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LULLY: Grand Motets, Vol. 2

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Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) Grands Motets, Vol. 2 "Exit Perrin, vivat Lully" must have been the cry of some onlookers in 1672 when the...

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Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687)
Grands Motets, Vol. 2

"Exit Perrin, vivat Lully" must have been the cry of some onlookers in 1672 when the ambitious composer purchased the privilege of the Royal Academy of Music from the unfortunate librettist, then imprisoned for debt. Pierre Perrin (1620-1675) seems only to have existed in order to spare Lully the tiresome bother of founding the Academy of Music (1669) and trying out the first production of French opera, Pomone (1671) with music by Cambert. Fate seems to have singled him out to plough the field in which Lully would sow the seeds of his fame. There has been little interest in his pre-opera career, and yet he was one of the prime movers in the renewal of the French motet which was to set the king's glory on an equal footing with that of God and, in its choice of texts and method of performance, sometimes give us cause to imagine that the more powerful of the two is not the one we might think.

In the foreword to his Cantica pro Capella Regis (1665), Pierre Perrin tells us that "three [motets] are generally sung, a full one, a small one for the Elevation and a Domine salvum fac regem". At a time when most churches in France followed the usages of the Chapel Royal, Perrin provided a made to measure definition of the motet according to Louis XIV's tastes: "The motet is a varied piece of several strains for voices or instruments, connected but different (...). However, the variety of the piece will be all the greater, and the composition easier for the Musician, if variety is practiced in the Stanzas and Verses and if they are composed for continual change (...)." The theory, though following on from a number of practical examples, nonetheless became a veritable canon, the extension of which culminated in the pointilliste style of the eighteenth century in which most verses were treated as separate movements. Of course different images and affects abound in Perrin's Cantica: "It is for that reason that, having to compose the words of motets for Mass at the King's Chapel, I have followed this method". Perrin's theories and poetry were all the more influential for being immediately viewed as exemplary. And to everyone's astonishment this was the humble task that Lully, orchestrator of royal entertainments, Superintendent of Music, Composer of the King's Bedchamber, sought for himself His Miserere (1664) was to have a lasting influence on the sub-masters of the Chapel Royal. He may be regarded as the first great exponent of the first age of the French "grand motet". Of course the motet had not yet become a series of separate movements, but each image and each idea in the text is given appropriate musical treatment.

Lully drew his texts from the Cantica pro Capella Regis on three occasions: for the "petit motet" Ave coeli munus supernum and for the full motets O Lachrymae fideles and Plaude laetare.

O Lachrymae fideles was probably composed during the winter of 1664, at the same time as or shortly after the Miserere. Perrin's poem is a plea in which the sinner is a fountain of tears imploring redemption; Lully's setting is the earliest work on this recording and, like the other three, calls for a small choir of soloists, a five-part chorus and a five-part orchestra.

Quare fremuerunt (Psalm II) was first performed on 19th April, 1685 in Versailles but was probably composed in 1684 during the Regensburg Truce. The Bible calls this a royal psalm and, during the period which concerns us here, it was sung in time of war. The psalm reads like a libretto for an oratorio: Israel's neighbours are rising up and preparing to attack the Lord's people and their king, but in vain because God has promised the king, his adopted son, dominion over all the earth. The political connotations in 1685 were clear: anyone attacking Louis XIV, king by divine right, was attacking God. Lully's music reflects these images of war and wrath. The violence of the opening orchestral motif sets the tone for the entire work, written in the key of C major which Marc-Antoine Charpentier qualified as "gay and martial".

Closely following the text, Lully's motet seems to be arranged as three tableaux. The first takes us to the end of verse 6 and is chiefly characterized by a lively tempo and agitated writing, reflecting anger and terror. The only moment of respite comes in verse 4, Qui habitat in caelis, with God's laughter on the word irridebit illustrated by a vocalise in a rhetorical flourish worthy of the best comedie-ballets. The mood in the second section, covering verses 6 to 8, is more serene; it is the moment when the king reaffirms his confidence in God. The final section mirrors the text, alternating stormy and quiet passages and highlighting contrasts in a musical design that is the very image of the one described by Pierre Perrin twenty years previously.

Lully wrote his Dies irae for the funeral of Louis XIV's wife, Queen Marie-Ther�se, who died on 30th July, 1683. The Dies irae was sung after the mass, in the great basilica of Saint Denis, and just before the De profundis. The two works are thus historically indissociable. The orchestras of the Chapel and Bedchamber joined the monks of the abbey for the occasion.

The Dies irae is written as a single movement in the principal key of G minor. Although the text is full of apocalyptic images, Lully approaches it in a mood of serenity: his emphasis is on death as deliverance rather than death as punishment. One of the best examples of this conception comes in the Confutatis: the image of flames consuming the wicked (confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus addictis), depicted in agitated, homophonic writing for the two choirs, lasts a mere five bars, while the last line of the verse, voca me cum benedictis, is developed over 44 bars illustrating the plenitude of the soul going to join the elect. Of course contrasts abound, like the massive power of the Rex tremendae majestatis emphasized by the calm of the two short recitatives (for haute-contre and bass) which bracket it.

Another notable feature is the distribution of the solo writing; the soprano has no recitative at all and the lion's share, including the opening verse based on Gregorian chant, is given to the bass, an unusual occurrence because when composers wished to exploit the lower register they generally preferred to use the baritone voice.

De Profundis (Psalm CXXIX), the sixth of the seven penitential psalms, has an important place in the liturgy for the dead. The psalmist, aware of his sin, expects forgiveness only through the grace of God. The piece is in the same key as the Dies irae (G minor) and has the same form. The final verse of the psalm is followed by a symphonie or orchestral passage leading to the Introit Requiem aeternam, whose mainly contrapuntal writing marvellously suggests the peace and light of eternal rest. This apotheosis confirms the confidence that ought to be placed in divine forgiveness and is the central message of the De profundis.

Translation: Adrian Shaw

Disc 1

Quare fremuerunt

(more info)

Composed by: Jean-Baptiste Lully
Conducted by: Herve Niquet

Symphonie - Quare fremuerunt - 7:21
Reges eos in virga ferrea - 6:06

O Lachrymae

(more info)

Composed by: Jean-Baptiste Lully
Conducted by: Herve Niquet

Symphonie - O Lachrymae - 7:40
Exultant caeli - 10:59

Dies irae

(more info)

Composed by: Jean-Baptiste Lully
Conducted by: Herve Niquet

Symphonie - Dies irae - 4:25
Quaerens me, sedisti lassus - 8:30
Symphonie - Pie Jesu - 2:54

De profundis

(more info)

Composed by: Jean-Baptiste Lully
Conducted by: Herve Niquet

Symphonie - De profundis - 6:46
Ritournelle - Quia apud te - 7:10
Symphonie - Requiem - 2:50

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Composer(s):
Lully, Jean-Baptiste

Conductor(s):
Niquet, Herve

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 636943439821
Item Number: 8554398
Release Date: Feb 1, 2000