Those who have followed the Eurovision broadcasts some decades ago will be familiar with the stately fanfare that precedes them, evocative of times of greater luster and grandeur. It is the prelude composed by Marc Antoine Charpentier for his monumental "Te Deum", written in the 1690s. It is certainly the score by this composer best known to the general public, even to those who are not fond of classical music.
However, this very interesting French composer, who lived between 1643 and 1704, has to his credit a much larger catalog, full of charming surprises. One of them is the small composition dedicated to the Virgin Mary that we present in this review, and whose context is interesting to know to appreciate it better.
From Rome to Paris
A large part of Charpentier's musical training took place at Rome. It was there that he discovered the value of the new music developed by Monteverdi at the beginning of the 17th century for evangelization and the aesthetic expression of religious experience. Charpentier knows the Roman environments of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, who, as is well known, gave great importance to music as an element of catechesis, evangelization and promotion of an attractive liturgy. Composers of great talent between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as Tomás Luis de Victoria and Giacomo Carissimi, knew and shared this vision of religious music, which gives more importance to emotion, melody and theological symbolism than to structure, counterpoint and displays of choral or vocal virtuosity.
Therefore, when Charpentier returns to France, to be placed among the musical staff of Versailles, he already has an interesting catalog of religious music, and has developed an elegant, melodic, emotive style of great aesthetic and symbolic persuasion in order to express the faith musically. These traits will appear again and again in small details of the Litanies that we are going to listen to.
A small-format jewel
Among the spaces dedicated to religious music, the Jesuit college in Paris, as in Rome, stood out. From the Oratory the disciples of St. Ignatius had learned the expressive and evangelizing power of the new music, which they were to spread and promote throughout Europe and its American and Asian colonies. It is possible, therefore, that Charpentier composed this musicalization of the Lauretan Litanies for the Marian Congregation of the Jesuit school in Paris. This association in honor of the Virgin is typical of all the colleges founded by the Society of Jesus, and this scholastic, or academic, environment explains why the "Litanies of the Virgin" is a small-format composition. As for the musical staff, it consists of four or five instruments and nine vocal soloists. As for its duration, it can be interpreted in fifteen minutes. We are certainly far from the solemn compositions dedicated to the liturgical functions of Versailles, as can be seen by comparing these "Litanies" with the "Litanies of the Virgin". withfor example, the splendid "Grands Motets" by Lully.
The text of the composition, as is evident, is the Litany of the Virgin Mary which comes from the Sanctuary of the Holy House of Loreto, and which since the time of Clement VIII (decree "Quoniam multi" of 1601) can be considered the traditionally official version of this prayer to the Virgin Mary, which has been set to music countless times since then. This text begins with a brief penitential act and an invocation to the Holy Trinity, which Charpentier precedes with a very short instrumental prelude. In this one we can see the expressive impact that he manages to transmit with only two violas and the continuo (normally played with a viola da gamba, a theorbo and a positive organ).
This serene and prayerful prelude leads us to the penitential invocations by the female soloists, which in the symbolism of Charpentier's music seem to evoke the Church Bride imploring Mercy from the Lord. Next, the same soloists invoke the Holy Trinity in a very elaborate way. The lowest voice, the alto, begins by invoking the Father ("Pater de cælis, Deus"). On its final note, the two sopranos invoke the Son (two voices for the second person of the Trinity: "Fili, Redemptor mundi, Deus"). The cycle returns to its origin when the contralto intervenes again invoking the Holy Spirit ("Spiritus Sancte, Deus"). The three voices then exclaim in unison "Sancta Trinitas", after which only the soprano sings: "Unus Deus". With extreme brevity the instruments echo the last bars of the voices and prepare the beginning of the series of praises to Mary.
Praises to the Virgin Mary
In two and a half minutes Charpentier, faithful to the ideals of the Roman Oratorio, has managed to move the feelings, interest the aesthetic taste, move the symbolic reflection and make the listener, in short, listen to this music as a prayerful experience in which to contemplate the Virgin Mary. Precisely the invocation to Mary, sung by the entire musical staff, serves to make present in sonorous form the image of the Virgin, around which a majestic first series of litanies will be sung, in which the four female soloists and the five male soloists will respond.
This style of facing choirs, or antiphons, is very characteristic of early baroque music, as much in Italy (where it comes from) as in France or Spain. In many places in these "Litanies" you will notice its effects of dynamizing the musical expression, and giving greater depth and resonance to the sound.
The litanies beginning with "Mater" are entrusted to the male soloists, who sing them progressively intertwining over the basso continuo, ending with another very brief instrumental intervention. Charpentier marks the transition from one section of the "Litanies" to the next with small instrumental passages. The "Virgo" litanies are sung, again, in the style of antiphonic choruses. After them begins a dizzying series of praises beginning with "Speculum iustitiæ," in which an ingenious game of musical mirroring between the two sopranos illustrates the text. In this series, one can discover how each of the litanies receives a musical treatment that is as brief as it is illustrative, thus being able to enjoy a beautiful series of musical miniatures on the titles with which the Virgin Mary is invoked. As an example, the three "Vas" litanies sung by the male soloists on the continuo, or the luminous melodies dedicated to the most important titles of the litanies, the "Vas", the "Vas", the "Vas" and the "Vas". celestial of the Virgin: "Rosa mystica", "Domus aurea", "Porta cæli", "Stella matutina"...
The following series of litanies, of a more mournful and supplicant character, receive a more serene and melancholic music, which reaches an expressive peak of delightful tenderness in the repetition of the invocations "Consolátrix afflictórum", "Auxílium christianórum". They are the only individual invocations repeated in the whole composition, which seems to suggest that for the author they expressed a special spiritual need, easy to understand and share. In marked chiaroscuro, the gloom of this series is contrasted with the luminous joy of the last section, which praises the Virgin as Queen: of angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins and all the saints (the invocations contained in the text at that time). The astonishing echoing repetition of the word "Regina" throughout these invocations, as well as the repetition of the whole series, lead to an admirable ending of this chain of supplications and praises to the Virgin Mary. In all the sections the group of invocations ends with the petition "ora pro nobis" (it is therefore not sung after each individual invocation, as is customarily done in the recitative), but in the last section, which sings of Mary as Queen, this petition is sung with greater grandeur, thus reaching the final climax of the praises to the Virgin.
As is typical of litanies, the Marian invocations are followed by a triple "Agnus Dei", composed with simplicity and elegance, giving a serene and confident ending to the whole composition. The last of the three, which sings: "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundo, miserere nobis", is remarkable for the admirable amplitude of the antiphonic choruses. With this penitential color ends this small chest of praises to the Virgin Mary, which can possibly help to spend a delightful time of musical contemplation with our gaze fixed on the Mother of God.
Doctor of Theology
