The French Connection Programme Notes
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The French Connection PROGRAMME NOTES The two pieces that frame this week’s French programme both begin with extraordinary and evocative depictions of Chaos and its gradual dissolution as the primary elements separate and emerge. Amandine Beyer gave her programme a working title of “After the chaos”: she wrote, “the music begins to move together inside the wonderful rhythms of French baroque music, sometimes strong, sometimes joyful, sometimes tender. Always with a strong sense of its roots in the simple melodies of the folklore of France, and the love of the dance.” Rameau Zaïs Rameau’s Zaïs was premiered at the Paris Opera in 1748, the first of three operas by Rameau with masonic undertones (the others being Zoroastre and Les Boréades). The libretto by Louis de Cahusac is set in an enchanted, mythical world from the Middle East. Although the libretto itself met much criticism, the fantastical and pastoral characters and settings offered Rameau lots of scope, and the music was much praised, assuring many revivals and over 100 performances over two decades. Most extraordinary is the overture. Audiences would have expected the usual French overture, grand and elegant. They instead met a depiction of chaos, with muted drum and disjunct utterances from the orchestra, gradually coalescing into a shimmering ball of energy. We follow the overture with a small selection of pastoral dances which assure that “after the chaos” all is well. Corrette Concerto comique We continue with Rameau, but Rameau as re-imagined by Michel Corrette. The Rouen-born Corrette enjoyed a long career in Paris, writing music of a light nature, much of it arrangements of popular tunes of the day. Such is the basis of his 25 Concertos comiques, so-called as they were intended as entr'acte music at the Comédie Française. The 25ème Concert opens with an arrangement of “Les Sauvages,” from Rameau’s opéra-ballet Les Indes galantes. The final act is set in a grove amidst the forests of the new world. The native lovers Zima and Adario celebrate their love as “les sauvages” gather for the ceremony of the “Grand calumet de la paix” (The great peace pipe). The dance was popular and enjoyed several arrangements, including this one by Corrette for flute and strings, in which “les sauvages” meet an enthusiastic fiddler! A setting of the tune “Quand on sait aimer et plaire” follows, scored for solo harpsichord with pizzicato strings and flute, and as light as French pastry. The Concerto ends with by an arrangement of a tune known as “La Furstemberg.” Its popularity is attested by the fact that arrangements of this tune were written in Spain (De Murcia), France (Philidor, Blavet), and England (Playford, Purcell) over a period of some 100 years. Campra L'Europe galante Opéra-ballets had been made popular earlier in the eighteenth century by André Campra. The dramatic plot of the tragédie-lyrique was replaced by a loosely structured series of tableaux linked by a general theme. Campra's first foray in the genre was L’Europe galante (the inspiration for Rameau’s Les Indes galantes), premiered in 1697. Campra’s librettist, Antoine Houdar de la Motte described his new opera as follows: We have chosen those Nations which are most contrasting and which offer the greatest potential for stage treatment: France, Spain, Italy and Turkey: We have followed what is normally considered to be characteristic behaviour of their Inhabitants. The Frenchman is portrayed as fickle, indiscreet, and amorous. The Spaniard as faithful and romantic. The Italian as jealous, shrewd, and violent. Finally, we have expressed, within the limitations of the stage, the haughtiness and supreme authority of the Sultan and the passionate nature of the Sultanas. The production was an enormous success: Parisians flocked to performances over and over again, and apparently joined in the singing of the most popular tunes, as described by Dr. Martin Lister in A Journey to Paris in the Year 1698: I was at the Opera, called L’Europe galante, several times, and it is lookt upon as one of the very best. It is extremely fine, and the Musick and Singing admirable: The Stage large and magnificent, and well filled with Actors: The Scenes well suited to the thing, and as quick in the removal of them, as can be thought: The dancing is exquisite, as being performed by the best Masters of that Profession in Town: The clothing rich, proper, and with great variety. It is to be wondered, that these Operas are so frequented. There are great numbers of the Nobility that come daily to them, and some that can Sing them all. And it was one thing that was troublesome to us Strangers, to disturb the Box by these voluntary Songs of some parts of the Opera or other. Campra’s reputation was firmly established. He was bestowed with countless honours and numerous appointments, and his operas enjoyed long-lasting success. L’Europe galante remained his most popular work: it was produced regularly until 1755, and the publisher Ballard printed a full score of the opera as an édition de luxe in 1724. We have turned to this score to choose a selection of airs à jouer et à danser. The music is at once lively, elegant, and simple, and the dances were described by the eighteenth-century dance encyclopedist Louis de Cahusac (also Rameau’s librettist for Zaïs) as “pretty Watteaus, piquant miniatures that demand precision of design, grace of brushstroke, and brilliance of colour.” Leclair Concerto for violin During the early eighteenth century, French musicians spent considerable time debating the merits of the French versus Italian styles of composition and performance. Jean-Marie Leclair was one of the most successful of the generation of French musicians who sought to unite the two styles. An accomplished violinist (also dancer and lacemaker!), Leclair travelled to Turin to study the Italian style of violin playing with Somis, a student of Corelli. He returned to Paris and quickly rose to fame, credited in retrospect for founding the French classical school of violin playing. His compositions, almost entirely devoted to works for the violin, are original in style and technically demanding, combining Italian brilliance with French refinement and grace. He published two volumes of concertos, with six concertos in each volume. The first volume, Opus 7, was published in 1737, during his tenure as Ordinaire de la musique du roi under Louis XV. It was dedicated to the Parisian harpsichordist and conductor André Chéron, a former teacher of Leclair. The concertos would have been performed regularly by Leclair at Le Concert Spirituel in Paris. Rebel Les Elémens A violinist in the French court orchestra, les 24 Violons du Roy, Jean-Féry Rebel held numerous positions at Versailles, gradually also gaining prominence in Paris. His fame there rested on his simphonies de danse, a genre he invented apparently quite by chance, as recounted by the nineteenth-century musicologist Castil-Blaze in L’Académie impériale de musique: He had written a Caprice for violin which gave infinite pleasure at the Concert Spirituel. Mlle. Prévost [the leading dancer at the Paris Opera] wanted to tread a measure, which she based on Rebel’s brilliant solo. This novelty proved a great success, and the Caprice became the favourite dance step among amateurs. For half a century no female dancer found favour with the general public without first having proved herself in this Caprice. This was the first simphonie de danse, a choreographed “symphony” independent of the opera or ballet. Rebel went on to compose several more such symphonies, the last and most famous of which was Les Elémens. The dance suite, without the opening movement Le Cahos, was premiered in 1737 with great success. A year later Rebel added a symphonic introduction to the suite: the novel effects used by Rebel in Le Cahos were applauded by critics and audiences alike, and like Rameau’s Overture to Zaïs, continue to surprise our somewhat jaded ears over 250 years later. The effects are described by Rebel in his introduction: The introduction of the Symphony was natural; it was Chaos itself, that confusion which reigned among the Elements before the moment when, subject to invariable laws, they assumed the place prescribed for them within the natural order. In order to describe each Element in turn within this confusion I have availed myself of the most widely accepted conventions. The bass represents the Earth through tied notes quaveringly played; the flutes imitate the flow and babble of Water by means of ascending and descending cantabile lines; the Air is depicted by sustained notes followed by cadenzas played on the piccolos; finally the violins represent the activity of Fire with their lively, brilliant runs. These distinctive characteristics of the Elements may be recognized, separate or merged together, in whole or in part, in their various appearances in what I call Chaos, each of which indicates the efforts made by the Elements to free themselves from one another. At the seventh appearance of Chaos these efforts diminish as order finally asserts itself. The initial idea led me somewhat further. I have dared to undertake to link the idea of the confusion in harmony. I have risked beginning with all the notes sounding together, or rather all the notes of the scale played as a single sound. These notes then develop, rising in unison in the progression which is natural to them and, after a dissonance, end in a perfect chord. The opening chord of Le Cahos, described above, may well be the first notated orchestral tone cluster in music history. Le Cahos is followed by the original simphonie de danse, beginning with a depiction of each element in turn, followed by a sequence of dances and airs, and ending with a virtuoso caprice.