André Campra (1660-1744)
- Omnes Gentes Plaudite Manibus (1725)
Performers: Denise Monteil (1928-1984, soprano); Helmut Krebs
(1913-2007, tenor); Michel Carey (baritone); Xavier Depraz (1926-1994,
bass);
Ludovic Vaillant (trumpet); Philippe Caillard Choir; Stephane Caillat
Choir; Jean-Francois Paillard Orchestra; Louis Frémaux (1921-2017,
conductor)
Further info: André Campra (1660-1744) - Messe "Reges terrae"
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French composer. Campra’s first teacher was most likely his father,
Jean-François, a violinist and surgeon. He sang in the choir of St.
Sauveur at Aix-en- Provence and began clerical studies in 1678 but
showed his dramatic inclinations early when he was nearly dismissed in
early 1681 for participating in local theatrical productions without
permission. Later that same year, however, he was appointed chaplain.
From August 1681 to May 1683, he was maître de chapelle at Saint
Trophime in Arles. He then assumed the same title at Saint Étienne in
Toulouse beginning in June 1683. He improved the musical resources of
what was already considered the best choir in the city, and the
authorities sent him to Paris in January 1694 for four months study. He
did not return to Toulouse but instead succeeded Jean Mignon as maître
de musique at Notre Dame Cathedral. In May 1696, he was made canon at
Saint Jean-le-Rond and appears as a composer of Latin tragedies on the
programs of the Jesuit College Louis-le-Grand from 1698. In these years,
Campra attracted the notice of the Duchess de la Ferté, the future
regent of France Philippe d’Orléans, and the Duke de Sully. On 24
October 1697, Campra’s opéra-ballet L’Europe Galante premiered. Campra,
worried about how traditional views about the nature of French drama
prevailing at Versailles might affect his career, published this opera
and the following year’s Vénus, Feste Galante anonymously. But L’Europe
Galante was a great success that allowed Campra to leave Notre Dame on
13 October 1700 and concentrate on the theater. His next success was a
more traditional tragédie en musique, Tancrède (1702). The first two
decades of the 18th century saw Campra at the peak of his popularity. He
published his first two books of cantates françoises and four books of
motets. King Louis XV awarded him an annual pension of 500 livres on 15
December 1718. In 1722, he entered the service of the Prince de Conti.
He also composed intermittently for the Chapelle Royale until poor
health made him give up this work in 1742. He spent his last years in a
small apartment in Versailles, sustained by his pensions. On his death
at the age of 84 he left the little money he possessed to two faithful
servants. Campra’s main contribution to the French lyric stage was the
creation of the opéra-ballet (or simply ‘ballet’), in which each act (or
entrée) contains its own characters and plot related in a general way
to a collective idea. Campra’s musical style is seen at its best in his
opéras-ballets. As he himself stated, it is a mixture of French
‘delicatesse’ and Italian ‘vivacité’. The syllabic airs with short
symmetrical phrases, a delicate sense of orchestral colour and an
expressive and organic use of vocal ornamentation are characteristically
French, as is the five-part texture inherited from Lully, which
prevails in many symphonies. Campra was the most catholic of the
generation of composers that flourished between Lully’s death (1687) and
Rameau’s début as an opera composer (1733). Two books of psalms à grand
choeur were printed by Ballard (1737 and 1738), each containing two
psalms. A third psalm à grand choeur is found in book 3 of the petits
motets. The greater part of the remaining 46 grands motets are found in
manuscript at the Bibliothèque Nationale. Although they follow the
tradition of the Versailles motet, they also borrow from the composer’s
tragédies en musique. He was the dominant composer for the French
musical theater in the first two decades of the 18th century. Campra
composed the first opéraballet in 1697, inaugurating a tradition of
unabashed comedy in France after the death of the tragedian
Jean-Baptiste Lully. His two dozen works for the musical theater also
comprise ballets, divertissements, and tragédies lyriques. He also left
22 French cantatas, a requiem mass and a plainsong mass.
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