Biography
For many years Marc-Antoine Charpentier remained utterly obscure before being celebrated during the closing decades of the twentieth century as an exceptional talent of the Baroque era. After studying in Italy he built his professional life in France, where he forged a personal idiom blending French and Italian traits and distinguished by its songlike qualities together with acute insight into human emotion. During his own lifetime the composer enjoyed only modest recognition.
Born in Paris in 1643, Charpentier journeyed to Rome in the mid-1660s and spent three years under the tutelage of Carissimi, absorbing the Italian manner. Returning to the French capital, he entered the service of the influential and devout Marie de Lorraine, known as Mademoiselle de Guise and the final descendant of the celebrated Guise line. For her he composed La descente d'Orphée aux enfers along with seven additional stage works and several substantial sacred pieces. Already recognized for his religious output, in 1672 he undertook to supply incidental scores for Molière’s comedies. With remarkable ease the composer of church music produced witty, graceful, and engaging pieces perfectly attuned to Molière’s comic vision, most notably the remarkable score for Le Malade imaginaire. Yet sacred music stayed his central calling, and he continued to produce masses, motets, hymns, and other liturgical compositions. A commanding motet, In obitum gallorum Reginae Lamentum, written upon the death of Queen Marie-Thérèse, earned him royal favor; he was urged to enter the competition for sous-maître organist of the Royal Chapel, advanced to the semifinals, then withdrew after falling ill. King Louis awarded him a pension in compensation.
Following the death of Mademoiselle de Guise in 1688, Charpentier took a post at the Collège de Louis-le-Grand, where his achievements included the Latin oratorio David et Jonathas, a dramatic masterpiece. He next served at the Jesuit Church of St. Louis, writing music for diverse elements of the Catholic liturgy. Between 1692 and 1693 he instructed Philippe, Duke of Chartres and later regent of France, in music. At the close of 1693 his tragédie en musique Medée received its premiere at the Academie Royale; although the composer had hoped the extraordinary work would bring a royal appointment, listeners remained unmoved. In 1698 he was named music master for the children at the Sainte-Chapelle, a position he held until his death.
Two and a half centuries afterward, millions encountered the opening measures of his striking Te Deum (H. 146) when it was chosen as the official theme of the Eurovision song contest. A master of harmonic and melodic invention, Charpentier fulfills the three conditions for beauty set forth by St. Thomas Aquinas: consonantia, integritas, and claritas. This quintessentially Catholic composer ingeniously reconciled the apparent opposition between faith and pure beauty by producing music in which devotion and beauty remain inseparable. Musicologist Catherine Cessac captured the essence of his music when she wrote that the "grandeur and originality of Charpentier's music is due to a combination of exceptional musical talent and deep faith, each complementing the other."
Born in Paris in 1643, Charpentier journeyed to Rome in the mid-1660s and spent three years under the tutelage of Carissimi, absorbing the Italian manner. Returning to the French capital, he entered the service of the influential and devout Marie de Lorraine, known as Mademoiselle de Guise and the final descendant of the celebrated Guise line. For her he composed La descente d'Orphée aux enfers along with seven additional stage works and several substantial sacred pieces. Already recognized for his religious output, in 1672 he undertook to supply incidental scores for Molière’s comedies. With remarkable ease the composer of church music produced witty, graceful, and engaging pieces perfectly attuned to Molière’s comic vision, most notably the remarkable score for Le Malade imaginaire. Yet sacred music stayed his central calling, and he continued to produce masses, motets, hymns, and other liturgical compositions. A commanding motet, In obitum gallorum Reginae Lamentum, written upon the death of Queen Marie-Thérèse, earned him royal favor; he was urged to enter the competition for sous-maître organist of the Royal Chapel, advanced to the semifinals, then withdrew after falling ill. King Louis awarded him a pension in compensation.
Following the death of Mademoiselle de Guise in 1688, Charpentier took a post at the Collège de Louis-le-Grand, where his achievements included the Latin oratorio David et Jonathas, a dramatic masterpiece. He next served at the Jesuit Church of St. Louis, writing music for diverse elements of the Catholic liturgy. Between 1692 and 1693 he instructed Philippe, Duke of Chartres and later regent of France, in music. At the close of 1693 his tragédie en musique Medée received its premiere at the Academie Royale; although the composer had hoped the extraordinary work would bring a royal appointment, listeners remained unmoved. In 1698 he was named music master for the children at the Sainte-Chapelle, a position he held until his death.
Two and a half centuries afterward, millions encountered the opening measures of his striking Te Deum (H. 146) when it was chosen as the official theme of the Eurovision song contest. A master of harmonic and melodic invention, Charpentier fulfills the three conditions for beauty set forth by St. Thomas Aquinas: consonantia, integritas, and claritas. This quintessentially Catholic composer ingeniously reconciled the apparent opposition between faith and pure beauty by producing music in which devotion and beauty remain inseparable. Musicologist Catherine Cessac captured the essence of his music when she wrote that the "grandeur and originality of Charpentier's music is due to a combination of exceptional musical talent and deep faith, each complementing the other."