Charpentier: Messe à quatre chœurs - Carnets de voyage d'Italie
10/30/2020, 22 Tracks, 1:19:35
BBC Music Magazine Choice
Featuring
Sébastien Daucé
Ensemble Correspondances
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Maurizio Cazzati
Francesco Cavalli
Tarquinio Merula
Francesco Beretta
Giuseppe Giamberti
Orazio Benevoli
Did you know?
1/7
Historical Context
For most of the 17th century, there was widespread antipathy in France towards Italian music, with many preferring the natural grace of French music over what they saw as Italian excesses.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Charpentier's future patron, the Duchesse de Guise, who had lived in exile in Florence, may have encouraged his journey to Italy due to her passion for Italian music.
Compositional Technique
Roman composers like Orazio Benevoli (1605-1672) and Francesco Beretta (died 1694) were known for writing masses for multiple choirs, sometimes up to twelve.
Composition History
Charpentier's Messe à quatre chœurs (tracks 15-21) is the only surviving 17th-century French polychoral mass and was likely commissioned by the Theatines to celebrate the canonization of their founder, San Gaetano, in 1671.
Composer Biography
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) was the only French composer of his generation to travel to Italy, spending about three years in Rome in the late 1660s.
Compositional Technique
Tarquinio Merula (1594/95-1665), a maestro di cappella at Cremona Cathedral, was noted for his innovations, including the resourceful treatment of ground basses.
Compositional Technique
Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676), a successor to Monteverdi as maestro di cappella at San Marco, used three choirs in his Magnificat, two with voices and instruments, and one for instruments only, creating kaleidoscopic sonorities.
