Purcell, London 1694, p. 132. 37 Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Règles de composition, F-Pn, ms. nouv. acq. fr. 6355, fols. 1v–15v; subsequent references in the present article are to this source. A facsimile of this manuscript is repro- duced in Lillian M. Ruff, Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Règles de composition, in: The Consort 24 (1967), pp. 233–270; a transcription appears in Cessac, Marc-Antoine Charpentier (see note 5), pp. 461–465 and 471–496. The Lilly manuscript, which includes a recently discovered autograph treatise by Charpentier (US-BLl, MT530.B73), makes no allusion to the Neapolitan sixth or, indeed, to any of the chords or intervals under discussion other than augmented and diminished octaves. It does,

554 Graham Sadler and Shirley Thompson Beneath the example, he draws attention to the Italians’ fondness for this chord in certain emotive contexts: »Les Italiens en mettant un Bemol au Ton favory evite la fausse Relation mais c’est pour exprimer les douleurs ou la foiblesse des dernieres parolles d’un Moribon.«38 Charpentier himself often uses the Neapolitan sixth in just such contexts. In another dramatic motet, Caecilia virgo et martyr, H. 413 (c. 1684), it occurs twice in the passage where Cecilia utters her final words: »Suspirans deficio amore morior. Accipe spiritum meum« (»sighing, I expire; I die of love; accept my spirit«; Exam- ple 6). In the first instance (bar 1), the ›resolution‹ of the flattened supertonic is unorthodox in that it sidesteps the dominant, whereas in bars 5–6 the chord is treated in the classic manner.39

CAECILIA * j j r r c œ œ ‰ œ œb œ ‰ ™ Œ‰ œn j™ & J J J J J œ œ œ œ J œ# œ œ œ œ tu- ae. Su- spi-rans de- ﬁ - ci - o a- mo - re mo-- ri ° ? ™ ˙ ¢ c ˙ œ Œ œ ˙ ˙ 5 !6 4 ™ *™ r ŒŒ œ œ œ Œ œb œ œ ˙ j j ∑ & œ# J R R œ# œ œ œ -or. Ac- ci - pe spi- ri -tum me - um. faites icy une ° petite pause ? ˙ ¢ ŒŒ œ# œ ŒŒ œ œ ŒÓ #œ 7 6 5˙ #3 4 4 3 Example 6: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Caecilia virgo et martyr, H. 413, in: Mélanges autographes, vol. 6, fol. 84v

Like the Italians, however, Charpentier does not restrict his use of this chord to the poignant contexts identified in the Règles. In Transfige dulcissime Jesu, H. 251, for example, it occurs on the phrase »et omne delectamentum suavitatis« (»and every delight of sweetness«).40 The Neapolitan sixth was in such widespread use in Italy in the mid-seventeenth century that there is no need to link Charpentier’s use of it exclusively with that of Carissimi. There is, however, at least one instance in which the Frenchman

however, illustrate the flattened supertonic, though harmonized with a diminished fifth rather than a minor sixth in the bass. 38 »By flattening the supertonic the Italians avoid the false relation [that is, the tritone]. But this is for the purpose of expressing sorrows or the weakness of the last words of a dying person.« This single reference to the Neapolitan sixth in the Règles occurs during a discussion of false relations involving the tritone. In bars 1 and 2 of Example 5 above, the E and B are indicated as black notes   to highlight the fact that »the Italians«, in flattening the E , avoid the tritone with the ensuing B .   39 A comparable instance may be found at the Prodigal Son’s words »hic fame pereo« (»here I die of hunger«) in another dramatic motet, Filius prodigus (H. 399), in: Mélanges autographes (see note 17), vol. 4, fol. 71v, penultimate system. 40 Mélanges autographes (see note 17), vol. 20, fol. 65v, top system.

The Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Chromatic Harmony 555 seems to have picked up a chromatic figure associated with his mentor which, while not involving the Neapolitan sixth itself, makes use of the flattened supertonic. This may be seen in Example 7 (a), which illustrates one of Carissimi’s most instantly recognizable fingerprints, while Charpentier’s appropriation of this figure is shown in Example 7 (b). The asterisked note in each case is the flattened supertonic (actual or transposed), sounded briefly as an échappée above the tonic just before the bass moves to the subdominant. The brackets in these examples draw attention both to the characteristic melodic contour, with its initial rising third and descent to the cadence, and to the diminished third between the asterisked note and the ensuing leading note. In bar 3 of the Charpentier extract, the continuo figuring indicates an E on the first beat, which creates a Neapolitan sixth.  (a) FILIA * * FILIAj ™ œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ ˙ ˙ &c Œ‰ œ œ œ œb * œ œ ˙ œ# œ ‰ J J J * œJ œ# j œJ œ™R œ œJ œ œ œ œ œb œ œ ˙ œ# ˙ &c Œ‰Ploœ- ra - te, ploœb -- ra te col˙ - œ# les, œ do‰- leJ - te, doJ - J le - te monJ - tes ° J R J ? c Plo- ra - te, plo-- ra teœ col˙ - les, do- le - te, do- le - te mon- tes °¢ w œ ˙ ˙ œ œb ˙ ˙ ? c § œ 5œ 6 ˙5 # § ˙ 4 #3 # ˙ ¢ w 4 #3 ˙ œ œb ˙ § 5 6 5 # § 4 #3 # (b)Example 7a: Giacomo Carissimi, Jephte, after4 #3 Charpentier’s copy, F-Pn, Vm1 01477, p. 2 ™ ™ ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œb* œ œ œb J ˙ œ œ# & J J œ™ ™ J * œ™ Cirœ - cumœ -deœ- de - runtœmeœ doœb- lo --œ œb ˙ resœ & J J J J œ# ° œ ™ œb ? Cir- cum-de - de - runtœme doœ- lo œ --œ ˙ res ¢ ˙# ˙# œ J ° 6 §5 !6 œ™ œ œb 6 œ 4 #3˙ ¢? ˙# ˙# œ J 5 6 §5 !6 6 4 #3 5 Example 7b: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Circumdederunt me dolores, H. 341, F-Pn, Vm1 1269, p. 57 (transposed up a tone to facilitate comparison)

Augmented sixth Use of the augmented sixth can be traced back at least as far as the late Middle Ages, and this sonority thereafter occurs sporadically in the music of the sixteenth century. However, Mark Ellis has shown that it seems to have been consciously avoided at the start of the following century:

The comparative rarity of the augmented sixth in the early Baroque is perhaps a little surprising, in the light of the intensive explorations of chromaticism in both instrumental and vocal music of the period. Composers must increasingly have become aware of the quality of this dissonance but, in general, continued to make a conscious effort to avoid it: otherwise we might have anticipated more ›incidental‹ examples in the chromatic fantasias, laments and madrigals by Dowland, Byrd, Bull and their continental contemporaries such as de Macque, Hassler, Sweelinck and Gesualdo.41

41 Ellis, A Chord in Time (see note 29), pp. 55 s.

556 Graham Sadler and Shirley Thompson Ellis nevertheless identifies the beginnings of the continuous evolutionary develop- ment of the augmented sixth as occurring in the keyboard music of this period, whether in the form of chromatic passing notes or of chromaticized Phrygian cadences.42 By the middle of the seventeenth century the expressive power of this chord was more widely recognized, and examples may be found increasingly (if still comparatively rarely) in operas and cantatas and in sacred and instrumental music by composers such as Francesco Cavalli, Barbara Strozzi, Carissimi and Biagio Marini.43 In France, by contrast, instances of the augmented sixth during the period of Charpentier’s youth are exceptionally rare. Not that this sonority was totally unknown there. It occurs, for example (along with all the other chromatic chords and progressions under discussion), in operas by Cavalli performed at the French court in the 1660s.44 Yet the interval was slow to be accepted by French composers. Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers, in his Traité de la composition de musique of 1667, included it in a list of false intervals which he regarded as »vicieuses« (»licentious, incorrect«) in a melodic line and forbidden in polyphony.45 True, Nivers adds a qualification which, at first sight, suggests more widespread acceptance in France of this and other »fausses Intervalles«: »en quelques occasions extraordinaires l’oreille les souffre agreablement, & ainsi tous les plus excellents Maistres pratiquent toutes les fausses Relations, dont l’usage […] dépend purement & simplement de l’oreille & du bon goust des Compositeurs.«46 Yet when Nivers writes that »l’oreille les souffre agreablement« (»the ear tolerates them agreeably«), the word »les« (»them«) does not refer to the »fausses Intervalles« but rather to the consecutive false relations which these engender. The fact remains that in French music before 1670, use of the augmented sixth was virtually non- existent.47 Indeed, resistance to this sonority remained strong in France throughout Charpentier’s lifetime. Admittedly, Charles Masson includes an example of its use

42 Ibid., pp. 56–64. 43 For representative examples, see ibid., pp. 58–71. 44 See, for example, Francesco Cavalli, Xerxes, F-Pn, Vm4 2, p. 111; and Ercole amante, I-Vnm, MS 9883, fol. 46. 45 Ellis, A Chord in Time (see note 29), p. 140. 46 Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers, Traité de la composition de musique, Paris 1667, p. 23: »On certain extraordinary occasions the ear tolerates them agreeably, and thus all the most excellent Masters practice all the false relations, the use of which depends purely and simply on the ear and on composers’ good taste.« For an English translation of this treatise, see Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers, translated by Albert Cohen, Treatise on the Composition of Music, New York 1961. 47 It is difficult to be categorical about such generalizations, given the problems in dating isolated instances of this interval in the music of Charpentier’s contemporaries. It appears, for instance, in two of the elevation motets by Pierre Robert in a manuscript dated 1688 (F-Pn, Rés. Vmb. ms. 6). Of these, »Splendor aeternae gloriae« had probably been composed by 1678, since the text is listed in the elevations by Robert in the Livres du Roi for that year (see note 12 above), though how much earlier is impossible to say. »Adoro te devote« is not listed in the Livres du Roi and may thus not have been written by this date.

The Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Chromatic Harmony 557 in four-part harmony (though without specific discussion of the augmented sixth);48 yet Sébastien de Brossard was to echo Nivers in describing augmented and diminished sixths as »vicieuses & Dissonantes«, adding that »on ne s’en doit jamais servir dans la Mélodie, & très-rarement dans l’Harmonie.«49 It is against such general antipathy to the augmented sixth in France that Char- pentier’s early use of this sonority can be seen to be so extraordinary.50 Indeed, of the chromatic chords discussed in this article, it was evidently one of the first he adopted. The earliest instance occurs in »Nisi Dominus«, H. 150, on the words »panem doloris« (»the bread of tears«). This psalm setting survives as the second work in cahier I of the Mélanges autographes; in other words, it is only the second of some 218 compositions which he copied – mainly in chronological order – into the roman cahiers (›gatherings‹ or ›fascicles‹) that evidently preserve his compositions written to external commissions.51 It was thus among the earliest pieces he wrote after his return from Rome around 1670.52 It is also noteworthy that Charpentier chose to include this chord in one of his first publications. The air »Que je sens de rudes combats« (H. 459), a setting of a passage from Pierre Corneille’s Le Cid, was published in the Mercure galant in 1681. It was, in fact, one of several of his pieces to appear in this gazette, with the aim of drawing his music to wider public notice.53 In this context, the fact that the piece includes a number of strongly Italianate features is surely significant. Indeed, the Mercure, in prefacing the music with a note that stresses the composer’s Italian credentials, seems to be preparing its readers for such features: »M. Charpentier, qui a demeuré trois ans à Rome, en a tiré de grands avantages. Tous ses ouvrages en sont une preuve.«54 Of the Italianate features in H. 459, the most immediately obvious are the chrome bianchi (or croches blanches), a style of notation which Charpentier had re-imported to

48 Charles Masson, Nouveau traité des règles pour la composition de la musique, Paris 21699, p. 98 – cited in: Ellis, A Chord in Time (see note 29), p. 141. 49 »They must never be used in the melody and very rarely in the harmony.« Sébastien de Bros- sard, Dictionaire de musique, Amsterdam 31708, reprint Geneva 1992, p. 127. 50 In his theoretical writings, Charpentier does not comment specifically on the augmented sixth but illustrates it in a music example of »consonances imparfaites«, where it is identified as a »sixte sup[erflue]«. Charpentier, Règles de composition (see note 37), fol. 2v. In the »Augmentations« section of the Règles, the interval appears as the first in a series of sixths and thirds, this time labelled »6 tr[ès] gr[and]« (fol. 13). A further example in this treatise occurs in the context of augmented and diminished octaves, discussed in more detail below. 51 See Patricia M. Ranum, Charting Charpentier’s ›Worlds‹ through his Mélanges, in: New Perspec- tives (see note 11), pp. 1–29: 6. 52 Other early uses of the chord occur in Charpentier’s Salve regina à trois chœurs discussed above; see Example 3, where an augmented sixth appears in the penultimate bar, adding a final twist to the chromatic progression. Moreover, an inversion of the chord appears in bar 2 of that same example. 53 The editors of the Mercure, Jean Donneau de Visé and Thomas Corneille, had both collabo- rated with Charpentier and were evidently prepared to promote his cause. 54 »M. Charpentier, who spent three years in Rome, has drawn many benefits from this [experience]. All his works are proof of it.« Mercure galant, February 1681, p. 251. This note, almost certainly written by Donneau de Visé, appears on the page directly opposite the music.

558 Graham Sadler and Shirley Thompson France from Rome (see Example 8) and which by that date was generally regarded as Italian; at all event, such notation would have been unfamiliar to most French readers of the Mercure in 1681.55 Then there is the structural element: the piece is built on a strict ground bass, a savant mode of construction which had arrived in France from Italy and still had strong Italian associations. (Interestingly, Charpen- tier’s ground is identical to the one in Lully’s setting of an Italian text, »Scocca pur tutti tuoi strali«.)56 But equally unfamiliar, and doubtless more unsettling to many French music-lovers, would have been the pungent harmonic intervals, including augmented second, augmented octave and augmented sixth, which Charpentier introduces to match the passionate nature of Corneille’s text. The last of these intervals is shown in Example 8 at the phrase »ou de trahir ma flame« (»either to betray my love«). By such means, Charpentier may have seemed to many of his contemporaries to be nailing his colours publicly to the Italian mast. The fact remains, however, that despite these imported elements, the stylistic character of this setting remains predominantly French. ê ™ ™ 3 ˙ ˙# ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙# &b2 ˙n ˙ ˙ ˙ n˙ ˙ J J J ∑ J J Ré- duit auJ trisJ - teJ choix, ou de trahir ma flam- me, Ou de vivre ™ ™ ™ j ? 3 ˙ ˙ b˙ ˙ ˙ b2 ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ Example 8: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, »Que je sens de rudes combats«, H. 459, in: Mercure galant, February 1681, between pp. 250 and 251

Many analysts would probably regard the various instances of augmented sixths discussed above as »the ›by-products‹ of simultaneous but independent melodic lines«,57 rather than as autonomous chords in the accepted modern sense. This is not the case, however, with a number of augmented sixths in one particular section of the dramatic motet Mors Saülis et Jonathae, H. 403. These occur in a dialogue during which one of the soldiers steels himself to tell David that Saul and his son Jonathan have been killed in battle.58 The soldier (miles) hardly dares to do so, and his distress and anxiety are expressed in a vocal line fragmented by rests and hesitations. As he is about to break the news, he falters three times at the words »sed Saül …« (»but Saul …«). In each case these words are followed by rests, leaving the augmented sixth on »Saül« hanging in the air. One such instance is shown in Example 9, where the soldier never actually resolves the dissonance. In all three cases, the augmented

55 See Sadler, Charpentier’s Void Notation (see note 11). 56 See Lois Rosow, The Descending Minor Tetrachord in France: an Emblem Explained, in: New Per- spectives (see note 11), pp. 63–87: 64–66. As Rosow notes, Lully is said to have written »Scocca pur« during his youth, for performance at Louis XIV’s nightly coucher. 57 Ellis, A Chord in Time (see note 29), p. 1. 58 Mélanges autographes (see note 17), vol. 4, fols. 128v–129.

The Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Chromatic Harmony 559 sixth is deliberately stressed as an autonomous chord, rather than being the incidental result of independent melodic movement. In that respect this passage is surely unique in French music of the seventeenth century.

MILES r c ‰ r r j j j™ œ j j r r Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ & œ# œ œ œ œ œ J œ# œ# œ œ R R R R J R R J R R ‹ Fu- gi -e - bat po- pu-los e prae- li- o; mul- ti cor- ru-e - runt de po- pu- lo, sed, sed, ° ? ™ ¢ c ˙ œ# w œ œ ˙ # # 6 # DAVID *™ ™ œ œ Œ‰ œ œ# œ C∑ c ‰ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & J J J J J J R J J J R R ‹ sed Sa- ül… Quid Sa- ül? quid de Sa- ül di- ce-re ha- bes? ° ˙# œ œn ™ ¢? w C∑ c ˙ œ œ ˙ 7 #6 # § 5 6 5 6

Example 9: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Mors Saülis et Jonathae, H. 403, in: Mélanges autographes, vol. 4, fol. 128v

Diminished seventh In his Règles de composition Charpentier illustrates the standard preparation and resolution of the diminished seventh, which he labels »7e tres petitte« (Example 10).

œb œ & œ œ 7e tres petitte ? ˙ ˙#

Example 10: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Règles de composition, fol. 15

The diminished seventh is not necessarily a chromatic chord, since in minor modes it can occur diatonically on the raised seventh degree. Perhaps for that reason, this interval was accepted in France with less initial resistance. It was already in occasional use before Charpentier’s return from Rome, notably in the keyboard works of Louis Couperin.59 In vocal music before 1670, however, it is seldom encountered; and where the chord does occur, it tends to be used fleetingly on an unstressed part

59 See, for example, Louis Couperin, Pièces de clavecin, ed. Davitt Moroney, Monaco 1985, p. 150, b. 82. Occasionally Couperin inverts the chord, as on p. 106, no. 51, b. 17 (first inversion), and p. 95, b. 6 (fourth inversion).

560 Graham Sadler and Shirley Thompson of the bar, as in Lully’s Les plaisirs de l’île enchantée (1664) and Le grand divertissement royal (1668).60 In Italy, by contrast, the diminished seventh had been used with increasing fre- quency and confidence since the beginning of the century. The expressive potential of this chord was seized on in particular by composers of dramatic music, as in the final quartet from Claudio Monteverdi’sIl ballo delle ingrate, where the hard-hearted women accept the need to »apprendre pietà« (»learn pity«; Example 11).

QUATRO INGRATE INSIEME ™ j *™ ™ j j b Œ œ œ ˙ œ œ ˙ Œ œ œ ˙ œ œ ˙ ˙ œ œ ˙ & J J J J J w Ap- pren-de - te pie- tà, ap- pren-de - te pie- tà Don- ne'e don- zel - le. ™ œ œ ˙ œ œ ˙ j j ™ j ™ j j &b Œ J J J Œ œ œ ˙ œ œ ˙ ˙ œ œ œ œ# w ™ ™ b Œ j j ™ j Œ œ œ ˙n œb œ ˙ ˙ œ œ wn & œ œ ˙ œ œ ˙# J J J J J ˙ œ œ ˙ ™ b Œ J J œb œ ˙ Œ œ œ ˙ ˙ œn œ ˙ &‹ J J J œ# œ ˙ w Ap- pren-de - te pie- tà, ap- pren-de - te pie- tà Don- ne'e don- zel - le.

Example 11: Claudio Monteverdi, Il ballo delle ingrate, in: Eighth Book of Madrigals, Venice 1638

The diminished seventh was, however, by no means limited in Italy to dramatic music. Charpentier evidently became aware of this during his time in Rome, since he makes bold use of the chord in several of his earliest sacred works. Indeed, it occurs in the very first piece in theMélanges autographes – a Tenebrae setting which is presumably his earliest surviving composition (see Example 12).61 The treatment here in bar 3, at the words »sedebit solitarius et tacebit« (»let him sit alone and keep silent«), is anything but fleeting. Charpentier makes a real feature of the diminished seventh, placing it on the first beat and allowing it to occupy the entire bar. Moreover, these seven bars are marked to be repeated. When this piece was written in c. 1670, such prominent use of the diminished seventh was without precedent in French vocal music of the period.

60 Jean-Baptiste Lully, Les comédies-ballets, vol. 2, ed. Henry Prunières, Paris 1933 (Œuvres com- plètes 3,2), reprint New York 1971, respectively p. 59, b. 8, and p. 196, b. 6. 61 For other early instances of the diminished seventh in Charpentier’s Mélanges autographes (see note 17), see Autre leçon de ténèbres (H. 92), vol. 1, fol. 6; »Miserere« (H. 157), vol. 1, fol. 60 and »Pie Jesu« (H. 427), vol. 2, fol. 41.

The Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Chromatic Harmony 561 ﬂutes ™ * b3 ˙ n˙ w™ w ˙ w˙™ œ ˙ w ˙ w ˙ U™ ™ &b 2 ˙ ˙ ˙ w ˙ ˙ nw ˙ w ˙nw ™ ™ U b3 ™ ™ ™ j ™ ™ ™ &b 2 ÓÓ ˙ ˙b œ œ œ ˙b ˙ œ œ ˙ œ ˙ w ˙ w ˙ w Se- de - J bit so- li - ta - ri-us et ta- ce - bit. ° U ? b3 ™ ™ ™ ™ ™ ¢ b 2 w w wn w w™ wb ™ w™ ! § !6 !7 9 8 !6 7 6 § 4 5 !3 § 3 Example 12: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Leçon de ténèbres (H. 91), in: Mélanges autographes, vol. 1, fol. 3v

Charpentier was later to diversify his use of the diminished seventh. During the incantation scene in his opera Médée (1693), for instance, it is superimposed over a 62 tonic pedal to form a pungent 9/  7/ 6/4 chord. Elsewhere, in the Troisième leçon de ténèbres du Mercredi saint (H. 135), a work which evidently dates from the early 1690s, the diminished seventh (asterisked in Example 13) acquires a secondary dominant function in the approach to the cadence. Although this usage was becoming fashion- able in Italy towards the end of the century, Charpentier’s handling of the chord in this passage sounds distinctly ahead of its time.63

vn 1 ° wb * ™ U b œ œn ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ œ œ œ ∑ Œ œ ˙ ˙ œb œ bw ¢&b Œ œ b˙ ˙ œ w œn œ ˙ w w Ó vn 2 b ˙ ˙b œn œ w wb ˙ ˙ m U &b ˙ Ó w w ‹ mae- ro - re, mae- ro - re con- fec - tam. b ™ U &b œn w w ˙b ™ œ wn œn œ ˙ ˙ œn w ‹ con- fec --- tam, mae- ro - re con- fec - tam. ˙ ˙b œ ™ w w U ?bb œn œ ˙ œ w ˙# œ w mae- ro - re con- fec - tam,mae- ro - re con- fec -- tam. ° ? œ ˙b ˙ w U ¢ bb ˙n ˙ w w# w 6 6 § ! !7 5 6 5w ! ! §5 §3 4 4 §3

Example 13: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Troisième leçon de ténèbres du Mercredi saint, H. 135, in: Mélanges autog raphes, vol. 23, fol. 43v

62 Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Médée, Paris 1694, III,5 (p. 205, b. 5). 63 By the turn of the century the diminished seventh began to be illustrated in French theoretical writings. In his Nouveau traité (see note 48), for instance, Masson shows an example of its use in four parts (p. 97), while Brossard, in his Dictionaire (see note 49) states: »Dans l’Harmonie, la 7me diminuée a quelques fois des effets merveilleux, meme sans être sincopée« (p. 129).

562 Graham Sadler and Shirley Thompson Augmented and diminished octaves or unisons Another stylistic element that sets Charpentier apart from his French predecessors is his extensive use of augmented and diminished octaves. These too were a feature of his surviving music from the outset. The very first piece in the Mélanges autographes, the Leçon de ténèbres H. 91, includes a 23-bar section in which the passage shown in Example 14 is heard three times, each time at a different pitch level and each featur- ing diminished octaves of the kind asterisked in this example.

° œ œ œ œ™ œ œ œb ™ œ œ œ œ œ™ œ ˙ &c ∑ ∑ ‰ ™ * œ œ œ œ œ œ ™ œb m™ ¢&c ∑ ∑ ‰ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙

™ * m™ ‰ œ œ œ œ™ œ œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ ˙ ∑ ∑ &c J J J R R R Ó mi se- ri- cor- di- ae- Do --- mi ni,- j j j r r ™ ™ r &c ‰ œ œ œ œ™ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ Ó ∑ ∑ mi se- ri- cor- di- ae- Do --- mi ni,- ™ œ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ œ R R œ™ œ œ Ó &c ‰ J J J R R J J J J R ∑ ∑ ‹ mi se- ri- cor- di- ae,- mi se- ri- cor- di- ae- Do mi- ni,-

° < > < > ¢? c w ˙ n ˙ w ˙ n ˙ ˙ !6 7 !6 7 4 4

Example 14: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Leçon de ténèbres, H. 91, in: Mélanges autographes, vol. 1, fol. 1v

As for the interval of an augmented octave, this appears in another early work, the Mass H. 1, where it is heard prominently in the Agnus Dei (Example 15). Here the continuo figuring, written above and below the bass line to indicate part-movement, confirms that the octave at the asterisk is indeed augmented.64

64 It is worth noting, in passing, that the 9/7/ # 5 chord in bar 2 of Example 15 was not one of the dissonances which originated in Italy. Augmented mediant chords of this kind appear to have emerged in France, particularly in the keyboard music of Louis Couperin. See Charles Jay Moomaw, Augmented Mediant Chords in French Baroque Music, PhD dissertation, University of Cin- cinnati 1985.

The Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Chromatic Harmony 563 [vn 1] ° œ™ j ˙Ó œ™ œ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ¢&bC J [vn 2] ™ bC œ œ ˙n ˙ ˙ ˙n ˙ & ˙# J Mi- se - re - re no- bis ™ œ œ ˙ *˙ w ˙ &bC Ó J ‹ Mi- se - re - re no- bis ™ œ œ ˙ ˙ w &bC ˙ J ˙ ‹ Mi- se - re - re no- bis ™ ?bC ˙ œ ˙b ˙ w ˙ Mi- se - re - re no- bis ° 5 6 §5 6 7 §6 ¢?bC w wb w ˙ # 9 §8 7 6 Example 15: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Mass, H. 1, in: Mélanges autographes, vol. 14, fol. 44v

In his Règles de composition and the recently discovered Lilly manuscript, Charpentier illustrates the use of augmented and diminished octaves, indicating that although these dissonances did not always require preparation, they should be resolved by step.65 Example 16 shows his recommended treatment of augmented octaves.

A. ™ B. C. D. ˙ ˙# w# ˙ œ# w ˙ ˙# ˙ ˙ #w ˙ œ# œ# ˙ œ œ# w & ˙ #˙ Cet accord est très plaintif #8 #10 #8 §10 #8 §8 # 3 #6 ? w w w œ œ œ œ w w wb w œ œ ˙ w

Example 16: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Règles de composition, fol. 9

The example at letter C, in combining the augmented octave with an augmented sixth, is particularly astringent and bears the annotation: »This chord is very plain- tive«. Charpentier may well have been thinking of his own use of exactly this progression in the dramatic motet Mors Saülis et Jonathae. It occurs at the words »O sors infelix et acerba; o mors crudelis et amara« (»Ah! Unhappy and harsh fate! Ah! Cruel and bitter death!«), where the Israelites react to the deaths of Saul and Jonathan (Example 17). Both here and in the above example from the Règles, the augmented sixths are preceded by a major seventh, which contributes to the harmonic intensity of this extraordinary passage.

65 Charpentier, Règles de composition (see note 37), fols. 2–2v, 8 s., 10–10v and 15v, and Lilly Manuscript (see note 37), fols. 28, 30 and 31v.

564 Graham Sadler and Shirley Thompson * 3 ˙ w™ ˙ ˙ w ˙ w ˙ ˙ w# w™ &C2 ÓÓ Ó O sors, sors in- fe - lix et a- cer - ba! ™ w ˙ ˙ ™ 3 ˙ w# ˙ ˙ w ˙ w# w# &C2 ÓÓ Ó ‹ O sors, sors in- fe - lix et a- cer - ba! 3 ™ w ˙ ˙ ™ &C2 ÓÓ ˙ w Ó ˙ ˙ w w™ w ‹ O sors, sors in- fe - lix et a-- cer ba! 3 ˙ ™ ˙ ˙ w# ˙ w ˙ ™ ™ ?C2 ÓÓ w Ó wn w O sors, sors in- fe - lix et a-- cer ba! ° 3 ˙ ™ ˙ ˙ w# ™ w ˙ ™ ™ ¢?C2 w Ó wn w w # 7 #6 * ˙ w™ w ˙ w ˙ ™ & ÓÓ Ó ˙ ˙ ˙ wn w# O mors, mors cru- de - lis et a- ma - ra! ™ ˙# w ˙ ˙ w ˙ w ˙ w™ w™ & ÓÓ Ó ‹ O mors, mors cru- de - lis et a- ma - ra! ™ & ÓÓ ˙ w# Ó ˙ ˙ w ˙ w ˙ ˙ w# w™ ‹ O mors, mors cru- de - lis et a- ma - ra! ? ™ ÓÓ ˙ w™ Ó ˙ ˙ w# ˙ w ˙ wb w™ O mors, mors cru- de - lis et a- ma - ra! ° ¢? ÓÓ ˙ ™ Ó ˙ ˙ w# ™ w ˙ wb ™ ™ #w 7 #6 #w Example 17: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Mors Saülis et Jonathae, H. 403, in: Mélanges autographes, vol. 4, fol. 129

Elsewhere in the Règles, Charpentier includes the augmented and diminished octave in a »Denombrement des Intervalles deffendus qu’il faut esviter«; he adds that »neant- moins l’expression du sujet oblige quelquefois a se servir de ces faux intervalles alors ce sont des coups de maître«.66 In his output as a whole, augmented and diminished octaves appear far more frequently than the chromatic chords we have described. Yet in France there was little precedent for the use of such intervals. A rare exception is Louis Couperin, whose keyboard music includes occasional momentary clashes involving different species of octave.67 Such liberties were not cultivated in vocal music, however, and augmented or diminished octaves are strikingly absent from such music by Charpen-

66 »List of forbidden intervals which should be avoided [; …] nevertheless the expression of the subject sometimes compels us to use these false intervals, when they are masterstrokes.« Charpentier, Règles de composition (see note 37), fol. 15v. 67 For example, Couperin, Pièces de clavecin (see note 59), pp. 87, 155, 162 and 178. The cha- conne on p. 149 includes augmented unisons.

The Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Chromatic Harmony 565 tier’s older contemporaries. Even after the turn of the century, Brossard writes that »de l’une & de l’autre maniere elle cesse d’être consonance & juste, & devient fausse & dissonance, même impraticable«.68 That such intervals were »unusable« is not a view that would have been shared by many Italian composers of the day, at least not those whose music Charpentier had encountered during his youth. It is nevertheless odd that, in Italian music of the mid-seventeenth century, we rarely find augmented or diminished octaves used with the astonishing intensity demonstrated in Example 17 above. As in the keyboard music of Louis Couperin, such false relations tend to occur incidentally as a conse- quence of the independent logic of two melodic lines. To find Italian precedents for the extreme dissonance of Charpentier’sMors Saülis, we have to go back to the time of Monteverdi. At first sight, the idea that Charpentier was aware of such precedents may seem far-fetched. Yet several features of his notational practice suggest that, during his time in Rome, he had indeed studied Italian compositions dating from the early years of the seventeenth century.69 One of the best-known examples of extreme dissonance in Monteverdi occurs in the opening section of the Lamento della Ninfa. As the male-voice trio describes the nymph’s grief-stricken appearance, a grinding augmented unison (F  – F ) on the word »dolor« vividly expresses the pain visible on her face (Example 18). * j j j ™ j j j j j & ‰ œ œ œ# œ œ œ œ œ œn œ œ ˙™ w ‹ Sul pal- li - det - to vol- to scor- gea se il suo doœ - lor ‰ œ œ œ œ™ j œ œ œ j j ™ & J J J œ J J œ œ œ# ˙# œ# w# ‹ Sul pal- li - det - to vol- to scor- gea se il suo dolor j j ™ < > ? ‰ œ œ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ n œ w œ œ J J J J J J Sul pal- li - det - to vol- to scor- gea se il suo dolor

Example 18: Claudio Monteverdi, Lamento della Ninfa, in: Eighth Book of Madrigals, Venice 1638

A further Monteverdi example occurs in Example 11, discussed earlier. In this case the dissonance is a diminished octave (B  – B ), heard twice in the final bar. The mood here is one of regret and resignation rather than pain, and we are reminded that simultaneous false relations of this kind could serve a wide variety of expressive purposes. Whereas the above examples are associated with negative emotions, Charpentier uses augmented octaves in his In nativitatem D[omi]ni canticum, H. 416, to capture the Bethlehem shepherds’ rapture and wonderment at the miracle of

68 »In both cases, the octave ceases to be consonant and true, and becomes instead false and dis- sonant, or even unusable.« Brossard, Dictionaire (see note 49), p. 86. 69 See Sadler, Charpentier’s Void Notation (see note 11), p. 57, and id., Idiosyncrasies in Charpentier’s Continuo Figuring: Their Significance for Editors and Performers, in: Les manuscrits autographes de Marc- Antoine Charpentier, ed. Catherine Cessac, Wavre 2007, pp. 137–156: 151s.

566 Graham Sadler and Shirley Thompson Christ’s birth, while numerous diminished octaves at the start of the Sanctus of his Messe à quatre chœurs, H. 4, help characterize the ecstatic cries of the angels around God’s throne.70

Quarter-tones One final aspect of Charpentier’s indebtedness to Italian harmonic practices is his use of quarter-tones as an expressive device. While this takes us beyond the confines of chromaticism, it has an obvious relevance here. Charpentier used quarter-tones in only one work, the dramatic motet Caecilia virgo et martyr, H. 397. At the words »O suavis, O mirus tempestate odor« (»O what sweet, what marvellous perfume for the time of year«), the quarter-tones are indicated by the symbol x, both on the stave and in the continuo figuring (Example 19).71 Although Brossard was later to discuss this particular notation of quarter-tones, he was evidently unaware of Charpentier’s experiment with this style of writing: the entry Diesis in his Dictionaire states that these intervals were not used in polyphonic music (»la musique harmonique«), since they would spoil the harmony.72

TIBURTIUS * * 3 ˙. ˙ ˙b ˙‹ ˙n . ˙ ˙ ˙‹ ˙# ˙. ˙ ˙b ˙ m &bC2 J J R J ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ‹ O su- a - vis, O mirus pro tem- pes - ta - tis o - dor! ˙ ˙. ˙ ° 3 ˙ ˙n ˙ ˙‹ ˙# ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙. ¢?bC2 ˙ ˙ § ? #

Example 19: Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Caecilia virgo et martyr, H. 397, in: Mélanges autographes, vol. 3, fol. 39v

Charpentier doubtless first encountered the practical use of quarter-tones during his years in Italy. This same notation may be seen, for example, in Domenico Mazzoc- chi’s Planctus matris Euryali, published in Rome in 1638.73 The symbol x is also used for this purpose in a chamber duet by Agostino Steffani (see Example 20).74 In this

70 See Mélanges autographes (see note 17), vol. 9, fols. 58v and 59, and vol. 16, fol. 27v respectively. 71 Hitchcock, The Latin Oratorios of Marc-Antoine Charpentier (see note 34), vol. 1, pp. 212 s., and Cessac, Marc-Antoine Charpentier (see note 5), p. 341 (English translation, p. 278). For a discussion of the implications for continuo players of this passage in H. 397, see Sadler, Idiosyncrasies in Charpen- tier’s Continuo Figuring (see note 69), p. 147. 72 Brossard, Dictionaire (see note 49), p. 20. In the previous century Marin Mersenne had recommended the use of quarter-tones (Harmonie universelle, Paris 1636, »Livre premier de la Voix«, p. 16), though his wording gives the impression that such a practice was little used, if at all. 73 This piece is reprinted in Arnold Schering, Geschichte der Musik in Beispielen, Leipzig 1931, no. 197. 74 On this duet, see Colin Timms, Polymath of the Baroque: Agostino Steffani and His Music, New York 2003, pp. 275 s. and 286 s.

The Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Chromatic Harmony 567 instance, the wavy line above the stave suggests that the quarter-tones on the word »affanno« (»breathlessness«) indicate a slow glissando. Indeed, this is a possible inter- pretation of Charpentier’s notation in H. 397, in the vocal line at least.

ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ œ ##c œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ™ œ œ‹ œ# œ‹ œ# œ™ œn & œ# œ œ œ œ# œ œ œ ˙ [aﬀa] ------no. ° œ œ œ ¢?##c œ ‰ J œ ‰ œ œ ‰ œ ˙ J œ J ˙ ˙ Example 20: Agostino Steffani, »Tu m’aspettasti«, GB-Lbl, R.M. 23.k.19, p. 88

It seems increasingly likely that H. 397 was commissioned for performance at the Theatine church of Sainte-Anne-la-Royale.75 If so, Charpentier may have been encouraged by the priests of this Italian order to experiment with styles of writing they had experienced in their youth. The fact that he did not repeat the experiment elsewhere need not be taken as a sign of failure: it is equally possible that he knew that most French patrons would be less sympathetic than the Theatines to such Italianate writing. Indeed, we are not aware of the use of quarter-tones in any other French music of the seventeenth century. In the following century, however, a number of Charpentier’s younger contemporaries did experiment with glissando: Michel Pignolet de Montéclair, for instance, in his cantata Pan et Syrinx (c. 1716) and Jean-Philippe Rameau in Platée (1745). Interestingly, both these composers had visited Italy in their youth and were to maintain an on-going interest in Italian music.

* * * Several more general issues raised by this study can be touched on here only briefly, though they deserve further investigation. The first is the extent to which Charpen- tier’s pioneering use of chromatic chords and progressions influenced the music of his French contemporaries. In several respects this influence appears to have been limited. We find little use, for example, of the augmented and Neapolitan sixths or of the fierce dissonance involving augmented and diminished octaves. In any case, the line of influence is blurred, particularly from the 1690s onwards, by the rapid increase in the amount of Italian music circulating in France, so that any perceived Italianisms in subsequent French music are more likely to have been inspired directly by such sources.76

75 See, for example, Ranum, Un »foyer d’italianisme« (see note 24). It should be noted that although H. 397 was composed c. 1677, the entire score as it survives in the Mélanges autographes was recopied by Charpentier in c. 1683–1684, presumably for performance at that time. We cannot therefore be certain that the quarter-tones featured in the original score. 76 For further discussion of the dissemination of Italian music in France, see Jean Duron, Aspects

568 Graham Sadler and Shirley Thompson A second question concerns the nature of patronage. In some of his dramatic motets, notably those on the Nativity and on the martyrdom of Saint Cecilia, Char- pentier set what is essentially the same text several times. Certain of these parallel settings are much richer than others in the kind of chromatic experiment discussed above. As we have seen, for instance, the passage beginning »O sors infelix et acerba« in Mors Saülis et Jonathae includes the excruciating augmented octaves and sixths highlighted in Example 17 above, whereas Charpentier’s treatment of an identical text in another dramatic motet, In obitum augustissimae nec non piissimae gallorum reginae lamentum, H. 409, is harmonically restrained to the point of blandness. The reason for this sharp distinction surely has to do with the identity of the institutions which commissioned these two works. Mors Saülis was evidently written for the Jesuit church of Saint-Louis in Paris,77 while In obitum is believed to have been performed by the musicians of the Chapelle Royale at a ceremony commemorating the death of Queen Marie-Thérèse in 1683.78 In terms of musical taste, these institutions stood at opposite poles. The Jesuit church with which Charpentier enjoyed a long association, principally as maître de musique from 1687 to 1698, was renowned for the brilliance of its music; and to judge from the overall character of his music for this church, the composer was allowed a fairly free rein as far as harmonic colour was concerned. By contrast, the Chapelle Royale was a highly conservative institution, particularly before Louis XIV’s reforms of 1683 began to take effect.79 Charpentier was thus careful to avoid anything controversial in what was one of his rare oppor- tunities to write for the musicians of this august establishment. A future study might therefore explore from this angle the four Cecilia settings H. 394, 397, 413 and 415, all on essentially the same libretto. Could the presence of quarter-tones, Neapolitan sixths and other Italianisms in certain of these settings but not others cast light on the tastes and identity of the patrons for whom these works were written? A final observation has to do with Charpentier’s motives in absorbing the Ital- ian elements under discussion, almost all of which may be found in works written within a year or so of his return from Rome. These include a group of Tenebrae

de la présence italienne dans la musique française de la fin duXVII e siècle, in: Le concert des muses. Promenade musicale dans le baroque français, ed. Jean Lionnet, Versailles 1997, pp. 97–115; Jean Lionnet, Les copies de musique italienne et leur diffusion, in: ibid., pp. 81–95, and Denis Herlin, Fossard et la musique italienne en France au XVIIe siècle, in: Recherches sur la musique française classique 29 (1996–1998), pp. 27–52. 77 The Mémoire drawn up in 1726 when Charpentier’s autograph manuscripts were prepared for sale to the Bibliothèque du Roi describes the work as »piece pour les Jesuites en tragedie«; see Ranum and Thompson, »Mémoire des ouvrages« (see note 27), p. 322. This information is believed to derive from vestiges of Charpentier’s filing system, discarded when the loose cahiers were bound. 78 Cessac, Marc-Antoine Charpentier (see note 5), pp. 155 s. See also Anthea Smith, Charpentier’s Music at Court: the Singers and Instrumentalists of the Chapelle Royale, 1663–1683 and Beyond, in: New Perspectives (see note 11), pp. 133–159: 136 and 158 s. 79 See Alexandre Maral, La Chapelle royale de Versailles sous Louis XIV: cérémonial, liturgie et musique, Sprimont 2004, and Thierry Favier, Le motet à grand chœur (1660-1792). Gloria in Gallia Deo, Paris 2009.

The Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Chromatic Harmony 569 lessons and responsories which, in every other respect, bear the hallmarks of that quintessentially French genre, the leçon de ténèbre, particularly in their use of lengthy vocalises derived from the air de cour tradition.80 In other words, here and in his output as a whole, Charpentier was not seeking to replace traditional French modes of expression with Italian ones, but rather to leaven and rejuvenate native idioms with a richer harmonic vocabulary derived from Italy. Very little of his music could be mistaken for the work of an Italian. Rather, his sensitive integration of Italian harmonic and other procedures into a predominantly French idiom can be seen as a remarkable, if not yet fully researched, anticipation of what François Couperin would later refer to as the réunion des goûts.

80 See Theodor Käser, Die Leçon de Ténèbres im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, Berne 1966, and Sébastien Gaudelus, Les offices de ténèbres en France, 1650–1790, Paris 2005.

570 Graham Sadler and Shirley Thompson