Ardee's baroque w eekend celebrates the genius of European baroque, including the work of Marin Marais, writes Eileen Battersby
Exactly 100 years before the birth of Mozart, a son was born in 1656 to an impoverished French shoemaker and his wife. The child seemed destined for a life as hard as that endured by his parents. But out of the tragedy of his mother's early death came fortune. One of his uncles was a priest, who himself having escaped poverty, had emerged as an excellent preacher. He had fulfilled his academic promise and had become a doctor of theology in Paris.
This priest decided to take over the education of his young nephew, whose beautiful singing voice had already set him apart. The boy, Marin Marais, was, thanks to his influential uncle and his vocal gifts, accepted into the choir of St Germain l'Auxerrois.
The parish of St Germain was the one to which the kings of France belonged. Its school was renowned for its educational standards and above all, the quality of its musical training. Among Marais's fellow students was Michel-Richard de Lalande, who would become the leading composer of the high baroque grand motet.
By the time Marais lost his singing voice at the age of 16, he had already been drawn to the viola de gamba and set out to study under the finest player of the day, Monsieur de Sainte Colombe (1640-90), who is believed to have introduced a low seventh string to the instrument - the 16th-century viol had mainly five or even four strings, although most commonly had six.
The master quickly noted his pupil's talents and within six months, conceding that this student could surpass him, he abruptly dismissed him. Marais was devastated and is believed to have taken to hiding beneath Sainte Colombe's summer house so as to continue hearing the master. Perhaps impending mortality - he was only 50 when he died - or merely his sense of justice, prompted Sainte Colombe to announce that there were students who in time surpassed their masters; "but none would surpass Marin Marais".
By 1676, at the age of 20, he had been appointed to the Royal Academy of Music, founded seven years earlier by Louis X1V, to assist the French Opera. The wily Italian-born composer Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-87) who had arrived in Paris as a 14-year-old boy attendant to a noble woman at court, but who was to create a new French dramatic musical style, was the academy's director.
Within three years of joining the academy, Marais had became a member of the royal orchestra and from then on, in the course of a career spanning 40 years, during which he wrote five important books of music for the viol - at least two of which he dedicated to Lully - he was acknowledged as the supreme master of his instrument.
IT IS TRUE for all his success, he had many personal sorrows, while his fame at court declined from 1713, the year his patron, Louis XIV, the Sun King, died. This fall from glory is reflected in the more subdued nature of the final two books, published in 1717 and 1725 - three years before his death.
The story has no doubt begun to sound familiar to those who have seen Alain Corneau's 1992 film, Tous les Matins du Monde, which is based on Pascal Quignard's charming bestselling novella of the same title, about the relationship between the quiet, taciturn Sainte Colombe and the student who, as history testifies, did surpass him.
Le Labyrinthe by Marin Marais is part of an exciting concert of French baroque chamber masters including Rameau, Leclair and the great Francois Couperin, which will be performed by the Irish Baroque Chamber Soloists as part of the third Ardee Baroque Festival in Co Louth this weekend.
This celebrates the towering achievement of JS Bach with two major concerts, including performances of the Violin Concerto in A Minor, the Double Concerto for two violins in D Minor, the Triple Concerto for two oboes and bassoon in D and a transcription of Suite No 2 in Minor with oboe.
The Bach concerts take place tomorrow and Sunday, at St Mary's Church of Ireland, and are required listening for anyone with an interest in Bach.
The French concert offers a contrast as well as an opportunity to hear the ways in which traditions remain individual and merge. Aside from genius, all of the French composers featured in this concert were connected in some way to the French court.
The soft, sweet sound of the viol or viola de gamba, which is played in similar style to the cello, possesses a distinct richness of tone and is ideally suited to the period setting of Ardee Castle, where this concert takes place on Saturday afternoon.
Acknowledged as one of the finest viola de gamba players in the world, Sarah Cunningham, artistic director of the East Cork Early Music Festival, has been performing - and championing - the music of Marin Marais for 35 years, and she speaks about it with the same passion she brings to her playing of it on her period seven-string instrument.
Cunningham will perform with Irish Baroque Orchestra Chamber Soloists director, the baroque violinist Monica Huggett, Malcolm Proud on harpsichord, Julia Corry on traverso (a baroque flute), and Richard Sweeney on theorbo, who is also performing the delightful solo Prelude and Chaconne by Robert de Visée (c1655-1732).
In this, the 350th anniversary of the birth of Marais, Le Labyrinthe is an inspired introduction to his work. This sensitive showpiece for the virtuoso comes from his Fourth Book with Pieces for Viol, which was published in 1717. There are two parts; the first features 55 dances forming six suites. The second part includes L'Arabesque, La Tartarine and Le Labyrinthe, some of the most remarkable, enigmatic and self-contained Marais ever composed.
Of these, Le Labyrinthe, with its daring tonal shifts, draws the listener into an odyssey. It is, as Cunningham says, "like walking into a maze". The mood is constantly changing, it is joyful, almost hopeful, then slower, more thoughtful, almost despairing. There is fear, perhaps even anger. All the way, the shifts and turns represent a journey of sorts. It concludes in a graceful, even playful, chaconne. There is no doubt, the individual who was caught in the maze has found his way out.
THE STORY OF Marin Marais is very much one of a life. In the case of Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764), violinist, dancer and lacemaker, who travelled widely and then became estranged from his wife, part of the story is dominated by the pressing question - who killed him? His nephew, his gardener or his unhappy wife? Leclair, represented in Saturday's programme by his lively trio sonata, Deuxième Récréation de Musique Op VIII, is not only a master, he is probably the only great composer who was murdered.
Rivalry was intense between the Italian and French schools of baroque music. The countries had strong historical connections - after all, two French kings had married women linked to the Medici family from Florence. As expected, these queens brought Italian artists, as well as Italian ballet and opera, with them to Paris. It is fascinating to see the extent of these influences and how important they would prove, the Italian in particular, to none other than JS Bach.
Yet the French were intent on keeping the Italian sound at a distance. The composer who was most successful at establishing a bridge between both traditions in chamber music was Francois Couperin (1668-1733), who had been born into a family of organists and harpsichordists. At 25, he was appointed a royal organist and he composed many pieces for the organ and 225 works for the harpsichord, including the seminal L'Art de Toucher le Clavecin (1716).
His legacy rests on his innovative chamber music, particularly sonatas and trio sonatas, a genre which had been dominated by the Italians. Couperin's Trio Sonata, La Pucelle, was probably composed in the 1690s.
The Irish Baroque Orchestra, under its musical director Monica Huggett, comes to Ardee with a growing reputation, recently consolidated by its outstanding debut CD, which features the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, his uncle Johann Bernhard and his son Wilhelm Friedmann.
"We wanted to look at the Bach family," says Huggett, and the CD reflects the evolution of a sound that is the bedrock of European baroque.
Only in its third year, the Ardee Baroque music festival, which was the idea of Brian Harten, arts officer for Co Louth, has already made a valuable contribution by bringing new audiences to one of the enduring beauties of the civilised world - baroque music.
Ardee Baroque, a weekend of workshops, films and music of the 17th and 18th centuries is on Nov 24-26. Booking 041-6853234. See also www.createlouth.ie/ardeebaroque. Irish Baroque Orchestra Plays Bach is on the Lyric FM label
