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Jean-Baptiste Lully, André I Danican Philidor
La Grande Ecurie De Versailles (The Great Stable Of Versailles): Fanfares And Marches

Album US 1971 on Musical Heritage Society label
Classical and Brass (Military, Baroque, March)

Recorded by ERATO in France. Side 1 - 20:22 Side 2 - 21:41 • A4. Marche de Savoye, made by Mr. de Lully who received as a gift a portrait of his Highness enriched by diamonds worth 1000 louis, that was delivered to him by his Ambassador. • A6. Marche du Regiment du Roy, made by Mr. de Lully in 1670. First Air for Oboes, made by Mr. de Lully. Second Air for Oboes: Les Folies d"Espagne, made by Mr. de Lully in trio, by Royal command in 1702, Philidor the Elder having received the King's order at Saint Germain-en-Laye to transmit it to Mr. de Lully. • A8. La Marche Francaise, First Air de la Marche Francaise for Oboes made by Mr. de Lully for Mr. le C. De Sery. Second Air, likewise by Mr. de Lully. Third Air by Mr. de Moliere of the King's Musick. Fourth Air by Mr. de Lully and Marche Royalle for 3 treble oboes for the Marche Francaise by Philidor the Elder, made in 1769. • B2. Marche des Fusilliez, made by Mr. de Lully with the Air for Oboes made by Mr. Martin Hotteterre. • B6. Marche des Mousquetaires, First Air for oboes made by Mr. de Lully. Second through the Sixth, by the same; Philidor the Elder wrote out the parts for the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth, Mr. de Lully having been unwilling to do so. • B8. Marche Hollandaise, the Air for Oboes made by Philidor the Elder. [liner Notes] Of all the pomp of Versailles, it is the outdoor ceremonies that are the most exciting to the imagination; one thinks of the flawless ballet of the troops on parade, of the departure for the hunt, or of the concerts given from sumptuously decorated barges sailing upon the Grand Canal. The music for all these spectacles was the perquisite of the band of the Grande Ecurie (Great Stable), composed of wind instruments, fifes, trumpets, and oboes (these last two terms designating the entire brass and woodwind families, covering all the registers from low to high), and percussion instruments -- drums and timpani. Three old collections reflecting the image of these musical spectacles have been drawn upon for this recording. The first is a manuscript by André Philidor the Elder, Louis XIV's famous music librarian who was also a musician with the Military Band, playing in turn the cromorne, drum, oboe and trumpet. He entitled his collection: "Score of Several Marches and Drum batteries, French as well as foreign, with Airs for fifes and oboes in 3 or 4 parts as well as several Marches for timpani and trumpets mounted on horseback with Air for Tournaments, 1686. And fanfares and trumpets for the hunt." To this already prolix title are added numerous indications supplying a multitude of often picturesque details. In addition to the commentaries reproduced above with the titles of the marches, we give as an example that accompanying the Marche Du Regiment du Roy: "At the time the King's Regiment was established, the Marche francoise was played, but the officers of the regiment, largely taken from the Musketeers, asked the King that the drums beat instead the March of the Musketeers, which was granted them. Then they used the above Marche by Lully and afterwards they resumed the March of Musketeers which still continues in use at the present time." Philidor's copy dates from 1705, but the marches are considerably older, a fact confirmed by those which are dated. A good number of these marches are by Lully, and they should have brought him a small fortune judging by the thousand louis he received for the Marche de Savoye! Despite this, what condescension in the remark "Philidor the Elder has written the parts, Lully not wishing to do so!" Each march requires a battery of drums, whether simple or furnished with variations with a soloist. Then come the "airs" for oboe, sometimes one, more often two, three, up to six. The majority are in four parts (two parts for oboe, one for "Taille" = English horn, one "basse" = bassoon). Several of these marches are in triple meter: it must not be forgotten, as the title itself states, that they are often performed on horseback and that a cadenced step is not their aim. One of them (the second air of the Marche du Regiment du Roy) even is a suite of variations on the famous theme of the Folies d'Espagne. The Marche a quatre timbales is taken from the same volume. It is an interesting study in rhythmic variation for two drummers playing four instruments. The second collection is a printed score of works by the same composer: "Pieces for Trumpet and drums in 2, 3, and 4 parts. Book I. By M. Philidor the Elder, ordinary of the King's Chamber Music and Chapel. 1685." It consists of short pieces for a group of trumpets and drums. The concision and simplicity of their writing could seem to result from creative indignence if they were intended for our modern orchestral instruments, but in the original version, performed as they are here on valveless cavalry trumpets, one sees that they are marvelously adapted to the richly colored timbres and sumptuous sonorities of such an outdoor instrumental ensemble. An unaware listener, accustomed to the tempered scale, might be surprised by so-called defects in pitchs in the hunting horns: on the contrary, the pitch is absolute and natural; it is that of the harmonic series. Only it is a different accuracy which, though it astronishes us, delighted our ancestors. There are some hunting fanfares in Philidor's manuscript collection, but still more interesting are those that the scholarly moving spirit of the Rallye Louvarts, Jean Pietri, has had the good fortune to rediscover in a volume by the famous Dampierre. The eight pieces recorded here, writes Mr. Pietri, "are taken from an anonymous collection attributed in the bibliography to Marc-Antoine, Marquis de Dampierre, 'Commandant' of Louis XV's Hunt: 'New fanfares for two hunting horns, or two trumpets, and for musettes, vielles and oboes, by Mr. D -- 1753 -- La Chevardiere -- 'At the Golden Cross'." In fact, it is a re-edition of an older engraving as the skillful etching in the lower part of the frontispiece leads one to suppose. The instrumentation for two horns and drums is in conformity with the traditional freedom of interpretation with respect to the printed page, still alive in the middle of the eighteenth century. The horn's unique technique, transmitted directly from generation to generation in the course of two and a half centuries, the exceptional richness of its tonal spectrum and its physical differences from the tempered scale, at once a handicap and an advantage for this natural instrument, restore the very spirit of Baroque music. The Fanfares are balanced in a classical fashion as conceived at the time; this applies to the Hunt as well: an "attaque," twice repeated; a "milieu' and a "reprise," this last frequently identical with the "attaque," with contrast between "Fort" (loud) and "Doux" (soft) indicated for the main points of the score. As for the orchestration, it merely calls for a "second treble," in accordance with the freedom of choice allowed by the composer in the title of the collection. The modern Hunt, inheritor of these musical forms, has nevertheless abandoned the repetitions no longer compatible with present-day circumstances of the Hunt. Cavalry trumpets, hunting horns, "grand" oboes, drums, timpani, all these instruments of the Grand Ecurie, were content with very simple music but adorned with such colors that down the centuries one cannot remain insensitive to the permanence of their invitation to a dream of forgotten magnificence. -- Jean-François Paillard (Translated from the French by Helen Baker)

Musicians

	Jean-Baptiste Lully , 1632-1687 FR album by, composed by
	André I Danican Philidor , 1647-1730 FR album by, composed by, transcription by
	Jean-François Paillard fl, 1928-2013 FR conductor, liner notes
	Pierre Breard , directed by, ensemble de trompettes
	Helen Baker , liner notes, translation from french
	Ensemble De Trompettes De Cavalerie De Paris performer
	Le Rallye-Louvarts De Paris , performer
	Orchestre De Chambre Jean-François Paillard , FR performer
	Jacques Martin Hotteterre , 1674-1763 FR composed by, air for oboes
	Daniel Houllier , timpani
	Rémy Constant , timpani

Composers

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