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Welcome to Harmonia…I’m Angela Mariani. Some baroque music theorists wanted to make music easier for the performer to play and more meaningful for the audience to hear. Others theorized to such abstraction that while their work may be brilliant, it is challenging to understand and apply. This hour, we’ll explore music of a few 18th-century French, Swiss, and German theorists—both the pragmatic and the puzzling. Later in the hour, our featured release is Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe et ses Filles, intimate chamber music by masters of the viol and harpsichord, performed by the Ricercar Consort.
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MUSIC TRACK
Le Devin du village
Cantus Firmus Consort / Andreas Reize, cond.
CPO 2007 / Naxos 777260-2
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Tr. 24 Le Devin du Village, Ballet divertissement (4:33)
Andreas Reize led the Cantus Firmus Consort in “Ballet divertissement” from the one-act opera Le Devin du Village by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. [A work that brought him both fame and wealth and the praise of King Louis XV.]
We’ll hear more music by this Genevan philosopher, composer, music theorist, and [all-around] key figure of the Age of Enlightenment, as well as other music theorists from eighteenth-century Europe later in the hour.
Steeped in the evidence-based Enlightenment thought of mid eighteenth-century France, Jean-Philippe Rameau developed theoretical concepts that are the basis of much of harmony teaching today. Interested in Newton’s physics, Rameau described the tonic of a scale—the note “C” in C Major—as a body that has gravitational pull, both below and above it. And the way the chords around that tonic C major behave in a way that ultimately seeks to get back to C Major helps the listener feel like the piece is in that key: C Major sounds like “home.” Despite Rameau’s commitment to enlightenment thought, he also trusted his musical instincts. Whatever the theory, he was still committed to [quote] “The judgement of the ear” to make good musical choices in performance and composition. Here is Scene 1 from Rameau’s Castor et Pollux.
MUSIC TRACK
Castor et Pollux
Aradia Ensemble and soloists / cond. Kevin Mallon
Naxos 2004 / Naxos 8.660118-19
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Tr. 2 Castor et Pollux (1754 version), Act I Scene 1: L’hymen couronne votre soeur (Cleone, Phébé) (5:26)
Aradia Ensemble was led by Kevin Mallon in Overture and Scene 1 from Rameau’s opera Castor et Pollux.
Rameau was not alone in using Enlightenment methods to develop his music theory. Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau is most famous for his writings on politics, economics, and education. Many of his ideas from Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract fed into the fire of the French Revolution. Rousseau got into arguments with Rameau about which music was best. Rousseau preferred Italian music since melody is supreme—in other words, prioritized --while Rameau preferred French music, arguing that harmony was more important than melody. Let’s hear the overture and opening scene from the opera Le Devin du Village, music by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
MUSIC TRACK
Le Devin du village
Cantus Firmus Consort / Andreas Reize, cond.
CPO 2007 / Naxos 777260-2
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Tr. 1 Le Devin du Village, Overture (3:49)
Tr. 2 Le Devin du Village, Scene 1: J'ai perdu tout mon bonheur (Colette) (6:00)
Music by philosopher and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau. That was the overture and opening scene from Rousseau’s opera Le Devin du Village. Andreas Reize led the Cantus Firmus Consort.
While Rousseau may have despised Rameau’s aesthetics, many composers of the day deeply admired Rameau. French composer and conductor André Campra was intrigued by Rameau’s opera Hippolyte et Aricie. Campra’s operas were popular between the regal writings of Jean-Baptists Lully and the colorful sound experiments of Jean-Philippe Rameau. We’ll hear “Quel funeste coup,” aria by André Campra.
MUSIC TRACK
Le Jardin de Monsieu Rameau
Les Arts Florissants Ensemble / cond. William Christie
Harmonia Mundi 2018 / HAF8905297DI
André Campra
Tr. 20 L’Europe galante (excerpts), Act II Scene 5: Aria: Quel funeste coup (Doris) (3:27)
Aria “Quel funeste coup” from L’Europe Galante by André Campra. We heard contralto Benedetta Mazzucato with Les Arts Florissants led by William Christie.
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Theme Music Bed: Ensemble Alcatraz, Danse Royale, Elektra Nonesuch 79240-2 / B000005J0B, T.12: La Prime Estampie Royal
You can hear highlights from recent and archival concert recordings of early music and more on Harmonia Uncut. Listen online at harmonia early music dot org and at your podcast platform of choice.
You’re listening to Harmonia . . . I’m Angela Mariani.
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Midpoint Break Music Bed:
12 Suites for Harpsichord
Gilbert Rowland, harpsichord
Athene 2017 / Naxos ATH23301
Johann Mattheson
D. 2 Tr. 10 Pieces de clavecin, Vol. 2: Suite No. 6 in E-Flat Major, V. Gigue (:59)
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Welcome back. We’re exploring music by Baroque music theorists this hour.
Have you ever nearly killed your best friend? Well, this almost happened to two long-time buddies: Johann Mattheson and George Frideric Handel. In the middle of a performance of Mattheson’s Cleopatra, Mattheson struck Handel with his sword! Handel, amazingly, survived because of a well-placed button on his jacket. The two were about 20 years old at the time! Luckily, not only did Handel survive, the two somehow remained friends. After Handel’s death, Mattheson helped ensure Handel’s place in German music history when he published a German translation of the major Handel biography of the time, which was in English. Let’s hear music Mattheson wrote about a decade after the “sword and button” incident. Here are two dances from Mattheson’s Suite No. 1 in D Minor for keyboard.
MUSIC TRACK
12 Suites for Harpsichord
Gilbert Rowland, harpsichord
Athene 2017 / Naxos ATH23301
Johann Mattheson
Tr. 3 Pieces de clavecin, Vol. 2: Suite No. 1 in D Minor, III. Courante - Double (3:48)
Tr. 5 Pieces de clavecin, Vol. 2: Suite No. 1 in D Minor, V. Gigue (2:11)
Gilbert Rowland, harpsichordist, performed Courante - Double and Gigue, two dances by Johann Mattheson from his Keyboard Suite in D Minor.
Mattheson worked in many fields—in addition to being a composer and performer, he was a music theorist as well as a lexicographer and a diplomat. Mattheson’s writings are a puzzle. Sometimes, he is the practical music director and teacher, and some of his writing teaches basic and in-depth musical knowledge. His Grosse General-Bass-Schule (1731) is a practical guide about how to play harmony on keyboard instruments and gives a window into how to improvise in German baroque style. On the other hand, many of Mattheson’s writings can be abstruse and his opinions sometimes a bit elitist. In Der musicalische Patriot, Mattheson defends the use of theatrical tropes in church music, but then he also tears into opera in his city, Hamburg, decrying the public’s poor taste. [He could have learned a crowd-pleasing lesson or two from his friend Handel.] Here are the opening minutes of a sacred work by Mattheson--Magnificat a due cori.
MUSIC TRACK
Mattheson: Christmas Oratorio, Die heilsame Geburt, Magnificat
Kölner Akademie / Michael Alexander Willens, cond.
CPO 2010 / Naxos 777274-2
Tr. 24 Magnificat a due cori, Sinfonia and Chorus: Meine Seele erhebet den Herren (2:41)
Tr. 25 Magnificat a due cori, Retitative: Elende Magd! Wie ist doch geschehen? (1:22)
Tr. 26 Magnificat a due cori, Aria: Heilig, heilig heißt sein Name (3:32)
Music from Magnificat a due cori by Johann Mattheson. Kölner Akademie was led by Michael Alexander Willens.
“Everyone knows that it is thanks to your instruction [...] that the viol honourably surpasses all other instruments since it imitates the human voice."
Words of Praise from a student to teacher Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe. Our featured release this hour focuses on this French composer and violist. Let’s begin with Concerto No. 27 for 2 Equal Bass Viols, “La Bourrasque” from the 2020 Mirare recording Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe et ses Filles by the Ricercar Consort.
MUSIC TRACK
Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe et ses Filles
Ricercar Consort
Mirare 2020 / MIR336D
Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe
Tr. 4 Concerto No. 27 for 2 Equal Bass Viols, "La Bourrasque" (5:56)
Ricercar Consort performed “La Bourrasque,” a concerto for bass viols by Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe.
Sainte-Colombe’s music was intimate, exclusive, and small—often for two or three indoor instruments and only heard by a select few. He often performed in his home with his two daughters, forming a viol trio. [Some of you may remember the film Tous les matins du monde, a highly fictionalized story about St Colombe, his daughters, and his student, the composer Marin Marais.] Many of these pieces were dances – like this one, Pavane L’Entretien des Dieux (The conversation of the gods) by Sainte-Colombe’s contemporary, harpsichordist and composer Jacques Champion Chambonnières.
MUSIC TRACK
Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe et ses Filles
Ricercar Consort
Mirare 2020 / MIR336D
Jacques Champion Chambonnières
Tr. 6 Pavane L'entretien des Dieux (6:04)
“Pavane L’entretien des Dieux” by French baroque composer Jacques Champion Chambonnières. Ricercar Consort performed on our featured release, Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe et ses Filles.
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Harmonia is a production of WFIU. Support comes from Early Music America: a national organization that advocates and supports the historical performance of music of the past, the community of artists who create it, and the listeners whose lives are enriched by it. On the web at EarlyMusicAmerica-dot-org.
Additional resources come from the William and Gayle Cook Music Library at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
We welcome your thoughts about any part of this program, or about early music in general. Contact us at harmonia early music dot org. And, you can follow our Facebook page by searching for Harmonia Early Music.
The writer for this edition of Harmonia was Sarah Huebsch Schilling.
Thanks to our studio engineer Michael Paskash, and our production team: LuAnn Johnson, Wendy Gillespie, Aaron Cain, and John Bailey. I’m Angela Mariani, inviting you to join us again for the next edition of Harmonia.
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