Collection Grands Motets No 9
Lully – Te Deum Vol 4
Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687)
Te Deum (LWV 55)
Exaudiat te Dominus (LWV 77/xv)
Jacques Danican Philidor (1657-1708)
Marche de timballes
André Danican Philidor (1652-1730)
La Marcha Royale
Les Épopées, Les Pages et les Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles/Stéphane Fuget
rec. 2023, Chapelle Royale, Versailles, France
Château de Versailles Spectacles CVS117 [69]

A few years ago, the French label Château de Versailles Spectacles started a series of recordings of grands motets, the most important genre of sacred music from the mid-17th century to the French Revolution. Such works are scored for solo voices, choir and orchestra, and are mostly settings of texts from the Book of Psalms. They were performed during the mass that the king attended daily, but from 1725 onwards they were also part of the programmes of the concert series Concert Spirituel. So far, eight discs have been released; the disc under review here is the ninth, and also the fourth devoted to the grands motets by Jean-Baptiste Lully.

The foundation of the genre was laid by Henry du Mont (c1610-1684) and Pierre Robert (c1618-1699). Lully was a composer of the second generation, so to speak, and in his time the grand motet saw a stylistic evolution from a piece for choir with solo episodes to a motet in which the solo passages had a more independent place. Although Louis XIV had engaged Lully for the creation of a truly French opera – as an alternative to the Italian form of the genre – in the first place, the composer also contributed to the genre of the grand motet: his œuvre includes twelve such pieces. That, in comparison to his production of music for the stage, may seem rather modest, but some of his motets were performed on the most important state occasions during the reign of Louis XIV.

The main work on the present disc is undoubtedly Lully’s most celebrated motet. The text of the Te Deum has been set numerous times in the course of history, and often such settings were written for special occasions. The text is a song of praise to God and his omnipotence, and as earthly rulers were considered his representatives on earth, they were often also intended as a song of praise to them, too. That was certainly the case in France, whose ruler considered himself also the head of the church in France, and basically the owner of the entire country (“l’état c’est moi”). Lully composed his Te Deum in 1677 for a large ensemble of singers and players; the orchestra includes parts for trumpets and timpani and he was probably the first to use the latter in a sacred work. The reason was not a state or royal family event but rather the baptism of Lully’s own son, Louis. The composer was the king’s favourite, and it was he and Queen Marie-Thérèse who attended the christening as the young boy’s godfather and godmother. Even so, as Thomas Leconte points out in his liner-notes, the performance “was no doubt more a question of Lully praising the royal couple than his own firstborn son”. It was a great success, and the Sun King liked the work so much that he wanted to hear it more than once, as the Mercure galant reported.

In 1679 the Te Deum was once again performed, this time on the occasion of the marriage by proxy of Marie-Louise d’Orléans, niece of Louis XIV, and Charles II of Spain in the ceremonial chapel in Fontainebleau. A large ensemble was involved, consisting around 120 singers and players.

The last performance in Lully’s lifetime took place in 1687, and this was a fatal one. The occasion was the recovery of the Sun King himself, who had undergone a risky operation the previous year. Lully wanted to perform the king’s favourite piece, also hoping to win back the affection of the king, from whom Lully had become estranged, partly due to the king’s disapproval of his lifestyle. It was Lully’s habit to beat time with a staff, and during the performance he hit his foot; the injury became gangrenous, resulting in his death.

In 1679 the Mercure galant wrote about the performance of Lully’s Te Deum: “The variety of movements and changes produced by this great body of music was marvellous”. That hits the nail on the head. The opening is majestic, and reflects the grandeur of the monarchy. The use of oboes, trumpets and timpani is quite effective. In this recording the listener is prepared with two pieces by members of the Philidor dynasty: first a piece for timpani solo, Marche de timballes, and then a march for winds and timpani. The Te Deum follows attacca and starts with an instrumental introduction, taking about 90 seconds. The scoring for winds and strings with timpani continues in the opening sections: “We praise Thee, O God (…). All the earth doth worship Thee (…). Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory (…)”. However, it is not just the power of God (and of the monarchy) that are celebrated here. The piece also includes more intimate episodes, with prayers to God: “We therefore pray Thee: help Thy servants (…). O Lord, save Thy people (…). Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin. O Lord, have mercy upon us (…)”. Here, Lully achieves a maximum of expression. This setting of the Te Deum is more than pomp and circumstance, it is also an expression of faith which undoubtedly pleased Louis in 1687. In the years before, he gradually had turned his attention away from opera and focused on religion and devotion instead. Even so, the performance did not make Louis change his mind as far as his attitude to Lully was concerned.

The Te Deum is followed here, as was the tradition at the time, by a setting of Psalm 19 (20), Exaudiat te Dominus: “May the Lord hear Thee in the day of tribulation: may the name of the God of Jacob protect Thee”. The text is different in character, which explains the difference in scoring: the entire work is set for strings, and trumpets and timpani only enter the doxology. The latter is preceded by the prayer for the king, “Domine, salvum fac regem” – “O Lord, save the king: and hear us in the day that we shall call upon Thee”. This had been a fixed part of religious ceremonies and services since Louis XIII. This motet very likely dates from 1687, and shows the stylistic development mentioned above, as the solo parts are more independent of the tutti sections than in the Te Deum.

Overall, this series of recordings of grands motets has been a great success to date: the performances are mostly good, and often even excellent – as is the case here. The solo and tutti sections show a strong coherence, which is Stéphane Fuget’s aim: the solos are sung by members of the choir. In contrast to previous recordings of grands motets by Lully, the ensemble is joined by Les Pages et les Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles. This way, Fuget tries to do justice to the splendour of the performances of this work in Lully’s time. The ensemble is not as large as the forces in 1679, as mentioned above, but even so, the size of the ensembles together gives a pretty good impression of what that performance must have been like.

This is the last instalment of the series devoted to Lully’s grands motets. It is no exaggeration to consider this series as a monument to a composer of dubious reputation, but undoubtedly great skill.

Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen

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