16th Century French Organ Music

Jean Titelouze (c1563-1633)
00:00 Hymn “Ave maris stella”
09:24 Hymn “Urbs Hierusalem”
18:13 Hymn “Exsultet cœlum”
24:32 Hymn “Ad Cœnam”

Xavier Darasse, Organ in the Cathedral of Sarlat in Dordogne

Suite de Danses (Anonymous; ed. Pierre Attaignant, c1494-1552)
35:41 Basse dance (R)
36:39 Gaillarde (R)
37:31 Seconde gaillarde (S)
38:28 Tant que vivray (S)
39:45 Branle (S)
40:51 Gaillarde (R)

41:25 Chanson “L'espoir que j'ay” (attr. Clément Janequin, c1485-1558; ed. Attaignant) (R)

André Isoir
R) indicates works played on a Regal built by André Isoir
S) indicates works played on the Organ in the Church of St. Severin in Paris

Artwork: detail of Dionysius the Areopagite converting the Pagan Philosophers (1571) by Antoine Caron (1521-1599)

The bearers of the two famous names on this recording are linked by the facts that they were both French, lived during the 16th century, and devoted their lives to music — aside from the fact that it is organ music which is recorded on this disc. The basis of their fame, however, is very dissimilar. Attaignant was a printer, Titelouze an organist. Titelouze composed music for and wrote on organ-playing exclusively; Attaignant only printed music, and the least of it for organ. Both men were outstanding in their field, and are very interesting historically.

Jean Titelouze came from Saint Omer in the Pas de Calais, and may have been a Netherlander, for he acquired French citizenship in 1604. But he was already an organist in St. Jean in Rouen from 1585 on, and in the cathedral there from 1588 until his death. He was not only a virtuoso on his instrument and an organizer and director of music festivals, but also a scholar who advised organ makers and was called upon to examine and certify instruments in Rouen and elsewhere. He also carried on a correspondence on theoretical matters with Mersenne, discussing the division of intervals and the modes, their expressive significance, the effects of music, and the theories of Glarean and Zarlino.

As a composer, he definitely abandoned the transcription of vocal pieces for the organ; instead, he composed three to seven versets on Gregorian cantus firmi in the style of ricercari, which he calls recherches. Thus, at a time when French composers for the most part still practiced the ars transferendi, he joined the progressive Venetian school of organist-composers — Annibale Padovano, the Gabrielis and Merulo. Well acquainted with the Italian, English and Spanish literature, he was in the forefront of polyphonic composition, taking a significant share in preparing the rich organ literature of the coming Baroque.

Our recording presents four samples of his work (published in its entirety by Alexandre Guilmant in the first volume of his Archives des Maîtres de l'Orgue, 1898-1910). They are all on cantus firmi of hymns, used in the musical program of Vespers. The hymn Ave maris stella is universally known. Urbs Hierusalem is a Benedictine hymn, sung at Vespers in the ceremony of the dedication of a church. Exsultet coelum is part of the hymn Jesu corona virginum or Pater superni luminis, and Ad coenam of the hymn Lucis creator optime.

The versets treat different melodic fragments, and develop the musical material in an ample and rich polyphony. In view of the fact that we can be sure — thanks to Titelouze’s efforts — of the varied and splendid registering possibilities of the organ in the Rouen cathedral, we can imagine the dazzling effect of this music, played by the composer. It could hardly have been less gorgeous than the sound of the organ in the cathedral of Sarlat in Dordogne, played by Xavier Darasse today.

Pierre Attaignant was one of the first French printers of music, and enjoyed that privilege granted him by François I, King of France. In the advertisement on the flyleaf of his first publication, on which he printed the king's patent, he boasted that he had invented a new method of printing music. In reality, it was Pierre Haultin who invented the new method Attaignant employed: that of using small segments of the staff with the notes on different lines or interline spaces, thus printing with only one impression, while the Italian Petrucci's method needed two, first of the staves, then of the notes. Attaignant published a large number of music books, containing mainly church music and chansons. The large number of French and Flemish Masses, motets and chansons of the 15th and 16th centuries we know today we owe chiefly to Attaignant. He also printed several books of music for the lute and for the organ, preponderantly transcriptions of vocal music set for these instruments, and a few of dance music, transcribed for “Orgues, espinettes (spinets) et manicordions (clavichords)" — which implies that at that time no marked difference existed between music for organ and for stringed keyboard instruments.