Assisted by Schola Cantorum Mississippiensis:
Thad Cockrill, Thomas A. Gregg,
John Jones, and Tinsley Silcox
Kyrie:
Plein chant en taille
Fugue sur les jeux d’anches
Récit de Chromhorne
Dialogue sur la Trompette et le Chromhorne
Plein chant
Gloria:
Plein jeu: Et in terra pax
Petitte fugue sur le Chromhorne
Duo sur les Tierces
Dialogue
Trio
Tierce en Taille
Dialogue sur la Voix humaine
Dialogue en trio
Dialogue sur les Grands jeux
Intermission
Offertoire sur les Grands jeux
Sanctus:
Plein chant en Canon
Récit de Cornet
Benedictus: Chromhorne en Taille
Agnus Dei:
Plein chant en Basse et en Taille alternativement
Dialogue sur les Grands jeux
Deo gratias: Petit plein jeu
|
When Charles Couperin, organist at St. Gervais in Paris, died in 1679, his son François was only ten years old. The church authorities, recognizing the lad’s talent, agreed to hold the post for him, appointing an interim organist until he reached the age of eighteen. At twenty-one, Couperin obtained from Louis XIV permission to publish and sell his music. His first publication was Pièces d’Orgue (1690), containing his only surviving organ works, the two organ masses. The music is not even printed—only the title page and the royal privilege are engraved, along with blank staves where a professional copyist wrote out the music by hand.
The mass à l’Usage ordinaire des Paroisses, pour les Festes solemnelles (usually translated as Mass for the Parishes) was intended for the principal feasts of the church year. In a liturgical performance the brief organ pieces (versets) alternate with Gregorian chant sung by a schola cantorum, or choir, to build up the longer movements (Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei) that are part of every mass. The choice of form and style in some versets is based on French tradition. For example, the first and last versets of the Kyrie and the first verset of the Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei are plein chant movements composed in an old-fashioned contrapuntal style with the chant melody played in long notes by the pedal. In other versets, the chant may serve as the basis for the melody, or it may be absent altogether. The second verset of the Kyrie, for example, is a fugue on the reed stops based on the chant melody. Most of the other movements, the récits (accompanied solos), duets, trios, and dialogues, are more overtly expressive or flamboyant, and speak a secular musical language. In his first major work, the young Couperin was already learning to incorporate the graceful, ornamented melodic style and dance-like rhythms of the French stage into his instrumental music.
An interesting feature of the Gloria is the inconclusive sound at the end of each verset. This is because the original chant is in the fourth mode, ending on E; baroque composers treated this mode as A minor, with cadences on E. The colossal Offertoire is much more than a verset. Inspired by the theatrical overture, and uninterrupted by sung chant, it consists of three distinct movements: a grave and majestic opening, an academic fugue (beginning as a trio), and a lively gigue. In both the Sanctus and Agnus Dei the opening verset contains a canon (exact melodic imitation) requiring two independent voices to be played simultaneously in the pedals. The loud and lively Dialogue that concludes the Agnus Dei might seem to be a fitting conclusion to the entire work, but Couperin frequently appended a relatively light and brief movement after similar climactic finales in his harpsichord suites. The traditional response to the priest’s dismissal of the congregation (“Ite missa est”) is a musical reprise of the Kyrie, but in Couperin’s organ mass it is represented by an expressive and dissonant fugue on the lighter of the two manual divisions.
French composers made excellent use of the sounds available on the French classical organ. The French organ had at least three divisions: a majestic grand orgue, a more intimate positif, and a rudimentary pedal, comprising only two or three stops. Some of the pieces in the Messe solennelle are composed for three manual divisions and pedal. The powerful pedal basses in the music of German composers were unknown in France—the pedals were used only to play the chant melodies in the plein chant movements, and to provide a light flute tone in the trios. Many organ pieces included in their titles specific registrations or stop combinations (jeux). Following are brief descriptions of some of these combinations:
Holtkamp Organ Co. Four manuals and pedal
Cleveland, Ohio, 1988 66 stops, 86 ranks
Mechanical key action, electric stop action
Great Positiv Swell
Principalbass 16 Pommer 16 Bourdon 16
Principal 8 Flöten Principal 8 Gamba 8
Gemshorn 8 Bourdon 8 Gamba Celeste 8
Rohrgedackt 8 Quintadena 8 Rohrflöte 8
Octave 4 Prestant 4 Geigen Principal 4
Spitzflöte 4 Rohrpfeife 4 Harmonic Flute 4
Quinte 2 2/3 Nazard 2 2/3 Principal 2
Superoctave 2 Octave 2 Quinte 1 1/3
Terz 1 3/5 Blockflöte 2 Mixture IV
Mixture IV Tierce 1 3/5 Cymbal III
Scharf III Larigot 1 2/3 Fagott 16
Trumpetbass 16 Mixture IV Trompette 8
Trumpet 8 Trumpet 8 Oboe 8
Cromorne 8 Clairon 4
Solo Pedal
Copula 8 Subbass 32 Hörnlein 2
Koppelflöte 4 Principal 16 Rauschbass IV
Doublette 2 Subbass 16 Basun 32
Principal 1 Quintadena 16 Posaune 16
Cornet II Octave 8 Dulzian 16
Zimbel III Openflute 8 Trumpet 8
Rankett 16 Choralbass 4 Trumpet 4
Vox Humana 8 Nachthorn 4
Schalmey 4
[ Warren Steel | Music Department | Liberal Arts | UM Home | Find It ]