Jean Titelouze
Jean (Jehan) Titelouze (c. 1562/63 – 24 October 1633) was a French Catholic priest, composer, poet and organist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. He was a canon and organist at Rouen Cathedral. His style was firmly rooted in the Renaissance vocal tradition and as such, was far removed from the distinctly French style of organ music that developed during the mid-17th century. However, his hymns and Magnificat settings are the earliest known published French organ collections, and he is regarded as the first composer of the French organ school.
Life
In a 1930 study, Amédée Gastoué suggested that the surname Titelouze may be of English or Irish origin (more specifically, derived from "Title-House"),[1] but recently this supposition has been disproven, and "Titelouze" is now linked to "de Toulouse".[2] Titelouze was born in Saint-Omer in 1562/3 (his exact date of birth is unknown) and educated there; by 1585, he entered the priesthood and served as organist of the Saint-Omer Cathedral. He moved to Rouen later that year and in 1588, succeeded François Josseline as organist of the Rouen Cathedral. His work was not limited to Rouen: he also acted as organ consultant and helped with the installation and repair of important instruments in various cities.[2]
In 1600, Titelouze invited the famous Franco-Flemish organ builder
The year 1623 saw publication of Titelouze's Hymnes de l'Eglise, a collection of organ settings of various
Titelouze was a friend of
Works
Titelouze's surviving output comprises two collections of organ pieces. These are the first published collections of organ music in 17th century France. The first, Hymnes de l'Église pour toucher sur l'orgue, avec les fugues et recherches sur leur plain-chant (1623, 2nd edition in 1624), contains 12 hymns:
- Ad coenam (4 versets)
- Veni Creator (4 versets)
- Pange lingua(3 versets)
- Ut queant laxis (3 versets)
- Ave maris stella (4 versets)
- Conditor alme siderum (3 versets)
- A solis ortus (3 versets)
- Exsultet coelum (3 versets)
- Annue Christe (3 versets)
- Sanctorum meritis (3 versets)
- Iste confessor (3 versets)
- Urbs Jerusalem (3 versets)
Every hymn begins with a verset with a continuous cantus firmus: the hymn melody is stated in long note values in one of the voices, usually the bass, while the other voices provide contrapuntal accompaniment. Other versets are only occasionally cast in this form. More frequently the 16th century motet practice is used: the hymn melody either migrates from one voice to another, with or without imitative inserts between verses, or is treated imitatively throughout the piece. In three versets (Veni Creator 3, Ave maris stella 3, and Conditor 2) the melody in one voice is accompanied by two voices that form a canon, in two (Ave maris stella 4 and Annue Christe 3) one of the voices provides a pedal point. In most versets, counterpoints to the hymn melody engage in imitation or fore-imitation, and more often than not they are derived from the hymn melody. All of the pieces are in four voices, except the canonic versets, which use only three.[3]
The second collection, Le Magnificat ou Cantique de la Vierge pour toucher sur l'orgue suivant les huit tons de l'Église, published in 1626, contains eight
- Magnificat
- Quia respexit
- Et misericordia
- Deposuit potentes, first setting
- Deposuit potentes, second setting
- Suscepit Israel
- Gloria Patri et Filio
In the preface, Titelouze explains that this structure makes these Magnificat settings usable for the (see Example 2 for an excerpt from one of the inversion fugues).
Although French organs already had colorful solo stops at the time, Titelouze did not use them. According to the prefaces of both collections, he was concerned with making his pieces easier to play and playable by hands alone. Titelouze goes as far as suggesting, in the preface to Hymnes, to alter the music if it is too difficult to play.[4]
Media
Notes
References
- ISBN 0-253-21141-7. Originally published as Geschichte der Orgel- und Klaviermusik bis 1700 by Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel.
- Gastoué, Amédée. 1930. Note sur la généalogie et la famille de l'organiste Titelouze, RdM, xi, pp. 171–5.
- Howell, Almonte & Cohen, Albert (2001). "Jehan Titelouze". In ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5.
- Silbiger, Alexander. 2004. Keyboard Music Before 1700. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-96891-7
External links
General information
Sheet music
- Complete opera in the edition of Alexandre Guilmant in 1897
- Free scores (and midi files) by J. Titelouze at the Mutopia Project
- Free scores by Jean Titelouze at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- The Mutopia Project has compositions by Jean Titelouze
Audio
- Listen to the last verset of Titelouze's setting of Urbs Jerusalem
- [Michel Chapuis joue Titelouze à Saint-Séverin:] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy-SEQiasrg