TE DEUM
In nativitatem Domini canticum

ALIAVOX
AVSA9966
54’57

MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER
Te Deum
In nativitatem Domini canticum

1-10. TE DEUM, H.146 (ca. 1690)      25’03

11-28. IN NATIVITATEM DOMINI CANTICUM, H.416 (1690)      29’54

Enregistré les 16 et 17 décembre 2022 à la Collégiale de Cardona (Catalogne)
Enregistrement Montage et Mastering SACD : Manuel Mohino Ars Altis

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INTERPRÈTES

SOLISTES

Flore van Meerssche soprano (dessus I)
Kristin Mulders mezzosoprano (dessus II)
Andrés Montilla-Acurero contre-ténor (haute-contre)
Cyril Auvity ténor (taille)
Mauro Borgioni baryton (basse)

LA CAPELLA REIAL DE CATALUNYA

Jeanne Lefort, Anaïs Oliveras, Natasha Schnur,
Baiba Urka, Lise Viricel sopranos

Eulàlia Fantova, Daniel Folqué, Maria Chiara Gallo, Lara Morger,
David Sagastume mezzosopranos et contre-ténors

Gerson Coelho, David Hernández, Carlos Monteiro, Alberto Palacios ténors
Lluís Arratia, Guglielmo Buonsanti, Joan Miquel Muñoz,

Marco Saccardin, Pieter Stas barytons et basses

Lluís Vilamajó, préparation de l’ensemble vocal

Répétiteurs : Marc de la Linde viole de gambe, Joan Seguí orgue

Jordi Savall, Direction

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Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Te Deum H.146
In nativitatem Domini canticum H.416

The two works presented here, composed two years apart in 1690 and 1692, respectively, share many similarities despite the one being a totally secular piece celebrating Christmas Eve and the other being a vigil of arms in the Te Deum!

At the time, Charpentier was director of music at the Jesuit College and Church of Saint-Louis in Paris. The late 17th century oratorio to which the piece In nativitatem Domini canticum (H.416) belongs is the result of musical forms and traditions, some of which date back to the Middle Ages. There are two main categories of oratorio: the oratorio volgare in the vernacular and the oratorio latino in Latin. These two types developed in parallel in Italy and are not fundamentally different from each other in musical terms.

The oratorio volgare was born under the impetus of Filippo Neri, founder of the Congregazione dell’Oratorio in Rome in the 1550s. During pious gatherings organised at the church of San Girolamo della Carità, and subsequently at Santa Maria della Vallicella, Filippo Neri’s musician friends sang and composed laudi spirituali. These strophic, polyphonic songs were performed before and after the sermon. Gradually, the lauda evolved into a dialogue form and, under the influence of the reform in melodrama that gave rise to opera in the late 16th century, it adopted the use of monody and basso continuo. In 1600, the year of Jacopo Peri’s Euridice, Emilio de’ Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo was performed at the oratory of Santa Maria della Vallicella in Rome. This work, with its religious theme and staged performance and ballets, was halfway between oratorio and opera, representing what might be called the ideal meeting point between secular and sacred art. In the first half of the 17th century, the oratorio volgare took up the musical elements (recitatives, arioso-style arias, instrumental ritornellos, choruses) found in the Rappresentazione di anima et di corpo, but abandoned the stage element. In his Teatro armonico spirituale (1619), Francesco Anerio entrusted the narrative function, which had previously been assigned to the chorus, to a soloist (il testo or il storico). In the oratorios Il Trionfo and La Fede, composed between 1630 and 1642, Francesco Balducci gave an increasingly prominent role to the narrative part (the historia) and, in formal terms, divided the oratorio into two parts, following the model of the opera’s division into acts.

CATHERINE CESSAC

+ information in the CD booklet