Delalande

La scoperta di questa azione pedagogica che l'associazione Tempo Reale ha nominato Gamelan 01 è stata per me come per molti un'illuminazione. Ci sono, come in questo caso, nella ricerca, dei lavori che hanno aperto una porta: c'è un prima e un dopo. Questa realizzazione collettiva, diretta da Stefano Luca e Michele Tadini, risolveva un problema che si poneva ad un'educazione musicale fondata sull'esperienza di creazione: …

Petits Motets were generally sung in the Royal Chapel during the Mass between a Grand Motet and the Domine salvum fac Regem. The most extended piece here is a Miserere for solo voice by the King's surintendant de la musique, Lalande. In fact the nine solo verses are sung in alternation with plainchant which would have been intoned by nuns. William Christie, who directs this intimate sequence, divides the solo spoils of this expressive piece between three of his sopranos, Veronique Gens, Sandrine Piau and Arlette Steyer. It would be hard to assemble three more persuasive sopranos than these to execute the music. Their almost faultless intonation, fresh-sounding voices and careful expression are both musically delightful and contextually apposite. Comparisons between the three are, perhaps invidious but Steyer sounds the least assured, technically and stylistically, among them.

Born in Normandy and largely self-taught in musical theory, Sebastien de Brossard (1655-1730) spent most of his career directing cathedral choirs in Strasbourg, Meaux, and other Alsatian cities. Brossard's 'Grands Motets' are plainly in the tradition of Lully, but have less of French elegance and more of German seriousness about them, a quality perhaps suited to Alsatian taste. Brossard has been better known as a musical theorist and as the author of the first musical dictionary in the French language, but his compositions are quite well-crafted and concert-worthy. He ranks, I think, with Delalande, Dumont, Charpentier, and a notch or two below Lully himself and Rameau. Nearly every French Baroque composer worth his salt wrote a Grand Motet on the text of Psalm 125, "In convertendo Dominus captivitatem Sion," and it's quite interesting to compare the various expressions of rejoicing in the Lord's favor.

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