Delalande and the French baroque: an introduction
My fellow classical musicians, I would seriously encourage you to get the fuck out of your Bach cult and start living in the real world. French baroque music is where it's at. My journey and obsession with this repertoire, and more specifically, with the music of Michel-Richard Delalande has been quite the emotional rollercoaster ride. For me, this music has extreme expressive power and emotional significance. It can make you sob, laugh, pray, do a satanic ritual, and have sex all at the same time. In other words, the emotional range of this music is vast. My journey starts in the summer of 2015 in Versailles France. I was studying organ in the royal chapel for an organ academy during the summer. On the repertoire list was Nicholas D'grigny. This was the initial "positive trigger" that got me hooked on this repertoire. Before, all baroque music sounded like background ballroom music to me, something that should be only reserved for the elevator. But now, I had finally heard music that could be best described in the words of Lil B himself;" dis is real, dis is RAW." After finding the organ music, I quickly moved on to the instrumental and choral music. This is where the most fun is. And finally after I found the music of composers such as Lully, Charpentier, Boësset, Desmarets, Lambert (his music especially is poetic AS FUCK), and Campra, I arrived finally on the music of Michel-Richard Delalande. "Holy fuck." I said to myself. This music was so fucking raw and emotive. What this music expresses is the reason I do classical music in the first place. I was enthralled. Delalande's output consists of both secular music and sacred music. For me the sacred music is the most interesting, not really because I'm a devout catholic myself, but because it's so powerful and emotive, and it uses the text beautifully and expressively. Delalande composed 72 "Grands Motets". These were works of the highest stature in France at this time, even above opera. Each piece is around 20-30 minuets in length and consists of a large orchestra and chorus. Delalande explored and exploited the possibilities of the resources available to him and used them to full advantage. These motets are dramatic and emotionally dense; imagine crushing the emotional drama of Lulu, Tosca, and Don Giovanni together and condensed it to 30 mins: that's what you get with a Delalande motet. It's incredible music. Please do check it out. Here are some of my favorite pieces I would encourage you to listen to if your a first timer with French baroque rep. They're all on YouTube. 1. Lully: Te Deum 2. Lully: Phyche 3. Desmarets: Usqueqo Domine 4. Charpentier: Pastorale pour la nativité 5. Du Mont: O Mysterium 6. Ballet de la Nuit (multiple composers; Sebastian Daucé recording) 7. Delalande: Dies Irae 8. Delalande: Confitebor Tibi Domine 9. Delalande: Super Fulmina Bablyonis 10. Delalande: Cantate Domino 11. Delalande: Deus Noster Refugium 12. Delalande: Les Elements Happy listening everybody!!!
