Track Listing

1. Pavane Fait Au Mariage De Mr De Vandosme
2. Au Roy, Victorieux Guerrier
3. Sinf (Exultavit Cor Meum In Domino)
4. A La Royne, Ninfe Qui Tient Tant D'heur
5. Sinf (Sinf Terza Conc)
6. Epithalame
7. Muse Honorons De Ta Chanson
8. Pavane Faite Pour Le Mariage De Henri Le Grand En 1600
9. Messe: Introit: Deux In Loco Sancto (Plain Chant)
10. Messe: Kyrie
11. Messe: Gloria
12. Messe: Credo
13. Messe: Offertoire (Canzon)
14. Messe: Sanctus
15. Messe: Elevatione
16. Messe: Agnus Dei
17. Sinf (Fili Ego Salomon)
18. Te Deum

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #587208 in Music
• Released on: 2001-01-09
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Amazon.com
"Paris is well worth a Mass." So went the famous pronouncement by the erstwhile Protestant King Henri IV, who converted to Roman Catholicism specifically to become eligible to ascend the French throne. It seems Henri had a comparable attitude toward his second marriage--in effect, "debt reduction is well worth a wife." Naturally, the French king looked to the legendarily wealthy Medici family in Florence. In the year 1600--after seven years of negotiations over the size of the dowry--he married Maria de' Medici. Henri didn't attend the wedding in Florence himself (he was busy waging war on the Duke of Savoy); Maria's uncle, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, acted as his proxy. Maria then traveled to Lyon to meet her new husband--and the marriage ceremonies were performed all over again.

Denis Raisin-Dadre and Ensemble Doulce Mémoire have always liked to build their programs around interesting stories and historical events, so it's no surprise that they found this most unusual wedding an attractive topic. We don't know exactly what music was played at most of the festivities (then, as now, journalists paid much more attention to who was there and what they were wearing), but Raisin-Dadre has chosen appropriate music, some directed specifically to the royal couple, by composers at the courts of Henri and the Medici. The French-language works, by Eustache du Caurroy and Claude Lejeune, have unusual rhythmic patterns based on ancient Greek poetic meter; they're composed--and performed here--with scrupulous attention to the clarity of the text. The Florentine side of the festivities is represented by a double-choir Mass by Marco da Gagliano. As was common on special occasions in Italy ca. 1600, Raisin-Dadre doubles the vocal parts of the mass with contrasting instruments (cornet and bassoons with one choir, mute cornet and viols with the other). The effect this scoring produces isn't the grand and sumptuous brass sound we typically hear in performances of Gabrieli's music, but rather something altogether more intricate and elegant. Among the many pleasures Doulce Mémoire's performance offers, the most delightful are the musicians' improvised embellishments--which are emblematic of the skill, care, and panache Raisin-Dadre and his ensemble bring to this music. --Matthew Westphal