Sunday music spot: Charpentier - Te Deum (Prelude)

I am very fond of the music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier, which I regard as one of the very few things to come out of Louis XIV's France which was everything the Sun King's propaganda cracked it up to be.

He wrote six settings of the Te Deum of which four survive and this one in D Major is easily the best.

I had heard some previous arrangements of this piece which start with a drum roll, but not one as long and as military-sounding as this - which might seem rather unusual for a piece normally thought of as the first canticle of morning prayer.

Perhaps that is my Anglican heritage speaking.

Apparently the reason this is so military in tone is that this particular Te Deum is thought to have been composed to celebrate the French victory at the battle of Steinkirk in 1692. See the next post for a comeback on this.

However, it is a fantastic piece of music.

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