Lalande’s Youth Motets – MC2 : Grenoble
05.12.19 ___ 19:30
MC2, Grenoble
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Appointed in 1683 to the Chapel, the young Michel-Richard Delalande put an end to Lully’s monopoly and quickly gained the esteem of the king, eventually obtaining himself all control over the music at the court. Within the richly endowed framework of the royal chapel, it constitutes a repertoire of great motets that will become models in Europe and whose posterity continues within the Concert Spirituel, a private company organizing concerts in Paris, generating a new musical economic model.
But there is another less well-known aspect of this great entrepreneur Lalande: his music for convents, notably at the request of Mme de Maintenon for her foundation in St Cyr. The simplicity of the music – without investing money, without professionals but only with the voices of the young girls – is in stark contrast to the large court motets.
Far from the gold of Versailles but anxious to be connected to the tastes of the court, the composers of the kingdom imitated the Versailles model: thus Sébastien de Brossard, who had much smaller means at the Cathedral of Strasbourg, pushed back the economic limits imposed by the canons in an attempt to introduce the great motet in the provinces.
In these totally different contexts of representation, from the most extreme simplicity for convents to the splendour of the court, some musicians have been able to create beyond the financial limits imposed, making each note feel like they want to surpass themselves! Music no longer obeys finance: it transcends it!
Information and reservations : MC2 : Grenoble
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