French Baroque? Oui! Oui!

Intimate Chamber Music of French Baroque Masters

The Program

Trio Sonata in G Major, “La Félicite”
Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749)

Lentement / Allegro / Lent / Allegro / Gavotte / Gigue
Mr. Redfield, Mr. McGuff, Mr. Smith, Mr. Womer

Clérambault is best known for his organ music, but as this demonstrates, he was a master of all forms of composition. It is called a “trio” even though there are four players, because the harpsichord and the gamba both play the bass line. The harpsichord adds improvised chords using a technique called “realizing a figured bass.”

"Ah! laissez-moi rêver", H441
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)

Ms. Thyssen, Mr. Noori
[text and translation in the downloadable program above]

This is a fine example of an air de cour, a love song most often for solo voice and lute, by one of the great composers of the early French Baroque. In this one, the singer dreams of her absent love (a shepherd; it’s almost always a shepherd or shepherdess.)

Sonata No. 1 in D Minor
Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre (1665-1729)

[unmarked] / Presto / Adagio / Presto-Adagio / Presto / Aria / Presto
Mr. Redfield, Mr. Smith, Mr. Noori, Mr. Womer

There were few “success stories” for women during the Baroque, but this was one. Jacquet de la Guerre was celebrated as a composer and harpsichordist. Her admirers included King Louis XIV. The quality of this thrilling and very difficult violin sonata is unquestionably first rate.

Prelude in G major
Robert de Visée (1655-1732)
Mr. Noori

Robert de Visée was a lutenist, guitarist, theorbist and gambist at the court of Louis XIV and Louis XV. This is the first movement from a suite in G major. A theorbo is a lute with the neck extended to carry several long bass strings, so that it can provide a deep bass line while still providing chordal accompaniment in its mid-range.

“Viens, Hymen”, from Les Indes galantes
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)

Ms. Thyssen, Mr. Redfield, Mr. McGuff
[text and translation in the downloadable program above]

In this miniature treasure from the opera Les Indes galantes, Phani calls upon the god of marriage, Hymen, to bless her and her betrothed for a happiness “more desirable than love”.

Fifth Prelude in A major and Les Ondes (The Waves)
François Couperin (1668-1733)

Mr. Womer

For his tutorial on the art of playing the harpsichord, Couperin composed several preludes like this one in A major, designed to teach the student how to play the instrument beautifully and idiomatically. They also, as it happens, contain some of his most beautiful music. The piece which follows (in the same key) is quintessentially Couperin: a charmingly elegant sea shanty. In the last section, you can hear the undulating waves, finally arriving and dispersing onto the shore.

Les voix humaines
Marin Marais (1656-1728)

Mr. Smith

Marais was arguably the greatest French viola da gamba player of his age, and he wrote many pieces for the instrument. The title perhaps derives from a quote by Mersenne: “Certainly, if instruments are prized to the extent that they imitate the human voice, and if the most admired of all artifice is that which most closely represents Nature, then the viol should not be denied our esteem, since it mimics the human voice in all its modulations.”

Arion: Fifth cantata from the first book
Andre Campra (1676-1749)

Ms. Thyssen, Mr. McGuff, Mr. Smith, Mr. Noori, Mr. Womer
[text and translation in the downloadable program above]

Secular cantatas were extremely popular in French Baroque music. They typically retold some Greek myth, and invariably contained a final aria containing the moral to the story. In this case, Arion escapes misfortune and death through the power of the music he makes. In addition to telling the tale, the singer extols the power of music, the “delightful enchantress.” “What cannot be accomplished with your help?”

Fifth concert from Pièces de clavecin en concerts
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
La Forqueray / La Cupis / La Marais

Mr. Womer, Mr. Redfield, Mr. McGuff, Mr. Smith

These so-called “concerts” are Rameau’s only chamber music. Since he was a master harpsichord player, it is not surprising that the harpsichord has a dominant role. But since two of the movements in this concert are named after famous viol players, it is also not surprising that the gamba part is very prominent and very challenging.

“À la fin cette bergère"
Antoine Boësset (1586-1643)

The ensemble

This is another air de cour, but this one is quite unusual. Unlike the typical dreaminess of the genre, this one is full of fire. The lover is gloating: his shepherdess Phyllis, once aloof, is now caught under the same spell as he. “We live beneath the same law, since I hold her mine.”

END OF THE PROGRAM

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