Lecçons de Ténèbres, literally 'lessons of darkness', are perhaps the most
mystical and alluring pieces that have survived the mid-Baroque. When performed
in church during Holy Week, the Tenebrae service uses the text from the
Lamentations of Jeremiah and applies it allegorically to three days of mourning
for Christ between his crucifixion and resurrection. However, Leçons de
Ténèbres were much more private and intimate constructions, often being
performed in Louis XIV's rooms at Versailles before being aired in his chapel.
One particularly famous anecdote features de Lalande's fifteen-year- old
daughter performing the Leçons de Ténèbres for the King in his living room;
she went on to become the talk of Paris.
A contemporary of Lully and François Couperin, de Lalande was born in Paris in
1657 and, in addition to teaching music to the daughters of Louis XIV, was
director of the chapel royal from 1714 until 1726 when he died in Versailles.
Couperin was also born in Paris and was originally taught music by his father
Charles. He had a productive and successful musical career which gained him two
titles: firstly in 1693 he succeeded his organ teacher Thomelin and became
'Organiste du Roi'; then in 1717 he was also bestowed a composer's title
'Ordinaire de la musique de la chambre du Roi'. He died in 1733.
Leçons de Ténèbres follow a unique form with Latin verses written
predominantly in a controlled French recitative and air style, sometimes
interspersed with Hebrew letters creating melismatic and almost instrumental
moments in the vocal part.
"The French in their airs aim at the soft, the easie, the flowing, and coherent:
the whole air is of the same tone, or if sometimes they venture to vary it, they
do it with so many preparations, they so qualifie it, that still the air seems
to be as natural and consistent as if they had attempted no change at all; there
is nothing bold and adventurous in it; it's all equal and of a piece. ... The
French would think themselves undone, if they offended in the least against the
rules; they flatter, tickle, and court the ear, and are still doubtful of
success, tho' ev'ry thing be done with an exact regularity."
François Raguenet 'Comparison between the French and Italian Music and Operas'
(1702)
Most settings of the Leçons are scored for solo voice and basso continuo,
though there are many examples (including Couperin's third published Leçon)
that do not follow that trend. Sadly we only have three surviving Leçons, of an
original nine (three for each day of mourning), from both de Lalande and
Couperin. Although sometimes harmonically indulgent, the music itself is
meditative and introspective, offering a highly intimate and enlightening
experience.
"Sometimes we meet with a swelling, to which the first notes of the thoroughbass
jar so harshly, as the ear is highly offended with it; but the bass, continuing
to play on, returns at last to the swelling with such beautiful intervals, that
we quickly discover the composer's design in the choice of those dischords, was
to give the hearer a more true and perfect relish of the ravishing notes that on
a sudden restore the whole harmony.
Let a Frenchman be set to sing one of these dissonances, and he'll want courage
enough to support it with the resolution wherewith it must be sustain'd to make
it succeed; his ear, being accustom'd to the most soft and natural intervals, is
startled at such irregularity; he trembles and is in a sweat whilst he attempts
to sing it."
Jean Laurent le Cerf de La Vieville 'Good Taste in Music' (1704)
Music performed perhaps more often than the Leçons de Ténèbres in Louis XIV's
court included regular chamber concerts. Court composers like Couperin would
write music especially for such occasions: he and his colleagues would perform a
concert there every Sunday. Couperin tells us in his preface that the Concerts
Royaux were specifically written for these concerts. The suites were composed
between the period 1714-15 and then published in 1722 with a preface from
Couperin that confirmed the versatility of these pieces: he writes 'They are
suitable not only for the harpsichord, but also the violin, the flute, the oboe,
the viol, and the bassoon.'
Couperin then supplemented this published collection in 1724 with another set of
suites called Les Gouûts Réuünis ou Nouveaux Councerts ('The Reunited [French
and Italian] Styles or New Concerts').
Alex McCartney, February 2014
