Lecture: Christmas a la Louis XIV

Tonight's program is called Christmas Louis XIV style. I know that, thanks to Hollywood, popular culture and stereotypes, you are envisioning fancy wigs, shiny clothes, lots of lace, a beauty spot, and all the elegance and courtliness associated with that period. There is certainly that salon side, some of which we'll enjoy tonight - but there's so much more.

Now when I prepare program or lecture notes, I always study the music and learn about the composers. For tonight's program, I also did some Louis Quatorze family-tree research in order to give you a little bit of historical background, which I hope will enhance your enjoyment of tonight's concert.

Louis XIV was called the "Sun King" and the time of his 72-year reign is considered France's "zenith." Here is the opening line of Chapter 1, entitled "The Sun Rises" from Volume 8 "The Age of Louis XIV" of Will Durant's "The Story of Civilization."
"Why is it that from 1643 France exercised an almost hypnotic dominance over Western Europe, in politics..., in language, literature, and art...? Not since Augustus had any monarchy been so adorned with great writers, painters, sculptors, and architects, or so widely admired and imitated in manners, fashions, ideas, and arts as the government of Louis XIV from 1643 to 1715. Foreigners came to Paris as to a finishing school for all graces of body and mind. Thousands of Italians, Germans, even Englishmen, preferred Paris to their native lands.

Although we seem to be talking about a real, identifiable FRENCH culture, we must bear in mind that 300 years ago nationality was quite different from what we consider it today. Not only were geographical boundaries migratory, dynasties intermarried to preserve or extend their holdings. Louis XIV, the greatest of the French kings was himself only one-quarter French. (Hey - the Hapsburgs of Austria were Spanish!) At the same time, the crossing of cultures back then was very much the way it is today. People - and that means composers too - left their native lands to learn from others in other lands. Sometimes they returned home with their acquired knowledge and skills. Sometimes the foreigners themselves were imported to serve and "contribute" in other countries.

More than half of the music on tonight's program is by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, the only one of our composers who was born in France and worked there during Louis XIV's reign. Still, we can look at the other composers we perform tonight and see how they fit within the spirit of that exciting and enlightened period./p>

But first Charpentier: He was born in Paris around 1634, but when he was a very young man, went to Rome to study under Carissimi. In 1670, when he was almost 35 years old, he returned to his native city only to find that job opportunities were rather limited since Lully, the Superintendent of Music for Louis XIV, guarded his territory with a suspicious eye. Even after Lully's death, Charpentier still could not compete with Lully's works, which were considered almost sacrosanct. Thus, Charpentier had to devote his time and energy to composing sacred music, especially for the Jesuits. In 1698 (when he was nearly 65 years old) he became music director of Sainte Chapelle, a post that was second only to the directorship of the royal chapel at Versailles. He held that prestigious position for only 6 years, dying in 1704 at the age of 70.

He was never one of the most prominent composers at that time. Christmas music, however, was very popular in Louis XIV's France - and nowhere else in the whole of French Baroque music are there works of such charm and enchantment as Charpentier's In Nativitatem Domini nostri Jesu Christe (On the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ) and Messe de minuit pour NoÔl (Midnight Mass for Christmas). Both of these works express lightness, gentleness, sweetness and childhood innocence.

The earlier of the two, In Nativitatem was written in the mid-1670s - not long after Charpentier's return from Italy. This piece certainly exhibits Italian influence ... a beautiful angel aria written in bel canto style, the use of recitative (sung recitations), the stile-antico (old-style) counterpoint of the shepherd's chorus, and the ritornelli (when the orchestra "returns" to play a section over again. Yet it is characteristically French in flavor, with dance-rhythms and the emphasis on the pastoral elements of the Christmas story, reminding us of charming noÔls, French Christmas carols.

In Nativitatem is a vignette - not the whole Christmas story - just the one scene where the angel appears to the shepherds and they all go off to find the Child. As French courtiers of that period are often depicted as "frivolous," so too this work does not convey deep spiritual significance. The reaction to the Christ child is not "The Messiah has come to save the world," but rather "O, welcome, you sweet baby." Nor does the piece reflect the true nature of an actual working shepherd's life. Charpentier's shepherds are gay bergeres, merry shepherds who skip off to find the newborn babe. These are Frenchmen putting on shepherd costumes for a pageant. The spirit of the piece was and still is one that evokes memories of childhood. (Even as a non-Christian growing up in Hawaii, I remember fondly my preschool pageant - coat-hanger halos and cardboard angel wings covered with aluminum foil, a shepherd's staves with droopy crooks because they were just wadded up newspaper wrapped with tape and stuck on the end of sticks, and the part of Baby Jesus played by a 25-watt lightbulb.)

About 20 years later, in the early 1690s, Charpentier composed his Messe de minuit, the Midnight Mass for Christmas. This piece is very characteristic of French Baroque music, full of dance rhythms and jaunty dotted notes, termed inégal. Let me explain inégal to you, because it is the one stylistic element that will REALLY distinguish the French Baroque from other flavors of baroque music we perform tonight. Inégal means "unequal" - and in practice it means that shorter moving notes are sung with unequal value.

Since it was Frank Sinatra's birthday yesterday, I'll use ol' Blue eyes as an example. If he sang [Sing: STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT, equal value notes] with equal value notes, it would sound pretty flat, bland. Instead, he does it his way [Sing: STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT, Sinatra-style.] French baroque inegal would make the notes long-short long-short and it would sound like [Sing: STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT, inegal.] You'll recognize it when you hear it.

The Messe de minuit is so French not only by virtue of its compositional elements, but by Charpentier's skillful adaptation of a dozen commonly-known noÔls as the basis for this work. Charpentier chose these carols with great care, not only for their melodies but also for the significance of their words. Most of that significance is lost on us, unfortunately, because we are not familiar with these carols. But here's one example. In the Gloria, the chorus sings [Sing: LAUDAMUS TE....BENEDICIMUS TE...] (We praise you, we bless you, we worship you, we glorify you...), The words and tune to the noÔl are [Sing: O VOUS BOURGEOIS DE CHATRE, NE SOYEZ EN SOUCI.] (O folk of Chätre, have no care, feast and be joyful this day.) Anyone in the congregation of Charpentier's time would have recognized the tunes; and although the words that were sung were the actual words of the Latin mass, the listener would also be making mental association with the words of the noÔls.

Also on tonight's program we are performing music written by Jean Mouton, a French composer from the renaissance period; Antonio Caldara, from the Italian baroque; and Dietrich Buxtehude, generally considered German baroque. When we were rehearsing the Buxtehude one of our choristers asked "What does this have to do with Louis XIV? Mitchell responded "You sound like my board of directors."

Actually the remainder of the program celebrates the cosmopolitan nature of Western Europe at that time of enlightenment, as it most certainly was exhibited in the court of Louis XIV.

In Mouton's case, there are additional connections - and not only because he too was French. The two Christmas motets we perform, written around 1521 - 150 years before Charpentier - are also simple, moving songs about the shepherds, In fact, the opening piece Noe psallite is subtitled In Nativitatem Domini, same as the Charpentier piece. But I think the most interesting relationship between Mouton and Charpentier is their Medici connection. Mouton was a favorite of Pope Leo X, AKA Giovanni Medici, son of The great Florentine Lorenzo il Magnifico. Lorenzo also had a daughter Lucrezia, who had a daughter Maria, who had a son Cosimo, who had a son Francesco, who had a daughter Maria, whose son was Louis XIII, whose son was Louis XIV. The greatest of the French kings was actually 1/4 Medici - Lorenzo's great great great great great grandson. Charpentier and Mouton were both French composers who worked for - Medicis!

The other two composers are here because, well, because we WANT to do their music for you - but also because they are two different examples of that era - i.e. how does one classify them?

Antonio Caldara was born in Italy but traveled and studied throughout Europe. He ended up moving to Vienna and working for the Emperor, who was not Austrian but rather a Spanish Hapsburg.

Dietrich Buxtehude is most unlike the others in that he stayed at home, studied with and later succeeded his father. He took a prestigious position as organist at the Marienkirke in Lübeck, northern Germany, and stayed there for 40 years, the remainder of his life. However, his "nationality" is interesting because he considered himself Danish, since his family moved from Northern Germany to the then-Danish province of Scania, where he was born.

So we have an Italian working for a Spanish emperor in Austria, and a self-proclaimed Dane (of German parentage) who spent his productive life working in Germany and inspiring such German luminaries as GF Handel and JS Bach. Now this is diversity.

There is one final point I want to make about the baroque composers - Charpentier, Buxtehude, and Caldara. In the written program notes I describe Buxtehude's dramatization of text and Caldara's emphasis on the interplay of instruments with voices. We spent a long time talking about Charpentier's use of the familiar noÔls. All of this music was taking place at the time of the Protestant Reformation. Although these composers were writing for the Catholic church, perhaps they were affected by the reformation sentiment - therefore bringing music closer to the people, all people.

And that's what we are trying to do. Although tonight we are performing sacred music that was written for a Christmas celebration, we want to share and spread the SPIRIT of the season, for there are several important observances that also take place around this time of year ... Winter Solstice on December 21, Hanukkah on December 23-4, Kwanzaa on December 26.

This is a time of good news, when we celebrate the coming of light and enlightenment. It is rebirth, as we rekindle, refocus, rededicate, redirect ourselves and our spirits. Our concert opens with the words Noe noe noe, News! News! Good news! And we end the program with a universal plea to whatever God or Goddess or Being we acknowledge, ... Dona nobis pacem. Grant us peace.

Thank you for joining us. Happy holidays.