Eloq uence LULLY CAMPRA Pièces de Symphonie L Europe Galante English Chamber Orchestra
JEAN-BAPTISTE LULLY (1632-1687) Pièces de Symphonie 1 Marche pour le combat (Amadis, 1684) 1 51 2 Premier air pour les combattants (Amadis) 1 20 3 Deuxième air pour les combattants et reprise de la marche (Amadis) 3 10 Le Sommeil: 4 a. Le sommeil (Atys, 1677) 3 06 5 b. Entrée des songes agréables 1 26 6 c. Entrée des songes funestes 3 22 7 Gavotte en rondeau et air pour la suite de flore (Atys) 2 41 8 Chaconne (Amadis) 4 22 9 Prélude (Thésée, 1675) 1 38 0 Ouverture (Thésée) 2 54! Trio pour les habitants de d isle enchantée (Thésée) 2 04 @ Air de trompette (Thésée) 1 02 Air pour les jeunes gens (Persée, 1682) 1 36 $ Entrée de Polyphème et de sa suite (Acis et Galathée, 1686) 0 56 % Air pour Le Printemps (Phaéton, 1683) 1 13 ^ Air à danser (Bellérophon, 1679) 1 49 & Petit air gay et bourée pour Les Egyptiens (Phaéton) 2 22 * Gavotte en rondeau pour Triton (Phaéton) 0 55 ( Trio des hautbois (Persée) 1 10 ) Marche des sacrificateurs et des combattants qui apportent les étendards 1 50 et les dépouilles des ennemis vaincus (Thesée)
ANDRÉ CAMPRA (1660-1744) L Europe Galante (Suite edited by Frederick Hewitt) I Marche des masques galantes 1 50 II Air 0 54 # III La forlana 1 30 IV Menuet 1 18 V Premier air pour les espagnols 1 12 VI Sarabande 1 57 VII Loure 3 11 VIII Rigaudon I & II 2 17 ª IX Passepied I & II 1 59 º X Air (Gavotte en Rondeau) 0 51 XI Prélude 2 24 XII Air en rondeau 1 24 Total timing: 61 46 English Chamber Orchestra Leader: Emanuel Hurwitz directed from the harpsichord by Jean-Baptiste Lully was born in Florence in 1632, the son of a poor miller. He received little formal education, either musical or otherwise, but he had a high degree of native genius, and an unlimited and sometimes rather ruthless ambition which eventually enabled him to reach the very top of his profession. He was only fourteen when he was taken to France by the Chevalier de Guise, a relative of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, who had asked her cousin to bring back for her un joli petit Italien from whom she could learn the language. Legend says that she took one look at the far from pretty Lully and banished him to her kitchens, but his lively gifts as a musician and a comedian soon rescued him from the fate of a scullion and set him on the road to fame and fortune, as La Grande Mademoiselle s music director. However, when the lady became involved in the political troubles of the Frondeurs and was banished to the provinces, Lully obtained permission to return to Paris and gaining the notice of the young King Louis XIV as actor and musician, became the King s friend for life. From there he never looked back; Louis showered favours upon him, giving him appointment after appointment. As director of the royal chamber music, he was allowed to form his own special orchestra, called the Petite Bande to distinguish it from the Grande Bande of the famous Vingt-Quatre Violons du Roi. He drilled his small orchestra until it could play his dance-tunes with special finesse and precision, thus making it the envy and model of Europe. Soon he was in great demand as a composer of ballet music, one of his most famous works being the music he wrote for Molière s delightful comedy Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. At first he was opposed to true opera in the French language, but when it became obvious that others might steal a march on him and establish French opera, he took advantage of their difficulties to have the royal patent transferred to himself. The result was the production in 1674 of Cadmus and Hermione, the first of his splendid series of lyric tragedies. From then until his death in 1687 he produced work after work, setting the pattern for French opera for the next sixty years or more. He became the virtual musical dictator of France, especially where theatre music was concerned, seeing to it that no rival was allowed to trespass on the preserves which he so jealously guarded. Lully was before all else a great organiser. Among other things which came under his sway was the shape, size and disposition of
the French theatre orchestra, and so great was his influence that the whole of Baroque orchestration shows signs of his domination. The foundation of his orchestra was the string band, to which he added oboes, flutes and bassoons, with trumpets and drums for special effect. These instruments he tended to use as rather stylised orchestral colouring: flutes for love scenes or nocturnes; oboes and bassoons for pastoral effects; trumpets and drums for martial and heroic scenes or for triumphs and rejoicings. The instrumental movements or symphonies in his operas and ballets were easy to perform away from the stage, and so suites of airs à jouer were extracted from the stage works and played as purely instrumental pieces, a fashion which led eventually to the overture-suites of Bach, Handel and Telemann, as well as so many of their lesser contemporaries. In general, such suites were preceded by an ouverture of the kind which Lully himself had popularised, with a pompous opening section followed by a quick fugue: the overture to Thésée is a fine example. After the overture came a string of dance tunes, some grave, some gay, and often ending with a grand chaconne. There is a splendid example of the latter in the music from Amadis, on this collection. And besides the dances there were programmatic symphonies, warlike Airs des Combattants, gentle Nocturnes, sprightly or solemn Préludes and quiet Sommeils (or Slumber pieces) of which that from Atys is one of the most famous, with its hushed opening and its attendant entries of agreeable and disagreeable dreams. Above all, there were great Marches, ablaze with trumpets and drums, for scenes of triumphant splendour. No triumph musick ever equalled his wrote old Roger North, writing of what he called Baptist s vein. The music recorded on this disc gives an excellent idea of that vein, of Lully s stately and compleat harmony, of his soul of air and of his splendid triumph musick. But it also pays tribute to Lully s gentler moods, and to his gift for surprisingly subtle orchestration: note the squealing panpipes in the Entry of Polyphemus and his suite from Acis et Galathée and the close alternation of flutes and strings with trumpets in the rarely-heard Prélude from Thésée. Lully s grand operas and ballets are rarely performed nowadays in their entirety. Even his best-known work, the engaging music for Molière s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, is usually performed in garbled versions, far removed from Lully s original score. But hidden away in the tall old folio scores is a wealth of lovely instrumental music. It is from some of those old scores that the suites on this disc have been collected and compiled; they represent only a very small percentage of the enormous amount of instrumental music which the prolific Lully composed in his busy professional life as composer, performer, director, administrator and homme d affaires. Charles Cudworth When Lully died in 1687, he left a great void in French musical life. His personality had been so overpowering that it had left little opportunity for other composers to develop. His one serious rival was Charpentier, who had been very active as a church composer, but had had no chance to attempt large-scale theatrical composition, and when he did attempt lyric tragedy, with his opera Medée, it stood little chance against the standard works of Lully. Several other composers tried their luck in the theatre, without much success, and it was not until the appearance of Campra s opera-ballet L Europe Galante, in 1697, that an undoubted triumph was secured. André Campra was a Provençal of Italian descent, born at Aix in 1660. After holding various provincial organ appointments, he went to Paris in 1694, to become music-director of Notre-Dame, and there made quite a name for himself as a composer of unusual motets. But the theatre attracted him, and three years after coming to Paris he composed the music for L Europe Galante, which was a new kind of opera-ballet, with four one-act operas loosely grouped under the general title, which can be freely translated as Romantic Europe, the four acts being devoted respectively to France, Spain, Italy and Turkey. The last may seem a bit odd,
but quite a large part of Turkey was in Europe in those days. Campra produced the work under the name of his brother Joseph (who played in the opera orchestra), as he did not wish to give offence to the ecclesiastical authorities until he was sure the piece would be a success. He had no need to worry; it was an outstanding triumph and was revived many times, well into the next century. Campra followed it up with many more works, and became Director of the Opera, before he died in 1744. Among his works were some successful lyric tragedies, but there is no doubt that his forte was the light-hearted opera-ballet, of the new kind which he himself had created with L Europe Galante. He had a particular gift for composing catchy, neatly orchestrated dancetunes, an aspect of his art well brought-out in the present suite from L Europe Galante, edited and arranged by Frederick Hewitt. As with Lully, the basis of Campra s orchestra was the string band, plus woodwind in the shape of oboes, flutes and bassoons, and the occasional use of trumpets and drums for martial or triumphant scenes. L Europe Galante, being more akin to a modern revue than anything else, tends to be lightly scored, but Campra s piquant use of his limited resources obviates any feeling of monotony. He used the traditional French dance forms: Menuet, Gavotte, Bourrée, Passepied, Rigaudon, Sarabande, but invested them with a sprightliness peculiarly his own. And to these dances he added others, of Italian origin Venetians, Forlanes, Villanellas, which gave a slightly exotic quality to stimulate jaded French palates. So tuneful were his dances that some of them crossed the Channel, to reappear with anglicised titles in collections of English country dances; thus the Forlana of L Europe Galante, was popular in England as The Furlong and La Bohémienne from Les Fêtes Vénitiennes became known in England under the amusing title of A Trip to Paris. And that he has not been forgotten, even in his native Provence, is evident from the fact that some of his tunes are embedded, albeit somewhat strangely transformed, in his fellowcountryman Darius Milhaud s Suite Provençal. DECCA Recordings: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 1966 (Campra), 1967 (Lully) Cover image: Gérard de Lairesse, Apollo and Aurora Eloquence series manager: Cyrus Meher-Homji Art direction: Chilu Tong www.chilu.com Booklet editor: Bruce Raggatt
FRENCH BAROQUE MUSIC ON DECCA ELOQUENCE 480 2374 480 2373 480 2372 COUPERIN: Apothéose de Lully; Les Nations Thurston Dart RAMEAU: Le Temple de la Gloire GRÉTRY: Ballet music from operas CHARPENTIER: Médée: suite LULLY: Pièces de Symphonie CAMPRA: L Europe Galante
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