LBMP–078–079: Les Manuscrits Caumont (Complete Edition)
From €79.00
Companion volumes exploring two of the most important surviving witnesses to French keyboard music at the end of the Grand Siècle, bringing together the Caumont harpsichord and organ manuscripts in major modern editions.
Edited by Denis Herlin (clavecin) and Jon Baxendale (orgue)
- A new and exciting discovery of known and unica French harpsichord and organ music from between c. 1700 and 1707
- Bilingual preface in English and French
- Detailed preface containing information on the manuscripts, their composers and performance
- Full critical commentaries
- Three available formats
- Colour hardback cover with a matt finish (choice on checkout)
- Wire-bound with soft colour cover (choice on checkout)
- Tablet (PDF – one download available for 5 days)
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Les Manuscrits Caumont –– Clavecin & Orgue brings together two of the most important surviving witnesses to French keyboard music at the end of the Grand Siècle. Preserved in a private collection and closely connected through format, scribal hand and provenance, the Caumont manuscripts provide an extraordinary window into the musical culture of late seventeenth-century France.
Edited respectively by Denis Herlin and Jon Baxendale, the two volumes explore complementary worlds of French keyboard practice around 1700. The harpsichord manuscript contains an exceptional anthology of 156 works, including suites, preludes, dances and a remarkable body of operatic transcriptions principally drawn from the works of Lully. Alongside pieces by Chambonnières, Louis Couperin, d’Anglebert, Lebègue, Hardel, Jacquet de La Guerre and Thomelin are dozens of anonymous works, unica and previously unknown variants that illuminate the richness and diversity of French harpsichord culture at the close of the seventeenth century.
The organ manuscript, preserved in a luxurious oblong volume dating from 1707, contains 111 versets in the French liturgical tradition, many of them unique and previously unknown compositions associated with Jacques Boyvin and the organ culture of Rouen at the close of the seventeenth century. Extensively revised and expanded for this second edition, the volume explores the manuscript’s liturgical, musical and historical context in exceptional detail, examining questions of registration, ornamentation, chant, alternatim practice and the sound world of the French Classical organ.
Together, the two volumes shed new light on the transmission of French keyboard repertory outside Paris, the relationship between theatrical and liturgical traditions and the broader musical culture surrounding Rouen and the circle of Jacques Boyvin. Issued as companion publications, Les Manuscrits Caumont –– Clavecin & Orgue constitutes one of the most important modern editorial projects devoted to unpublished French Baroque keyboard music.
Les Manuscrits Caumont –– Clavecin & Orgue réunit deux des plus importants témoins conservés de la musique française pour clavier à la fin du Grand Siècle. Conservés dans une collection privée et étroitement liés par leur format, leur main de copiste et leur provenance, les manuscrits Caumont offrent un témoignage extraordinaire sur la culture musicale de la France de la fin du XVIIe siècle.
Édités respectivement par Denis Herlin et Jon Baxendale, les deux volumes explorent des aspects complémentaires de la pratique française du clavier autour de 1700. Le manuscrit de clavecin contient une anthologie exceptionnelle de 156 œuvres comprenant suites, préludes, danses et un remarquable ensemble de transcriptions d’opéras principalement tirées des œuvres de Lully. Aux côtés de pièces de Chambonnières, Louis Couperin, d’Anglebert, Lebègue, Hardel, Jacquet de La Guerre et Thomelin figurent des dizaines d’œuvres anonymes, d’unica et de variantes jusqu’alors inconnues qui témoignent de la richesse et de la diversité de la culture française du clavecin à la fin du XVIIe siècle.
Le manuscrit d’orgue, conservé dans un luxueux volume oblong daté de 1707, contient 111 versets relevant de la tradition liturgique française, dont beaucoup sont des compositions uniques et inédites associées à Jacques Boyvin et à la culture organistique rouennaise de la fin du XVIIe siècle. Largement révisé et augmenté pour cette seconde édition, le volume examine avec une grande précision le contexte liturgique, musical et historique du manuscrit, abordant des questions de registration, d’ornementation, de plain-chant, de pratique de l’alternatim et d’esthétique sonore de l’orgue classique français.
Ensemble, les deux volumes apportent un nouvel éclairage sur la transmission du répertoire français pour clavier hors de Paris, sur les relations entre traditions théâtrales et liturgiques, ainsi que sur la culture musicale plus large de Rouen et du cercle de Jacques Boyvin. Publiés comme volumes complémentaires, Les Manuscrits Caumont –– Clavecin & Orgue constituent l’un des plus importants projets éditoriaux modernes consacrés à la musique française baroque inédite pour clavier.
Organists’ Review: June 2022
Early Music Reviews: April 2022
This Lyrebird Music edition brings to life an important manuscript of French Classical organ music dated 1707. Its earlier provenance is unknown until it appeared in an auction in Normandy from where it passed on to an antique dealer in Amiens. It was bought from there in 2008 by the current owner, whose name has been attached to what is now known as Le Manuscrit Caumont. Very sensibly, given the quality of his other Lyrebird Music editions, the owner asked Jon Baxendale to research and edit the manuscript and produce this splendid edition. The manuscript contains 111 pieces of organ music intended for use during the French Catholic liturgy with its use of alternatim, where verses of Mass and other settings were alternately either sung or played on the organ. Some of the pieces can be identified with known composers such as Boyvin, Lebegue, Nivers, Raison and Thomelin, but around 80 pieces are unique to this manuscript. In a very well-presented argument in the detailed preface, editor Jon Baxendale proposes Jacques Boyvin (c1649-1706) as the composer of these 80 pieces, adding to the 25 pieces that have versions in his two published books of organ works (1689 and 1700). The manuscript was possibly copied from a manuscript that Boyvin put together, which would explain why so many of his own pieces did not have his own name attached. Boyvin was born in Paris but spent the bulk of his career as organist of Rouen Cathedral, a successor to the famed Jean Titelouze from around 40 years earlier. He supervised the 1689 rebuilding of the four-manual Clicquot cathedral organ. The manuscript is unusual compared to other organ books of the period in that the pieces are not arranged in any liturgical form, but are roughly in order of the genre of the pieces. The opening four Preludes are following by groups of pieces with titles of, for example, Fugue grave, Duo, Basse de Trompette, Dialogue. They are all in the church tones V and VI, suggesting the original presence of further volumes using the other tones. The length of the pieces varies from a few bars to 172 bars for the single named Offertory – the Grand Dialogue a trois ou quatre Chœurs avec le Tremblant a vent perdu. The substantial preface explores the manuscript and its music and discusses such important performance issues as registration, fingering, notes inégales and ornamentation using sources contemporary to the manuscript itself. The notes on performance include the preface to Boyvin’s own 1680 organ book (with English translation), and includes the specification of his own Rouen organ. A section on the liturgical context of the music is included, with Nivers’ description of the use of the organ in the liturgy. A Critical Commentary includes notes on individual pieces as well as details of the variants between these pieces and other printed sources. The manuscript is remarkably accurate in terms of notes, so editorial amendments are minimal and clearly indicated. Ease of page turns is taken into account where possible. As with other Lyrebird Music publications, the musical type is beautifully clear to read. It is in landscape format, and is available in English and French versions, and in hardback or wire-binding. The hardback version doesn’t take too much persuasion to lay flat on the music desk. The ISMN references for the French edition are 979-0-706670-19-5 (French hardback) and 979-0-706670-40-9 (French softback wire). This is the first of two Caumont manuscripts, the other being a book of harpsichord pieces in the same hand, much of which is also unknown. It will be published later this year.
Andrew Benson-Wilson Early Music Reviews
