Plain-Chant Cathedral D’Auxerre XVIIIe Siècle

Ensemble Organum directed by Marcel Pérès

Gallican Chant from the Cathedral of Saint-Etienne in Auxerre, France (18^th Century)

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In Festo Johannis Apostoli et Evangelisti

Introitus. Introibo in potentias Domini

Graduale. Amantissimus Domini

Alleluia. v. Sapientia denudabit

Offertorium. O Domine

Communio. Quod audivimus

Dominca palmarum. Duxerunt pullum ad Jesum

Responsorium. Stephanum virum plenum fide

In Gratiarum Actione Post Collectos Terrae Fructus

Processio

Antiphona in choro. Confiteantur tibi populi. Oratio. Famulos tuos

Antiphona ad eggressum chori. Benedic anima mea Domino

Responsorum in navi. Praecinite Domino in confessione

Missa

Introitus. Oculi omnium in te sperant Domine

Graduale. Confitemini Domino Dominorum

Alleluia. v. Quam magnificata sunt

Offertorium. Hae sunt feriae Domini

Communio. Implebuntur areae frumento

Antiphone. Miserationum Domini recordabor

The period from the end of the 16th century and the two centuries that followed saw an exceptional expansion in the field of liturgical composition. While bringing about a rupture with certain medieval musical traditions, the Council of Trent also opened the door for the creative imagination of composers, arousing in them a verve that found its most prominent expression in plainchant.

In the 18th century the diocese of Auxerre possessed a repertory of its own that was totally different from that of Rome, both in the text and in the music. This repertory represents one of the most perfect monuments of that 17th and 18th century “Gallicism”, a spiritual, liturgical and artistic movement that aimed at asserting the specific nature and traditions peculiar to the Church of France and not to accept, in the name of spiritual unity, all of the Roman rites and traditions.

At the beginning of the 18th century Auxerre was a highly remarkable place characterized by the decisive influence exercised on his diocese by the bishop, Monseigneur de Caylus, who occupied the see for fifty years. Appointed in 1714 at the age of 36, he arrived from Paris where he had exercised the function of vicar-general, with a certain amount of pastoral experience. He was the friend of Cardinal de Noailles and through this exalted patronage all of the Parisian Jansenist tendencies were propagated in the diocese of Auxerre. Many Jansenist priests who had to flee their diocese because of their convictions, found refuge with Mgr. de Caylus, and it is probably in this converging on Auxerre of a certain ecclesiastic elite that the origins of the Auxerre repertory, composed with so much artistry and skill, is to be sought.

The books used for this recording are large manuscript choirbooks on parchment copied in square notation. The use of this system of notation at the height of the 18th century clearly indicates the willingness of the authors to place themselves within an ancient tradition of plainchant. Their purpose was both to revive the old Gallican usage and to create a traditional chant in perfect concurrence with their highly sophisticated knowledge of the modes, of Latin prosody and the rules of rhetoric to which all discourse had perforce to submit. The observance of these three criteria seemed to them to be lacking in the Gregorian repertory as a result, they thought, of the changes that had taken place in the Middle Ages. For this reason they felt the necessity to recompose the entire repertory.

The polyphonic pieces recorded here are realizations of “chanting by the book” carried out according to the faux-bourdon techniques in use at the period. To this very day we still find an example of it in the polyphonic vocal music of Corsica. In the course of our studies of chanting by the book, the analysis of the style of the linking of chords in the Corsican tradition permitted us to emphasize an “oral style” in the manner of forming the harmonies around a main chant. The present stage of our reflection on the question may be defined as a reading of the documents of the period in the light of the Corsican polyphonic tradition.

Even during the Baroque period plainchant constituted over two thirds of a choir’s repertory. This is why an accurate appraisal of the musical universe of the time must take into consideration the extraordinary variety of the plain chants that flourished at the period. A direct emanation of the medieval heritage, they continued to fertilize and nourish the world of musicians.

Aisle at St. Etienne