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Shirley Thompson, French Baroque sacred music, Early Music, Volume 44, Issue 2, May 2016, Pages 348–350, https://doi.org/10.1093/em/caw040
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Extract
The three volumes reviewed here, comprising two collections and a standalone work, provide welcome access to French Baroque sacred music of high quality and interest.
C. Jane Gosine’s edition of motets by Marc-Antoine Charpentier belongs to the Collections monumentales series devoted to the complete works of this composer, published by the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. The volume comprises 31 petits motets which fall into six cycles: Antiennes pour les Vêpres d’un Confesseur non pontife, h33–35; Salut de la Veille des O et les 7 O suivant le romain, h36–43; Antiennes pour les Vêpres de l’Assomption de la Vierge, h50–52; In S. Nicasium Rothomagensem Archiepiscopum, h55–57; Quatuor anni tempestates, h335–38; and Méditations pour le Carême, h380–389. Most of these pieces are scored for between one and three voices and continuo, with or without obbligato treble instruments; the five exceptions are the antiphons h40 and 41, which involve three soloists, a four-part chorus and four-part orchestra, and the monophonic hymns h55–57, which are notated in blackened plainchant notation. All the works are available separately as performance sets.
