For many centuries Holy Week had a special place in the liturgical
year of the Christian Church of the West. This resulted in a large corpus
which was to be performed on the various days of that week. An important
part of the repertoire is music for the Offices of Tenebrae, services
which were celebrated on the evening before or the early morning of Maundy
Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. France is one of the countries
where these services were held in high esteem, and that is reflected by the
music written for them. Some of the most prominent composers of the second
half of the 17th century composed so-called Leçons de
Ténèbres, and Marc-Antoine Charpentier was one of them.
Charpentier wrote 31 leçons or lessons in total. These
are settings of texts from the Lamentations of Jeremiah in which the prophet
expresses his sadness about the destruction of Jerusalem in the 6th century
before Christ. In the Church these texts were interpreted as laments about
the sins of mankind which were the reason for Christ to suffer and die on
the cross. Every lesson ends with a verse from the book of the prophet Hosea
(ch 14, vs 1): "Jerusalem, return to the Lord your God". In settings of the
lessons the verses are separated by Hebrew letters which were usually set as
vocalises, often with extended and virtuosic coloratura.
We find these in many of Charpentier's settings as well, but not in
those recorded here. The most frequently-performed date from the 1670s, and
are usually scored for one to three (high) voices with basso continuo. Only
in a few of them do melody instruments participate, mostly treble viols. In
the 1690s Charpentier composed various lessons which are rather different.
Most are for lower voices, from hautecontre to bass, and include
instrumental parts, varying from two flutes to a complete instrumental
ensemble of wind and strings. The setting of the Hebrew letters is much
simpler; here they do not introduce a verse but are added to the preceding
verse.
A complete set of lessons comprised nine, three for each of the
three days. However, the three lessons recorded here are not part of a
complete set. The Leçons H 120-122 are the first lessons for
each of the three days. In his liner-notes Alexis Kossenko mentions a number
of passages which show the close connection between text and music.
Charpentier makes use of various devices to express the text, such as
musical figures, harmony - including harsh dissonances and chromaticism - as
well as silences. The three settings include several striking examples of
the latter. The instruments provide not mere accompaniment but contribute to
the expression. Every lesson begins with a short instrumental prelude.
About half of this disc is filled with instrumental music. This
represents the most underexposed part of Charpentier's oeuvre. Each such
piece is classified as "sacred instrumental" in the catalogue. They were
used either as introduction to parts of the liturgy or replaced them. They
shed light on the composer's creativity in instrumental scoring, for example
in the juxtaposition of violins and recorders in the Symphony in g
minor or the split of the ensemble in two 'choirs' (Offerte pour
l'orgue, H 514). In some pieces Charpentier imitates the practice in
vocal music of opposing a petit choeur and a grand choeur,
such as in the two Ouvertures pour le sacre d'un Evesque (H 536 and
537). There is some confusion about which instrument Charpentier meant with
flûte. It seems that he usually had the recorder in mind, but
in some pieces the range of the flûte parts seems to indicate
that a transverse flute was intended. In this recording the most practical
solution has been taken. It is also worth noticing that the string body is
divided into the parts which were common in 17th-century France: dessus
de violon, haute-contre de violon,taille de violon and
basse de violon. Apparently Charpentier's instrumental pieces lack a
part for the quinte de violon.
The programme alone makes this disc highly valuable. These
Leçons de Ténèbres are largely unknown, and
Charpentier's instrumental music is seldom played. They only serve to
confirm that he was a brilliant composer who is often - and rightly so -
mentioned in the same as greats such as Monteverdi, Bach and Purcell. It is
interesting to note that Alexis Kossenko mentions the fact that Charpentier
himself always wrote down the complete score, including the inner parts -
unlike Lully, who had assistants to do that for him. He quotes Charpentier
that "a chord is a chord only with its filling: it must be complete". It
just shows how much attention he gave to the expressive facets of his
compositions and how important harmony was to him. That is one of the
reasons that his music never fails to compel. This disc includes a rather
curious find: a piece for solo voice without instrumental accompaniment. If
you didn’t know that Sancti Dei, a motet pour plusieurs
martyrs was from Charpentier's pen, you would never have guessed it. You
would probably not have placed it in the baroque era.
A programme as interesting and engaging as this deserves a perfect
performance, and that is what it receives. I have never associated Stephan
MacLeod with French music, but he does a very fine job. He sings with great
sensitivity and understanding, both in regard to the expressive qualities of
the music and its style. Arte dei Suonatori delivers colourful and refined
performances of the instrumental parts. The Charpentier discography is quite
extensive, but there is still much to discover in his oeuvre, as this disc
proves. This is a highly valuable addition to the discography, and a disc to
treasure.
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
https://twitter.com/johanvanveen
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Stephan MacLeod (baritone)*