Four previously unknown musical masses by Jehan Titelouze, an organist considered the founder of the French school of organ, were discovered in late 2016.
Recording & Production
The performers chose to use instruments with voices in colla parte (each voice doubled by an instrument), including cornetts, sackbuts, and a serpent, which were common in 17th-century French cathedrals.
Compositional Technique
Titelouze's masses reflect the Counter-Reformation's musical aesthetics, featuring short imitations and clear, syllabic text to ensure the words are easily understood.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Titelouze, the composer, viewed dissonances in music like a painter uses shading, to better highlight the sweetness of consonances.
Composer Biography
Jehan Titelouze, the composer, spent almost his entire career as the organist of Rouen Cathedral from 1588 until his death.
Instruments
The Champcueil organ, built in 2010 by Dominique Thomas, is a new instrument designed to reflect the Franco-Flemish polyphonic aesthetic of the 1600s.
Compositional Technique
The composer Titelouze used musical rhetoric, such as an avoided cadence (catachresis) or a silence (aposiopesis), to illustrate the meaning of the text.
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