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Sunday, June 27, 2004 |
| ARCHIVE • 2004 • SUN 20 • MON 21 • WED 23 • FRI 25 • SUN 27 |
| Newport Harbor Lutheran Church, 4 p.m. Festival Finale Claire Fedoruk, soprano Wolfgang Carl Briegel (1626-1712) Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Intermission
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1634-1704)
Reception
Psalm 150 for male voices, one of many of Briegel’s works found in the Archdual Library of Darmstadt by this writer, had its first performance since the late 17th century in our Festival in 1989 and is receiving only its second performance today. The male soloists and chorus are accompanied by basso continuo, adding strings here and there and, when expressively appropriate, trumpet, woodwinds and timpani. BACK
Mouret was born and rained in Avignon, arrived in Paris by his 25th year, and served for 20 years as composer-director of the New Italian Theatre during which time he, with his wife and daughter, lived on the Place du Palais Royal. He was a singer in the king’s chamber, held a royal privilege to publish his own music, and headed and composed for the Concert Spirituel. The celebratory trumpet and timpani lend an air of pompous dignity to this music from Mouret’s later years, yet its lightness and attractive melodies suggest courtly entertainment. Of his substantial output of stage, church and chamber music, this irresistible composition represents Mouret’s most engaging work. BACK
Of his four extant settings of the Te Deum, this one, for five soloists, a four-voiced choir, trumpet timpani, winds and strings, represents Charpentier at his best. The joyous text of praise was often historically used to celebrate military victories. Here soloists and chorus hand off singing assignments like batons in a relay, the solos and solo ensembles alternating in short order with choral sections, all progressing full bore to a rousing final choral setting of “O Lord, in thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded.” BACK Notes by Burton Karson |
he
Baroque motet grew out of the Renaissance form — a polyphonic
setting of a sacred text that was not an essential part of the Mass
with the progressive addition of basso continuo and often
other instruments. When soloists were added, the result might have
suggested the cantata form, but without dramatic operatic recitatives.
Renaissance motets were in Latin; Baroque motets were in both Latin
and the vernacular.
riegel
wrote hundreds of motets and cantatas, sacred songs and Psalm settings
during the last four decades of his life, which he spent in the
royal court of Hessen-Darmstadt. Many of these were intended for
the modest resources of Protestant choirs in German towns and villages,
yet they often demand well-rehearsed forces. 
harpentier,
who studied with Carissimi in Rome, surely was the finest French
composer of the 17th century, despite the royal favor accorded to
the Italian-born Lully. He served French nobles, worked in the musical
theater, composed large-scale works for royal events, and taught
the Duke of Chartres, who later as Duke of Orléans became Regent
of France. Charpentier’s compositional oeuvre for the
church is staggeringly large, including a dozen masses plus hundreds
of motets, antiphons, litanies, lessons, responsories, Psalm settings
and oratorios. He also produced some serious airs and several drinking
songs.
BAROQUE MUSIC FESTIVAL CORONA DEL MAR
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