Louis Couperin: Tombeau de Mr. de Blancrocher. John Moraitis, harpsichord.
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- Support the channel at / johnmoraitis
Thank you for your support!
Louis Couperin: Tombeau de Mr. de Blancrocher. John Moraitis, harpsichord.
Harpsichord by Martine Argellies (Montpellier, 2012), after Dulcken.
Temperament: quarter-comma meantone. A=415 Hz.
Thanks for all your interesting videos. Let me be a little pedantic : I presume that "Blancrocher" must be pronounced as "Blanrocher". The meaning of the name is probably "white rock", "blanc rocher". According to Wikipedia, the name was also written "Blanrocher" :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fleury
Choosing carefully his means of expression, did he? - this is one of the best Tombeaux I've ever heard (and seen the notes), if not THE best! and so is its (presentation and) performance! Chapeau and many thanks for this unique upload.
Thank you! And yes, it is an absolutely wonderful piece!
Thanks so much for the wonderful performance and analysis. This is one of the first pieces I learned when I began to play the harpsichord years ago, and I still enjoy playing it.
I'm happy you liked the video!
Fantastic playing and wonderfully illuminating and interesting knowledge you've shared, as always!
Thank you!
@@johnmoraitis Aboslutely nothing to thank me for! Expressing my appreciation is the least I can do, given what great value you provide to the early music community!
Also ' blanc croche', a white note, or a note that doesn't exist?
In this case, I think the reference is specifically to the lutenist Blancrocher, although the so-called "white notation" was certainly a way of notating certain pieces of music (Couperin does not really use it in this piece).
Excellent presentations and performances.
Thank you so much.
I'm happy you liked the video!
This was a great video thanks so much.
I'm happy you liked it!
Is there an extramusical meaning in the chord that is repeated over and over again (4 times)?
There may be, although as always this invites different interpretations. I've read before that that section may be suggestive of the sounds of a carillon, and I also remember reading somewhere (I need to check where) that those chords could symbolize Blancrocher's struggling in the final moments before his death. I don't think there is a definitive answer, but it's definitely a very striking moment in the piece!
@@johnmoraitis yes, I was suddenly also thinking about the 'passus duriusculus', the 'difficult step' in relation to the fall of Blancrocher, but of course this is a more chromatic construction, I'm not sure if this is the case here.
Wonderful! Many thanks for this video.
Another wonder presentation and performance, John!
Thank you!
Brilliant interpretation, thank you so much!
Marvellous
Thank you!
this is so beautiful thankyou!
Thank you for interesting topic, John! Do you know somebody who play Ab instead G# in this piece? How he can do it?
I'm happy you liked it! I don't know of a specific recording that does that for this piece (although there may be one out there), but it's just a matter of retuning the G sharp higher so that it is an A flat. I was just talking in general, because some performers will modify temperaments to fit particular pieces, and I am not convinced that was what they did back then.
@@johnmoraitis Perhaps the barocco harpsichordist could use both sounds in one piece, because they could change the pitch during the performance? Like in turkish kanun:
th-cam.com/video/z8y31oTd_cc/w-d-xo.html (0:35 s)
@@pavelbatalov657 Sure, but: 1) I know of no evidence that they did that; 2) if you do that, you change the expressive content completely (as I explained in the video). And, of course, what do you do with all the church organs of the time tuned to meantone where no change is possible? :-) As I said in the video, in my opinion Couperin is using meantone for expressive purposes; if you modify it, you lose what he was aiming for. As always, of course, that's just my opinion!
@@johnmoraitis I like this idea of using a break in meantone like a simbol of death or some allegory of the impossibility of continuing the harmony of life after death. The question is how widespread this technique was in those time. Do you know another example?
@@pavelbatalov657 I've recorded a couple of examples :-) Look at my previous videos of Louis Couperin's Pavanne in f sharp minor, and Froberger's Suite in c minor.
I might be mistaken but, I think this piece is in "Pièces de clavecin du manuscrit Bauyn" right?
You're absolutely right -- it is indeed in the Bauyn manuscript, and that's the score you see in the video!
@@johnmoraitis thats amazing really, to see Louis Couperin's own hand writing, plus it
help us understand how people were used to create music.
@@Iceologer I'll have to check on this, but if I remember correctly it is not his own handwriting: what happened was that his manuscripts were copied by others, and we now have two sources: Bauyn is probably the most complete one, but there is also the Parville manuscript, which duplicates most of the pieces in Bauyn and I think is in a library somewhere in the U.S. But it may very well be one of his relatives responsible for some of this copying (the Bauyn manuscript also has pieces by other composers, and a photocopy is actually available on IMSLP). But I need to do some research to make sure what I just wrote is correct :-)