First performance of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Nöel (1690s, possibly 1694). Read more and listen…
The enduring popularity of Charpentier’s spirited Messe de Minuit pour Nöel is often attributed to the fact that the composer incorporated a set of eleven nöel – simply put, Christmas carols – into his score. While it is true that the mass draws on the buoyant rhythmic qualities of these popular songs – which were originally derived from Renaissance and early-Baroque secular chansons or dances – the significance of the First performance of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Nöel mass extends beyond the presence of the nöel as a discrete compositional element.
In her biography of Charpentier (Amadeus Press,2003), Catherine Cessac notes that his music presents: “a perfect synthesis between the secular and the liturgical, between popular and learned writing.” This is audible in the opening section of the Messe de Minuit – the kyrie – which is based on the sixteenth century popular nöel “Joseph et bien marié”, a reworking of the fifteenth-century chanson “Joylet est marié”. Charpentier’s use of the nöel draws its toe-tapping, dance-like rhythms into contact with the traditional text of the prayer, and importantly, with elements of more formal liturgical writing. This fusion of musical styles articulates more than Charpentier’s prodigious ability to create something innovative and new. Instead, his blend of musical languages unites vigorous, quite physical rhythms with more solemn and sacred writing to expresses the fundamental vision of the mass; a belief in and celebration of the miracle of the incarnation of Christ.
Joyeux Noël à tous!
Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXoAQbT00rI
Marc-Antoine Charpentierm Messe de Minuit pour Nöel. Deutsch-Französischer Chor Dresden und Chorsolisten, Reinhart Gröschel.