The Music of France

Week 1: BeginningsGregorian ChantTroubadours and TrouvèresChant-Inspired WorksPerformers: Violinists

Roman Catholic Plainchant

❖ It’s the Roman Catholic plainchant that was destined to serve as the foundation of not only French, but all Western, music.

Why Don’t We Call It ROMAN Chant?

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Charlemagne742 (maybe 747)—January 28, 814

Emperor of the “Holy Roman Empire” which lasted (on paper, anyway) until the 19th century.

Maintaining an Empire

• Conquering is one thing; maintaining it is another.

• The key lay in education, bringing the varied cultures of Europe into a coherent culture.

• Liturgy was an indispensable component.

Admonitio Generalis

• March 23, 789

• Decreed the abolishment of the old Gallican rite in the Frankish Kingdom.

Replacing the Liturgy

• Monks and scholars arrived from the south to begin re-educating the populace.

• They met with considerable resistance.

• Finger-pointing was common on both sides:

• The southerners blamed Northern barbarism.

• Northerners blamed insensitive, ignorant Southerners.

Successful Marketing

• Faced with impending failure, the educational authorities introduced a brilliant marketing/propaganda scheme.

Step One: Create a Hero

• Pope Gregory I (pope from 590 - 604.)

• Busy, influential pope.

• Had really nothing much to do with liturgy or church music, though.

Step Two: Create a Hero’s Story

• Gregory was said to have “written” much of the Roman liturgy, esp. its plainchant.

• It was even said to have been divinely inspired, in the form of a dove which descended, then stuck its beak in Gregory’s mouth.

• Since music writing hadn’t been invented yet, Gregory couldn’t have possibly written down the plainchant books attributed to him.

Step Three: Saturate the Media

• A lot of early printed musical chant books attribute their contents to Gregory.

• Paintings and illustration furthered the story.

A Chant is Born

• It was one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history.

• Not only did it work in the Frankish Kingdom —

• To this day we still refer to Roman Catholic Chant as:

Gregorian Chant

In Paradisum

Antiphon

• A genre of Gregorian chant.

• Prose text

• Usually sung in association with a psalm.

In Paradisum

• Sung in procession on the way from the final blessing of the corpse in church to the graveyard where the burial takes place.

Was It REALLY Performed Like That?

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Byzantine Liturgy

Kontakion (Hymn) for Theophany

Capella Romana

Secular music: troubadours and trouvères

Troubadours

Earliest group of poet-composers

Wrote in Provençal

Troubadour Music

Sometimes highly sophisticated, aimed for an intellectual elite.

Sometimes a great deal earthier.

Bernart de Ventadorn

c. 1135 - 1194

In the service of Eleanor of Aquitaine

Trouvères

The trouvères are contemporaries of the troubadours.

The primary difference is that they were active in Northern, rather than Southern, France. Their work is in French, not Provençal.

The 19th-Century Gregorian Chant Revival

After being discarded by the Renaissance and Protestantism, many attempts were made to restore Gregorian chant according to the rules of modern music from the early 17th century onwards. This disfigured, distorted version of the chant lost its purity and power of expression and so ceased to interpret and inspire the Church's prayer as it once had.

—From the web site of the Benedictine Abbey of Solemnes

It was Dom Guéranger (1805–1875) who took the initiative to restore Gregorian chant according the manuscripts. The aim of his research and restoration was to publish liturgical books. This major work, which the Church has officially requested Solesmes to undertake since Pope Leo XIII, was accomplished slowly but surely in the musical palaeography workshop at Solesmes. It continues today …

—From the web site of the Benedictine Abbey of Solemnes

Gabriel Fauré

Messe basse: Agnus Dei St. John’s Choir, CambridgeGeorge Guest, director

Agnus Dei (Gregorian Chant)

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Miserere nobis.Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Miserere nobis.Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.

Agnus Dei (Fauré Messe basse)

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Miserere nobis.Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Miserere nobis.Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.

Maurice Duruflé

1902 – 1986

Organist at St-Étienne-du-Mont from 1929 to his death.

He began his Requiem, based on Gregorian chant themes, in 1941 and completed it in 1947.

Although he was born in 1902 and died in 1986, Maurice Duruflé is not a typical 20th-century musician. Compared with other great composers of his day … he seems strangely out of touch with his times, both in his music and his personality.

—Pilar Montero and Arthur Colman, 2006

Maurice Duruflé

Requiem: Introit Choir of Trinity College, CambridgeRichard Marlow, director

Performers

Jacques Thibaud, violin

1880-1953

About Jacques Thibaud

❖ Thibaud was as noted for his work as a chamber musician—particularly with Pablo Casals and Alfred Cortot—as he was as a soloist.

❖ A number of new works were dedicated to him.

❖ He died in an airplane crash in 1953.

Claude Debussy

Violin Sonata: III - Finale Jacques Thibaud, violinAlfred Cortot, piano

Performers

Zino Francescatti, violin

1902-1991

About Zino Francescatti

❖ Born in Marseilles, educated at the École Normale de Musique in Paris

❖ Probably best known for his many collaborations with American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic (Leonard Bernstein), and the Cleveland Orchestra (George Szell).

❖ A player of effortless virtuosity, but also fine tone and sensitive musicianship.

Edouard Lalo

Symphonie espagnole: II Zino Francescatti, violinAndré Cluytens, conductorGrand Orchestre Symphonique

Bizet’s Carmen is often thought to have ignited the French fascination with all things Spanish, but Edouard Lalo got there first. His Symphonie espagnole—a Spanish symphony that’s really more of a concerto—was premiered in Paris (1874) by the virtuoso Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate the month before Carmen opened at the Opéra-Comique. And although Carmen wasn’t an immediate success (Bizet, who died shortly after the premiere, didn't live to see it achieve great popularity), the Symphonie espagnole quickly became an international hit. It’s still Lalo’s best-known piece by a wide margin, just as Carmen eventually became Bizet’s signature work.

—Philip Huscher, Chicago Symphony Program Book