Historical Performance

L'Art de toucher le clavecin

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The Juilliard Schoolpresents

Historical Performance: L’Art de toucher le clavecinMusic of François CouperinCurated by Béatrice Martin

Thursday, February 8, 2018, 7:30pmPaul Hall

FRANÇOIS Allemande La Ténébreuse from Premier Livre, Troisième OrdreCOUPERIN Première Courante from Premier Livre, Troisième Ordre(1668–1733) Les Regrets from Premier Livre, Troisième Ordre La Favorite, Chaconne from Premier Livre, Troisième Ordre Francis Yun, Harpsichord

Les Baricades mistérieuses from Seconde Livre, Sixième Ordre Le Rossignol-en-amour from Troisième Livre, 14ème Ordre with Jonathan Slade, flute Les Culbutes Jxcxbxnxs (Jacobins) from Troisième Livre, 19ème Ordre La Muse-Plantine from Troisième Livre, 19ème Ordre L’Anguille from Quatrième Livre, 22ème Ordre Katarzyna Kluczykowska, Harpsichord

Les Fastes de la grande et anciénne Mxnxstrxndxsx (Ménéstrandise), in five acts, from Seconde Livre, Onzième Ordre Les Notables et Jurés Mxnxstrxndxurs Les Viéleux et les Gueux Les Jongleurs, Sauteurs et Saltimbanques, avec les Ours et les Singes Les Invalides, ou gens estropiés au service de la Grande Mxnxstrxndxsx Désordre et Déroute de toute la troupe, causés par les Yvrognes, les Singes et les Ours Caitlyn Koester, Harpsichord

(Program continues)

Juilliard’s full-scholarship Historical Performance program was established and endowed in 2009 by the generous support of Bruce and Suzie Kovner.

Major funding for establishing Paul Recital Hall and for continuing access to its series of public programs has been granted by The Bay Foundation and the Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation in memory of Josephine Bay Paul.

Cover photo by Nan Melville

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La Couperin from Quatrième Livre, 21ème Ordre Passacaille from Seconde Livre, Huitième Ordre Eunji Lee, Harpsichord

Intermission

FRANÇOIS Seconde Ordre: L’Espagnole from Les Nations (1724)COUPERIN Sonade Allemande, gracieusement Courante, noblement Seconde Courante, un peu plus vivement Sarabande, gravement Gigue lourée, modérément Gavotte, tendrement et sans lenteur Rondeau, affectuëusement Bourrée, gayement Double de la bourrée précédente Passacaille, noblement et marqué

Bethanne Walker, Flute Andrew Blanke, Oboe Sarah Jane Kenner, Violin Ruiqi Ren, Violin Joe Jones, Bassoon Matt Zucker, Viola da Gamba Adam Cockerham, Theorbo Eunji Lee, Harpsichord

Performance time: approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes, including one intermission

Please make certain that all electronic devices are turned off during the performance. The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not permitted in this auditorium.

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Program Notes

Pièces de clavecin

At the turn of the 17th and 18th century, French harpsichord suites were dance cycles generally consisting of four “obligatory” dances— allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue. They could also include other movements, which were called galanteries: lighter dances like the minuet, gavotte, passepied and bourée.

François Couperin did something very different. He didn’t collect his harpsichord pieces in suites but rather put them into ordres, or “orders.” He explained his usage of the term quite enigmatically: “Ceci n’est pas une Suite, encore qu’il y ait bien les dances obligatoires. Vous vouliez de l’ordre? Voici un Ordre.. On l’appellerait Désordre tout aussi bien.” (“This is not a suite, although it includes the obligatory dances. Would you like an order? Here is an Order … But it could be also called a Disorder.”) This quote from the preface of his Premier Livre doesn’t really guide us in understanding what the word ordre meant to him. Nonetheless, one can already get a feel for his attitude and sense of humor. He seems to not care about any specific form for his pieces, although after thorough analysis of his works this seems to be far from the truth.

Couperin wrote 240 pieces for harpsichord. They are gathered in 27 ordres and published in four books (plus the eight preludes in L’art de toucher le clavecin): Premier Livre (1713)–Ordres 1-5 Seconde Livre (1717)–Ordres 6-12 Troisième Livre (1722)–Ordres 13-19 Quatrième Livre (1730)–Ordres 20-27

Structurally, Couperin’s harpsichord pieces can be divided into three main groups: the binary-form movements, the rondeaux, and the chaconnes. Texturally, the predominant style is the style luthé or style brisé, the “broken style.” Couperin believed that “le dessus, et la basse travaillent toujours” (“the treble and bass lines always work”), so he often uses simple two-part technique, with voices leading in either a more polyphonic or a more homophonic way. The influence of Italian style can be observed in his motivic consistency.

Couperin’s harpsichord music is a fascinating portrait of his time. In his pieces he presents his friends and enemies, often important court personalities, in an enigmatic and disguised way. One can notice his full participation in the realm of theater and literature. He refers to popular plays, playwrights, actors, and the whole colorful world of magic shows, street fairs, and the circus. In a witty way, he exposes the hypocrisy of contemporary society, the triviality of intrigues and rumors, and the boredom of the aristocracy. Couperin observes all the aspects of court life

Couperin’s harpsichord music is a fascinating portrait of his time. In his pieces he presents his friends and enemies, often important court personalities, in an enigmatic and disguised way.

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Program Notes (Continued)

and the colorful characters around him. His Pièces de clavecin is a kind of a diary of his remarks, feelings, and attitudes. From them, we learn a lot about the composer’s life: who he knew, where he went out, what was his source of inspiration.

Some pieces bear the simple names of dances, but most of them have very interesting titles. Translating them is a challenge because often they are coded, often ambiguous references which would have been obscure to people outside Couperin’s immediate circle; sometimes their meanings are both literal and non-literal. This is music for an informed audience, but it is still possible to clarify some of his obscure titles.

Among the pieces you will hear tonight will be some great examples of Couperin’s musical portraits. La Favorite probably represents Madame de Maintenon, Louis XIV’s official mistress (and secret wife). La Muse-Plantine refers to the talented harpsichordist and composer Mademoiselle de La Plante, while La Couperin paints a complex self-portrait.

At a less refined level are two satirical pieces which are vicious caricatures of hypocritical organizations. Les Culbutes Jxcxbxnxs (Jacobins) depicts the moral failings of the monks and nuns from the Dominican order, while Les Fastes de la grande et ancienne Mxnxstrxndxsx (Ménéstrandise) is a cycle of pieces mocking members of the ancient Parisian entertainers’ guild which (in Couperin’s version) includes musicians, jugglers, minstrels, cripples, beggars, and animals.

Other titles remain enigmatic. Les Baricades mystérieuses, a great example of the style luthé, may refer to women’s eyelashes, or it might evoke the masks worn by performers in a play put on for the Duchesse du Maine, one of Couperin's patrons, in 1714: Le Mystère ou les Fêtes de l'Inconnu (The Mysterious One or the Celebrations of the Unknown One). You can also find some portraits of animals: Le Rossignol-En-Amour (The Nightingale in Love) and L’Anguille (The Eel). La Ténébreuse, possibly written after the death of one of the French princes, is a dark, melancholic tombeau.

Couperin’s great Passacaille doesn’t even need a descriptive title: even without it one can hear the theatrical gestures of the dance. This grand union of French and Italian styles was characteristic of Couperin’s musical diplomacy. His passion for Italian music can be heard in the simplicity of the melody, the expressive harmony, and the clarity of musical form. —Katarzyna Kluczykowska

Couperin's Pièces de clavecin is a kind of a diary of his remarks, feelings, and attitudes.

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“L’Espagnole” from Les Nations

Les Nations: Sonades et suites de simphonies en trio (1726) is a large compilation of François Couperin’s chamber pieces that contains four ordres (suites) that are named after France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Savoy dynasty of Piedmont (at that point, a French ally). It is tempting to look into Couperin’s attitude toward these various countries in each ordre, but in fact there is a larger program that overarches the whole collection.

Like his collection Les goûts-réunis, Couperin’s Les Nations is an attempt to bring together the Italian and French style. The famous quote from Rousseau’s article on Sonate in the Encyclopédie—“Sonate, que me veux-tu?” (“Sonata, what do you want from me?”)—shows how the non-strict form of Italian sonatas posed a conceptual challenge to French listeners. Couperin himself was one of the first French composers to write freely composed sonatas. He explains in the preface to Les Nations that early in his career he pretended to be an Italian composer so he could introduce his sonatas to the public since he lacked self-confidence to write in the style of Corelli, a composer whom Couperin greatly admired. However, Couperin continues that he became more confident in his Italianate writing after these early efforts received “great applause.”

Indeed, we hear in the opening “Sonade” from L’Espagnole how beautifully Couperin merged the free form of Italian sonata and the rich harmonies and ornaments of French dance music. The sonade from L’Espagnole ends with an especially Italianate section marked Vivement, et marqué, with an unusual badinage par le Clavecin si l’on veut, a written-out right hand part for the harpsichord.

The sonatas of Les Nations were written in the 1690’s; 30 years later, towards the end of his career, Couperin says he “merely joined them to grand suites of pièces, to which the sonatas serve simply as preludes or as a sort of introduction.”

A series of classic French dances follow, in which Couperin shows another side of his mastery. In fact, around that time, French composers were equally active in writing character pieces as well as traditional dance movements. Couperin was obviously one of them: in the first book of Pièces de clavecin (1713), there are many character pieces included in the later part of the book. His fourth book of harpsichord pieces, published a year later than Les Nations, is more oriented toward character pieces, and contains few actual dances. But in Les Nations, Couperin displays his great knowledge of French dance movements: this is the language at the heart of French music, in contrast to the Italian taste for sonatas.

Les Nations is an attempt to bring together the Italian and French style.

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Program Notes (Continued)

The most obvious hint about the Spanish character in L’Espagnole might be found in the last movement of the dances, the Passacaille. In the middle of this beautiful, expansive movement, we hear the frisky sound of castanets. This sudden character change to the energetic and heroic theme pleasantly introduces the excitement of Spanish-like rhythm. And toward the end, the syncopations against the bass line gives a strongly dramatic dance rhythm which is rarely found in French dances.

Les Nations is written for two treble instruments and a continuo section of viola da gamba and figured bass (each with their own part). This “trio” is orchestrated for today’s performance with flute, oboe, two violins, viola da gamba, theorbo, and harpsichord. The delightful and shimmering colors created by various instruments take us on a tour of the fascinating nation of L’Espagnole, portrayed with the tasteful “reunion” of the French and Italian style.—Eunji Lee

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Meet Béatrice Martin

Harpsichordist Béatrice Martin was born in Annecy, France, and has been a faculty member at Juilliard since 2015. She attended Geneva Conservatory and the Paris Conservatory. Ms. Martin created and directed the harpsichord class in the Escola Superior de Música of Catalunya in Barcelona (2001–2013). She was a jury member for the International Harpsichord Competition of Bruges in 2011 and 2015. Festivals where she has taught include the Festival of Ambronay, La Roque d’Anthéron, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Festival Couperin, Bach in Combrailles, Festival of Lanvellec, Printemps Baroque du Sablon, the festivals of Utrecht, the MA Festival of Bruges, Daroca, Girona, Malta, Tallinn, ‘Cycle clavecinistes Français’ in Mexico, the London Festival of Baroque Music, Folles Journées of Nantes, and the Lisbon Festival. She has played recitals at Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Comique, and the Cité de la Musique in Paris. Ensembles she has played with include Les Talens Lyriques, Le Concert Spirituel, Ricercar, Il Seminario Musical, and Les Arts Florissants. Martin is co-founder, with Patrick Cohën-Akenine, of Les Folies Françoises. With Les Folies Françoises, she recorded four discs of music by J.S. Bach: the dialogue cantatas (Cypres); the complete sonatas for violin and harpsichord; and concertos for harpsichord, BWV 1052, 1053, 1055 and 1056. With Les Arts Florissants, she has recorded more than 20 CDs and DVDs. She won the first prize, audience prize, and Bärenreiter Prize at the International Harpsichord Competition of Bruges in 1998.

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Juilliard Historical Performance

Juilliard’s full-scholarship Historical Performance program offers comprehensive study and performance of music from the 17th and 18th centuries on period instruments. Established and endowed in 2009 by the generous support of Bruce and Suzie Kovner, the program is open to candidates for the Master of Music, Graduate Diploma, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. A high-profile concert season of opera, orchestral, and chamber music is augmented by a performance-oriented curriculum that fosters an informed understanding of the many issues unique to period-instrument performance at the level of technical excellence and musical integrity for which Juilliard is renowned. The faculty comprises many of the leading performers and scholars in the field. Frequent collaborations with Juilliard’s Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts, the integration of modern-instrument majors outside of the Historical Performance program, and national and international tours have introduced new repertoires and increased awareness of historical performance practice at Juilliard and beyond. Alumni of Juilliard Historical Performance are members of many of the leading period-instrument ensembles, including the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Les Arts Florissants, Mercury, and Tafelmusik, as well as launching such new ensembles, as the Sebastians, House of Time, New York Baroque Incorporated, and New Vintage Baroque.

ADMINISTRATIONRobert Mealy, DirectorBenjamin D. Sosland, Administrative DirectorRosemary Metcalf, Assistant Administrative DirectorAnnelise Wiering, Coordinator for Scheduling and Educational Support

FacultyElizabeth BlumenstockRobert MealyCynthia Roberts

CelloPhoebe Carrai

Viola da GambaSarah Cunningham

Double BassDouglas Balliett

FluteSandra Miller

OboeGonzalo Ruiz

BassoonDominic Teresi

HornR.J. Kelley

TrumpetJohn Thiessen

Plucked InstrumentsDaniel SwenbergCharles Weaver

HarpsichordRichard EgarrBéatrice MartinPeter Sykes

RecorderNina Stern

Continuo SkillsSteven LaitzAvi Stein

Baroque VocalLiteratureAvi Stein

Core StudiesThomas Forrest KellyRobert Mealy

Artists in ResidenceWilliam ChristieRichard EgarrMonica HuggettRachel PodgerJordi Savall

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Juilliard Board of Trustees and Administration

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Bruce Kovner, ChairJ. Christopher Kojima, Vice ChairKatheryn C. Patterson, Vice Chair

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Assistant Dean for the Kovner Fellowships

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Pierre T. BastidJulie Anne ChoiKent A. ClarkKenneth S. DavidsonBarbara G. FleischmanKeith R. GollustMary GrahamJoan W. HarrisMatt JacobsonEdward E. Johnson Jr.Karen M. LevyTeresa E. LindsayLaura Linney

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JUILLIARD COUNCIL

Mitchell Nelson, Chair

Michelle Demus AuerbachBarbara BrandtBrian J. HeidtkeGordon D. HendersonPeter L. KendYounghee Kim-WaitPaul E. Kwak, MDMin Kyung Kwon

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