D'HELFER, Charles (1598-1661) - Missa pro defunctis (1656)

Charles d'Helfer (1598-1661) - Missa pro defunctis, quatuor vocum... (1656)

Performers: A Sei Voci; Les Sacqueboutiers; Bernard Fabre-Garrus (1944-2006, conductor)

Painting: School of Lucca (17th Century) - A Concert

Further info: Missa pro defunctis, quatuor vocum...

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Charles (Carolo) d’Helfer [Delfert, Dhelfer, d’Helfert, d’Helpher]

(1598 - Soissons, 4 November 1661)

French composer. Nothing is known of his youth and music formation. He was documented in Soissons in 1648 serving as a priest and as a 'maître de musique'. In 1653 he was appointed by decree chaplain of one of the 12 chapels in the cathedral. Three years later he described himself as 'simphoneta simphoniarca', that is, music master to the children in the choir school, and later he became a canon. Helfer is known to have composed only Latin sacred music, particularly a cappella masses, four of which are his only surviving works. He wrote them in sparingly ornamented counterpoint whose melodic lines are remarkable for their fluid elegance. He did not adhere at all strictly to the traditional modal system but made much use of major-minor tonality. His masses were esteemed by connoisseurs and long remained in the repertory of the best choirs; some of them were in print as late as 1729. Moreover, Sébastien de Brossard, reported in his manuscript Catalogue of 1724 that the Missa Deliciae regum "still delights people with good taste". In particular the Missa pro defunctis (1656) had a surprisingly long history. It was sung for the obsequies of Michel-Richard Delalande in 1726.

TOUCHEMOULIN, Joseph (1727-1801) - Sinfonia ex D (1795)

Joseph Touchemoulin (1727-1801) - Sinfonia ex D. | à | Violino primo. | Violino Secondo.

| Corno primo. | Corno Secondo. | Violetta | e | Basso (1795)

Performers: Lеs Invеntions; Pаtrick Ayrtοn (conductor)

Drawing: Anonymus (18th Century) - Copy of a concert ticket with a group of eleven musicians playing various instruments in an interior with a Venetian window

Further info: Symphonies–D major

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Joseph Touchemoulin [Touchmolin, Dousmoulin, Dousmolin et al.]

(Chalon-sur-Saône?, 23 October 1727 - Regensburg, 25 October 1801)

French violinist and composer. The son of an oboist, he received his early training from his father before being sent to Italy to study under Giuseppe Tartini. Returning to Bonn in 1753 he served as a violinist at the court and later, in 1760, was appointed Kapellmeister. He left only a year later, however, to take up a position as violinist at the Thurn und Taxis court in Regensburg, where he spent the rest of his career. His music contains a similar style to the Mannheim composers. His surviving works include an opera, a Mass, a Requiem, six symphonies, 13 concertos (violin and flute), a string quartet, a divertimento, four violin sonatas, numerous Lieder, and a host of smaller chamber works. Of his three children, two are known to have been musicians, his daughter Anna Catharina Touchemoulin (1757-1844), who was singer and pianist, and his son Egidius or Ludwig Touchemoulin (1759-1830), who by about 1777 was a violinist in his father's orchestra and in 1787 became its leader.

LECLAIR, Jean-Marie (1697-1764) - Suite 'Scylla et Glaucus' (1746)

Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764) - Suite 'Scylla et Glaucus' (1746)

Performers: English Chamber Orchestra; Raymond Leppard (1927-2019, conductor)

Painting: Jacques Sébastien Leclerc (c.1734-1785) - Personnages autour d'une fontaine lisant et filant

Further info: Scylla et Glaucus

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Jean-Marie Leclair (l’aîné) [Claire, Le Clair, Le Clerc]

(Lyons, 10 May 1697 - Paris, 22 October 1764)

French composer, violinist and dancer. His father was the master lacemaker and cellist Antoine Leclair. He studied violin, dancing, and lacemaking in his youth, excelling in all three. He then began his career as a dancer at the Lyons Opera, where he met Marie-Rose Casthagnie; they were married in 1716. About 1722 he went to Turin, where he was active as a ballet master. During a visit to Paris in 1723 to arrange for the publication of his op.1, a distinguished set of sonatas, he acquired a wealthy patron in Joseph Bonnier. Returning to Turin, he wrote ballets for the Teatro Regio Ducale and also received instruction from Giovanni Battista Somis. He then made a series of appearances at the Concert Spirituel in Paris in 1728. He also visited London, and then made a great impression when he played at the Kassel court with Pietro Locatelli. He subsequently received additional instruction from Andre Cheron in Paris. After the death of his first wife, he married Louise Roussel (1700-c.1774) in 1730; she engraved all of his works from op.2 forward. From 1733 to 1737 he served as 'ordinaire de la musique du roi' to Louis XV. He then entered the service of Princess Anne at the Orange court in the Netherlands in 1738, and was honored with the Croix Neerlandaise du Lion. He was active three months of the year at the court, and, from 1740, spent the remaining months as maestro di cappella to the commoner François du Liz at The Hague. He returned to Paris in 1743. With the exception of a brief period of service with the Spanish Prince Don Philippe in Chamhery in 1744, he remained in Paris for the rest of his life. From 1748 until his death, he was music director and composer to his former student, the Duke of Gramont, who maintained a private theater in the Parisian suburb of Puteaux. He separated from his wife about 1758. He was murdered as he was entering his home. The Paris police report listed three suspects: His gardener (who discovered his body), his estranged wife, and his nephew, the violinist Guillaume-François Vial, with whom he was on poor terms. The evidence clearly pointed to the nephew, but he was never charged with the deed. As a violinist, he was the founder of the French violin school. He was also a distinguished composer who successfully combined the finest elements of the Italian and French styles of his day. His brothers Jean-Marie Leclair [le cadet] (1703-1777), Pierre Leclair (1709-1784) and Jean-Benoît Leclair (1714-c.1759) were also violinists and composers. 

KOHL, Leopold (1753-c.1802) - Quatuor concertant

Leopold Kohl (1753-c.1802) - Quatuor concertant des

'Six Quatuors concertants pour cor, violon, alto et basse... Oeuvre III'

Performers: AIеssio AIIеgrini (horn); SoIisti deIIa ScaIa MiIano

Painting: Jean-Baptiste Pillement (1728-1808) - Pastoral scene

Further info: La Grande Fanfare

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Leopold (Wenceslas) Kohl

(Quatierub, 1753 - c.1802)

Bohemian composer and horn player. He received his earliest musical training as a chorister in Prague before mastering the horn, an instrument on which he gained distinction as a virtuoso performer. Prior to establishing himself in Paris in 1784, he served as court music director to Prince Lobkowitz in Bílina, Bohemia. During his Parisian period, he published three collection of 'Quatuors concertants pour cor, violon, alto et basse' (Opus 1, 2, and 3; c.1781-1802).

SCHUBERT, Ferdinand Lukas (1794-1859) - Pastoralmesse (c.1830)

Ferdinand Lukas Schubert (1794-1859) - Pastoralmesse in B-Dur 'Hirten-Messe', Op.13 (c.1830)

Performers: Bernadette Degelin (soprano); Lucienne Van Deyck (alto); Zeger Vandersteene (tenor); Kurt Widmer (bass); Maastricht Kamerchor Conservatorium; Musica Polyphonica; Louis Devos (1926-2015, conductor)

Painting: Ferdinand Schubert (1824-1853) - Ferdinand Lukas Schubert

Further info: Requiem & Hirtenmesse

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Ferdinand Lukas Schubert [Subert, Šubert]

(Vienna, 18 October 1794 - Vienna, 26 February 1859)

Austrian organist, composer and teacher. Brother of Franz Schubert (1797-1828), he received his first music lessons from his father Franz Theodor Florian Schubert (1763-1830), and after training in the Normalhauptschule in Vienna (1807-8) he became a teacher in his father’s school. He was an assistant teacher (1810-16) and a teacher (1816-24) at the Alsergrund orphanage, then headmaster (1824-51) and director (1851-59) of the Normalhauptschule. He was twice married, first to Anna Schüler (1816) and, after her death, to Therese Spazierer (1832). He frequently drew on his brother’s music for help in his daily work, passing it off as his own. The most famous instance of this appropriation is the Deutsches Requiem, which he submitted to the examiners of the Alt-Lerchenfeld school; on its strength he was appointed organist and choirmaster (1820). As a composer, he wrote vocal music almost exclusively, including two Singspiels, four masses and a requiem. As a custodian of his brother’s manuscripts his record is mixed; he continued to appropriate the lesser, earlier works for school music books and choral test pieces (so that a list of his compositions must be suspect). But he also did all in his power to obtain the publication of Schubert’s larger works, and in this task he was more or less successful.