Noël a la francesa (Buenavista)

The Festival Internacional de Música Antigua de Tenerife is offering two concerts by the Orquesta Barroca de Tenerife (Tenerife Baroque Orchestra) outside Auditorio de Tenerife, their usual venue as they are a resident orchestra here.

The French concertante style, with melodic turns in bicinium, both in higher voice and in the middle and bass voices are full of ornament in the tonal harmony, with a wealth of chords framed from the colourful basso continuo, with uniform symmetric rhythms but full of inegalité. These are the differentiating qualities of French music from the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

Their peculiar way to ornament with trille tremblement, cadence, and pincé renversé is a clear distinguishing feature of French Baroque music. The whole concert Orquesta Barroca de Tenerife proposes tonight is a good example of this, but especially the end of the Chaconne by Dauvergne.

The polarization of the textures towards extreme voices and the distinctive unequal rhythm, with the emphasis on French-style decorum is present in all the scores of this Noël a la francesa [French-style Noël], which starts with the first theme exposition in Noël pour les instruments, a popular Christmas dance typical of the valley of the Seine since Medieval times, which has come down from generation to generation and was raised to court music by Marc Antoine Charpentier. It was then retaken again and again by Daquin in his Deuxieme Noel en dialogue a 2 et 3, Lalande in Simphonies des Nöels, and by Correte in Quatrième Symphonies des Noël, among others. We will therefore perceive variations on themes that have celebrated, since the Baroque, sound creation to glorify the mystery of nativity.

As counterpoint, we will listen to Ballet de Village by Boismortier as a sample of fantasy and short-lived earthly happiness; La Flore de Rebel as a reflection on human unimportance and the joy of carpe diem; to end with Les Barricades Mystérieuses by Couperin, an example of French style brisé, a metaphor of the erratic and uncertain life of the existential path, typical of the Siècle des Lumières.