Eloq uence COUPERIN Apothéose de Lully Les Nations Raymond Leppard Thurston Dart
FRANÇOIS COUPERIN (1668-1733) Apothéose de Lully 1 Nos. I IV 9 24 I Lulli aux Champs-Elysés, concertant avec les Ombres liriques II Air pour les memes III Vol de Mercure aux Champs-Elysés, pour averti qu Apollon y va descendre IV Descente d Apollon, qui vient offrir son violon à Lulli, et sa place au Parnasse 2 Nos. V VII 3 08 V Rumeur souteraine, cause par les Auteurs contemporains de Lulli VI Plaintes des mêmes; par des flûtes, ou des Violons très adoucis VII Enlévement de Lulli au Parnasse 3 Nos. VIII IX 4 24 VIII Accueil entre doux et agard, fait à Lulli par Corelli, et par les Muses italiénes IX Remerciement de Lulli à Apollon 4 Nos. X XI 4 32 X Apollon persuade Lulli et Corelli que la reunion des gouts François et Italien doit faire la perfection de la Musique. Essai en forme d Ouverture XI Air léger; Second air 5 Nos. XII XV 7 06 La Pais du Parnasse, faite aux conditions, sur la Remontrance des Muses Françoises, que lorsqu on y parleroit leur langue, on diroit dorénavant Sonade, Cantade, ainsi qu on prononce Ballade, Sérénade, & c. XII Sonade en trio XIII Saillie XIV Rondement XV Vivement English Chamber Orchestra Leader: Emanuel Hurwitz directed from the harpsichord by Raymond Leppard Thomas Goff, harpsichord
Les Nations Premier ordre La Françoise 6 I Sonade 7 33 7 II Allemande 1 25 8 III Courante 1 0 49 9 IV Courante 2 0 46 0 V Sarabande 2 26! VI Gigue 1 02 @ VII Chaconne ou Passacaille 3 20 VIII Gavotte 0 40 $ IX Menuet 0 51 Deuxième ordre L Espagnole % I Sonade 9 05 ^ II Allemande 1 28 & III Courante 1 03 * IV Courante 2 1 07 ( V Sarabande 1 48 ) VI Gigue Lourée 1 30 VII Gavotte 1 14 VIII Rondeau 3 20 # IX Bourée & Double 1 05 X Passacaille 6 08 Total timing: 75 48 The Jacobean Ensemble Neville Marriner Carl Pini, violins Desmond Dupre, viola da gamba directed by Thurston Dart, harpsichord The ghost of Lully lurks prominently in Couperin s famous musical apotheosis. To Couperin, a generation removed from the jealous Florentine, Lully was L Incomparable, for Couperin-le-Grand was only a youth of nineteen when Lully died in 1687 and, having no theatrical ambitions himself, never felt the restraining influence of France s musical dictator. In 1725, some thirty years after Lully s death, Couperin printed his musical panegyric of the man who had set his mark so strongly on French music under the title of Concert Instrumental sous le titre d Apothéose composé à la mémoire immortelle de l incomparable Monsieur de Lully or Instrumental concerto, entitled Apotheosis, composed to the immortal memory of the incomparable Lully. In his preface Couperin said that the work could be performed on two harpsichords, as well as on other instruments, leaving the choice to the performers. So, like so many of the old French simphonies or instrumental pieces, it can be performed as a simple trio sonata, or as a harpsichord duo, or even as a piece for chamber orchestra. Our modern purists who fuss over the exact type of recorder or pitch of French horn would get scant sympathy from François Couperin-le-Grand Couperin s Apotheosis of Lully is unabashed program music, the second of a pair of such pieces, the first being in honour of Couperin s other great musical hero, Corelli. In the opening Gravement of the Apotheosis, Lully is discovered in the Elysian Fields (the heavenly ones, not the familiar Parisian Champs Elysées) where he is playing in consort with other musical spirits. The God Mercury, the heavenly messenger, then appears to announce that Apollo, the Sun-God and patron deity of the arts, is about to appear there is no doubt an oblique reference here also to Lully s great patron Louis XIV, whose favourite role in the court ballets had been that of Le Roi Soleil, the Sun King. Apollo appears, to an air marked Noblement. He offers his violin to Lully, as well as his place on Parnassus, the hill of the Muses. This is too much for some of Lully s old rivals, whose jealousy is amusingly depicted in a piece called Rumeur souteraine or subterranean grumblings. Their complaints are continued in the next piece, a Plainte par des Flûtes ou des Violons très adoucis, and with the additional direction Dolement dolefully. Lully flies off to Parnassus, where he is welcomed by Corelli and the Italian Muses, in a piece marked with the Italian direction
Largo. Lully thanks Apollo, in a gracious triple-time air, whereupon Apollo persuades Lully and Corelli to unite the French and Italian styles and thus bring about the perfection of music. They do so, in the two following largescale pieces. The first is an Essay in the form of an overture, in the French style, in which Lully and the French Muses play one part, whilst Corelli and the Italian Muses obligingly play the other. (Couperin doesn t say who is supposed to play the basso-continuo Apollo perhaps?) The overture itself is in the typical Lullian French form, with a grand opening and lively fugato, followed by a return to the opening mood. After the overture come two new airs, for two violins without bass; in the first air, Lully plays the subject and Corelli the accompaniment, whilst in the second their roles are reversed. Having played a French overture, the company now proceed to oblige with an Italian sonata, under the title of Peace on Parnassus, and with the laudable intention of uniting the two great national styles. It is in the typical four movements of the Italian sonata da chiesa or church sonata, following the overall slow quick slow quick pattern of such pieces, and without programmatic subtitles. So peace prevails on Parnassus, with Couperin s two great musical heroes working together to unite les Goûts François et Italien with the one proviso that in French, Italian words such as Sonata, Cantata, etc., shall be Gallicised as Sonade, Cantade, and so on. But, as G.K. Chesterton has warned us, mankind loves to play cheat the prophet. French usage finally decided that Sonate, Cantate was the form it preferred. Couperin s music has outlasted his orthography. Charles Cudworth The set of four Ordres called Les Nations, Sonades et Suites de Simphonies en Trio was published in Paris in 1726. In his preface Couperin explains that Some of these Trios were composed a few years ago; manuscript copies have been available, but I mistrust them, knowing the negligence of copyists. From time to time I have increased their number and I think that they will satisfy lovers of true music. The first sonata of this collection was the first I composed and indeed the first composed in France. It has a singular history. Delighted by the sonatas of Signor Corelli, whose work I shall enjoy as long as I live, as also the work of Monsieur de Lulli, I risked composing one which was played in the place where I had heard those of Corelli. Knowing French harshness towards foreign innovations of any type, and not too confident of myself, I did myself a good service by a slight prevarication. I pretended that a relative who exists, in fact, in the service of the King of Sardinia had sent me a sonata by a new Italian composer. The signature was my own name with the letters rearranged so as to form an Italian name. The sonata was swallowed with enthusiasm, and I will make no further comment. This encouraged me to write more and my Italianized name brought me, under my disguise, a great deal of applause. Fortunately the reception given to my sonatas was so favourable that my subterfuge caused me no blushes. I have included these first sonatas with those I have written since without any significant modification or addition. I have simply placed them with long suites of pieces to which the sonatas stand as preludes or introductions as it were As Couperin points out, each Ordre begins with a sonata da chiesa in the Italian manner, these having many resemblances to the majestic trio sonatas of Henry Purcell. Predominantly contrapuntal in style, such sonatas consist of continuous chains of contrasting movements, each having independent and well-defined themes. The sonata with which La Françoise begins is thought to have been composed in 1692. It comprises eight sections: Gravement Gayement Gravement Gayement Gravement Vivement Gracieusement (Air) Gayement. La Françoise continues with what Couperin calls a Suite de Simphonies that is to say, a suite of dances in the French style. The suite begins as usual with a noble Allemande; then follow two Courantes, the first a little slower than the second, a Sarabande ( Gravement ), a Gigue ( Gayement ), an extended Chaconne
(Couperin indicates various changes of mood and style; for variety s sake, two sections are played as a harpsichord solo), and finally a Gavotte and Menuet. Like La Françoise, L Espagnole begins with a sonata da chiesa; this, too, was composed in 1692. It is sombre in character and colouring was it originally written with an organ continuo in mind? and it incorporates two tender Airs of great charm. The sonata ends with a set of variations on a ground, first heard on the bass viol (accompanied on the harpsichord by an elaborate written-out keyboard part, which Couperin calls Badinage ). The theme of the ground was common currency during the latter part of the 17th century in many parts of Europe; in its major version it was set by Purcell as a harpsichord solo, and it forms the basis of the theme of Bach s incomparable Goldberg Variations. As in Purcell s Chacony (on a related theme) the tune is handed from one instrument to another, while the other instruments comment on it in elaborate counterpoint. This fine sonata is followed by a suite, which begins with the customary Allemande ( Gracieusement ); after a pair of contrasted Courantes, the suite continues with a Sarabande ( Gravement ) of great power and expressiveness, and a complex Gigue Lourée ( Modérément ). A short Gavotte ( Tendrement, sans lenteur ) prepares the way for a Rondeau ( Affectueusement ). After a light-hearted Bourée (each strain is repeated with Couperin s own variation on it), the suite ends with a magnificent Passacaille (Noblement, et marqué); among the happiest touches in this movement are the short duets for unaccompanied violins, and the robust fanfares followed at once by a tender section in which the three stringed instruments tread on one another s heels. The special effect of this section is enhanced by the extremely high range in which the bass viol has to play. All of Les Nations is composed for the same broken consort of two violins, viola da gamba and harpsichord continuo a combination of instruments much favoured during the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Most composers of northern Europe who wrote for such a group were unanimous in preferring the thin, delicate tone of the bass viol to the more robust sound of a cello, for it seems to have been their opinion that cello tone would weigh down the conversation between the violins. The text used for the recording is based on that printed in Volume IX of Couperin s complete works (published by Editions de l Oiseau-Lyre), and full account has been taken of such specially French conventions of performance as notes inégales, ports de voix, lourés and the proper tempi for dance-movements. I have become convinced that in much instrumental music of the years between 1660 and 1720 or so, pairs of slurred quavers were intended to be performed in the rhythm of a Scotch snap the first note considerably shorter than the second so this special interpretation has been adopted throughout this recording. The interpretations of the quite exceptionally numerous ornaments have been based on Couperin s own explanations in his harpsichord books. Thurston Dart
Recordings: 1962, Decca Studios, West Hampstead, London, UK (Les Nations); Kingsway Hall, London, UK, 1966 (Apothéose de Lully) Eloquence series manager: Cyrus Meher-Homji Art direction: Chilu Tong www.chilu.com Booklet editor: Bruce Raggatt
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