Sacred Repertories in Paris under Louis XIII

Sacred Repertories in Paris under Louis XIII
Author: Peter Bennett
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2023-04-14
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1000938778

The study of sacred music under Louis XIII (r.1610-43) has advanced little in the past hundred years. Despite some important recent contributions by the late Denise Launay and others, much of our current perception of the Latin sacred music of the period is still informed by the pioneering research undertaken by Henri Quittard in the early years of the twentieth century. Even with Quittard’s work, however, the almost complete absence of surviving sources has severely limited our understanding of this era. But by re-examining one of the seventeenth-century ’treasures’ of the Bibliothèque nationale (MS Vma rés. 571), Sacred Repertories in Paris under Louis XIII reveals that, far from being a transitional period in which little music of any interest was produced, the reign of Louis XIII witnessed a flowering of musical activity and the development of musical techniques normally associated with the reign of Louis XIV. Based on an exhaustive and innovative manuscript study, Sacred Repertories shows that Vma rés. 571 (a largely anonymous source of previously unknown provenance) was copied in Paris by the composer André Pechon, and that it preserves three previously unidentified repertories with connections to the court of Louis XIII. The repertoire of the musique de la chambre, until now considered a secular institution, shows it to have been an equal partner of the chapelle in the provision of sacred music at court. The repertoire of the royal parish church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, the only ’working’ liturgical repertory surviving from the century, illustrates musical practices at this important collegiate church. And the repertoire of the Royal Benedictine Abbey of Montmartre testifies to the richness of musical tradition in Parisian convents during a period when no other comparable music from France survives. Sacred Repertories thus transforms our understanding of the musical landscape of seventeenth-century France and provides a springboard fo

Music and Power at the Court of Louis XIII

Music and Power at the Court of Louis XIII
Author: Peter Bennett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2021-05-27
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1108905072

What role did sacred music play in mediating Louis XIII's grip on power in the early seventeenth century? How can a study of music as 'sounding liturgy' contribute to the wider discourse on absolutism and 'the arts' in early modern France? Taking the scholarship of the so-called 'ceremonialists' as a point of departure, Peter Bennett engages with Weber's seminal formulation of power to consider the contexts in which liturgy, music and ceremonial legitimated the power of a king almost continuously engaged in religious conflict. Numerous musical settings show that David, the psalmist, musician, king and agent of the Holy Spirit, provided the most enduring model of kingship; but in the final decade of his life, as Louis dedicated the Kingdom to the Virgin Mary, the model of 'Christ the King' became even more potent – a model reflected in a flowering of musical publication and famous paintings by Vouet and Champaigne.

The Cambridge Companion to French Music

The Cambridge Companion to French Music
Author: Simon Trezise
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2015-02-19
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0521877946

This accessible Companion provides a wide-ranging and comprehensive introduction to French music from the early middle ages to the present.

Music at the Maison royale de Saint-Louis at Saint-Cyr

Music at the Maison royale de Saint-Louis at Saint-Cyr
Author: Deborah Kauffman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2018-07-24
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1317092104

The history of music at the Maison royale de Saint-Louis at Saint-Cyr — the famous convent school founded by Madame de Maintenon and established by Louis XIV in 1686 as a royal foundation — is both rich and intriguing; its large repertory of music was composed expressly for young female voices by important composers working within significant contemporary musical genres: liturgical chant, sacred motets, theatrical music, and cantiques spirituels. While these genres reflect contemporary styles and trends, at the same time the works themselves were made to conform to the sensibilities and abilities of their intended performers. Even as Jean-Baptiste Moreau's music for Jean Racine’s biblical tragedies Esther and Athalie shows a number of similarities to contemporary tragédies lyriques, it departs from that more public genre in its brevity, generally simpler solo writing, and the integral use of the chorus. The musical style of the choral numbers closely parallels that of other choral music in the repertory at Saint-Cyr. The liturgical chant sung in the church was composed by Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers, and is an example of plain-chant musical, a type of new ecclesiastical composition written during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, primarily for female religious communities in France. The large repertory of petits motets (short sacred Latin pieces for solo voice), mostly composed by Nivers and Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, are simpler and more restrained than works by their contemporaries. A close study of the motets reveals much about changes to musical style and performance practices at Saint-Cyr during the eighteenth century. The cantique spirituel, a song with a spiritual text in the vernacular French language, played a significant role in both the education and recreation of the girls at Saint-Cyr. Cantiques composed for the girls vary widely in terms of their style and difficulty, ranging from simple strophic melodies to more sophisticated works in the style of contemporary airs. In all cases, the stylistic features of the music for Saint-Cyr reflect a careful consideration of the needs and capabilities of the young singers of the school, as well as an awareness of the rigorous requirements of Madame de Maintenon, who kept a close watch over the propriety of all things relating to the piety, behavior, and image of her charges.

The Polyphonic Mass in France, 1600-1780

The Polyphonic Mass in France, 1600-1780
Author: Jean-Paul Montagnier
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2017-03-16
Genre: Music
ISBN: 110717774X

The first ever book-length study of the a cappella masses which appeared in France in choirbook layout during the baroque era. After tracing the publishing history of this distinctive but little-known repertoire, the author places the works in their social, liturgical and musical context.

Sacred Music as Public Image for Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III

Sacred Music as Public Image for Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III
Author: Andrew H. Weaver
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2012
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9781409421191

Ferdinand III played a crucial role both in helping to end the Thirty Years' War and in re-establishing Habsburg sovereignty within his hereditary lands. Ferdinand's accomplishments came not through diplomacy or strong leadership but through a skillful manipulation of the arts. Drawing upon recent methodological approaches to the representation of other early modern monarchs as well as upon the theory of confessionalization, Andrew Weaver places the sacred vocal music composed by imperial musicians into the rich cultural, political, and religious contexts of mid-seventeenth-century Central Europe.

The Lure and Legacy of Music at Versailles

The Lure and Legacy of Music at Versailles
Author: John Hajdu Heyer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2014-11-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0521519888

Taking its departure from King Louis XIV's 1660 visit to Provence, this book reveals the remarkable musical developments that followed.

Regina Mingotti: Diva and Impresario at the King's Theatre, London

Regina Mingotti: Diva and Impresario at the King's Theatre, London
Author: Michael Burden
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1351551701

Regina Mingotti was the first female impresario to run London's opera house. Born in Naples in 1722, she was the daughter of an Austrian diplomat, and had worked at Dresden under Hasse from 1747. Mingotti left Germany in 1752, and travelled to Madrid to sing at the Spanish court, where the opera was directed by the great castrato, Farinelli. It is not known quite how Francesco Vanneschi, the opera promoter, came to hire Mingotti, but in 1754 (travelling to England via Paris), she was announced as being engaged for the opera in London 'having been admired at Naples and other parts of Italy, by all the Connoisseurs, as much for the elegance of her voice as that of her features'. Michael Burden offers the first considered survey of Mingotti?s London years, including material on Mingotti's publication activities, and the identification of the characters in the key satirical print 'The Idol'. Burden makes a significant contribution to the knowledge and understanding of eighteenth-century singers' careers and status, and discusses the management, the finance, the choice of repertory, and the pasticcio practice at The King's Theatre, Haymarket during the middle of the eighteenth century. Burden also argues that Mingotti?s years with Farinelli influenced her understanding of drama, fed her appreciation of Metastasio, and were partly responsible for London labelling her a 'female Garrick'. The book includes the important publication of the complete texts of both of Mingotti's Appeals to the Publick, accounts of the squabble between Mingotti and Vanneschi, which shed light on the role a singer could play in the replacement of arias.

Skryabin, Philosophy and the Music of Desire

Skryabin, Philosophy and the Music of Desire
Author: Kenneth M. Smith
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1317054490

Commentary on Skryabin has struggled to situate an understanding of the composer's music within his idiosyncratic philosophical world views. Early commentators' efforts to do so failed to establish a thorough or systematic approach. And later twentieth-century studies turned away from the composer's ideology, focusing instead on 'the music itself' with an analytic approach that scrutinized Skryabin's harmonic language in isolation from his philosophy. This groundbreaking study revisits the questions surrounding the composer's music within his own philosophy, but draws on new methodological tools, casting Skryabin's music in the light not only of his own philosophy of desire, but of more refined semiotic-psychoanalytical theory and modern techniques of music analysis. An interdisciplinary methodology corrects the narrow focus of Skryabin scholarship of the last century, offering insights from New Musicology and recent music theory that lead to hermeneutical, critically informed readings of selected works.

The Genesis and Development of an English Organ Sonata

The Genesis and Development of an English Organ Sonata
Author: Iain Quinn
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 139
Release: 2017-02-03
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1315470640

This volume considers the influences and development of the English organ sonata tradition that began in the 1850s with compositions by W. T. Best and William Spark. With the expansion of the instrument’s capabilities came an opportunity for organist-composers to consider the repertoire anew with many factors reinforcing a desire to elevate the literature to new heights. This study begins by examining the legacy of the keyboard sonata in Britain and especially the pedagogical lineage that was to be seen through Mendelssohn and ultimately the early organ sonatas. The abiding influence of William Crotch’s lectures are studied to illuminate how a culture of conservatism emboldened the organist-composers towards compositions that were seen to represent the ideals of the Classical era but in a contemporary vein. The veneration of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven is then examined as composers wrote "portfolio" sonatas, each with a movement in a contrasting style to exhibit their compositional prowess while providing repertoire for the novice and connoisseur alike. Finally the volume considers how the British organist-composers who studied at the Leipzig Conservatorium had a direct bearing on the furtherance of an organ culture at home that in turn set the ground for the seminal work in the genre, Elgar’s Sonata of 1895.