Composition de l’orgue Dom Bedos de Sainte-Croix François COUPERIN: Messe propre pour les convents de religieux & religieuses restauré par Pascal Quoirin en 1997 1 Plein Jeu - Premier couplet du Kyrie 1’25 I Positif II Grand-Orgue III Bombarde 2 Dialogue - 5ème & dernier couplet du Kyrie 2’ (do1 - ré5) (do1 - ré5) (do1 - ré5, sans do#1) 3 Chromhorne sur la Taille - 5ème couplet du Gloria 2’36 Montre 8 ** Bourdon 32 * Bombarde 16 4 Récit de tierce - 8ème couplet du Gloria 1’38 Bourdon 8 ** Montre 16 * Gros cromorne 8 5 Offertoire sur les grands jeux 5’33 Prestant 4 ** Bourdon 16 * 6 Elévation - Tierce en Taille 3’16 Doublette 2 ** Montre 8 * IV Récit 7 Agnus Dei 1’03 Plein-jeu 9 rgs * Flûte 8 ** (sol2 - ré5) Flûte 4 ** Bourdon 8 ** Cornet 5rgs Abraham VAN DEN KERCKHOVEN Nasard 2 2/3 ** Prestant 4 ** Trompette 8 8 Fantasia 5’33 Tierce 1 3/5 ** Doublette 2 ** Larigot 1 1/3 ** Fourniture 2 rgs * V Echo Johann KASPAR FERDINAND FISCHER Cornet 5rgs Cymbale 13 rgs * (do2 - ré5) 9 Chaconne 4’34 Trompette 8 ** Gros Nasard 5 1/3 ** Cornet 5rgs Georges MUFFAT Clairon 4 ** Grosse Tierce 3 1/5 ** 10 Toccata Prima 5’19 Cromorne 8 ** Nasard 2 2/3 ** Pédalier Voix humaine 8 * Tierce 1 3/5 ** (fa0 - mi2) Louis MARCHAND Grand Cornet 5rgs Flûte 16 (du la0) 11 Plein-jeu 1’03 * sans do#1 1ère Trompette 8 ** 1ère flûte 8 12 Basse de cromhorne 1’10 ** La0 à la place de do#1 2ème Trompette 8 ** 2ème flûte 8 13 Duo 0’55 Clairon 4 ** Flûte 4 14 Récit & Dialogue 3’36 Bombarde 16 (du la0) L’accouplement entre le Positif & le Grand-orgue d’une part 1ère trompette 8 John BLOW et entre la Bombarde & le Grand-orgue d’autre part se fait 2ème trompette 8 par tiroir. Ainsi, en jouant le seul Grand-orgue, on peut 15 Voluntary IV 3’15 Clairon 4 faire entendre ensemble ces trois claviers. 16 Voluntary VIII 4’51 17 Voluntary XVIII 2’55 Diapason : La 392 Hz Georges MUFFAT Accord mésotonique 18 Toccato Quinta 6’07 Philippe de Champaigne or Champagne (Brussels 1602 - Paris 1674) Portrait of a man, 1650 Oil on canvas, 91 x 72 cm Paris, Musée du Louvre

Philippe de Champaigne felt little sympathy for the universe of Rubens. In 1621 he left Flanders, intending to travel to Italy, and stopped in Paris where, after returning briefly to Brussels in 1628, he was to spend the rest of his life. As painter to Marie de Médicis at the Luxembourg Palace, he kept company with Poussin, and enjoyed the favour of Louis XIII and Richelieu: their sensibility coincided with the aesthetic position of the Flemish artist, perfectly adjusted to the culture of his adopted country. He received commission after commission: official effigies, the Gallery of Illustrious Men at the Palais Cardinal, the Sorbonne chapel... Anne of Austria and Mazarin also called on his services. Little inclined to celebrate the triumphant and worldly concep- tion of religion prevailing under the Regency, but much more in tune with the austere religious sentiment that inspired the Jansenists, he became associated with Port-Royal in the 1640s. This portrait, once said to be of Arnauld d’Andilly, seems to come from this milieu. Behind the frame of a window that opens onto a blind wall, squeezed into his narrow abode, the man gazes towards his right. Over the tunic covering his lace-edged shirt, a voluminous dark blue coat, velvety in texture, deploys its ample and supple folds, and lends the subject nobility and dignity. Yet the painter does not flatter him: a face with a broad forehead scrutinised without indulgence, protruding eyes, a squint [?], an unprepossessing nose, a scar, balding temples, drooping hair. Placed on the edge of the frame, his right hand, keystone in the illusionist trompe-l’oeil, points downwards, in counterpoint to the head turned the other way: nature seeks a balance. And nature Dom François Bedos de Celles is indeed the absolute point of reference of Flemish visual culture, preoccupied as it is with rendering outward appearance. Mingled with a typically French reserve and discretion, realism and colour (reduced, François de Bedos de Celles was born in Caux, into a noble family of the diocese but sumptuous) and the spiritual quality of the light breathe life, beauty, and grace of Béziers, on 24 January 1709, and studied at the Oratorian college in Pézenas. He into this objective, and introspective, human presence. The native northern characte- entered the Benedictine order at the monastery of La Daurade at Toulouse on 7 May ristics fit in easily with the painter’s classical temperament, perfectly in tune with the 1726. We know nothing of his years of apprenticeship as an organ-builder except for predominantly ascetic tendency of Parisian art of the 1650s, the melting pot from the fact that he became friendly with Jean-François l’Epine l’aîné, and was to keep in which the classicism of Louis XIV’s reign was to emerge. An artistic synthesis ap- close contact throughout his life with the latter’s two sons Jean-François and Adrien, propriate to the discreet world of the recluses whose logicians cultivated the clear both of whom also entered the profession. He was already known for the quality ordering of thought. Is the man portrayed here one of the ’gentlemen’ of that retreat of his work when he was called to the abbey of Sainte-Croix at Bordeaux in the amid the fields that was Port-Royal? The overall atmosphere of the painting, which early 1740s by its prior Dom Joseph Goudar. Elected secretary of the abbey chapter is not without recalling the severe probity of certain portraits associated with Dutch in 1745, he began around that time to build a 16’ organ with five manuals which Calvinism, leads one to think so. was finished in 1748. As a recognised builder, he was often invited to build, repair, or give expert opinion on other organs, or to advise their builders: thus he visited Denis Grenier Clermont-Ferrand, Sarlat, Le Mans, Montpellier, Dijon, Pézenas, Toulouse, Tours, Department of History Narbonne and Paris, amongst other towns. Laval University, Quebec As a monk of notable erudition, Dom Bedos was elected to membership of the Académie Royale des Sciences of Paris in 1758 and admitted to the Académie Royale Translation: Charles Johnston of Bordeaux the next year. In 1760 he wrote and published a treatise entitled La Gno- monique pratique ou l’Art de tracer les cadrans solaires avec la plus grande précision (‘Practical gnomonics or the art of plotting sundials with the greatest precision’). In 1763 he retired to the abbey of Saint-Denis, where in 1766, in response to a com- mission from the Académie Royale des Sciences of Paris, he began to write a treatise on the theoretical and practical aspects of organ-building which was to take up the last years of his life. Published from 1766 to 1778, L’Art du Facteur d’Orgues is a mo- numental survey of the French classical organ of the eighteenth century, which is still The Dom Bedos organ of the former abbey church of Sainte-Croix, accepted as the authoritative work by today’s organ-builders. Dom François died on Bordeaux Thursday 25 November 1779, and was buried in the abbey cloisters the next day. In his memoirs, Ferdinand-Albert Gauthier, organist of Saint-Denis from 1763 to 1793, speaks of him in these terms: 1. The Great organ of an abbey at the peak of its prosperity ‘He was a man of exceptional merit, who did honour to the abbey of Saint-Denis by The construction of the instrument by Dom Bedos is authenticated by an inscription his great talents. […] This artist excelled in several spheres. A man so precious and re- specifying the date of 1748 and the name of the prior at the time, Dom Joseph Gou- fined is but rarely encountered, and it is difficult to imagine the full extent of his quali- dar. Until the recent restoration of the instrument, its stop-list was not known with ties. He was a learned mathematician, and made all his own tools and instruments. He absolute certainty, owing to the fact that the inventories by Bordonneau (1756) and used to say that he would not have found workmen of sufficient skill to make them Lavergne (1795) contradict each other on several important points. It was known that for him. In sum, he was one of those men who are useful to Society, and to this he the instrument was a large 16’ one with five manuals and a 32’ Bourdon on theGrand added the qualities of a good monk: gentle, affable, obliging and very hard-working, orgue, and that it comprised 44 or 45 stops. Lavergne, whose task was to value the pro- esteemed by the erudite and enjoying a reputation well earned through the superiority perty confiscated from the monastic congregations and the clergy, also specifies that of his talents, on which he never prided himself.’ the case was ‘painted green, with all its mouldings and decorations gilded’. When he finished this instrument, Dom Bedos was aged thirty-nine, and he was perhaps put- ting his name to the finest achievement of his whole career as an organ-builder, and certainly, in any case, the most important organ by him that has come down to us: it stands comparison with the greatest instruments of the kingdom, thanks in particular to the richness of its grand plein-jeu, unique in France today. Indeed, the instrument that attracts visitors and music-lovers to Sainte-Croix appears somewhat out of pro- portion to the relatively modest dimensions of the abbey church.

2. The vicissitudes of the nineteenth century: exile and dilapidation The Dom Bedos organ came through the torments of the revolutionary period wi- thout suffering too much damage: despite the lack of maintenance, Lavergne esti- mated its value at 100,000 livres in 1795! At the cathedral of Saint-André, on the other hand, the monumental organ by Valéran de Héman, built in the seventeenth century, 3. The restoration (1985-1996) had been totally destroyed. In the early years of the nineteenth century the Archbi- In the 1960s the decrepit state of the organ led to extensive restoration being consi- shop of Bordeaux, Mgr Daviau, in order to avoid costly reconstruction, decided to dered. But what was to be done with the material from the time of Dom Bedos that requisition from his diocese an instrument capable of sustaining the pomp of the could still be reused? The first project was to build a large instrument in the neo-clas- archiepiscopal church. His initial choice settled on the Micot organ of Saint-Pierre sical style. This provoked a reaction from supporters of a restoration of the master- de La Réole, which boasted some thirty stops. It was dismantled and reassembled piece on historical principles and its return to Sainte-Croix. The ensuing controversy in an enlarged case at Saint-André in 1804. Unfortunately the result did not meet saw the interested parties divided into two camps. The organist Francis Chapelet, who expectations, since the sound of the organ was lost in the immense nave of the cathe- advocated a restoration faithful to the spirit of Dom Bedos, secured public support in dral. After this disappointment, the prelate then started to demand the Dom Bedos 1967 from such personalities as Vladimir Jankélévitch, Emile Leipp, Charles Münch, organ from Sainte-Croix from 1811 on. Despite opposition from the parishioners, Gustav Leonhardt, not to mention Claude Lévi-Strauss. After three years of argu- the soundboards, action and pipework were dismantled and exchanged with those ment, the Commission des orgues et Monuments historiques announced its decision of the Micot organ by the builders Isnard et Labruyère in 1817, whilst Dom Bedos’ in 1970: a new organ was to be built at Saint-André, and the Dom Bedos material that case remained at Sainte-Croix. This exile ushered in a long period of dilapidation of had been conserved there was to be refurbished and brought back to its original organ the Benedictine monk’s masterpiece. A restoration conducted by the Bordeaux or- loft. In 1973 the Saint-André organ was dismantled and the Dom Bedos material was gan-builder Henry in 1837 revealed the deterioration of the instrument, and also the reunited at Sainte-Croix. The new organ at Saint-André, consisting of seventy-eight poor quality of the work carried out in 1817. The newly modified organ, inaugurated stops on four manuals, was finished by the firm of Gonzalez-Danion and inaugurated in 1840 maintained by Henry until 1853, was not long in falling once more into decre- in 1982. pitude. In 1877 it was again restored by another Bordeaux builder, Georges Wenner, whose main contribution was to build a Romantic Récit of fourteen stops to replace In 1985 agreement was reached with the Carpentras firm of organ-builders headed Dom Bedos’ Récit and Écho. At this time both the case and the workings of the organ by Pascal Quoirin to restore the Dom Bedos instrument in its initial case. There re- took on the form in which they would remain until they were dismantled in 1973. The mained of the original instrument four soundboards from the Grand orgue, three from organ now had three manuals and 56 stops, which made use of 2,200 original pipes by the Positif and two from the pedal, as well as 2,200 pipes, which constituted the essen- Dom Bedos. According to Canon Lacaze, organist from 1947 to 1964, the instrument tial elements of the material. It was necessary to reconstruct the missing pipes, restore possessed at this period ‘one of the clearest and most sonorous voices in France’. them to the original pitch (A=392 at 18°), rebuild the missing soundboards for the Récit and the Écho, reconstruct the action and the console with its five manuals, rebuild the seven wedge bellows, and restore the case by getting rid of the dark coating that had been applied to it in the nineteenth century in order to uncover the splendour of the initial colours, celadon and gold. Over the eleven years necessary for the work, a The construction of the Dom Bedos organ process of deduction, observation of the remaining traces of the original condition of the abbey church of Sainte-Croix, Bordeaux of the case and soundboards, and utilisation of the information available in L’Art du during the Maurist reform Facteur d’Orgues, resulted in the rediscovery of the precise stop-list and original pitch, the compass of the manuals and pedal-board, and the sumptuous decoration of the 48 painted labels naming each stop, which had been concealed by nailed planks at In 1627, the great François de Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux and one of the lea- the time of Wenner’s restoration. The instrument is tuned in adjusted mean-tone ding figures of the Catholic Reformation in France, imposed on Sainte-Croix abbey temperament. the reform of the congregation of St Maur. This was the prelude to an upturn in The end result, inaugurated in 1997, has received unanimous praise from organists the abbey’s fortunes that was to last 162 years, coinciding with the Baroque period in from all over the world. The thirty-two-foot Grand plein jeu, whose opulence and ma- music and art. jesty are unique in France, is combined with a grand jeu of exceptional vigour. There The church of Sainte-Croix, whose organ gallery houses the masterpiece of Dom can be no doubt that this restoration marks the culmination of the movement of François Bedos de Celles, was at that time the chapel of the important monastery of rediscovery and restoration of French classical instruments that began in the early the same name, which the Benedictines had restored shortly before the year 1000. It twentieth century. In addition to the inherent quality of the restoration work, the very had been founded in Merovingian times, and contained the tomb of a venerated holy name of the builder responsible for the original organ guarantees it a place as one of man named ‘Mommolenus’, but was later devastated by the Vikings. The abbey achie- the most fascinating instruments in the whole of Baroque Europe. ved a new lease of life around 980, with its temporal power assured by particularly rich endowments. The monks showed considerable skill in furthering the prosperity Jean Barraud of their vast domain, part of which was devoted to vineyards. The eleventh and twelf- Translation: Charles Johnston th centuries saw the construction of the spacious abbey church in the Romanesque style, with its nave of five bays – its northern aisle was given over to parish functions. The English protection which led to the expansion of the Gascon vineyards further contributed to the abbey’s riches. But the power of the abbots, who held their office in commendam from 1439, was not conducive to the maintenance of a strict religious life: discipline became lax, the buildings were allowed to deteriorate. However, the Further reading: Le Testament de Dom Bedos, Abbatiale Sainte-Croix de Bordeaux, 1748-2001, a collec- Maurist reform restored the abbey to its former plenitude in the Baroque era. tion of essays edited by Jean Barraud, William Blake & Co, Bordeau 2001. The church was newly furnished and decorated according to the recommendations of Place Royale and Victor Louis’ Grand Théâtre. the Council of Trent. Retables were erected, a certain Bourgneuff painted an Exal- Back on its feet thanks to the Maurist rule and its claustral priors, Sainte-Croix abbey tation of the Cross in 1636, and Guillaume Cureau a St Maur curing one lame with the palsy benefited from this prosperity. and a St Mommolenus curing one possessed in 1641 and 1647 respectively. In March 1643, From 1730, the chapter began entertaining the idea of replacing Haon’s organ with the organ which the Congregation of the Exempt had already had repaired around an instrument better suited to the generous proportions of the abbey church. Dom 1584 was once again overhauled, and then in 1661, to mark the passage of the Court Bedos, ‘a highly skilled person and entirely competent to direct such matters as were on its way back from the royal wedding at Saint-Jean-de-Luz, the builder Jean Haon appropriate for the organ’, was received into the community of Sainte-Croix around produced a larger instrument which used the existing case and bellows. 1740 and took up residence in the monastery. When he was appointed secretary to Once royal authority was fully re-established under Louis XIV after the Fronde, Dom the chapter, on 30 September 1745, he had already been working on the plans for a Robert Ploutier undertook a campaign of renovation and extension between 1664 new instrument for some time. But he had to wait until the funds needed to build it and 1672: the Romanesque cloister and the annexes were demolished and rebuilt, as could be assembled. were the abbot’s lodgings. To the south-west side of the church a superb three-storey Dom Bedos had an exceptionally wide knowledge of both the theory and the practice building in classical style, surmounted by a roof after the manner of Mansart, was of the organ, as well as infinite curiosity in this sphere – in 1751, for example, he erected; this imposing edifice, basically unaltered, was an old people’s home after travelled to the abbey of Weingarten in Swabia to examine the organ there, on the 1793, and has accommodated the Bordeaux college of art since 1890. The ground advice of his fellow-builder Riepp. The instrument he produced for Sainte-Croix was floor housed the kitchen, the refectory, the cellary and the classroom for students; his masterpiece. A commemorative plaque affixed to the case bears the date 1748, but the first floor held forty cells for the monks and bedrooms for the sick, whilst the the receipt for the organ’s final installation dates from 1756, and an inscription found second floor was given over to the library. A second large building was used for the inside the instrument during its recent restoration confirms that work on it was still monastery’s guests and for outhouses. Finally, the abbey was surrounded by artfully in progress in 1754. arranged gardens and by orchards. In 1735, the garden was adorned with an exquisite monumental fountain, conceived as a nymphaeum, with aquatic decorations. In fact, it was the exceptional wine harvest of 1748 at Château Carbonnieux, the Graves estate that the monks of Sainte-Croix had purchased in 1740, which removed The Age of Enlightenment was a second golden age for Bordeaux, recalling the ex- the financial obstacles to the building of the new organ. And since the revenue from pansion of the period of English domination. Looking out over the river, animated subsequent vintages had an equally positive effect on the abbey’s books, the comple- as never before by the comings and goings of merchant ships, freed of its obsolete tion of this monumental instrument proceeded in the most favourable conditions. ramparts, the city offered a harmonious façade of monuments in the classical style, and was adorned by a rich urban landscape, magnificently crowned by the Gabriels’ The Carbonnieux estate was a magnificent property of 122 hectares, situated south between the vertical thrust of the great silvery pipes of the organ and the refined of Bordeaux on the communes of Villenave d’Ornon, Cadaujac and Léognan, amid rhythm of the gilded rocaille decorations and volutes. The woodwork is painted a rolling countryside whose ample contours are further emphasised by the vine plan- sober celadon, from which stands out, in addition to the gold of the decorations, the tations. On 28 March 1740 the monks bought it for 119,000 livres from Charles de ultramarine blue of two cartouches, which display respectively, embossed in gold, the Ferron, a debt-ridden young man of good family. They did not hesitate, in order to Maurist motto Pax above the three nails of the Crucifixion, and the monogram of the ‘repair the degraded and dishonoured vines’, to make an immediate additional invest- abbey itself, S and Croix intertwined above a moon, the symbol of the city’s setting as ment of 80,000 livres, which had to be borrowed. In 1745, still owing 27,000 livres to a port on the bend of a river. Monsieur de Ferron, the community borrowed 15,000 livres more, ‘to honour those Dom Bedos also designed the stone gallery, whose graceful undulations mould the notes in circulation and to avoid bankruptcy’. It is understandable, then, that Dom Positif’s towers as they project into space. The undulating pattern of the stone is dou- Bedos had to be a little patient. But the operation soon showed a profit: in 1748 the bly underlined: first of all, the fine fluting which runs all along the edge of the- re wines of Carbonnieux brought in 20,100 livres – and the average income rose from lieving arch rises and swells, below the Positif, right up to the horizontal ledge of the 11,000 livres for the first five years of exploitation to 15,000 for the subsequent ten. gallery, as if the pipes were continued or reflected in a stone organ; in addition, the The monks provided Carbonnieux with extensive outhouses to store the barrels, and section of the gallery’s ledge between this fluting and thePositif is gilt-coated. The un- closed off the courtyard off with a solid wrought-iron gate, one of the finest in the dulating motif is taken up and multiplied by the painted bands on the top and bottom region: it was not only their reliquaries that needed to be protected from covetous- of the various towers. The undulation of the gilded lines deployed across the breadth ness. Of the 320 barrels yielded by an average harvest, a third was white wine (a pro- of the Grand orgue, at the foot of the pipes, further amplifies the gilded motif, and pro- portion of which was bottled), and the monks kept a third for their own consump- vides a well-balanced base for the thrust of the great silvery pipes towards the vault. tion. Their clientele included members of the local aristocracy, but the bulk of the production was bought by merchants from Les Chartrons, the wine-trading district Below the gallery, the quoins of the massive surbased arch present a sculpted décor of Bordeaux. The monks also made direct sales without middlemen to Paris, and even consisting of trophies of musical instruments garlanded with ribbons and branches. as far afield as Turkey, renaming their beverage ‘eau minérale de Sainte-Croix’ for the On the balconies that surmount them, the black wrought-iron railings, in High Louis occasion! The conjunction of Carbonnieux and of Dom Bedos’ masterpiece – wine XV style and featuring on the central medallions, in gilt, a crossed pair of crosiers and in the service of the organ – is a characteristic example of the refined tastes of the the abbey’s cross, frame the Positif: they are probably the work of the most remarkable Benedictines of Sainte-Croix. ironsmith of the Bordeaux area, Blaise Charlut of La Réole, and it is thought that they date from around the same time as the organ’s installation in the abbey in 1756 – Dom Bedos took enormous pains over the construction of the Sainte-Croix organ, highly decorated rocaille art gave way around 1754 to a style of greater sobriety which with the help of assistants including Jean Beyssac, also known as Labruguière. It was retained only the flexible contours of the preceding fashion. also Dom Bedos who designed the case, in typical grand siècle style, with its balance In a final round of major renovations of the church in 1753, evidently related to the building of the monumental organ (and to the prosperity of Carbonnieux), the rib vaults in the nave were rebuilt and large windows were opened in its walls. Subsequent nineteenth-century modifications have left little trace of the changes that were made to the interior decoration of the church at this time, with the obvious exception of the organ and its gallery. Although the redecoration of the choir carried out after 1750 has been removed, a few of its elements still remain: the fine wrought- iron communion rails in the apse chapels; the gilded wood statue of the Virgin of Seafarers, a Virgin in majesty, holding the Infant Jesus in her arms and trampling a serpent underfoot; two large angels bearing torches, brilliant ornaments associated with great ceremonies; a tall holder for the Paschal Candle; two tables in rocaille style, in gilded wood topped with pink marble; and a polychrome high altar in pink and green marble, the work of Italian sculptors. Nor should one omit mention of the impressive polychrome Christ in lime wood, nearly four metres high, shaven-headed and poignant in expression, which is thought to date from the fifteenth century. This splendid work, which combines emotional power with elegance, must certainly also have been part of the devotional material in the Baroque period.

Francis Lippa October 2001

Translation: Charles Johnston

Lubin Baugin Girolamo FRESCOBALDI Pithiviers, c.1610-1612 - Paris, 1663 1. Toccata Seconda (1615) 4’39 Still life with wafers or The Dessert of wafers, c.1630-1635 2. Canzona Quinta (1615) 2’24 Oil on wood panel, 41x 52 cm Paris, Musée du Louvre 3. Fantasia Quarta, sopra doi soggetti (1608) 6’09 4. Capriccio sopra la Bassa Fiamenga (1624) 5’32 5. Toccata Settima (1627) 3’00 6. Recercar Primo (1615) 4’54 Trained in the Fontainebleau aesthetic, this painter was attracted to the sweetness typi- 7. Canzona Terza (1627) 3’51 cal of the Parma school, whose influence on his religious output is patent. The model 8. Toccata Ottava (1615) 4’10 above all models when it came to Holy Families and Virgins with Child, Raphael, lurks behind his Madonnas, whose sophisticated manner, taking liberties with nature, plays clavecin italien de Martin Skowroneck on a light palette with accents both pastel and resonant, calling Guido Reni to mind. Louis COUPERIN: Suite en Ré majeur But his Italian tour was for later in his career, in the 1630s. In 1629, in order to es- 9. Prélude cape the ascendancy of the tyrannical Paris guild, this future academician (a status he 10. Allemande 3’30 acquired in 1651) first rose to the rank of master-painter at Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 11. Courante 1’08 where the abbey contained a veritable reservoir of European painting. Thus he came 12. Sarabande 1’46 into contact with Flemish culture. His still lives, a northern speciality, date from this 13. Gaillarde 1’54 early period. With their links to Caravaggism, the inevitable point of reference, they 14. Chaconne 1’58 reveal a positive artistic personality that was already defying categorisation. 15. Passacaille en sol mineur 5’03 On a table covered with a slate blue, moiré damask cloth, we can see, set out on three different planes: a pewter plate containing wafer biscuits, protruding over the edge Suite en mi mineur : of the table; a straw-yellow wicker wine flask surmounted by a stopper in the form 16. Prélude 1’20 of a duck’s head; a ridged glass, in cristallo ‘à la façon de Venise’, whose deep conical 17. Allemande 3’03 bowl is supported by a baluster with a mesh of intertwined serpents, and decorated 18. Courante 1’19 by embossed picots, tears of glass which emphasise its edges. Coming partly from a 19. Sarabande 1’49 window, an abstract, ambiguous light, throwing discordant shadows, is reflected on 20.Pavane en fa dièse mineur 4’34 the surface of the glass, and on that of the red liquid, which it irradiates, and which clavecin français d’Emile Jobin, copie de Vincent Tibaut thus takes on in places a bronzed tint. In the background, a stone wall built of heavy quadrangular blocks is interrupted by an opening against which the goblet stands out. A eucharistic reading of this painting would be delusory. Its intentions lie in the di- rection of a formal investigation for which the iconography becomes a mere pretext. This approach, clearly modern, aims to identify the interrelationships, structural and geometric, volumetric and spatial, and chromatic too, between objects set out like signs on a score. Economy of means, sobriety, terseness of discourse: understatement reigns, with ty- pically French asceticism. Modesty and reserve of the art of the Paris region, which suggests more than it states, banishes excess, and keeps to essentials. Through rigour and control. Yet all of this is nothing but illusion: the equivocal use of lighting; the rich, indeed exuberant Italian decoration of the glass; the complexity of this goblet’s relationship with the light; the precarious position of the plate; the contradictory shadows; even the cheeky expression of the duck with its glassy eyes – all these are sources of tension. Poetry of silence, transparency, limpidity, grace, skill in harmo- nisation. Yes, all this is present. But so are angularities, dissonances, dissimulation... ‘quirks’. Under the semblance of order and permanency, the fragility of this equili- brium becomes apparent. Art of the moment, the work appears as a metaphor for the culture of the Baroque, an age in unceasing movement, bubbling with creativity, refusing fixed paradigms. This protean half-century resists authoritarian, immutable sedimentation, the cloak of uniformity that academicism and its chilly logic will soon impose on all the arts. Denis Grenier Department of History Laval University, Quebec Translation: Charles Johnston What is the Grand Siècle?

With the touch of blithe arrogance that sometimes characterises them, the French From then on, he ruled as an absolute monarch, learning to use the arts, literature and people tend to reduce History to that of France. Seeing themselves as pioneers in the sciences to serve his political purpose. ‘A great sovereign, like a great artist, is mea- all things, they like to view the world from the single vantage point of their own sured by his ability to give shape to the vague aspirations that his contemporaries feel, 1 doorstep. Take what is emphatically known as the Grand Siècle, for example, which sense and imagine, but are unable to achieve.’ Louis gathered together the creative largely summarises the contradictions that the country regularly comes up against. forces that he found in his entourage, made sure that brilliant rivals such as Nicolas Fascination for the splendours of Versailles, and at the same time criticism of social Fouquet were out of the way, and by developing the Academies, was instrumental in inequalities. Admiration for Louis XIV’s implacable method in bringing the aristocra- taking to its zenith every form of expression that was capable of enhancing his own cy to heel, and abhorrence of the absolutist despot who strung wars together as if glory. In so doing, he channelled artistic creativity to his sole benefit, at the risk of they were no more than dances in a ballet de cour. But the French are fundamentally stifling it completely, as with opera, where only Lully was allowed to present works proud of what remains of their heritage. It attracts millions of visitors to France each on a theatre stage. year. Tourism is an excuse for everything... Versailles was extremely rich and active, but it must be remembered that Baroque had So the Grand Siècle refers to the reign of Louis XIV, seen as France’s period of politi- already been in existence for several decades in the rest of Europe. And it was in that cal and cultural pre-eminence. It was the century of the Sun King and of Versailles, world of imagination and artistic and intellectual effervescence that musicians such as its magnificent and cultivated court frequented by great men such as the landscape Girolamo Frescobaldi and Louis Couperin flourished. gardener Le Nôtre, the painter Le Brun, dramatists Racine and Molière, the composer It may not make much sense to speak of Europe at the beginning of the seventeenth Lully (renowned for his operas), and the finest poets, architects, military strategists, century, at least in the modern acceptance of the term. There had been no formu- philosophers and scientists. In lation of an awareness of belonging to the same community, no questioning of the short, it was a time of great minds, in which everything was grandiose. frontiers that separate its different nations. But there were numerous exchanges, and This definition is not entirely false. styles and techniques circulated constantly, in the fields of painting, music and the Nor is it completely true... theatre. Moreover, France and Italy shared a love for beautiful things. A watch bearing Crowned at Rheims cathedral on 7 June 1654, at the age of sixteen, Louis XIV did not an exquisite painted-enamel miniature, cabinets of finely carved ebony, leather-bound wield full power until 1661, after the death of the first minister of France, Cardinal books decorated with motifs in gold leaf, tapestries, costume… everything in the arts Mazarin. made this a ‘time of exuberance’2. But exuberance meant neither superficiality nor excess. On the contrary, ornamentation, whether in architecture, painting, furnishings, e partite, illustrations of the composer’s ‘new manner’, are explicitly attributed to the the decorative arts or music, steered clear of grandiloquence. harpsichord. The style is different again in the Capricci of 1624, in which he presents The same may be said of Frescobaldi’s music. various imaginative treatments (capriccio means ‘whim’, ‘fancy’) of a well-known the- me, such as the Flemish bass (bassa fiaminga), which he may have noted down during Born in 1583 in Ferrara, a prestigious city ruled by the House of Este until its in- his travels in 1607. corporation into the Papal States in 1598, Frescobaldi studied music with the court organist, Luzzaschi. At the crossroads of Italian, Flemish and French styles, Fres- In 1628, Frescobaldi was summoned to Florence to work for the Grand Duke of cobaldi immersed himself in the different techniques of counterpoint. And most Tuscany, Ferdinando II. There he returned to vocal music with the publication of importantly, he experienced the musical polemics of the time, including the debates two books of Arie musicali for 1-3 voices (1630). The ‘second Apollo of our time’, as on the best way of setting literary texts to music which preceded the first performance he was described, enjoyed great prestige, whence a salary that was higher than that of Monteverdi’s first opera,L’Orfeo , in Mantua in 1607. of any other musician. At the request of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, a nephew of Pope Urban VIII, Frescobaldi returned to Rome in 1634. The Barberini family were In Rome, where he arrived in the early years of the seventeenth century, Frescobaldi probably the most munificent patrons of the arts that Rome had yet known, influen- was taken up by the wealthy and influential Cardinal Bentivoglio, and when his patron cing artistic creation throughout the seventeenth century. In their service, Frescobaldi became a papal nuncio he accompanied him to Flanders. During that time his Primo no doubt met other major figures, including Bernini, who was admired throughout libro di madrigali a cinque voci was published in Antwerp by Pierre Phalèse. On his return Europe, the composers Kapsberger, Landi and Michi, and the great Jesuit theorist, to Rome in 1608, he brought out a book of Fantasie for harpsichord or organ, in which philosopher and musician Athanasius Kircher4. During that period, he revised several he adapted the tradition of vocal polyphony to the keyboard. From then on, it was earlier works, including the two books of Toccate, to which he made additions in 1637. instrumental music or to be more precise, music for the harpsichord or the organ - He also published the Fiori Musicali (1635), a collection of organ pieces for use in the that gained the composer’s favour. Mass, dedicated to his patron’s brother, Cardinal Antonio Barberini. During his life- Frescobaldi was probably what we would now call a virtuoso. At the age of twenty- time the composer was admired as a paragon: in his famous Response faite à un Curieux five, he took up the position of organist of St Peter’s, Rome, which he retained until sur le sentiment de la musique d’Italie (1639), the violist André Maugars describes an office his death in 1643. All over Europe his reputation steadily increased. His works were for Lent that he attended in Rome. ‘The great Frescobaldi conjured up all kinds of published, which was a privilege, then republished several times, which was an even inventions on the harpsichord. It is not without reason that the famous organist of more obvious sign of an influence that was to last for several decades3. St Peter’s has acquired such a reputation in Europe. For although his printed works From 1615 onwards, he published several sets of works in which he confirmed and give a good idea of his competence, nevertheless in order to judge his very great skill developed the originality of his style. In the Recercari et Canzoni, which still bear signs one must hear him playing impromptu, with toccatas full of admirable ingenuity and of the ‘old style’, the instrumental destination is as yet unspecified, while the Toccate inventiveness. Which is why he deserves to be recommended for his originality to all our organists, to make them want to come and hear him in Rome.’ his story. Otherwise, we know that Couperin was appointed organist of the church Unlike Frescobaldi’s works, those of Louis Couperin were not published during his of St Gervais in Paris in 1653 and that the king created a post of treble viol player for lifetime, nor indeed before the twentieth century. They have come down to us in the him. He died in Paris in 1661, at the age of thirty-five. form of manuscript copies. The main source, the Bauyn manuscript (Bibliothèque Frescobaldi’s successive revisions of his works lead us to believe that the ordering Nationale de France, Paris), is a veritable goldmine of seventeenth-century harpsi- of the pieces and their content were exactly as the composer wished them to be. chord music. Apart from the pieces by Louis Couperin, it also includes those written The same cannot be said of the various manuscript sources of the works of Louis by Jacques Champion de Chambonnières, as well as a varied collection of works by Couperin. French, English, Italian and German composers, including Frescobaldi and especially Froberger. It provides us with a ‘concentrate’ of the masterpieces that were written The Bauyn manuscript presents his harpsichord works in two parts. The first part for the harpsichord during the first half of the century. consists of fourteen preludes, arranged by key. It shows one of the musician’s most original features, for these preludes, like those of the lutenists and theorbists of the Little is known about the life of Louis Couperin, nor do we know exactly when time, present only the pitch of the notes on the stave with no indication of duration he composed his works. Born at Chaumes-en-Brie around 1626, he was one of the or measure. It is up to the player to create the rhythm of the piece, to improvise while eight children of Charles Couperin, who was an organist, tailor and wine-grower. The respecting the musical framework provided by the composer. Couperin children of his generation must have gained their early musical training within the family, in much the same way as the Bachs in Thuringen. Louis played the The second part contains various dance movements, classified according to key. It viol, the organ and the harpsichord (such versatility was common at that time). In his is therefore possible, although Couperin himself makes no mention of the fact, to Parnasse françois of 1732, Evrard Titon du Tillet reports a story, probably dating from group pieces together to form coherent Suites, in the manner of lute suites or of the around 1650: ‘The three brothers [Louis, François and Charles Couperin], with some entrées (groups of dances, unified by subject) in the ballets de cour. Couperin used the friends, also musicians, decided on Chambonnières’ name day to go to his château fashionable dance movements of the time (allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue, [also in Brie] to serenade him.’ The master of the house, then at the height of his chaconne or passacaille), sometimes adding choreographic forms inherited from the fame, was agreeably surprised by the fine pieces that were presented, and on learning previous generation (volte, gaillarde, branle de basque or canarie). Thus he remained that the compositions were by Louis, immediately presented his compliments. Cham- faithful to the firmly established French tradition, whereby ‘in the order of things bonnières ‘displayed great kindness to him and told him that a man like himself was there are two degrees (Philosophy and Dance) that are capable of raising man to not made to stay in the provinces, and that he absolutely must come with him to Paris. his perfection’5. He also left an extraordinary Pavane which, being the only piece in This Couperin accepted with pleasure. Chambonnières presented him in Paris and at F sharp minor, cannot be included in a suite and therefore stands alone. Mersenne court, where he was appreciated.’ Despite the fact that Titon du Tillet was born more described this dance as being of such gravity that it could ‘even be danced with cloak than twenty-five years after the events he relates, it is likely that there is some truth in and sword’6. Setting aside the chronological comparison, what do Girolamo Frescobaldi and Louis the Bauyn manuscript, a corpus displaying great homogeneity of style, of many pieces Couperin have in common? To begin with, although their means of expression were by Froberger, alongside those of Chambonnières and Louis Couperin. different, they were both masters of counterpoint. Although Frescobaldi cultivated More deeply, Frescobaldi and Couperin also shared the same perception of the mu- the art of imitation, stemming from the polyphonic compositions of the sixteenth sical discourse in the early years of the seventeenth century. Their treatment of ins- century and generating fugal forms, he shared with the younger musician the creation trumental music was similar to that of vocal music of the time, aiming to achieve of a style that was perfectly adapted to the keyboard, in the most digital sense of the the best possible expression of the affections of the soul, the object of music being term. The two artists thus join the Netherlands composer Sweelinck and the English- ‘to please, and to arouse in us various passions’7. In those days when the theories of man Bull, two great representatives of the same school. celestial mechanism were being popularised, with their implications of a new positio- The influence of writing for plucked string instruments is another common feature. ning of man in an infinite universe, thinkers and creators applied themselves to solve In Frescobaldi’s case, it resulted partly from his probable association with Alessandro the mystery of the relationship between the impulses of the soul and their physical Piccinini, a lutenist who worked for the Este court at Ferrara, and his more certain manifestations. In a talk given in 1668, the painter Charles Le Brun presented his view relations with Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, ‘il Tedesco della Tiorba’, who was also of that mechanical relationship: ‘Passion is an impulse of the soul, which depends on in the service of Francesco Barberini. The same arpeggiated style is found in Louis the sensitivity, and which arises either in compliance with what the soul believes to Couperin’s Préludes, and in many of his dance movements. And our harpsichordist was be good for it or as a means of escaping from what the soul believes to be bad for it; a friend of the amateur lutenist Charles Fleury, also known as Blancrocher, for whom and usually everything that causes passion in the soul causes the body to react in some he composed a Tombeau following his accidental death in1652. way.’ Thus, he summarised ideas that had been developed earlier by Mersenne in his Harmonie Universelle of 1636. Finally, the German harpsichordist Johann Jakob Froberger also provides an invisible link between the two composers. From 1637 to 1641 he studied with Frescobaldi in Baroque art of the first half of the seventeenth century was full of movement and Rome, where he was also regularly in touch with Athanasius Kircher during the ela- effervescence. Even in the apparent simplicity of an austere Still life with wafers, we per- boration of his Musurgia Universalis, one of the most influential of all music treatises, ceive a world in which everything is possible, everything is imaginable. Blaise Pascal comparable to Mersenne’s Harmonie Universelle. Froberger almost certainly met Louis who, more than any other, knew how to bring out the tragic contradictions of this Couperin during his stay in Paris in 1652, a fact supported by three indications: the world, noted in his Pensées: ‘Our nature lies in movement; absolute repose is death.’ In composition of a Tombeau fait à Paris sur la mort de Monsieur Blancheroche, accompa- the virtuosic passages of a toccata or the bewitching rhythm of a chaconne, the Baroque nied by a commentary in which Froberger states that he was an ‘excellent friend’ of musician is saying just that. Blancrocher; Louis Couperin’s composition of a Prélude à l’imitation de Mr Froberger (tit- Jean-Paul Combet le found in the Parville manuscript in the library at Berkeley); finally, the presence in Translation: Mary Pardoe 1. Philippe Beaussant, Louis XIV artiste, Payot, 1999. 2. Un temps d’exubérance, les arts décoratifs sous Louis III et Anne d’Autriche, exhibition at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais in Paris, 9 April - 8 July 2002. 3. A copy of the 1635 edition of the Fiori Musicali was one of the works found in Johann Sebastian Bach’s music library on his death in 1750. 4. Kircher was attracted by the idea of universal knowledge. His many writings in- clude one of the most fascinating sources of information about the tarantella and tarantism, which is the starting point of our recording La Tarantella (Alpha 501). 5. François de Lauze, Apologie de la Danse, 1623. 6. Marin Mersenne, Harmonie Universelle, 1636. 7. René Descartes, Abrégé de musique, published in 1650 (but probably written c1630). Hans LEO HASSLER (1564-1612) Harpsichord Anthony Sidey after a German instrument from the eighteenth century 1. Canzon 2’29 (circa 1735) of the school of Gottfried Silbermann. Made in Paris in 1995 by Antho- Nicholas STROGERS ny Sidey & Frédéric Bal. The remarkable state of preservation of the historic instru- 2. Fantasia 3’01 ment has enabled a close copy, to recreate an authentic sonority. This rare German harpsichord was probably made in Thuringia, the interior structure of the case being William BYRD (c.1542-1623) typical of this region. The soundboard in very fine spruce is barred with nine unusual- 3. Corranto 1’13 ly small sound bars, the whole being extremely sensitive to the vibration of the strings. 4 Queens Alman 4’03 The two keyboards of five octaves (F to f) are particularly beautiful with their cove- 5. Ground 3’41 ring of snakewood on the naturals and ivory for the sharps; they comprise an 8 ft. John BULL (1563-1628) and a 4 ft. on the lower keyboard and an 8 ft. dogleg1 and a lute stop on the upper 6. Bull’s Goodnight 3’31 keyboard. The instrument is tuned to A 415. Orlando GIBBONS Anthony Sidey 7. Fantasia II 2’58 Johann PACHELBEL By the sixteenth century a composite keyboard instrument with strings and pipes, had 8. Fantasia 2’42 come into existence. The term claviorganum covered a wide variety of instruments: a clavichord with pipes underneath, a small 4’ spinet with organ incorporated, an 8’ Johann CHRISTOPH BACH (1642-1703) spinet with organ, a one- or two-manual harpsichord with a harpsichord-shaped or 9. Praeludium 5’19 chest-like chamber organ underneath. And in 1657 Caspar Schott described even a Johann PACHELBEL Geigenwerk with a built-in organ. In Italy, Austria, Germany, England and France, 10. Toccata in G 1’30 claviorgana were made until the late eighteenth century. Christian RITTER (1650-1725) The instrument used here, made in 2001,comes from the workshops of Matthias 11. Allemanda in discessum Caroli XI regis Sueciae 5’08 Griewisch at Bammental (harpsichord) and Friedrich Lieb at Bietigheim-Bissingen (organ). It is composed of an Italian one-manual harpsichord, after Aelpidio Gregori, Johann SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) and a chest-like chamber organ with 8’ Gedackt (Bourdon) and 4’ Flute stops. By shif- 12. Fantasia BWV 1121 2’47 ting the keyboard the harpsichord and the organ may be played separately or together. 13. Aria variata BWV 989 15’17 14. Partite sopra “O Gott, du frommer Gott” BWV 767 15’31 Matthias Griewisch Pieter Jansz. Saenredam The imposing presence of this instrument undoubtedly represents a passionate and Assendelft, 1597 - Haarlem, 1665 nostalgic stand on behalf of music. Saenredam seems to have been particularly fond Interior of St Bavo’s Church in Haarlem, 1648 of this very beautiful old organ, which had been restored short ly before the picture Oil on panel, 200x140 cm Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland was painted: it appears in several of his works. Furthermore, biblical verses, clearly visible in a decorative band running round the instrument, are used in support of The images of the previous faith have been whitewashed over, but the interior of music’s role as a vehicle for the singing of God’s praises. Haarlem’s Gothic cathedral is nevertheless magnificent in its present bareness. The The raised ceiling (partly made of wood) with its delicately intersecting ribs is deco- Calvinist faith, based on Scripture rather than on the exteriorisation of religious fee- rated here and there with fine rinceaux – scrolls of formalised leaves and stems: the ling, has rejected the former decoration, which was not in accordance with Protestant only departure from the prevailing restraint, austerity and soberness of the interior. sensibility. Disapproving of the Roman Catholic Church’s role as mediator and its The painter uses the larger-than-life columns to intensify the impression of verticality theatrical pomp, Calvinism advocates a simple, direct relationship with the Creator, and suggest celestial harmony. Rather than drawing the eye towards a single vanishing experienced in an atmosphere of austerity. Nevertheless, a number of heraldic ele- point, following the rules of perspective set forth by Alberti (Della pittura, 1436), ments, diamond-shaped coats of arms, are visible here and there on the columns as the painter creates two focal points, thus enlarging the field of vision and giving the reminders of the fight against the Spaniard or the merits of some group, guild, family viewer more room for contemplation. Saenredam is quite rightly considered to be a or individual that played some part in the setting-up of the new political order based master of this art based on geometry, but that does not prevent him from bending the on civic liability, whose values tally with the spirit and the precepts of the new faith. rules to suit his aesthetic intention. His artistic free-dom is seen in the ‘counter-pers- The pulpit and other furniture relating to the rite, the ornate chandeliers punctuating pective’ of the decorated vault at the intersection of the central bay. By multiplying the nave between the impressive blind arcades, the wind rose familiar to the navi- the views the painter enriches the discourse. Though descriptive, the ‘church portrait’, gators of the ‘golden age’ of the powerful Dutch navy: all these have survived, or of which Saenredam was a pioneer, was not meant to be purely objective and realistic: pertain to the metamorphosis. like any work of art, it serves to achieve the author’s expressive aims. The painter’s The organ on the right, its Flamboyant-style case seen in profile level with the tri- method is based on a very accurate and meticulously detailed observation of archi- forium, has escaped destruction. Music was the subject of heated debate among tecture in situ, but the final result is nevertheless creative, imaginative and evocative. theorists of the new religion. While some associated it with the rivoity and ostenta- Although the vertical dimension takes precedence, the horizontal plane is also as- tious excesses of the papacy, and with the pleasures of somewhat impious clerics, a serted by the introduction of discreet narrative elements, which nonetheless attract large section of the Reformed church nevertheless recognised its intrinsic spiritual the viewer’s attention. Standing on the slate floor, which has been raised to make it value. While the congregation, assembled to proclaim God’s Word, sang without ac- more visible, and which contrasts strongly with the delicate shades of brown, beige, companiment, the organ was played outside the church services at sacred concerts. grey and silvery white that predominate in the rest of the building, the tiny figures on the left indicate not only the scale of the painting but also the cathedral’s colossal proportions. Seen conversing beneath a picture on the wall – a work within the work, a tapestry, perhaps, or a fresco (although the latter was rare in northern Europe), possibly evoking one of the artist’s own paintings – these burghers tell us something about daily life in Holland, where the church served not only for worship but also as a public meeting place. The transverse (‘melodic’) axis crosses the main vertical (‘har- monic’) axis, rising to the vaults. Saenredam was an indefatigable explorer of churches and an unsurpassable poet of religious architecture. Supported by a clear architecto- nic structure, a feeling of order, silence, meditation, peace and serenity prevails in this picture. The subtle, atmospheric light coming in through the many windows creates tonal unity, merging and mellowing the parts. Less than fifty years before the birth of the greatest architect of Western music, Saen- redam expresses the transcendent clarity, the monumentality and the perfect form that were to be taken to hitherto unattained heights by J.S. Bach. With its aesthetic and mystical qualities, the vast nave symbolises the cosmic balance of the universe. Set fir- mly on the ground, concrete and tangible, the small figures represent the microcosm; they provide the touch of anecdote that brings out the abstract formal perfection of the work as a whole. The movement of contemplation induced by art music, sacred or secular, is not severed from its vernacular source; music of popular origin is none the less noble and worthy of permanence. The classical language, in both music and painting, transfigures reality while retaining its essence, and thus makes it lasting. Denis Grenier Department of History - Laval University, Quebec [email protected] Translation :Mary Pardoe The Italian legacy

Italy’s contribution to music, and to the arts in general, is unparalleled. Although it re- Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612), an organist and composer of great repute, was re- mained politically fragmented for centuries (unification was not achieved until the ni- garded during his lifetime as one of Germany’s finest musicians2. Born in Nurem- neteenth century), by the Quattrocento it had become the cultural centre of the Wes- berg, he was appointed director of town music there in 1601, before moving to Ulm tern world. Its creative approach based on the elaboration of objective techniques, in in 1604, then being appointed electoral chamber organist in Dresden in 1608. He painting, sculpture, poetry and music, appealed to the whole of Europe. Each of the received his early musical training in Nuremberg, with a former pupil of Roland de great centres – Florence, Rome, Bologna, Venice, Mantua, Milan, Modena – had its Lassus. In 1584 he was sent to Venice to study with Andrea Gabrieli, master of the own artistic identity; yet viewed from the outside that identity is nevertheless Italian. art of the ricercar and the canzon, a polyphonic instrumental form which gradually gained independence from its vocal model, as did the fantasia. The Fantasia by the Italian vocal music, both sacred and secular, is of course of legitimate importance, London organist Nicholas Strogers (fl 1560-75) still shows signs of its Italian origin. but we must not forget the great influence Italy had on instrumental music, and par- ticularly keyboard works, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In our recording One of Strogers’ great compatriots was William Byrd (1543-1623), who was a pro- of harpsichord pieces by Girolamo Frescobaldi and Louis Couperin (Alpha 026) we lific composer of excellent keyboard works. Like other English musicians ofhis approached the complex relationships between Italy and France. Here we turn to the time, Byrd was affected by the events of the English Reformation, when the English Italian influence on English and Germanic composers. Church separated from Rome under Henry VIII and papal authority in England was destroyed. The decision created terrible tensions between Anglicans and Catholics Why use the rather vague word ‘keyboard’? Why not refer more specifically to the who remained faithful to Rome. Byrd was a Catholic, ‘a stiff papist and a good sub- harpsichord, organ, virginal, spinet or claviorganum, all of them keyboard instru- ject’, but his stature as an artist earned him the favour of Elizabeth I (who, like her ments? Musicians of that time were pragmatic; rather than specifying the instrument, father Henry VIII, was an amateur musician). He was admitted to the Royal Chapel in and therefore narrowing the destination of their works, they preferred to leave the 1570, both as a Gentleman and as joint organist with Tallis, and no one troubled him player to make his own choice, depending on his tastes and, above all, on instrument when he published a volume of Catholic music in 1605. If his vocal music for Angli- he had at his disposal. Early seventeenth-century treatises (Mersenne, Kircher, Praeto- can or Catholic worship was his main source of pride, his music for virginals3 shows rius…) show what a wealth of keyboard instruments existed side by side at that time, outstanding creative skill. A few of these pieces were published in 1613 in Parthenia, without any hierarchy. The claviorganum, which seems almost exotic to us today, was the first book of keyboard music printed in England, containing twenty-one pieces by then quite commonplace. Furthermore, the earliest surviving harpsichord made in Byrd, and the younger composers Bull and Gibbons – Parthenia, or the Maydenhead of England is part of a claviorganum1. the first Musicke that ever was printed for the Virginalls. Other instrumental music by Byrd is preserved in manuscripts compiled for patrons Eustache du Caurroy used it for one of his Fantasies of 1610 and for a Christmas or by admirers, such as the exquisite My Ladye Nevells Book, dated 1591, and the vast hymn entitled Une jeune pucelle. In the Netherlands, the Van Soldt Manuscript presents Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. The latter was compiled by Francis Tregian, a Catholic recu- it as L’Allemande de la nonnette, and it was even published in Toronto in 1643 as a Huron sant, during his years of imprisonment in the London Fleet Prison from 1609 until hymn. The last piece by Byrd presented here is a Ground. It consists of a three-note his death in 1619. It contains not only numerous compositions by Byrd, but also many thematic motif in the bass which is constantly repeated with changing harmonies pieces by Bull, Farnaby, Strogers and Morley. while the upper parts proceed and vary. Dances formed the basis of much of the music of that time; the Corranto, Galliard John Bull (?1562/3-1628) was a Catholic like Byrd, but he did not suffer for his re- and Jig did not conceal their Italian origins, but they often came close in melody and ligion. In 1613, however, he became involved in a serious scandal and was forced rhythm to the typically British country dance. In this Byrd carried on the earliest suddenly and secretly to leave England for the South Netherlands6; from 1615 he English keyboard tradition, a fine example of which is Hugh Aston’s extraordinary was organist of Antwerp Cathedral. He never returned to England. From 1586 until Hornepype, composed around 1500. He also took an interest in the theme and varia- his exile he had been a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. And he became a Doctor of tions, which allowed the composer great creative scope. His Queenes Alman4 is in fact a Music at Oxford in 1592, which explains why several of his works are signed ‘Dr Bull’. set of three variations on one of the most popular songs of the time, Une jeune fillette. He was recognised as one of the finest English composers and contributed to the The subject of the song – the lament of the young girl forced to become a nun – first famous collection Parthenia of 1613. Bull’s Goodnight, with its evocative but inexplicable appeared in Sienna in the fifteenth century. title, takes the form of nine charmingly voluble variations on a short theme. Full of detail, the piece calls for great dexterity. Une jeune fillette A young maid De noble coeur Noble minded The last famous composer whose works appeared in Parthenia was Orlando Gibbons Plaisante et joliette, Amiable and pretty (1583-1625). He became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal (date uncertain), of which De grand’ valeur And of great merit he was senior organist by 1625, and he was organist of Westminster Abbey from Contre son gré, on l’a rendue nonnette Was made a nun against her will 1623. He was regarded as the most skilful keyboard player of his day. His composi- Cela point ne lui haicte And as it pleased her not tions, including the Fantasia presented here, are similar in style to those of Frescobaldi. Dont vit en grand douleur.5 She lived in great sorrow. Like Hassler, Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) was born in Nuremberg. He was a Luthe- The melody found its way to other parts of Europe. In Italy it became the popular ran, and after training at Altdorf, then Ravensberg, he went to Vienna in 1673 to song La Monica, and Frescobaldi and Scheidt, amongst others, composed variations become organist of St Stephen’s Cathedral, where he would certainly have been ex- on the tune. In Germany we find it in the works of Hassler, in the songIch gieng einmal posed to the works of Catholic composers of Italy as well as southern Germany. His spazieren (variations) and in the chorale Von Gott will ich nicht lassen (melody). In France, style was strongly influenced by that of Froberger, who studied with Frescobaldi. His music amalgamated both German and Italian styles and marked the beginning of the long hours reading by moonlight the scores that his brother had collected (and men- diffusion of an Italian manner that was to live on for several decades. On his return tion that this was probably one of the causes of his subsequent blindness). Johann to Germany he became court organist at Eisenach (1677), before moving to Erfurt Christoph copied out compositions, compiling anthologies. And that is how we come in 1678 as organist of the Protestant Predigerkirche. During his years at Eisenach to possess the Suite by Christian Ritter from which the Allemande on the death of Charles and Erfurt, he was naturally drawn to the Bach family, and he taught music to Johann XI of Sweden is taken, a piece is directly descended from the tombeaux of Froberger Christoph Bach, Johann Sebastian’s eldest brother. He was organist at Stuttgart, then or Louis Couperin. It is included in the Möller Manuscript7, along with pieces by at Gotha, before returning to Nuremberg in 1695. Zachow, Böhm, Lully and others. Ritter (c1645-after1717) was court organist at Halle, then at Stockholm, where he became Kapellmeister in 1699. Pachelbel’s Toccatas are generally Italianate, quite short, and based on a single thema- tic cell, while Johann Christoph Bach’s Praeludium belongs more to the world of the The Italian influence was clear throughout the life of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685- German stylus phantasticus. Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703), who was the cousin 1750), and the particular influence of Vivaldi’s concertos can be seen in his numerous of Johann Sebastian Bach’s father, was one of the most interesting musicians of the concerto arrangements. It is also obvious in some of his early individual pieces, such late seventeenth century. He worked at Eisenach as organist, then as a member of the as the very touching Fantasia BWV 1121, a piece combining a delicate melodic line court Kapelle (where he no doubt got to know Pachelbel). Sensitive to injustice, he with a subtle use of counterpoint. And even more so in the Aria variata alla maniera spent many years battling with the town council for better treatment as a musician, italiana BWV 989, probably composed before 1710 and included in the ‘Andreas Bach thus prefiguring a similar spirit in Johann Sebastian. To be sure of obtaining payment Buch’, into which it was copied by Johann Christoph Bach, in the early eighteenth when he played at weddings, he proposed that the marriage certificate should be de- century. Although Bach was probably not yet twenty-five years old at the time of livered only on receipt of his fees! Johann Christoph Bach’s vocal and instrumental composition, this set of variations shows a perfectly well organised creative mind. works are a delight. He left some magnificent motets, which may have served as a We do not know whether the Aria which serves as a theme for the variations, with model for Johann Sebastian, including Lieber Herr Gott for two choirs, as well as iso- its very unusual harmonic relationships, was written by Bach himself or whether he lated pieces such as the famous Lamentatio: Ach, dass ich Wassers gnug hätte, a musical took inspiration from a pre-existing melody. He uses it for ten variations, each one declamation in which the music follows the text step by step. His Praeludium in E flat making the most of some rhythmic or harmonic element from the theme. We cannot (transposed here to C) is in fact a prelude and fugue, like those later to be found in help being reminded of the Goldberg Variations, which Bach composed later in his Das wohltemperierte Klavier. An overture in the form of an Italian-style toccata is life. The theme itself and the last variation are for four voices; all the variations in followed by a chromatic four-part fugue, very clear in structure; the conclusion is between are for two voices. Sometimes the writing calls to mind Italian violin compo- vehement and almost improvisational. sitions, and we wonder if the piece was not originally written for violin and continuo, After his parents died, Johann Sebastian Bach was taken in by his brother Johann although the homogeneous treatment of the lines is perfectly suited to performance Christoph, organist at Ohrdruf. His biographers tell us that Johann Sebastian spent on a keyboard instrument. The Partitas (or variations) on the chorale O Gott, du frommer Gott BWV 767 are general- rence to the Resurrection in the last verse. Although these are merely conjectures, they ly included among Bach’s organ works. But they were probably intended for the harp- nevertheless fit in with the declamatory conception of music that was prevalent in the sichord. Many aspects are more typical of harpsichord writing: the linking of chords seventeenth century. We must not forget that much of Bach’s early (extra-musical) in the exposition of the chorale, the ornamentation, the arpeggiated formulas, the education stemmed directly from the ideas of the Renaissance, and that the general analogies with movements of the dance suite, the ‘concerted’ nature of the final varia- teaching he received was in keeping with that perspective, notably at Lüneburg, where tion. And the work also appears to belong to the ‘Hausmusik’ genre – music intended the rich library contained, amongst other works, a copy of Athanasius Kircher’s Mu- for performance in the home by family and friends for their own entertainment and surgia Universalis. This very influential work of music theory, regarded as a reference edification. Such music was common at the time of the Reformation and similar par- at that time in the Germanic world, emphasised the closeness between music and de- titas were written by Georg Böhm and Pachelbel. Unlike the chorale prelude, intended clamation, while giving the advantage to the former for its capacity to express human to introduce the hymn tune to be sung by the congregation, the chorale partita, a set emotions – a notion that was central to Baroque thought. of variations based on a chorale melody, does not require a vocal interpretation; it may Therein lies perhaps the most constant aspect of Italy’s legacy, for the question of be seen as a substitute for, or a paraphrase of the hymn. the relationship between the poetic text and the music was posed at a very early date This work dates from the years 1702-1707, when Bach was still a very young compo- in the peninsula, giving rise to opera on the way. Thus, ‘musical rhetoric during the ser. It is based on the words of a chorale by Johann Heerman (1630) and a melody Baroque era achieved its true aim from the moment that it began to take into account that was first published in 1648. Curiously, Bach did not use the same very beautiful the reception of a musical work, its effect on the audience, its emotional dimension’8. melody again when he decided to use O Gott, du frommer Gott as the final chorale of his In a way, the extraordinary development of keyboard music reflects the quest for cantata BWV 24. Heerman’s text – a spiritual reflection on the finality of existence, a that eloquence that has no need for words in order to be expressive and to move the theme that was common at that time – is in eight verses. And there are nine Partitas. It listener. is therefore difficult to imagine a close concordance between the words and the music, unless we assume that the firstPartita is meant to be a sort of introductory sinfonia. In Jean-PaulCombet that case the correlation that emerges is sometimes quite remarkable. The second Par- Translation: Mary Pardoe tita, for example, with its persistently repeated phrase on the left hand, corresponds to the image of God as an eternal source of goodness (verse 1). In the fourth Partita, the power of the Word (verse 3) is possibly represented in the vehemence and constant flow of the music on the right hand, supported by a very strong rhythm on the left. The chromatic lamento of the eighth Partita may also be compared with the words about death in verse 7, and the exhilarating character of the finalPartita with the refe- 1. It was built in 1579 by the Flemish instrument maker Lodewijk Theeuwes (Theewes), who emigrated to England, where he is listed in 1568 as ‘Lodewyke Tyves, virginall maker, a Dutchman’ living in the parish of St Martin-le-Grand, London. The claviorganum is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. 2. Hassler’s native city of Nuremberg characterised him in his epitaph as ‘Musicus inter Germanos sua aetate summus’ (the greatest German musician of his time). 3. In the sixteenth century and the early seventeenth, the word ‘virginal’ was used to refer to any plucked stringed keyboard instrument of the harpsichord family. 4. Possibly so-called because Elizabeth I played the piece, or liked to dance to it. 5. Published by Jehan Chardavoine, Le recueil des plus excellentes chansons en forme de voix de ville tirées de divers auteurs and poètes françois tant anciens que modernes, Paris, 1576. The complete version with the full text is included in Aux Marches du Palais, romances & complaintes de la France d’autrefois (Alpha 500). 6. James I was most displeased at the flight of his organist, and Sir William Trumbull, the English envoy in Brussels, at first explained that Bull had claimed that he had left England for religious reasons. But the real reason (letter from Trumbull, 30 May 1614) was ‘to escape the punishment, which notoriously he had deserved, and was designed to have been inflicted upon him by the hand of justice, for his incontinence, fornica- tion, adultery, and other grievous crimes’. 7. So named because it belonged to Johann Gottfried Möller, who studied with Kittel, himself a pupil of J. S. Bach. 8. Raphaëlle Legrand in Musica Rhetoricans, Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2002. WILLIAM BYRD (1542-1623)

1. Pavan (16a) 5’15 2. Galliard (16b) 1’31 3. Clarifica me, Pater (49) 2’58 4. Qui Passe (19) 3’51 5. Alman (89) 1’42 6. Pavan (14a) 5’21 7. Galliard (14b) 1’35 8. La Volta (91) 1’18 9. Pavan (23a) 5’29 10. Galliard (23b) 1’41 11. Ut re mi fa sol la (64) 7’32 12. Ground (43) 3’13 13. Rowland (7) 2’46 14. Fantasia (13) 7’54 William Larkin London, c. 1585-1619 Lady Diana Cecil, Countess of Oxford, c. 1614-1618 Oil on canvas, 201 x 117 cm Greenwich (London), Ranger’s House, Suffolk Collection

By the end of the reign of the monarch affectionately dubbed ‘Good Queen Bess’ by aer subjects, who died in 1603, costume had reached a level of elaboration and sophistication never before seen in England, or even in Europe. This development was the consequence of the attitude of majestic dignity in which this last Tudor queen draped herself, at once close and aloof, and of the devotion in which she was held by subjects grateful to her for having established peace and consolidated the institution of monarchy without the shedding of blood. They had sacralised Elizabeth, a ‘Virgin Queen’ reputed intact - or so at least she loudly proclaimed, making this condition a token of her exclusive fidelity to her people. Thus she had become almost a new Vir- gin Mary, in a sense setting herself up in place of the original demoted by the Protes- tant religion. The portraits of this daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn had be- come veritable icons, immobile, hieratic, cosmic and harmonious representations, at once of the mystic body of royalty and of the sovereign’s presence, real and symbolic. The royal portrait became a votive image that was to be the object of a quasi-religious cult, whose object, moreover, was also head of the new Anglican Church. In order to ensure the diffusion of these images to the four corners of the realm, and throughout the known world, models were created that could be reproduced as desired, with ico- nographic adaptations stressing such and such an aspect of the royal person. While not invested with the same legitimacy, her courtiers and their ladies were to imitate the queen, and thus be transformed into ‘saints’ fixed ‘for all eternity’. Following on from these developments, early Stuart culture under James VI and I (1603-25) represents a period of transition that perpetuates the demanding aesthetic canon of Elizabethan earned Larkin the nickname of ‘curtain master’. As usual, one arm is leaning on the era. Hence it is not surprising that the Jacobean portrait has an old-fashioned, archaic back of an armchair in a paler shade of the same coloi ‘, its legs reminiscent of old quality which in its turn cultivates idealisation rather than mimesis, whereas, during curule chairs, on which rests a cushion with golden tassels; the same gold braid fringes the reign of Charles I (1625-49), a new style was gradually to instil in the last vestiges the seat and emphasises the chair’s outlines in decorative bands. of the English Renaissance a resurgence of nature over a background of Venetian picturality, characteristic of the European Baroque. The face with its direct gaze (the arch of the eyebrows carefully drawn), the make-up and the vermillion of the lips are set off by the long pearls that sparkle at her earlobes. Diana Cecil (1596-1654) was a member of the Exeter branch of the illustrious line Silver-coloured as was the Elizabethan norm, Diana’s dress is decorated with a mul- of Cecil (Cissell), whose origins date back to the tenth century and to which Wil- titude of slashed folds and embroidered with gold. Her bosom, decked with a long liam Cecil, Elizabeth’s principal counsellor and lord treasurer, also belonged. Her first row of pearls knotted at the centre on an applique in the form of a white rose, fixed marriage was to the hereditary grand chamberlain Henry de Vere, eighteenth Earl of to the tight corsage, has disappeared under the bodice. The inverted pyramid placed Oxford (and son of William Byrd’s patron), whose family came originally from the on top of that formed by the farthingale (a Spanish import), whose summit coincides Cotentin region of Normandy; she brought him a dowry of £30,000. She later mar- with her waist, is faithful to the fashion of earlier days. The lace ruff, typical of the ried Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin. A notable beautv, Diana had a twin sister, Anne, early seventeenth century, is echoed by elegant cuffs of the same material. The right Countess of Stamford, who like her was the subject of a life-size, full-length portrait hand, whose wrist is adorned with a bracelet, holds a fan, another borrowing from by William Larkin. The son of an obscure London innkeeper, this painter is supposed Spain, while the left clutches an elegant embroidered handkerchief doubtless scented, to have been a pupil of Nicholas Hilliard (c. 1547-1619) whose career straddles the which the lady can drop in the hope that a gallant will take it as a pretext to court her, two reigns. Larkin represents the final phase of the ‘neo-medieval’ style so greatly despite the string that attaches it to her arm. To the right, the hanging with its gilded appreciated by his aristocratic clientele, and shows a taste for the brilliant colour of his decoration echoes the sumptuous Turkish carpet laid on the floor. Thehorror vacui that master’s miniatures. The twinship of these effigies in this pair known as the ‘Suffolk is the consequence of such accumulation of ornament indicates that the artist is more set’, the artist’s masterpiece, is total: except for the discreet identifying label placed at preoccupied with beauty, meticulous detail, technical precision and refinement, than the top of the two pictures and a different decoration of the bottom of the hanging with spatial values, which places his art in the late Mannerist tradition of his country. to the right, the blonde hair, fair complexion and shorter stature of Anne constitute the only difference compared with the brown hair and darker colouring of the Coun- A decade after the great queen’s death, the English portrait, following on directly from tess of Oxford. In accordance with the formula developed by the artist, the subject those of the sixteenth century, is as formal as can be, and in this respect entirely in stands before a wall hung with j double curtain of rich ‘Bronzino’ green, with its stiff conformity with the tradition established under Elizabeth. If the linear and symmetri- folds, ridges transformed into arabesques gleaming with vibrant light: the trick has cal, bilateral character of the composition creates an impression of structural rigour, reinforced by the many straight lines, the effect is nonetheless not static, for the satiny BYRD surface is animated by frequent disruptions. While the steadiness of the subject’s gaze Harpsichord pieces and the almost mechanical insertion of the barely turned head in the ruff heighten this impression, the waves created by the angularities of the curtain offer a ‘contra- puntal’ animation that attenuates the apparent rigidity. The complexity of these nu- The genius of William Byrd flowered at a very special period in the history of Western merous angles and interlacing lines brings to mind the music of the composer, who music, the last years of the sixteenth century and the first decades of the seventeenth. requires skill and virtuosity of his performers. Those composers active at the time lived through the historic moment that marked the end of the Renaissance and the first stirrings of the Baroque: a period of unique England is at the dawn of a new age: while still remaining faithful to its heritage, upheavals, as the voice became emancipated from its harmonic accompaniment, and unique for its insularity and early break with Rome, the country’s art retains intact its independent instrumental music began to develop. Byrd was to be at once a witness curiosity for can be i and heard on the continent, and resolves the tensions resulting and an architect of this profound transformation. from this contact with terra firma’ by retaining only what seems suitable, and reinter- preting that as it pleases. Though more inclined towards music and poetry, England A pioneer of these modern times, acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of is nevertheless beginning little by little to appropriate the art of painting that was keyboard music in Europe, he was to encourage the blossoming of the new genera- initially left in the hands of the Germans, the Flemish and the Dutch, while still taking tion, that of the early Baroque, active in the first half of the new century. And what a advantage of their presence. In 1638 - twenty years after William Larkin - Anton van generation! Dominated by the towering figure of Monteverdi, Shakespeare’s contem- Dyck, a pupil and competitor of Rubens, will paint the portrait of Diana Cecil now porary, it could also boast, in the Catholic territories of southern and western Europe, conserved in the Prado: by then, the Renaissance will have had its day, and a new the Frenchman Jehan Titelouze, the Ferrarese Girolamo Frescobaldi, organist at St century will have begun. Peter’s in Rome, and the Andalusian Francisco Correa de Arauxo; while in the Protes- tant lands to the north and east there were the Dutchman Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, © Denis Grenier organist in Amsterdam, the Englishmen John Bull and Orlando Gibbons, and the Department of History Saxon Samuel Scheidt. It was indeed a most fortunate era, for to these famous names Laval University, Quebec we might add those, important though less well-known, of the Neapolitan Giovanni [email protected] Maria Trabaci, the Walloon Pieter Cornet, and the Thuringian Michael Praetorius. With the passing of the centuries, Byrd has come to be seen as the foremost compo- Translation: Charles Johnston ser of his time, marking the apotheosis of English music. After the new peak attained by Purcell at the end of the seventeenth century, the inspiration of this school was gradually to dry up, leaving pre-eminence to Italy, then to France and Germany. Byrd’s from an early age as a boy chorister in the Chapel Royal, where he probably studied heyday orecisely coincided with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. She came to the the organ and composition under its director Thomas Tallis, with whom he was later throne on the death of Mary Tudor, in 1558; Byrd was then not yet twenty. And her to collaborate. He was certainly a highly gifted child and young man, for many of his long reign ended forty-five years later, in 1603. Byrd was thus the Elizabethan compo- compositions date from his teenage years. Gifted enough, in any case, to be appointed ser par excellence, occupying the same role as his younger contemporary Shakespeare Organist and Master of the Choristers at Lincoln Cathedral in 1563, when he must played in the domains of drama and literature. have been barely into his twenties with his professional qualities recognised by a salary considerably higher than was customary! He stayed at Lincoln until 1570. Byrd very Though he spent his whole life in the service of the Anglican Church, Byrd was quickly established himself as an outstanding personality, thanks to his performing born a Roman Catholic, and a Catholic he remained. The Act of Supremacy enacted skill on keyboard instruments, his burgeoning reputation as a composer, and what one by Henry VIII in 1534 asserted the independence of the English national Church, can only term his charisma with both colleagues and pupils. Though few copies now a dissident Catholic Church. Byrd was still a child when Edward VI, son of Henry survive, Byrd had already composed a great deal by this time, first trying his hand at VIII (and of Jane Seymour), confirmed the independence of the Church of England: every genre in imitation of the English, Italian or Flemish masters, and fairly rapidly the Book of Common Prayer established the Anglican liturgy, while the influence finding a language of his own. of Reformation ideas increased. But on Edward’s death, his half-sister Mary Tudor, daughter of Catherine of Aragon and short-lived second wife of Philip II of Spain, In 1570 he appeared in London, where he was reunited with his friend Thomas Tallis returned to Catholicism. Her violent repression of the Protestants earned her the at the Chapel Royal, becoming the latter’s deputy. A close and exemplary friendship unenviable nickname ‘Bloody Mary’. Then came another volte-face when she died in grew up between the two men. Byrd’s reputation was constantly on the increase. Soon 1558, to be succeeded by another half-sister, Elizabeth (daughter of Anne Boleyn), he was feted by a number of high-ranking aristocrats, achieving universal admiration who was no sooner on the throne than she instituted a vigorous anti-papist reac- and the protection of the queen in person, since in 1572 he was sworn in as a Gent- tion. With the Oath of Supremacy and Act of Uniformity of 1559, followed by the leman of the Chapel Royal. The next year, the Earl of Oxford, a poet - and himself a promulgation of the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1563, she laid the foundations of the Catholic, like most of the noble amateur musicians Byrd frequented - gave him a lease Anglican Church. Amid the unrest of this troubled period, Byrd upheld the faith of on land belonging to him. his fathers. His prestige must have been considerable, given that the queen continued Five years after Byrd’s arrival at the Chapel Royal, in 1575, the queen granted Tallis to protect him and that he was never harassed during the keen religious disputes that and Byrd a monopoly on music printing in England, a line of business little exploited shook the country. until then. In order to express their gratitude to the sovereign, the two composers We know little of the childhood of William Byrd. He is thought to have been born to dedicated their first publication to her, issuing in that same year a collection of thir- a musical family in London around 1540. There is good reason to believe that he sang ty-four Cantiones sacrae, quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur, Latin motets for five to eight voices, with each of them contributing half the total. The queen was then in the John Bull. Byrd gave up his post at the Chapel Royal in 1618, on the grounds of his seventeenth year of her reign, and each man thus offered her seventeen cantiones. advanced age, and was succeeded by Gibbons and Edmund Hopper. Like his friend But alongside these motets, Byrd did not neglect secular instrumental music, and his Tallis, he died in his eighties, at Stondon Massey (Essex), on 4 July 1623. pavans and galliards for virginal also date from this period. Byrd’s ceuvre is extensive and protean. His name is attached to the ‘English virginalist He was now at the height of his activity as a composer. Over the years, he published school’, which covers the whole second half of the sixteenth century and the first four volumes of sacred music in Latin, three masses and three collections of sacred half of the seventeenth, and of which he is the most illustrious representative, if not music in English, not to mention what was printed here and there in collective antho- indeed the founding father. But the art of Byrd cannot be reduced to this role alone, logies such as parthenia. Another sign of the popularity of his works is that they were however important it may have been. His compositional output is divided between often copied into manuscript collections of music, in particular the Fitzwilliam Virgi- the sacred and secular spheres - he wrote for both church and chamber. Hence it nal Book and Will forster’s Virginal Book. The most important source for his keyboard contains motets and psalms on the one hand, and madrigals with consort of viols works is My Ladye Nevells Booke, a compilation finished in 1591. on the other. As to his works for keyboard, these are intended in part for virginals, in part for organ, while also being suitable for performance on the lute. It should be Of all the dates that punctuate the biography of a figure who had by this time beco- recalled here that the general term ‘virginal’ at that time did not designate merely the me illustrious, one especially deserves mention here for its signal importance in the rectangular English spinet, but the whole range of keyboard instruments, as is shown history of English music: the yearl6l3. This was the date of publication in London of by an abundant iconography. an anthology of works for virginal named Parthenia, to which Byrd contributed eight pieces. The plates of this collection were entirely engraved by William Hole: it was the A large corpus of some 130 pieces for keyboard by Byrd has come down to us, va- first time that music had been printed by copper engraving in England. At a period rying in length from one to ten minutes. With the exception of a few scattered pieces when music was becoming more complex and ornate, this system was much more of a whimsical variety, they chiefly illustrate a small number of genres which at the legible than Gutenberg’s movable type. Moreover, it was also, at the dawn of this cen- time were at the height of their popularity in England. One may observe in them tury which was to see the flowering of the Baroque aesthetic, the very first published Byrd’s twin penchant for both cyclic works, unified and closed, and open, expansive collection of instrumental music, and was to remain so for decades to come. Its very forms in multiple sections. title proclaims the fact loud and clear: Parthenia, or The Maydenhead of the First Musicke This is a new, nascent art. As a man of the late Renaissance, Byrd conceived music that ever was Printed for the Virginalls. from the perspective of polyphony organised into rich counterpoint, whether in the Thanks to his great renown, Byrd attracted a large number of talented pupils, so genres cultivated in the sixteenth century, chiefly motets and masses, or in the new many indeed that he was nicknamed ‘The Father of Musick’. Several are still cele- styles of music for keyboard, even in the dances. Again and again his instrumental brated today, among them Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Tomkins, Thomas Morley, and music seems to be underpinned by the idea of vocal polyphony. Yet he is also a ‘modern’, with his solo songs and his madrigals. These diverse facets of his musical in the ‘ground’, the English equivalent of the chaconne or passacaglia (as in Qui Passe personality are admirably combined in the genre of variations for keyboard. Here he for my Lady Nevell). This was to be the genre of choice for musicians for more than emerges as an eminent master of elaboration over an ostinato, whose various linked a century to come. For here we have the affirmation of the ideal of Baroque art: to episodes lead towards the control of large-scale form. attain large-scale, unified form by drawing the multiple from the single, to display unity in diversity. Or, as Leibniz was to express it in theoretical terms: ‘Perfection is These works are generally made up of juxtaposed sections. This is the case with the the harmony of things... identity in variety.’ fantasias or preludes. A characteristic example is the Fantasia in A minor (13), which comprises three main sections. Opening after the manner of a ricercare, it becomes Gilles Cantagrel increasingly animated, showing a verve teeming with new ideas, in a multitude of Translation: Charles Johnston rhythmic figures that jostle with one another, binary or ternary, sometimes lopsided, reserving countless surprises. Some such works seem more particularly intended for the organ, such as Clarified me, Pater (49), a youthful work from the Lincoln period, his first truly personal piece. of these pieces are derived from dance steps. Among them are the pavans, followed by their galliards, a genre that flourished all through the Renaissance period. The alle- mande, very different in character, with its top line richly charged with ornamentation, was becoming extremely popular at this period. As to the volta (called volte in French), a triple-time dance of Provengal origin, somewhat slower than the galliard, it had been much appreciated in France since the reign of Henri II. This was the only dance that was performed in couples, giving it an audacious character further emphasised by the leaping three-quarter turns executed by the dancers. Everyone knows the famous painting showing the Earl of Leicester dancing this step with Queen Elizabeth, whom he grasps as she springs, as if in a snapshot, without her feet touching the ground. But Byrd, as we have said, shows a pronounced penchant for the art of variation, which sets in relief the virtuosity of the performer and even more so the composer’s imagination, rhythmic invention and taste for subtle, unexpected harmonies. Espe- cially when the variations are founded on the reiteration of a single underlying motif, The Lodewijk Theewes Ciaviorgan

The ciaviorgan by Lodewijk Theewes, which has belonged to the Victoria and Albert mentioned in the accounts of the Court as a supplier of instruments. Museum, London, since 1890, consists of a single manual harpsichord located on It is seldom possible to trace the history of a particular instrument in any detail, but top of an organ. Both instruments are played from the harpsichord keyboard. The the Theewes claviorgan is exceptional. We now know that the original owner was An- harpsichord bears the inscription LODOWICUS THEEWES ME FESIT 1579 on the thony Roper, the second son of William Roper and Margaret More, and grandson of underside of the front lid. The case of the harpsichord is of oak, covered with finely Henry VIII’s chancellor Sir Thomas More, The arms on the organ case are an exact tooled and coloured leather, while the underside of the lid is painted in an informal match with the arms which appear on Anthony Roper’s memorial in Farningham style with strapwork, birds, animals, fruits and the familiar scene of Orpheus taming parish church in Kent. A crescent moon on each of the sets of arms, the sign of a the wild beasts. The organ case is designed and decorated in a more formal, architec- second son, links the instrument with Anthony Roper personally. Both the Roper and tural manner, with Ionic columns and panels of strapwork. The harpsichord has two More families were prominent lawyers, and both remained Catholics in defiance of 8’ registers and one 4’; the compass is four octaves C-c_ chromatic, though C# was the law. Among their friends were some of the foremost musicians of the time, some probably tuned originally to AA. One archaic feature is that the soundboard extends of whom also remained Catholics at heart. Thomas Tallis had certainly been a close over the whole interior, and carries both bridges and both nuts. The upper registers friend of the Ropers, and his widow Joan left Anthony Roper a gold cup in her will. therefore had to be pierced through the soundboard, while the lower slides are moved There are also many connections between the Ropers and William Byrd; from 1577 by hand stops to turn each register on and off. Byrd rented a house which belonged to Anthony Roper, and later Byrd’s son Chris- topher married Roper’s cousin Katherine. While quite a number of very early Italian harpsichords have survived, the Theewes is the only signed and dated 16th-century harpsichord from northern Europe which It is therefore very likely that Tallis, Byrd and other members of the Chapel Royal has come down to us. Its importance in showing how keyboard instruments and their kept up a close contact with the Roper family, especially when the Court and the Cha- music had developed by this stage is therefore crucial. Though Theewes made the pel Royal were in residence at either of the nearby palaces of Greenwich or Eltham. instrument in London, he was a native of the Netherlands where he was born around In all likelihood, many members of this distinguished circle, but Byrd and Tallis in 1539. We know from his membership of the Dutch Church in Austin Friars, London, particular, would have visited the Ropers and would have known the Theewes cla- that he was a Protestant by inclination. It is very likely, therefore, that he and his fa- viorgan. It is hard to imagine any instrument being more closely linked with William mily fled from the persecution of Protestants in the Catholic Netherlands probably Byrd, and with other outstanding virginalists of the Elizabethan age. in 1567 or 1568 after the unsuccessful revolt of 1566-7. He must have prospered in London, as he was an active and generous member of his community, and is later Malcolm Rose Further details can be found in: Malcolm Rose, Further on the Lodewijk Theewes Harpsichord. Galpin Society Journal LV, 2002, p. 279. www.music.ed.ac.uk/euchmi/galpin/

Malcolm Rose, The History and Significance of the Lodewijk Theewes Claviorgan. Early Music, Vol. XXXII/4, Nov. 2004, p. 577. www.em.oupjournals.org

Johann Sebastian BACH François Boucher Angenehmes Wiederau, BWV 30a (1737) Paris, 1703-1770 1. Coro 4’36 The Triumph [The Birth] of Venus, 1740 Oil on canvas, 130 x 162 cm 2. Recitativo 0’56 Stockholm, National Museum 3. Aria (basse) 4’27 4. Recitativo 0’38 Voluptuous pleasure is the sum total of Boucher’s ideal: it is the only soul his painting possesses. Ask no more 5. Aria (alto) 5’13 of him than mythical nudes; yet what sleight of hand, what freshness of imagination in that very indecency, what 6. Recitativo 0’40 harmony of arrangement, to cast pretty bodies onto clouds . . . What a display of blooming flesh, of undulating 7. Aria (basse) 6’38 lines, of forms that seem to have been modelled by a caress! . . . The Venus whom Boucher dreams of and paints 8. Recitativo 0’56 is only the physical Venus; but how perfectly he knows her! How skilled he is in giving her all the temptations 9. Aria (soprano) 4’18 of the abandoned gesture, the ready smile, the inviting posture! How good he is at placing her in an arousing 10. Recitativo 0’49 setting! And how beautifully, in this light, volatile, and constantly reborn figure, he embodies Desire and Pleasure! 11. Aria (ténor) 2’53 The Goncourt Brothers 12. Recitativo 1’05 13. Coro 4’58 Born of sea-foam fertilised by the blood of Uranus, then washed up on the shore by the waves, the goddess of love sits languidly enthroned on a Vereinigte ZWIETRACHT, BWV 207 (1726) reef, in her Isle of Beauty caressed by the waters whence she extends her 14. Coro 5’05 empire. Venus is accompanied by cheerful Nereids whose suggestive poses 15. Recitativo 1’54 are enhanced by their curvaceous bosoms and the sinuous lines of their ma- 16. Aria (ténor) 4’19 17. Recitativo 2’00 gnificent posteriors. Delighted by the advances of the tritons, they are only 18. Aria Duetto 4’53 too pleased to surrender to their seducers, dazzled by their bronzed, tanned 19. Ritornello 1’45 flesh tints and the savage power of these bodies set off by imposing mus- 20. Recitativo 1’35 cles. Multiplying their feats of acrobatics, these sea-gods enjoy the complicity 21. Aria (alto) 5’31 of ‘carrier’ dolphins while cupids pirouette in the gentle spray; the group is 22. Recitativo 3’05 joined by a few amorous doves, birds sacred to Aphrodite. Above the scene, 23. Coro 4’18 head-over-heels, putti roll themselves in luxurious swirling drapery (a throw- back to Antiquity, by way of its modern imitator Raphael), whilst a male deity Their equal beauties jostle for attention.’ takes pleasure in pouring the contents of an immense conch into the eddying ‘Ah!’ says Rose to him, ‘My dear, without further ado, You can settle their quarrel by placing yourself between the two.’ waters. Freed from all care, the festivities take place in an atmosphere of Alexis Piron, Les Belles jambes (1730) lasciviousness, with even the raging clouds and the towering rocky spurs ap- parently manifesting their approval for rejoicings which seem destined to last On much the same wavelength as Piron, the poet and dramatist from Dijon, 1 eternally. Far from casting a shadow over the prevailing ambience, the thick this specialist in female curves and fine legs caresses nacreous skin with his black clouds surmounting the grotto which opens to the right set in relief the sensual and lively brush. A ribald turn of mind might imagine that the sug- happy nonchalance of the protagonists and the voluptuous pleasure of their gestive seashell being emptied of its content evokes the act of love, and mi- exchanges, suggesting that a natural alcove away from prying eyes is at their ght even see in the movement of the long drapery towards the fissure in the disposal for intimate love-play. rocks a saucy allusion to the type of intercourse to which it is liable to play Acquired by Count Carl Gustav Tessin, ambassador extraordinary and future host. The atmosphere of Rocaille tends towards gaiety, and we venture to prime minister to the king of Sweden, an assiduous client of the artist and suggest that its common ground with the secular music of Johann Sebastian devotee of French culture, Boucher’s masterpiece takes its place in a long tra- Bach, who can hardly be accused of having cultivated boredom, but appears dition which made eroticism, under cover of joie de vivre, a recurring theme on the contrary to have been something of a bon vivant, might justify the of European painting. At the moment when this topos re-emerged with juxtaposition of the two. An allegory reflecting the tastes of the time, to be unprecedented vitality and liberty of tone, exalted by lightness of technique, sure; an effervescent and infectious sense of elation, without a doubt. Are the painter handles with brio a subject inspired both by mythology and by the the grace and elegance, the verve of Boucher (who died twenty years after the youthful charm of his wife, née Marie-Jeanne Buseau, sometime copyist to composer), so highly thought of in his day, really so alien to the idiom of the the master and, it was whispered, the Swede’s former mistress. Saxon when, inspired by the commission in hand, his mood grows festive? Colin, prompted by frolicsome love, Was observing at his leisure, one day, © Denis Grenier The legs, whiter than alabaster, September 2007 Of his beloved Rose. Translation: Charles Johnston Now he attended to the left, Now the right enticed him away. 1 Piron had been barred from entering the French Academy by a Louis XV ‘outraged’ by the licentious charac- ‘I don’t know’, he said, ‘which of the two to gaze on; ter of his early writings; apparently the sovereign took seriously his role as institutional guardian of morality. Johann Sebastian Bach Two Secular Cantatas

Like every musician of his time, Bach composed occasional music. At Mühlhausen musical drama (which was sung but not acted). Bach wrote and ‘produced’ at least and again when he was employed at the ducal court in Weimar, he produced wedding sixty secular cantatas, only fifteen of which have survived complete, and they are the cantatas for the daughters of wealthy citizens1, as well as serenades and music for the least known and most infrequently played of all his works. celebration of the New Year and other special occasions. Some of them required only On this recording we present two secular cantatas neither of which today seems to modest forces, while others - important civic occasions, for example - were much interest either musicians, who rarely perform them, or musicologists, who prefer to more sumptuous affairs. Especially in Leipzig… study the sacred works they later became. For Bach subsequently used the same ma- ‘Cantor zu St. Thomae et Director Musices Lipsiensis’ was Bach’s official title in Leip- terial for two church cantatas, and those are the versions that are generally heard. It zig, and he was particularly attached to the latter part, Director Musices, Civic Director was common practice at that time to adapt and re-use earlier compositions and it is of Music, a public appointment. It meant that he was not only responsible for the quite easy to understand why. A sacred cantata, written for a specific church festival music of the four principal Leipzig churches and for training the children of the or a particular Sunday in the liturgical year, could be brought out again year after year. Thomasschule, the boarding school attached to St Thomas’s. He was also called upon A secular piece, on the other hand, was ephemeral; normally the occasion for which it for other aspects of the city’s musical life, which meant facing an audience, seeking was written would not recur, there would be no opportunity for a repeat performance. approval, and providing secular works - cantatas, concertos or orchestral suites - for Since writing it had taken much effort, why not use all or part of it again, especially if various civic entertainments. There was great demand for new music both at court the work had been well received? It could be converted into a liturgical piece, which and in the city. Families and friends would get together in their homes to sing and meant changing the text, the context and the characters, or it could also be used for play music. There was music at school, in church, and even in the streets. Any event another secular occasion. Likewise, sacred pieces could be recycled for other sacred served as a good excuse for music making, and music provided the backdrop for every occasions. But what was not possible, because it was sacrilegious, was a move in the aspect of social life. other direction, from sacred to secular. The inhabitants of Leipzig were particularly fond of nocturnal celebrations, torchlight Shortly before his arrival in Leipzig, Bach had been involved in a wrangle with Leip- processions, and serenades. Anniversaries, birthdays, commemorations, tributes, and zig University. He had laid claim to the traditional right of the Cantor of the Tho- the visits of important personalities: all were occasions for splendid concerts, the maskirche to be responsible for providing music for the services held at the University culmination of which - the long-awaited moment - was the performance of a short Church of St Paul (the Paulinerkirche). But the Rector and some of the professors had caused his request to be turned down. So it is easy to understand why Bach dence) is represented by a reference to Astraea’s Temple, Astraea being the goddess thereafter missed no opportunity to compose brilliant tributes to that institution and of justice who, according to Ovid, chose to abandon earth for heaven after the fall to its staff, some of whom, moreover, became life-long friends of his: August Müller, of the Golden Age. At the end of the same recitative, the candles metaphor is one for example, who was Professor of Philosophy, and Johann Abraham Birnbaum, Pro- that everybody present would have understood, referring simply to Professor Kortte’s fessor of Rhetoric. In 1726, still smarting no doubt from the rebuff, he was commis- students, enlightened by his teaching. sioned to compose a congratulatory work for the installation of Dr Gottlieb Kortte The solemn but spectacular introduction, using the full forces, is an arrangement, of Frankfurt University as Professor of Jurisprudence at Leipzig. Kortte, who was transposed and adapted, of the third movement of the First Brandenburg Concerto only twenty-eight at that time, died five years later. BWV1046, composed almost ten years previously. The opening words address the A solemn official occasion of that type called for impressive musical forces. Further- strings and the timpani, and obtain a festive response. In the middle of the cantata, more Bach wished to create an impact. He composed his cantata Vereinigte Zwietracht after the aria-duetto, comes a purely instrumental ‘ritornello’, providing an interlude der wechselnden Saiten BWV207 for four soloists, a chorus of three trumpets and tim- in the laudatory proceedings; the second trio is also borrowed from BWV1046. Pre- pani, two flutes and three oboes, and a string ensemble. The work was performed on ceded in each case by a recitative, the three arias, including the aria-duetto for bass 11 December 1726, most likely in one of the university buildings, where the three tru- and soprano, are performed by the allegories; they are written with refinement and mpets must have sounded with brilliant effect. Some of the musicians were probably subtlety. Note in particular the delicacy with which Diligence makes the invitation to students, members of the Collegium Musicum, then directed by Schott, from whom follow his path. The four characters share one last recitative addressed to the new Bach was shortly to take over. Professor, then the work ends with a splendid chorus. The cantata presents four allegorical figures: Happiness (soprano), Gratitude (alto), Bach later used all the material from this cantata as it stands, with the exception of Diligence (tenor) and Honour (bass). The libretto was probably written, as usual du- three of the recitatives, and of course with a new text, for the cantata Auf, schmetternde ring Bach’s early years in Leipzig, by Christian Friedrich Henrici, better known as Töne der muntern Trompeten BWV207a, in celebration of the name day of the elector of Picander. Congratulatory texts such as this are often unfairly criticised nowadays, ac- Saxony, Augustus II, on 3 August 1735. cused of being fulsome, unoriginal and uninspired. But they were only following the It is believed that there were three or four special non-religious occasions each year literary and stylistic conventions of their time, which included the use of allegory. in Leipzig, for which Bach was expected to provide celebratory music, in addition to The recitatives are noticeably longer than those of church cantatas; they are used to his task of writing for the churches. Some eleven years after his cantata for Professor expand on an element from the poem and bring out its multiple allusions, which must Kortte, he was requested to write an occasional piece in honour of a man called Jo- have appealed to the audience at such events. In the alto recitative, No. 6 in the score, hann Christian von Hennicke. Hennicke was a senior civil servant, a commoner who for example, the subject of law (Kortte, we remember, was Professor of Jurispru- had been ennobled in 1728 by the all-powerful Count Heinrich von Brühl, prime minister of Saxony under Augustus III. Hennicke was vain and unpopular, and he was pizzicato. The vehement bass aria (No. 7) is transported with enthusiasm, and the trio accused of corruption. In 1737 he became a minister in Brühl’s cabinet and a property in movement No. 9 - where Time sings ‘Eilt, ihr Stunden!’ - is strikingly beautiful. at Wiederau, near Leipzig, became his fief, of which he officially took possession on Bach could not possibly have left such exquisite music to lie dormant. A few months 28 September. Bach’s secular cantata, or rather dramma per musica, Angenehmes Wiede- later, at a time when his creative genius appears to have temporarily dried up - hardly rau, freue dich BWV30a, was written to celebrate that occasion. any original new works from the period 1734-39 have come down to us - he re-used The new lord of Wiederau, who enjoyed the favour not only of the prime minister most of the material from this fine work for another cantata, BWV30, Freue dich, but also of the queen, was a perfect example of what we today would call a parvenu. erlöste Schar, in celebration of St Michael’s Day, 24 June 1738. Although the latter is But since he was an important figure in local politics, it was necessary to comply with performed more often, it was important to present at last the original secular version. his wishes. Picander as usual produced the laudatory libretto, its praise spoken once again by four allegorical figures: Time (soprano), Good Fortune (alto), Fate (bass), Gilles Cantagrel and the River Elster (tenor) - the river that flows through the estate at Wiederau. In Translation: Mary Pardoe another homage cantata, Schleicht, spielende Wellen BWV206, written the previous year, each of the four soloists had represented a river. In this work the appropriately festive orchestral forces are almost the same as in BWV207, but more ample. The work is in thirteen movements: the opening grand chorus is repeated to different words at the end; between the two, five arias are linked by six recitatives. The work follows the relatively conventional structure of the poem in homage to Hennicke. The first four of the five arias areda capo. Some of the move- ments appear to have been taken over from earlier works (notably the choruses, Nos. 1 and 13, and the aria, No. 5). In contrast with the rather ordinary arrangement of the movements, however, the music is constantly delightful: imaginative and pleasing to the ear, often with a dance-like quality (beginning with the syncopations of the first chorus), and very lively. Ideal for pleasing both the audience and the dedicatee! Let us just point out the passepied in the first aria (‘Willkommen im Heil’, No. 3) and, after a long instrumental introduction that is repeated in conclusion, the second aria (‘Was die Seele kann ergötzen’, No. 5), in which Good Fortune sings in dialogue with the 1. Buxtehude did likewise in Lübeck, and Telemann composed many musical entertainments and cantatas flute and both are supported by the muted first violin with the other strings playing for weddings. Listen to samples from the new Outhere releases on: Ecoutez les extraits des nouveautés d’Outhere sur : Hören Sie Auszüge aus den Neuerscheinungen von Outhere auf:

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