CHERUBINI, Luigi 1760-1842

Deuxième Messe Solennelle à quatre parties de Chant avec accompagnement de l'Orchestre ... Partition pour le Piano arrangée par Ch. Zulehner. Prix 13 Francs. Prix des quatre parties de chant séparées 8 Frs. [Piano-vocal score]

Chez N. Simrock [PN 2644], [ca. 1827].

Oblong folio. Full modern dark maroon cloth with printed title label to spine. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), 3-103, [i] (blank) pp. Engraved throughout.

With small circular handstamp "T Cocks & Co. London" to foot of title.

Occasional small stains and minor soiling, mainly to blank margins; occasional foxing to inner and lower margins of final two pages of music.

A very good copy overall.

Hirsch IV, 733. RISM CC2028.

Cherubini was an "Italian, composer, conductor, teacher, administrator, theorist, and music publisher, active in France. He took French citizenship, probably in 1794, and was a dominant figure in Parisian musical life for half a century. He was a successful opera composer during the Revolutionary period, and had comparable success with religious music from the beginning of the Restoration. He was made director of the Paris Conservatoire and consolidated its pre-eminent position in music education in Europe. ... In 1819 he was given the task of writing the Mass (G major) for the coronation of Louis XVIII, which in fact was never performed because the King considered the restoration process too fragile to risk displaying monarchical pomp. He also composed a three-part Mass (A major) for the coronation of Charles X, which was performed in 1825. In these two masses Cherubini seems intentionally to have avoided some of the more refined contrapuntal techniques so ostensibly displayed in his Credo of 1806. More noticeably, he omitted syncopation almost entirely so that the bar-structure and regular metre were preserved. Orchestral figures and motifs rarely exceed the length of a bar so that a much lighter, march-like tone comes to the fore in staccato passages. The vocal parts are usually bound into a homophonic structure and symmetric periods with a rich orchestration either imitating the voices or executing diminished ostinatos. Many general pauses enhance the lucid texture, as do distinct contrasts between the sections. Words and phrases of the Ordinary are repeated out of context, enabling the recapitulation of musical material (e.g. in the Gloria of the G major Mass) or the increase of sequential phrasing (e.g. in the Credo of the A major Mass). Similarly, the same music is reused in different text sections. Independent instrumental motifs occasionally play an equal role in the compositional structure (e.g. in the Agnus Dei of the G major Mass), where they immediately increase the musical effect. Most of these devices clearly enhance the overall musical unity and communicate the religious message. However, some chromatic crescendo passages on an orchestral pedal followed by a drawn out cadence and a recitative-style section are reminiscent of operatic scenes." Michael Fend in Grove Music Online.

Item #40732

Price: $525.00  other currencies