Luogo e data di registrazione		Cathédrale de Reims (France) - 1965 Eglise Saint-Roch, Paris (France - 1965 *
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Engineer		Peter Willemoës
	Edizione LP		Erato - STE 50 277 - (1 lp) - durata 43' 53" - (p) 1965 - Analogico
	Edizione CD		Erato - 3984 20985-2 - (1 cd) - durata 43' 53" - (c) 1987 - Analogico
	Note		Details from Musical Heritage Society MHS 894

En baptisant Clovis roi des Francs en l'an 496, Saint Rémy préluda à la longue tradition des sacres qui, hormis les premiers, se dérouòèrent à la Cathédrale de Reims durant plusieurs siècles. L2 6 mai 1211, l'Archevêque Aubry de Humbert posa la première pierre de l'édifice actuel, à l'emplacement même de deux églises qui s'étaient succédèes depuis le cinquième siècle. Cette nouvelle cathédrale, conçu selon de vastes proportions pour abriter les plus grandes cérémonies du royaume, fut construitè dans un grand élan mystique. Les travaux se poursuivirent durant òe 13eme et 14eme siècle, mais dès 1241, le transept et le chœur étaient achevés et ie Chapitre put s'y installer. Cette métropole religieuse devint rapidement un lieu culturel et artistique important. Architectes, sculpteurs, mais aussi poètes, musiciens se groupèrent autour de la cathédrale. Les recherches entreprises à Reims par MM. l'Abbé Cerf, le Chanoine Leflon, l'Abbé Hesse entre autres, témoignent de la vitalité et de la richesse de ce foyer musical. Certains de ces compositeurs n'eurent qu'une activité locale; d'autres séjournèrent à Reims avant de gagner la capitale; d'autres enfin, comme Guillaume de Machault, Nicolas de Grigny, eurent une personnalité musicale telle que leur renom s'étendit rapidement au déjà de nos frontières. The "Fanfare royale” which opens this program is not by a native musician of Reims. It was, however, for the occasion of the coronation of Louis XII that this "Vive le Roy” by JOSQUIN DES PRES was performed in the Cathedral. The beautiful motet, Felix Virgo, is one of the most perfect examples of a great motet of the Ars Nova, which returns to and enlarges upon the isorhythmic technique of the preceding epoch. As usual with this type of composition, two independent melodies with different texts are set against each other over an instrumental tenor which determines the character of the piece. It is completed, in the background, by an equally instrumental counter-tenor part (an innovation of the fourteenth century). Basis and point of departure of the composition, this particular tenor is an excerpt of the Salve Regina (solemn tone), from Ad te suspiramus up to and including advocata nostra. After an opening section omitting the theme, the cantus firmus is presented first in long-held notes divided by rests, following a complex rhythmic plan (thirty-five measures in rhythm, repeated three times) in which the counter-tenor also participates. The isorhythm, by contrast, hardly affects the vocal parts except in a very approximate way, but these are not any less elaborate melodically, with a frequent exchange of thematic motifs circulating between one voice and the other. Finally, a closing section in the nature of a brilliant coda, wherein syncopations and "hockets” abound in the vocal parts, leading to the final Cum gaudio, takes up again the cantus firmus in the tenor with the note-values reduced exactly by half, which introduces interesting rhythmic combinations and contributes a truly remarkable aspect of dynamic motion to the composition a£ a whole. JACQUES CHAILLEY We have but little information about BAUDE CORDIER, this poet-musician of the early fifteenth century. One manuscript, now in the Condé Museum in Chantilly, informs us, however, that the author:"Master Baude Cordier, by name. From Reims, whose music as far as Rome, Is heard far and wide.” From his essential secular output, only one sacred piece has reached us, a Gloria in three parts. Dating from past the Ars Nova, the melodic shape and the rhythm of this piece already suggest the style of Dufay. FRANÇOIS COSSET was born around 1620 in Saint Quentin or its environs. He obtained a modest post as chorister at Laon, settled for a time at Senlis, and then lived from 1643 to 1646 in Paris, where he occupied the position of Director of Music at Notre Dame. In 1647 he was named Musical Director of the Cathedral at Reims. He filled that post until 1662 and died around 1682. A large part of his sacred work was published in Paris by Ballard. His Missa quatuor vocum ad imitationem moduli "Cantate Domino” is unique in its a cappella setting. Although it dates from the middle of the seventeenth century, it is written in the tradition of the old Renaissance masters and demonstrates such learning and contrapuntal refinement that only the most highly trained choirs could perform it. One cannot determine precisely the date of the founding of "la Maitrise” (musical establishment) at Reims. Certain historians trace it back as far as Charlemagne; but this much is certain, that from the beginning of the fourteenth century the archives offer proof of the existence of a children’s choir. The Maitrise was established around the period of the Renaissance and became one of the most important in France. One of the virtues of such institutions was that musical traditions could be transmitted from generation to generation and thereby develop singers, composers and organists, of which Hardouin is one of the most illustrious representatives. HENRI HARDOUIN was born at Grandpré in the Argonne region in 1727. At the age of eight he entered the Maitrise. At the end of his years in service there Hardouin was ordained as priest and obtained the post of Musical Director of the Chapter at Reims. After the Revolution he retired to Grandpré where he died on August 13, 1808. The manuscripts of Hardouin that could be salvaged during the war of 1914-1918 are in the Maitrise at Reims. The Magnificat recorded here is a brilliant work intended for a grand ceremony. Around a five-part choir, the composer has grouped three soloists, a string quartet, two horns, one bassoon, two clarinets, and one flute. Written in the style of the French motets of the seventeenth century, it is divided into seven verses, the text of which is made meaningful and is illustrated through the variety of writing, rhythm, and the choice of voices or instruments. The origins of an organ in the Cathedral go back a great distance in time. Without doubt, there was one in existence during the twelfth century. Still, in 1468, Etienne Hénoque began to construct an instrument in the north transept that was destroyed by fire shortly thereafter. The Chapter then decided to build a new organ, a task entrusted to a builder of real talent, Oudin Hestre. Several new features were added in the course of the following centuries, but by the time of Grigny it was considered one of the most significant and most beautiful organs in all of France. Son and grandson of Reims musicians, Nicolas de Grigny left the province at an early age to study the organ in Paris under the direction of Nicolas Lebègue. He was organist at Saint-Denis from 1693 to 1695, but after his marriage he returned to settle in Reims where he was named organist at Notre Dame. His only Livre d’Orgue was published in 1699. Four years later Grigny died at the age of thirty-one years. The Hymn Veni Creator consists of five verses. In the first, the piain chant theme, stated by the reed stops, appears in long notevalues in the tenor, supported on the manual by full organ. A five-voiced fugue follows where, in elegant and learned polyphony, there are entwined in supple arabesque two parts on the cromorne and two on the cornet, after which the fifth voice appears in the pedal on 8' and 4' principals. The third movement, a Duo, is omitted in this recording. The following verse is a charming Récit de cromorne accompanied in echo by the quintaton and the 4' viol. Finally, the Dialogue sur les grands jeux is an elaborate large-scale piece in three sections: two parts, grave and majestic, calling for the tutti on the full organ, frame a lively and rhythmic third part, in which the plein-jeu of the Great and that of the Positive answer eaefi other. After the first World War the organ and the Maitrise at Reims were silenced for many years. But, in 1927, Cardinal Luçon revived the Maitrise, entrusting the direction to Canon Hesse, who in turn gave it over in 1960 to one of his former choristers, Arsène Muzerelle. It wasn’t until 1938 that the organ, badly damaged through bombardment, underwent complete restoration by the organ-builder, Victor Gonzalez. Today, the Church that witnessed coronations has recovered its former splendor, and the children who set out for the Cathedral to sing in the services each Sunday might wonder whether they are reviving a past which, without them, would perhaps be doomed to be forgotten and, in this way, they render the most beautiful homage to the old masters of their city. NICOLE WILD (Translated from the French by Alice Levine Mitchell)