Nicolas de Grigny (1672-1703)
- La Messe avec plain-chant (1699)
Performers: Bernard Coudurier (orgue); Ensemble Alternatim
Further info: De Grigny - La Messe
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French organist and composer. He came from a family several of whom were
organists and town musicians: his father and grandfather and one of his
paternal uncles were all organists in Reims. From 1693 to 1695 he was
organist at the abbey church of St Denis in Paris, where his brother
André was sub-prior; he was apparently a pupil of Lebègue at this
period. In 1695 he married a Parisian merchant’s daughter. The record of
the birth of the first of his seven children shows that by 1696 he was
back in Reims, and within a year he was organist at the cathedral,
although the exact date of his appointment is unknown. He held this
position until his death, the year before which he agreed to give his
services as organist to the parish church of St Symphorien in Reims.
Grigny’s volume consists mainly of nine groups of pieces – the four
sections of the Ordinary of the Mass and five hymns; there are also four
single numbers. Each of the nine groups begins with a plainsong
movement in which the chant appears in long notes in either the bass or
the tenor. The mass draws upon the plainsong Mass IV of the Vatican
edition familiar from the organ masses of Nivers, Lebègue and Couperin.
Accompanying voices are set in animated harmony, at times engaging in
free imitation. Each cantus firmus movement is followed by a fugue based
upon one or more motifs of the plainsong. The remaining movements are
in the familiar forms of Grigny’s predecessors – duos, trios, récits,
various other embellished solos and dialogues. These movements rarely
echo the plainsong, though the récit for the Pange lingua is a striking
exception in which the entire hymn melody is paraphrased with
embellishment. Although Grigny introduced no new forms he enriched the
traditional ones in various ways. A number of his fugues are in five
parts, requiring two manuals and pedals, and so are some of the
dialogues and plainsong versets. Several of the récits call for a pair
of solo voices rather than for a single solo against the accompaniment.
Fugal treatment appears in movements other than fugues, nor is dialogue
treatment – the alternation between manuals of contrasting registration –
confined to dialogues. No composer of the French classical organ school
demanded more of the pedals, and few exploited the contrasting colours
of the organ more vividly. In other respects too Grigny’s work is more
distinguished than that of his predecessors and contemporaries: in
richness of texture, complexity of counterpoint, expressiveness of
melodic embellishment, seriousness of purpose and intensity of feeling.
He had no immediate French successors either in these aspects or in his
use of liturgical material: rather is his work a summation of that of
his predecessors. Bach paid it the tribute of copying it in its entirety
for his own study and use about 1713. There is also a copy in the hand
of J.G. Walther, probably taking that of Bach as its source.
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