Papers and Presentations by John S . Powell
Early Music Performance & Research, issue 52, 2023
The opening scene of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, where the student of the maître de musique is show... more The opening scene of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, where the student of the maître de musique is shown composing a vocal lament, provides a valuable lesson in French 17th-century compositional process.
Rencontres musicologiques de Valenciennes: Les intermèdes des comédies-ballets de Molière, 2022
Paper given at Rencontres musicologiques de Valenciennes: Les intermèdes des comédies-ballets de ... more Paper given at Rencontres musicologiques de Valenciennes: Les intermèdes des comédies-ballets de Molière (Valenciennes, 4-5-6 mai 2022)
Littératures classiques: La question du répertoire au théâtre, 2018
This article addresses performance issues specifically related to the music of Marc-Antoine Charp... more This article addresses performance issues specifically related to the music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier, but equally applicable to that of his contemporaries. It also includes a translation of his "Enérgie des Modes" (i.e. affect of keys), his "Règles de l'accompagnement", and a bibliography of articles that address performance-related issues.
Early Music Performer, 2014
Early Music Performer, 2014
Lucien Durosoir: Un compositeur moderne né romantique, Actes du colloque (Palazzetto Bru-Zane, Venise, 19-20 février 2011), ed. Lionel Pons, Paris: Fraction, 2013
cela demande trop de temps et de construction d'esprit, au lieu que le contrepoint je peux trouve... more cela demande trop de temps et de construction d'esprit, au lieu que le contrepoint je peux trouver une demi-heure de temps en temps et cela suffira à entretenir ma plume. 2 During the first weeks of the war, patriotic fervor ran high. Church bells and summoned all able-bodied men to the town hall to read the mobilization poster and to sign up. Surely the men would be home by November the earliest, Christmas by the latest. The first news of the war was optimistic. The German army had invaded Holland, so now the Dutch, Belgians, and English were in alliance against them. The English ambassador to Berlin had been sent away, and so England immediately attacked the German fleet-which was known to be very poor. After a bitter fight French troops once more occupied Alsace. The consensus of the officers was that Germany could not hold out for long, and soldiers in Durosoir's regiment complained about being so far from the action. But all this would change as the war continued month after month, year after year, with no end in sight and with casualties on both sides steadily mounting. Miraculously, Durosoir survived the first horrific year in the trenches without injury. In June of 1915, he was assigned to the stretcher unit of the First Battalion of the 129 th Infantry. His free time allowed Durosoir to once more take up his violin. Then, as fate would have it, in October of 1915 Durosoir met André Caplet, who was then a sergeant assigned to the 3 rd Battalion. Over the next three years, Caplet would become a seminal influence in Durosoir's development as a composer. Durosoir and Caplet were exactly the same age (37) when they first met, and they found that had much in common. Both had entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1896, and the following year Caplet began his brilliant career as a conductor. He soon became assistant to Edouard Colonne of the Orchestre Colonne. As chance would have it, Durosoir was engaged as first violin for the Colonne orchestra in 1898. But the next year he left for Germany to study with Hugo Heermann and coaching with Joseph Joachim, while Caplet became music director at the Théâtre de l'Odéon. In 1901, Caplet received the Prix de Rome. While in Rome he met Nina Russell, wife of Henry Russell, the most celebrated impresario of the time. 3 But Caplet composed very little while in Rome; instead, he traveled extensively in Italy and
FASHIONING OPERA AND MUSICAL THEATRE: STAGE COSTUMES FROM THE LATE RENAISSANCE TO 1900, 2014
New Perspectives on Marc-Antoine Charpentier, ed. by Shirley Thompson (Ashgate), 2010
Dance, Spectacle, and the Body Politick, 1250-1750, ed. by Jennifer Nevile (Indiana University Press), 2008
Rencontres musicologiques de Valenciennes: Les intermèdes des comédies-ballets de Molière, 2022
French drama in the early 17th century occasionally featured passages that departed metrically fr... more French drama in the early 17th century occasionally featured passages that departed metrically from the prevailing alexandrines. These speeches composed in mixed verse (vers mêlés) were distinct from other lyric forms-such as songs, serenades, poems, letters, amorous dialogues, and the pronouncements of oracles-in that they expressed personal thoughts and sentiments. The character is frequently shown in a solitary, deserted place-a room of a palace, a forest, in prison, or in a monastery-and may call upon the elements of nature to bear witness to his misfortunes. First appearing around 1610 in pastoral plays, these dramatic soliloquies became firmly established in the 1630s in the pastorals and romantic tragicomedies of Du Ryer, Scudéry, Rotrou, Corneille, and others. The 20 th -century scholar H. Carrington Lancaster described them as « lyric monologues », though in the 17 th century they were labeled stances or plaintes in spoken plays, and récit or plainte en musique in ballets of the 1660s. Whereas in the context of spoken plays stances were originally intended to be recited, the abbé d'Aubignac suggested the possibility of sung delivery accompanied by musical instruments: 1 A case in point is Montauban's 1654 pastorale Les Charmes de Félicie. Here the sorceress Félicie loves Thersandre, who is secretly in love with Diane and who pretends to be her brother. 2 In Act 3, while awaiting Thersandre's arrival, Félicie commands Diane perform an air to the woods to see if the echo will respond. The choice of subject is left to Diane, who elects to sing 3 1 François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac, Pratique du théâtre (1657; Amsterdam, 1715) Book 3, p. 242 ; available online on Google Books <https >). Charpentier took d'Aubignac's advice when he set the Stances du Cid to music (H. 457, 458, and 459), published in 1681 in the Mercure Galant. 2 Diane and Thersandre were formerly the lovers Célie and Cléangenor who seven years earlier had been separated, thought each other to be dead, came independently to the island of Éritrée, recognized each other after having taken on pastoral names, and pretend to be brother and sister so as not to arouse Félicie's jealousy. Jacques Pousset, sieur de Montauban, Les Charmes de Félicie is available online at Gallica <https > 3 N.B. that Félicie doesn't explicitly ask that Diane sing her plaintes d'amour…although the label "Chancon" implies a sung delivery.
Le Parnasse du Théâtre: Les recueils d'oeuvres complètes de théâtre au xviie siècle, ed. Georges Forestier, Edric Caldicott, et Claude Bourqui, 2007
Cambridge Opera Companion, 2006
Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Un musicien retrouvé, ed. Catherine Cessac , 2005
Cambridge Opera Journal, 2001
Unlike the opera parodies performed at the Comedie-Italienne in the 1690s and collected by Evaris... more Unlike the opera parodies performed at the Comedie-Italienne in the 1690s and collected by Evariste Gherardi, Dancourt's Angelique et Midor and Renaud et Armide were performed during the premiere runs of their target operas - Lully's and Quinault's Roland and Armide, respectively. Undoubtedly prompted by Lully's opera monopoly and the draconian restrictions on music and dance that affected the musical repertory at the Combdie-Frangaise, Dancourt's parodies take a tongue-in-cheek view of the madness of opera in general, while specifically satirizing the themes, characters, and operatic situations found in Roland and Armide.
Uploads
Papers and Presentations by John S . Powell
<https://www.cini.it/pubblicazioni/fashioning-opera-musical-theatre-stage-costumes-late-renaissance-1900>
<https://www.cini.it/pubblicazioni/fashioning-opera-musical-theatre-stage-costumes-late-renaissance-1900>