Marc-Antoine Charpentier

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Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643 - February 24, 1704) was a French composer of the Baroque era.

He was a prolific and versatile composer, producing music of the highest quality in several genres. His mastery in the composition of sacred vocal music was recognized and acknowledged by his contemporaries.

Contents 1 Life 2 Music, style and influence 3 Modern significance 4 Charpentier's works 4.1 Operas 4.2 Biblical tragedies 4.3 Pastorales 4.4 Pastoraletta 4.5 Incidental Theater Music 4.6 Comédies-Ballet 4.7 Ballets 4.8 Divertissements 4.9 Interludes (Intermèdes) 4.10 Sonatas 4.11 Sacred Music 5 Media 6 Bibliography 6.1 Biography 6.2 Music History and Theory 7 External links

[edit] Life

Charpentier was born in or near Paris, the son of a master scribe who had very good connections to influential families in the Parlement of Paris. Marc-Antoine received a very good education, perhaps with the help of the Jesuits, and registered for law school in Paris when he was eighteen. He was in Rome, probably between 1667 and 1669, and studied with Giacomo Carissimi. A certain legend claims that Charpentier initially traveled to Rome to study painting before he was discovered by Carissimi. This story is undocumented and possibly untrue. Regardless, he acquired a solid knowledge of the contemporary Italian practice that he brought to France upon his return.

Most likely he worked for Marie de Lorraine, duchesse de Guise on his return to France, as her house composer, until her death in 1688. During this time he composed a considerable quantity of dramatic secular vocal works, as well as Psalm settings, hymns, a Magnificat setting, a mass, and motets, which he called stories and canticum.

Beginning around 1672, he worked with Molière, after Molière's falling out with Jean-Baptiste Lully. During the 1680s Charpentier served as maître de musique at the Jesuits' Paris church of St. Louis. In addition, Charpentier served as the music teacher to Philippe, Duke of Chartres. Charpentier was appointed maître de musique à la Sainte Chapelle in 1698, a post he held until his death in 1704. One of his most famous compositions during his tenure was the Mass "Assumpta Est Maria" (H.11).

[edit] Music, style and influence

His compositions include oratorios, masses, operas, and numerous smaller pieces that are difficult to categorize. Many of his smaller works for one or two voices and instruments resemble the Italian cantata of the time, and share most features except for the name: Charpentier calls them air sérieux or air à boire if they are in French, but cantata if they are in Italian.

[edit] Modern significance

The prelude to his Te Deum, H. 146, a rondeau, is well-known as the signature tune for the European Broadcasting Union, heard in the opening credits of the Vienna New Year's Concert and the Eurovision Song Contest.

[edit] Charpentier's works

Charpentier's compositions were catalogued by Hugh Wiley Hitchcock in his Les Oeuvres de Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Catalogue Raisonné, (Paris: Picard, 1982); references to works are often accompanied by their H (for Hitchcock) number.

[edit] Operas

• Les Amours d'Acis et Galatée, Lost, 1678?
• Les Arts florissants, H. 487, 1685-6
• La Descente d'Orphée aux Enfers, H. 488; 1686-7
• Le Jugement de Paris, (1690)
• Philomele, Lost, 1690
• Médée, H. 491; 1693

[edit] Biblical tragedies

• Celse Martyr, Music lost; P. Bretonneau's libretto published in 1687.
• David et Jonathas, H. 490, 1688. (Libretto by P. Bretonneau.)

[edit] Pastorales

• Petite Pastorale Eglogue de Bergers, H. 479; mid-1670s?
• Actéon, H. 481; 1684
• Il faut rire et chanter: Dispute de Bergers, H. 484; 1685
• La Fête de Ruel, H. 485; 1685
• La Couronne de Fleurs, H. 486; 1685
• Le Retour de Printemps, Lost.
• Cupido perfido dentr'al mio cor

[edit] Pastoraletta

• Amor Vince Ogni Cosa, H. 492

[edit] Incidental Theater Music

• Les Facheux, 1672. Music lost, drama by Molière.
• La Comtesee de'Escarbagnas, H. 494; 1672 (Drama by Molière.)
• Le Médecin malgré lui, music lost, date uncertain. (Drama by Molière)
• L'Inconnu, music lost; 1675 (Drama by Donneau de Visé and Thomas Corneille)
• Circé, H. 496; 1675. (Drama by Thomas Corneille; divertissements by Donneau de Visé.)
• Overture du prologue de l'Inconnu, H. 499; 1679?
• Andromède, H. 504; 1682 (Drama by Pierre Corneille)
• Vénus et Adonis, H. 507; 1685. (Drama by Donneau de Visé.)

[edit] Comédies-Ballet

• Le Mariage forcé (1672)
• Le Malade imaginaire (1672)
• Le Sicilien (1679)

[edit] Ballets

• Polyeucte, H. 498; 1679.

[edit] Divertissements

• Les Plaisirs de Versailles, H. 480; 1682
• Idylle sur le Retour de la Sante du Roi, H. 489; 1686-7

[edit] Interludes (Intermèdes)

• Le Triomphe des Dames (1676)
• La Pierre Philosophale (1681)
• Endymion (1681)
• Dialogues d'Angélique et de Médor (1685)

[edit] Sonatas

• Sonates à huit

[edit] Sacred Music

• Extremum Dei Judicium (H. 401)
• Messe de Minuit pour Noël (H. 9, c. 1690)
• Missa Assumpta est Maria (H. 11, 1698-1702)
• Litanies de la vierge (H. 83, 1683-1685)
• Te Deum (H. 146, c. 1690)
• Dixit Dominus (H. 204)
• In nativitatem Domini canticum (H. 416)
• Noëls (3) (H. 531 c. 1680)
• Noëls pour les instruments (H. 534, c. 1690)

[edit] Media

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Biography

• Cessac, Catherine. Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Translated from the French ed. (Paris 1988) by E. Thomas Glasow. Portland (Oregon): Amadeus Press, 1995.
• Ranum, Patricia. Portraits Around Marc-Antoine Charpentier [1]. Baltimore: Dux Femina Facti, 2004. ISBN 0-9660997-3-7.

[edit] Music History and Theory

• Anthony, James R. French Baroque Music: From Beaujoyeulx to Rameau. Revised and expanded edition. Portland (Oregon): Amadeus Press, 1997.
• Hitchcock, H.W. Les Oeuvres de Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Catalogue Raisonné. Paris: Picard, 1982.
• Thomas, Downing A. Aesthetics of Opera in the Ancien Régime, 1647-1785. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press, 2002.
• Tunley, David. The Eighteenth-Century French Cantata. 2nd edition. Oxford (UK): Clarendon Press Oxford University Press, 1997.

[edit] External links

• Free scores by Marc-Antoine Charpentier in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Marc-Antoine Charpentier in the Werner Icking Music Archive
• Free Public Domain Scores by Charpentier at IMSLP
• Charpentier, musicien du Baroque, a site in memory of the 300th anniversary of the composer's death
• Speculations about the validity of a recently discovered portrait of M.A. Charpentier