INTRODUCTION two former soprano members of Tenebrae (Julia COUPERIN LEÇONS DE TÉNÈBRES Doyle and Grace Davidson) have returned to join GESUALDO TENEBRAE RESPONSORIES Some of the most atmospheric music from the four of our current members (Jeremy Budd, David FOR MAUNDY THURSDAY numerous Liturgical settings in Holy Week is de Winter, Gabriel Crouch and Jimmy Holliday). that composed for the Office of Tenebrae. Victoria’s are the most well-known, but equally Also harking back to my days as a singer, my beautiful and arguably more dramatic are other favourite music to sing at Easter time the settings composed by Gesualdo. They have (Bach Passions aside) were Couperin’s beautiful Trois Leçons de Ténèbres Second Nocturn an intensity unrivalled in most music of that and mesmerising settings of some of the other François Couperin (1688-1733) 7 Amicus meus osculi [3.24] time owing to the extraordinary and sudden texts from the Tenebrae Offices. I first came 8 Judas mercator pessimus [2.30] 1 Première Leçon JD [16.40] harmonic shifts, which at times sound almost across this music in a wonderfully atmospheric 9 Unus ex discipulis meis [3.56] 2 Seconde Leçon GD [12.05] contemporary, and rhythmic outbursts led film all about another French composer, 3 JD (I) GD (II) on occasion by a single word. As a result the Marin Marais: Tous les matins du monde. The Troisième Leçon [12.08] Third Nocturn listener is always kept on their toes, waiting soundtrack to the film features heavily the • Grace Davidson Soprano Julia Doyle Soprano 0 Eram quasi agnus innocens [5.17] • for the next wild change of direction. Set for music written at the time for viola da gamba – Steven Devine Organ Jonathan Rees Viola da gamba q Una hora non potuistis [3.14] two higher voices (sopranos), three middle one of the two accompanying instruments for w Seniores populi consilium [4.36] Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday voices (tenors) and one low bass, they create the two sopranos in Couperin’s settings, and Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613) Grace Davidson, Julia Doyle, an unusual vocal timbre, and with extremely played on our recording by the wonderful Jeremy Budd, David de Winter, high tenor parts there is a tension that is never Jonathan Rees. Jonathan was joined on the First Nocturn Gabriel Crouch & Jimmy Holliday far from the surface. I loved singing these continuo line by Steven Devine on harpsichord, 4 In monte Oliveti [4.45] settings many years ago and have long been and I am delighted to have had them both on 5 Tristis est anima mea [4.21] Total timings: [77.09] looking forward to taking the next step on our board for this project, bringing a huge amount 6 Ecce vidimus eum [4.14] path to recording all three sets of Gesualdo’s of skill, knowledge and joy to our interpretation Tenebrae Responsories, this being the second of this work. Of course, as a countertenor, I set that we have recorded. Singers with an sang the Leçons de Ténèbres at a much lower extraordinary ability to colour text and jump pitch, but here on this recording I hope you TENEBRAE through technical hoops – even at the extremes will enjoy hearing these two sublime soprano NIGEL SHORT DIRECTOR of their range – are needed to pull this music voices work together – at the correct pitch – to off, and I am delighted that for this recording shape every phrase perfectly and bring each www.signumrecords.com - 3 - Lesson to its serene conclusion with the familiar Chapel of the lavish Palace of Versailles saw French styles, and while the declamatory and expressive vocal lines recalling the depth of text used in settings of the Lamentations: Jerusalem, some of the greatest spectacles of the 18th melodic text settings align with the tragédie Jeramiah’s noble anguish would have created Jerusalem, convertere ad Dominum tuum. century in the daily celebration of High Mass. lyrique style of the time, the incipits are an atmosphere of incomparably deep emotion. Nigel Short Sadly, like much of Couperin’s music (and his traditionally set in plainsong formula, and correspondence with other composers, including the Hebrew letters of the alphabet appear in 2018 saw the 350th anniversary of the birth Couperin’s Trois Leçons de Ténèbres J. S. Bach), his large-scale sacred works that the text as melismas. The three Leçons of Couperin, and in the 80 years or more since were said to have existed in manuscript at his appeared in print between 1713 and 1717, the recording history of the Leçons de Ténèbres It would be hard to find a more exemplary death are no longer in existence. unlike the remaining six of the full nine began, they are now ranked among the patron of the arts than France’s illustrious Louis settings (of which Couperin made reference most frequently recorded of all settings from XIV. Throughout his long reign (indeed, the In fact, only a very small amount of Couperin’s in his writings), which are now lost. the Renaissance and Baroque periods. This longest of any monarch of a sovereign nation ecclesiastical music was published during his recording, performed by two sopranos, a chamber in European history), he was acutely attuned to lifetime, but his devoted followers, of which The text derives from the Book of Lamentations organ and viola da gamba, is played from the power of spectacle. Regularly commissioning there have been, and are, many, delight at where Jeramiah mourns the destruction of a facsimile of the original edition, and the dazzling displays of his country’s collective what remains. The settings we have been left Jerusalem by Babylon in 586BC. The intensity of beautiful settings are intensely personal and musical prowess, he was unwavering in his with are some of the most expressively beautiful the tone of gloom and bleakness is punctuated exquisite in their evocation of an atmosphere of quest to promote his deeply held belief in pieces of church music of the Baroque. The at the end of each Leçon, with Jeremiah’s sublime devotion. the divine right of kings; and, here, François surviving small-scale pieces are scored for words to the people of the Holy City, ‘Jerusalem, Hannah Perrin-Haynes Couperin (1688–1733) could often be found, one, two or three voices and continuo, sometimes turn to the Lord your God’. The Leçons are centre stage, directing this grand music. with concertante instruments and chorus. believed to have been composed for the Abbey Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories In comparison to the signature grandiose of Longchamp to be sung in intimate Universally known as ‘Le Roi Soleil’, the French ceremonies that serenaded the height of Louis performance conditions for Matins on Maundy An appreciation for great music is often Sun King appointed many musicians, and XIV’s reign, this sacred music is comparatively Thursday (which would have been observed enhanced by an understanding of its context; Couperin was added to his long list in 1693, subdued but spiritually profound and alive on a Wednesday evening to increase but in the case of Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613) at the age of 25, as one of four Organistes with vivid emotional intensity. attendance). We can deduce that the word the perceived significance of his troubled du Roi. The most illustrious member of his “Ténèbres” is in reference to the darkness that disposition, and of that shocking crime, (maybe talented family, Couperin was ennobled in Of this sacred music, Couperin’s Trois Leçons would have resulted from the gradual extinguishing you’ve heard?) may just have got out of hand. 1696 and made Chevalier de l’Ordre de Latran de Ténèbres are widely regarded as some of of the fifteen candles until the completion Two feature-length movies, at least six biographies, in 1702. He was instructed to provide music the great masterpieces of the French liturgical of Matins. This slow dimming of the candle ten operas and countless articles – the temptation that would glorify his king, and the Royal tradition. They are a mixture of Italian and light stunningly accompanied by the soft to further dramatize the story is understandable, - 4 - - 5 - but honestly, the plain old truth is lurid most closely associated with the house of Este in The Tenebrae Responsories, composed late in In their liturgical setting these responsories enough and is ultimately more instructive: Ferrara, and which was forged by the Mannerists the composer’s life and setting the nine are to be sung each day in three groups of Gesualdo wrote music in outrageous defiance – Luca Marenzio, Luzzasco Luzzaschi and Giaches responsories appropriate for each of the three three, these groups known liturgically as of logic and convention, but he was not the de Wert. Mannerism was the perfect ideology most solemn days of Holy Week (thus 27 ‘nocturns’, with each nocturn preceding the only composer in southern Italy who favoured for a man of Gesualdo’s volatile disposition and responsories in all), are his masterpiece. The extinguishing of a candle on the altar, as a musical shock tactic; he lived in partial vivid imagination: its architecture, literature, settings for Maundy Thursday are the most the church draws closer and closer to darkness. estrangement from society after 1590 (the art and music were full of whimsical folly and tortured, lingering repeatedly on the betrayal The end of the Maundy Thursday Tenebrae year of his crimes), but that didn’t stop dramatic hyperbole, and Gesualdo would have of Judas and, by association, the guilt of all service is one of the most solemn moments him from courting the musical world with felt encouraged to pour out his rage, grief, guilt mankind.