Marc-Antoine Charpentier ("diocese of Paris, 1643 – Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, 24 February 1704) was a French composer of the Baroque era.
He was a prolific and versatile composer, producing music of the highest quality in several genres. His mastery in the composition of sacred vocal music was recognized and acknowledged by his contemporaries.
His compositions include oratorios, masses, operas, and numerous smaller pieces that are difficult to categorize. Many of his smaller works for one or two voices and instruments resemble the Italian cantata of the time, and share most features except for the name: Charpentier calls them air sérieux or air à boire if they are in French, but cantata if they are in Italian.
The prelude to his Te Deum, H. 146, a rondeau, is well-known as the signature tune for the European Broadcasting Union, heard in the opening credits of the Vienna New Year's Concert, the Eurovision Song Contest and other Eurovision events. This theme was also the intro to "The Olympiad" films of Bud Greenspan.
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643 - 1704).
I. Te Deum, H.146: Pour solistes, choeur, trompettes et orchestre.
Le Parlement de Musique.
Mathilde Etienne.
Ariane Wohlhuter.
James Oxley.
Thomas Van Essen.
Bertrand Chuberre.
Dir: Martin Gester.
Charpentier authored six Te Deum settings, although only four of them remained preserved up to now. It is thought that the composition have been performed to mark the victory celebrations and the Peace of Steinkirk in August, 1692.
The composition consists of these parts:
1. Prélude.
2. Te Deum laudamus.
3. Te aeternum Patrem.
4. Pleni sunt coeli et terra.
5. Te per orbem terrarum.
6. Tu devicto mortis aculeo.
7. Te ergo quaesumus.
8. Aeterna fac sum Sanctis tuis.
9. Dignare, Domine.
10. In te, Domine, speravi.
Charpentier considered the key D-major as "bright and very warlike". The instrumental introduction, composed in the form of rondo, precede the first verset, leaded by the bass soloist. The choir and other soloists join gradually. Charpentier apparently intended to orchestrate the work according to the traditional exegesis of the latin text. The choir thus predominates in the first part (verset 1-10, praise of God, heavenly dimension), and individual soloists in the second part (verset 10-20, Christological section, secular dimension). In subsequent versets, nos. 21-25, both soloists and choir alternate, and the final verset is a large-scale fugue written for choir, with a short trio for soloists in the middle.
