The Annual

 Glebe Music Festival

In conjunction with The Glebe Society Inc

Special Concert 3:
Sunday 28 July 2024 at 3pm
Location: Margaretta Cottage, 6 Leichhardt Street, Glebe 2037
(disabled entrance at 18A Cook St)
Quatorze in
“L’Amour Cruel”
Baroque French Music

Anna Sandström, soprano
Ruth Crosby, baroque flute and recorder
Simon Martyn-Ellis, theorbo

Programme

Welcome, and thank you for joining us this afternoon. We look forward to taking you on a musical journey that started in France during the reign of King Louis XIV (1643-1715) and extended into the reign of King Louis XV (1715 - 1774).

Needing to be an absolute monarch, and being convinced that the arts, and especially music, should contribute to a ruler’s authority and glory, King Louis XIV built the Palace of Versailles, a sumptuous assertion of his resplendence, where he centralized his reign. His court included hundreds of musicians who composed and played in various orchestras, enhancing and expressing his sovereignty to the nobility, who were mandatory guests.

Supreme amongst them was Jean Bapiste Lully. Originally Giovanni Battista Lulli of Florence, Lully was brought to France as a child. By the age of 11 he had danced with the young King Louis XIV on stage in a ballet. Lully gained an excellent musical education, sensibly Frenchified his name, and became great friends with the king. Thus, he was perfectly qualified to become the King’s Master of Music. Louis demanded music in all facets of royal life, from the daily rituals which accompanied him throughout his day, to religious ceremonies, and spectacular entertainments such as operas and ballets, which his nobles were required to attend. He sought to develop an intentionally French cultural style, full of elegance, grace and good taste.

Lully is most well known as the father of ‘tragédies en musique’, a specifically French genre of opera usually based on Greek mythology, and not necessarily tragic. They were grand in scale, and suffused with noble stateliness fit for the King for whom they were written. Occasionally he even danced in them.

The public monopoly over stage music which Lully enjoyed during his life time came to an end upon his death in 1687, opening the way for other composers and influences. Major amongst these were André Campra, who wrote in lighter, more pastoral shades influenced by Italian style, and Jean-Phillipe Rameau, who replaced Lully as the most dominant French composer during the reign of King Louis xv.

Translations

Castor et Pollux, Tristês Apprets Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683 – 1764)
Mournful visions of pale flames.
The Day is more frightening than the night,
The dismal stars are within their tombs.
All I can see are the beams of the funeral lights.
Father of daylight!  Oh Sun, Oh my father!
I no longer wish to have the gift of life that Castor has lost,
I renounce the light.

Amor Cruel Sébastien Le Camus (ca. 1610-1677)
Love, cruel Love, let my tears end.
My heart is heavy with so many secret troubles.
Your sensitive pains no longer have any charm for me.
Should an ungrateful person have such tender regrets?
Love, cruel love, let my tears end.
Your fickle desires have already cost me too many tears and
sighs, of alarming deadly sadness.
Alas, should we lose ourselves in pain for an ungrateful person who does not know how to love?

Airs et Brunettes a deux et Trois Dessus Jacques-Martin Hotteterre (1674 – 1763)
Trio ‘Les dieux compte nos jours’
The Gods count our days – we must believe them.
Let us spare ourselves the care of a superfluous calculation.
They are counted; let us not count them more, these days,
and pass them in drinking!

Air de Bacilly
Rocks, I don't want to be only your faithful echo
Tell me again the woes about which I complain to you
Iris is so charming and my passion is so beautiful
That in discovering what I feel for her
You would make me jealous a thousand times.
Rocks, you are deaf, you have nothing of the tender
And without shaking you, you listen to me here.
The ingrate of whom I complain is also a rock
But alas he runs away so as not to hear me.
In these peaceful deserts,
Rocks, how sweet your fate is.
You are without feeling;
Too happy, whoever is like you.

Fanfare a trois fluttes
Let's drink a cup of fresh wine
Love has no reason to forget Climene
I want to get drunk straight away from it
To be jealous, the more fickle she is the more shots we will drink
Pour up to my rival's hand, I will drink it full
Far from forgetting Climene, let us invoke love in these places in turn to this god
The same let's sing, celebrate his return
drink to her beautiful eyes; this charming juice will seem more delicious.
I would never drink it
If it makes me forget her charms

Arion André Campra (1660 - 1744)
Agrêable Enchanteresse
Pleasant enchantress,
Daughter of tender Loves,
Kind mistress of games,
What can your help not do?
It is you, celestial harmony,
Whose sweet tyranny,
Knows how to chain mortals,
And disarm the fury of the
cruelest monsters.
The elements obey you,
You seem to rule their course.
And the deaf rocks,
Soften at your sound.

L’ onde et les Zephirs
The waves and the winds served Arion’s desire.
The rapid tyrant of the waves,
With his smallest breath
Disturbed their rest.

Thésée – Revenez Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 – 1687)
“Come back, lovers, come back”
Come back, come back, lovers, come back;
Why leave the places where we are without fears?
Beauty loses its sweetest charms
As soon as you abandon it:
come back, come back lovers, come back
Come back, love come back
Beautiful places where pleasures followed my every step
What happened to your charms?
Such a charming visit is sad and alone!
Alas! Alas! The lovers are not there,
Without lovers nothing can please.
Come back, come back, lovers, come back.
Mars himself here, stop being surprised.
Isn’t there some danger from which he delivers you?
He chases the furies out of these fortunate places,
To victory alone, he allows you to follow him.
Come back, come back, lovers, come back

Amidst all this grandeur, were the musicians who quietly played, taught and built instruments. They themselves composed the abundance of intimate chamber music which filled the courts of kings and nobles, exquisitely depicting French taste and charm on a human scale. Such compositions are portrayed here today in the music of Hotteterre, Philidore, Le Camus and de Visée.

Quatorze is an ensemble named in honour of the Sun King, Louis XIV, celebrating the musicians who populated and entertained his court. Embodying a fascination with this era of musical innovation and historical intrigue, the ensemble is a flexible gathering of like-minded musicians who simply love to play French baroque music on period instruments.