Michel-Richard de Lalande

A younger modern of Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), Michel-Richard de Lalande taught music towards the daughters of Louis XIV. He ultimately became master from the king’s chamber music and later on director from the royal chapel. He made up ballets and additional instrumental functions, but is most beneficial known as the best author of the French grand motet. Lalande was among 15 children given birth to to Michel Lalande and Claude Dumourtiers. Small is well known about his early existence, but it is for certain that at about age nine he joined up with the royal chapel of St. Germain-l’Auxerrois, in Paris; when his tone of voice changed at age group 15, he remaining the group. Lalande performed several devices and auditioned, unsuccessfully, like a violinist for Lully’s opera orchestra. He was also a fantastic keyboard participant and offered harpsichord lessons towards the child of Maréchal de Noailles, who suggested the young instructor to Louis XIV for his two daughters. As an organist, Lalande discovered just work at four churches in Paris: St. Louis, Petit St. Antoine, St. Gervais, and St. Jean-en-Grève. In 1683, Lalande became among four music artists to separate the duties from the royal chapel under Louis XIV. Each one of the four (Coupillet, Collasse, Minoret, and Lalande) was in charge of one one fourth of the entire year. It appears the king preferred Lalande, so that as each one of the additional three music artists retired, Lalande assumed his responsibilities. By 1714, he was the only real movie director of music on the royal chapel. In 1685, Lalande have been produced compositeur de musique de la chambre, his responsibilities distributed to Collasse and Pierre Robert. As these composers passed away, Lalande garnered even more responsibility until 1709, when he was the just composer for the king’s chamber. Also, in 1695, after an identical procedure, Lalande became maître de musique de la chambre. Lalande was paid well and resided a lifestyle of relative extravagance. Lalande married vocalist Anne Rebel in 1684 and their two daughters, Marie-Anne (b. 1686) and Jeanne (b. 1687) enjoyed the patronage of Louis XIV. Both passed away of smallpox in 1711; the king sponsored a memorial support the next planting season within their honor. After Louis XIV passed away in 1715, Lalande started to transfer his courtroom responsibilities to his college students, ultimately asking for that his income be decreased which the chapel go back to the four composer agreement of prior years. In 1722, Lalande’s wife passed away; in 1723 he wedded Marie-Louise de Cury (1692-1775), with whom he previously one girl. Lalande passed away of pneumonia in 1726 and was buried in the cathedral of Notre Dame de Versailles. Lalande is most beneficial known today for his grands motets, constructed for the royal chapel. These functions resemble the German cantata however you like, with alternating single arias, ensembles, and polyphonic choruses. The motets are comprised for three “choirs”: a little group with one vocalist per part, a complete chorus, and an orchestra. Lalande’s method of such compositions transformed during his tenure on the royal chapel: his previously works are arranged relatively loosely without very clear divisions between areas; these were customized afterwards with the composer into delineated sections of syllabic recitative contrasting with established arias, choruses, smaller sized ensembles, and instrumental passages. His choruses became even more polyphonic, generally in five parts, and his orchestral parts even more in addition to the vocal lines. The 1729 posthumous edition of his De profundis has an exceptional example. Frequently, a motive set up in the starting instrumental symphonie turns into the main topic of the ensuing choral fugue, as with “Hostem repellas longius,” from Lalande’s Veni Inventor Spiritus of 1684 (rev. 1722). Stunning harmonies in Lalande’s Pange lingua reveal him to become as exciting a composer as any in France.