Western religious music from different centuries. Today’s programme is dedicated to the French composer Louis-Nicolas Clérambault.
Nowadays we mainly know Clérambault (1676-1749) as a composer of cantatas, of which Médée and Orphée are the most well-known. His suites for harpsichord and organ are also frequently played. In comparison, his sacral music is hardly well-known, even though these are an important part of his oeuvre. That music was mostly composed in his role as organ player of the Maison Royale Saint-Louis de Saint-Cyr, an institution for the education of the daughters of impoverished officers and aristocrats.
We will hear two works composed for special occasions. The first work is a motet Clérambault composed on the occasion of the canonisation of Pope Pius V (1566-1572), which happened in 1712. At that time, he was working as an organist in the Jacobin monastery, who did not let this fact pass by unnoticed.
The second and longest work dates from the last years of Clérambault’s life. In 1745, the construction of the church in the parish of Saint-Sulpice, where he was organist, was completed. This was celebrated on 7 July with a eulogy, in which a Te Deum by Clérambault was played, and that was almost certain the Te Deum à grand choeur we will hear in this programme.
Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749)
1. Motet pour la canonisation de Saint Pie (C. 150)
Ensemble Sébastien de Brossard conducted by Fabien Armengaud
(cd:”Motets à trois voix d’hommes et symphonies” – Paraty 516141, 2016)
2. Te Deum à grand choeur (C. 138)
Gwendoline Blondeel, soprano. Reinoud Van Mechelen, haute-contre. Guy Cutting, tenor. Lisandro Abadie, bass. Choeur de Chambre de Namur, A Nocte Temporis conducted by Reinoud Van Mechelen
(cd: “Te Deum, Histoire de la femme adultère” – Château de Versailles Spectacles CVS163, 2025)
addition:
3. From Suite du 2e ton: Récit de Nazard
André Isoir, organ
(cd: “Le Livre d’Or de l’Orgue Français” – la dolce volta LDV 147.2, 2013)
Picture: Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (Wikipedia)
