夏邦提耶: 路易十四時期的巴洛克聖誕音樂 約第.沙瓦爾 指揮 Jordi Savall / Charpentier: Baroque Christmas at the time of Louis XIV

夏邦提耶: 路易十四時期的巴洛克聖誕音樂

約第.沙瓦爾 指揮 

國家古樂合奏團

加泰隆尼亞皇家合唱團

 

Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Christ, is, together with Easter, one of the principal feasts in the Christian calendar, and occupies a pre-eminent place in the music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Although his works dedicated to the Nativity were commissioned, the composer, as a man of faith, gave them the very best of his inspiration. Charpentier's most frequently performed work today is his Messe de Minuit, composed on a number of noëls (Christmas carols) whose tunes were familiar to all. However, to celebrate this feast, the composer also chose a variety of other genres, including instrumental Christmas music, the histoire sacree (or oratorio) and pastorale.

 

The two major works presented here were commissioned by different patrons for whom Charpentier composed extensively and who influenced the evolution of his career in Paris. Not born into a family of musicians, Marc-Antoine was the son of Louis Charpentier, a master scribe, and spent his childhood and adolescence in the Saint-Severin district of Paris. We know nothing about his musical training, but we do know that he attended the Faculty of Law. Perhaps he did part of a university degree, learning all aspects of music, like many of his colleagues. Or perhaps it was during the three years he spent in Rome, where he travelled for reasons that are not entirely clear, that he perfected his skills by studying and listening to the great masters who were active there at that time, such as Francesco Foggia, Alessandro Melani, Francesco Beretta and above all Giacomo Carissimi.