Michel Richard Delalande e Lalande'' (; 15 December 1657 – 18 June 1726) was a French

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

who was in the service of King Louis XIV. He was one of the most important composers of grands motets. He also wrote orchestral suites known as ''Simphonies pour les Soupers du Roy'' and ballets.

Biography

Born in Paris, he was a contemporary of

Jean-Baptiste Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully ( – 22 March 1687) was a French composer, dancer and instrumentalist of Italian birth, who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he spent most of his life working in the court o ...

and

François Couperin François Couperin (; 10 November 1668 – 11 September 1733) was a French Baroque music, Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as ''Couperin le Grand'' ("Couperin the Great") to distinguish him from other members of the musi ...

. Delalande taught music to the daughters of

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

, and was director of the French chapel royal from 1714 until his death at

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

in 1726. Delalande was arguably the greatest composer of French '' grands motets'', a type of sacred work that was more pleasing to Louis XIV because of its pomp and grandeur, written for soloists, choir and comparatively large orchestra. According to tradition, Louis XIV organized a contest between composers, giving them the same sacred text and time to compose the musical setting. He alone was the judge. Delalande was one of four winners assigned to compose sacred music for each quarter of the year (the other composers being Coupillet, Collasse and Minoret). Delalande's was the most important quarter of the year because of the Christmas holiday. Later he had full responsibility for the church music for the complete year. At his death, since he left no mass of his own, the 1656 requiem of the Dukes of Lorraine by Charles d'Helfer was sung.

Works

Delalande left many versions of his works. His earlier versions show adherence to French Baroque style, but the later revisions incorporate more Italian melismatic lines and greater attention to

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ...

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

. Also, at least four collections of his works exist, each displaying different looks at composer's work as viewed by the people who assembled each collection. Scholarship of Delalande's work was for many years hindered because of inconsistencies in the spelling of his last name: de Lalande, Lalande, la Lande, de la Lande, and others. The family wrote the name as 'Delalande'. Finally, in 2006 the definitive "Thematic Catalogue of the Works of Michel-Richard de Lalande (1657-1726)" by noted British musicologist Lionel Sawkins came out which runs to 752 pages containing over 3,000 music examples and details of performing requirements and of all source materials, as well as with comprehensive indexes and thematic locators. Vocal * grands motets - Latin settings of psalms including Delalande's ''

Te Deum The ( or , ; from its incipit, ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to a date before AD 500, but perhaps with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin ...

'' (1684). * petits motets - shorter Latin settings for a few vocal and instrumental soloists and continuo, including '' élévations'' on an

eucharistic The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an Ordinance (Christianity), ordinance in ...

text sung at the elevation of the communion wafers. Instrumental Delalande was an expert organist and harpsichordist, and yet has left not a single note of keyboard music. * ritournelles - twelve substantial ritournelles for François Fossard and André Danican Philidor's book of ''Airs italiens'' (1695). For example, Delalande supplies a 31-bar-long ritournelle for two violins and continuo composed before ‘Giurai di non amar’ an aria from Domenico Freschi's ''Olimpia vendicata'' of 1681.Lionel Sawkin
Full Exotic nectar transformed: the grands motets of Delalande's maturity
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Selected recordings

* Symphonies pour les soupers du Roy. Hugo Reyne (HMA) 1990 * Les Folies de Cardenio. Christophe Coin (Laborie) - court ballet, "The Insanities of Cardenio", after Cervantes. 2004 * Grands Motets : Te Deum, Confitebor, Super Flumina. Christie (HMA) 1991 * Grands Motets : De Profundis, Miserere, Confitebor tibi. Higginbottom (Erato) 1990 * Grands Motets : Dies Irae. Miserere. Herreweghe (HMC901352) 1991 * Grands Motets : Beati quorum. Quam dilecta. Audite caeli. Schneebeli (Virgin) 2002 * Grands Motets : Deus noster refugium Ps.46. Exaltabo te Domine. Le Parlement de Musique. Martin Gester (Opus 111) 2001 * Grands Motets : Regina coeli. De Profundis. Cantate Domino. Skidmore (ASV) 1995 * Petits motets: Miserere à voix seule. Vanum est vobis. Gens, Piau, Christie (HMT) 1992 * 3 Leçons de Ténèbres 1730. Desrochers (Astree) 1996

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Delalande, Michel Richard 1657 births 1726 deaths 18th-century French classical composers 18th-century French keyboardists 18th-century French male musicians French Baroque composers French male classical composers French composers of sacred music French classical organists Musicians from Paris 17th-century French male musicians French male classical organists