Henri Dumont
Encyclopedia
Henri Dumont (1610 8 May 1684) was a Franco-Belgian composer.
). The family moved in 1613 to Maastricht
, where Henri and his brother Lambert were choirboy
s at the church of Notre-Dame. In 1630 he was named organist and given a leave of two months to complete his education. In the principality of Liège
(where he spend much of his time) he studied with Léonard de Hodémont (1575–1639), absorbing trends from Italy. On 1 December 1632, he resigned in favor of his brother. In 1639 he went to Paris to become organist at the important parish church of Saint-Paul. From this time he used the name Dumont or Du Mont in place of De Thier. From 1652 he was harpsichordist at the court of the Duke of Anjou (Philippe I, Duke of Orléans
, a brother of Louis XIV
), and in 1660 he obtained that post to the young queen Marie-Thérése
. In 1663 he became "maitre" of the Chapelle Royale in Versailles
, in 1672 he became "Sous-maître de la musique du Roy" (with Pierre Robert
) and 1673 became Master of the Queen's Music.
Dumont was married (1653) to Mechthild Loyens, daughter of the mayor of Maastricht. As a widower he acquired the substantial benefice of the abbey of Silly
near Lisieux
in Normandy
. In 1683 he resigned the last of his posts and died a year later in Paris
.
and François Couperin
. Du Mont was the first to publish separate continuo
partbooks in France.
The most important of these is Meslanges à II, III, IV & V parties avec le Bassecontinue contenant plusieurs chansons, motets, magnificats, Préludes et allemandes pour orgue et pour les viols. Et la litanie de la Vierge, [re]published in partbooks posthumously by Ballard under the title: Motets pour la Chapelle du Roy, mis en musique par Monsieur Dumont Abbé de Silly, et Maistre de la Musique de ladite Chapelle... Imprimez par exprès commandement de Sa Majesté. In addition, the Bibliothèque Nationale holds numerous works in manuscript among which is "Dialogus de anima" for five voices, a masterpiece that is his only true oratorio
.
. The oratorio
genre and the recitativo style are both prefigured in the dialogue motets. As to the continuo, if he did not introduce it to France, he was the first to print a separate partbook and thus did much to propagate its use. His grands motets pour la Chapelle Royale (1686) reunite all the formal experiments of his previous work. It is notable that Dumont's motets were sung in parish churches into the 1730s, that is, 60 years after his death.
for the Chapelle Royale are the first representatives of the genre. They are not made of successive movements each unified by key
and thematic material, (as one finds later with Lully
and Rameau
). Rather the versets (without final barline, regardless of what appears in some modern editions) are linked and ordered with a constant eye towards contrast, which can also be seen in the deployment of the performing forces: soloists, groups of soloists, sub-choir, ripieno and orchestra all join, retire, engage in dialogue, and reunite, the solo voices rejoining the choir. The five part writing is typical of the French grand motet and remained so until the 18th century. Dumont used two violins and two violas [sic], which is noteworthy because it reflects North-European practice, whereas Lully used one violin part and three violas. (This likely means clefs; the violin family
was not yet standardized.)
His five plainchant masses
, known as the Messes Royales, survived up to the mid 20th century (before Vatican II), though they display little of the genius developed in his motet writing. Nevertheless one can still hear them sung at major feasts in a few Catholic
places of worship (for example at St Eugène in Paris) and his motets also continue to find a place in the liturgy.
In the 1681 Motets à ii iii & iv parties the following note appears, suggesting four singers as the normal size for a choir
(as Joshua Rifkin
argues in Bach's Chorus: A Preliminary Report): "Quand on voudra deux pourrant chanter dans une mesme Partie, & la petit lettre italique signifie qu'une des deux doit chanter seul, & la grosse lettre ronde pour chanter Tous ensemble comme si c'estoir à deux choeurs."
Life
Dumont was born to Henry de Thier and Elisabeth Orban in Looz (BorgloonBorgloon
Borgloon is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg. On January 1, 2006 Borgloon had a total population of 10,152. The total area is 51.12 km² which gives a population density of 199 inhabitants per km². Borgloon gave its name to the former county of Loon.-External...
). The family moved in 1613 to Maastricht
Maastricht
Maastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border...
, where Henri and his brother Lambert were choirboy
Choirboy
A choirboy is a boy member of a choir, also known as a treble.As a derisive slang term, it refers to a do-gooder or someone who is morally upright, in the same sense that "Boy Scout" refers to someone who is considered honorable or conscientious.- History :The use of choirboys in Christian...
s at the church of Notre-Dame. In 1630 he was named organist and given a leave of two months to complete his education. In the principality of Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
(where he spend much of his time) he studied with Léonard de Hodémont (1575–1639), absorbing trends from Italy. On 1 December 1632, he resigned in favor of his brother. In 1639 he went to Paris to become organist at the important parish church of Saint-Paul. From this time he used the name Dumont or Du Mont in place of De Thier. From 1652 he was harpsichordist at the court of the Duke of Anjou (Philippe I, Duke of Orléans
Philippe I, Duke of Orléans
Philippe of France was the youngest son of Louis XIII of France and his queen consort Anne of Austria. His older brother was the famous Louis XIV, le roi soleil. Styled Duke of Anjou from birth, Philippe became Duke of Orléans upon the death of his uncle Gaston, Duke of Orléans...
, a brother of Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
), and in 1660 he obtained that post to the young queen Marie-Thérése
Maria Theresa of Spain
Maria Theresa of Austria was the daughter of Philip IV, King of Spain and Elizabeth of France. Maria Theresa was Queen of France as wife of King Louis XIV and mother of the Grand Dauphin, an ancestor of the last four Bourbon kings of France.-Early life:Born as Infanta María Teresa of Spain at the...
. In 1663 he became "maitre" of the Chapelle Royale in Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
, in 1672 he became "Sous-maître de la musique du Roy" (with Pierre Robert
Pierre Robert (composer)
Pierre Robert was French composer and early master of the French grand motet.Pierre Robert was educated at the boys choir, or maîtrise, of Notre-Dame de Paris under the direction of Henry Frémart, Jean Francois, and Cosset Veillot before being appointed master of music at the Cathedral of Senlis...
) and 1673 became Master of the Queen's Music.
Dumont was married (1653) to Mechthild Loyens, daughter of the mayor of Maastricht. As a widower he acquired the substantial benefice of the abbey of Silly
Silly
Silly may refer to:* Silly, Belgium, a town in Belgium* Silly Department, a department or commune of Sissili Province in southern Burkina Faso* Silly , an East German rock group from the 1970s...
near Lisieux
Lisieux
Lisieux is a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.Lisieux is the capital of the Pays d'Auge area, which is characterised by valleys and hedged farmland...
in Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
. In 1683 he resigned the last of his posts and died a year later in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Works
With the exception of a few songs and the instrumental pieces in the 1657 Meslanges, Dumont was a composer of religious music. His output includes nearly a hundred "Petits Motets", the principal French genre of his time; his illustrious successors were Jean-Baptiste LullyJean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
and François Couperin
François Couperin
François Couperin was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as Couperin le Grand to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented Couperin family.-Life:Couperin was born in Paris...
. Du Mont was the first to publish separate continuo
Figured bass
Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note...
partbooks in France.
- Meslanges à II, III, IV et V parties, avec la basse continue (1657)
- Cantica sacra II, III, IV cum vocibus tum instrumentibus modulata. Liber primus, Paris 1652
- Meslanges à II, III, IV et V parties, avec la basse continue (1657)
- Cinq Messes en plain-chant musical (1660, reprinted 1701 as Messes Royales en plein chant)
- Airs à 4 parties avec la basse continue ... sur la paraphrase des psaumes (1663)
- Motets à deux voix avec la basse continue (1668)
- Motets à deux III et IV parties, pour voix et instruments, avec la basse continue (1681)
The most important of these is Meslanges à II, III, IV & V parties avec le Bassecontinue contenant plusieurs chansons, motets, magnificats, Préludes et allemandes pour orgue et pour les viols. Et la litanie de la Vierge, [re]published in partbooks posthumously by Ballard under the title: Motets pour la Chapelle du Roy, mis en musique par Monsieur Dumont Abbé de Silly, et Maistre de la Musique de ladite Chapelle... Imprimez par exprès commandement de Sa Majesté. In addition, the Bibliothèque Nationale holds numerous works in manuscript among which is "Dialogus de anima" for five voices, a masterpiece that is his only true oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
.
Legacy
The anthology "Cantica sacra" published in 1652 contained motets for 1, 2, 3 or 4 soloists with continuo, the first of their kind in France. What was new was not the use of continuo (for which there was some precedent) but the combining, in sacred music, of solo voices with obbligato instruments, particularly in the petits motets for one or two voices. Here there are many innovations, such as the introduction of typical Italian devices such as vocalise and echo. The grand motets also look forward to those later written for VersaillesVersailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
. The oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
genre and the recitativo style are both prefigured in the dialogue motets. As to the continuo, if he did not introduce it to France, he was the first to print a separate partbook and thus did much to propagate its use. His grands motets pour la Chapelle Royale (1686) reunite all the formal experiments of his previous work. It is notable that Dumont's motets were sung in parish churches into the 1730s, that is, 60 years after his death.
Grands Motets
Dumont's grands motetsGrands motets
The grand motet was a genre of motet cultivated at the height of the French baroque, although the term dates from later French usage...
for the Chapelle Royale are the first representatives of the genre. They are not made of successive movements each unified by key
Key (music)
In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a specific key, such as in the key of C major or in the key of F-sharp. Sometimes the terms "major" or "minor" are appended, as in the key of A minor or in the...
and thematic material, (as one finds later with Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
and Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François...
). Rather the versets (without final barline, regardless of what appears in some modern editions) are linked and ordered with a constant eye towards contrast, which can also be seen in the deployment of the performing forces: soloists, groups of soloists, sub-choir, ripieno and orchestra all join, retire, engage in dialogue, and reunite, the solo voices rejoining the choir. The five part writing is typical of the French grand motet and remained so until the 18th century. Dumont used two violins and two violas [sic], which is noteworthy because it reflects North-European practice, whereas Lully used one violin part and three violas. (This likely means clefs; the violin family
Violin family
The violin family of musical instruments was developed in Italy in the sixteenth century. The standard modern violin family consists of the violin, viola, cello, and double bass....
was not yet standardized.)
- Note on pitchPitch (music)Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
: The meantone temperamentMeantone temperamentMeantone temperament is a musical temperament, which is a system of musical tuning. In general, a meantone is constructed the same way as Pythagorean tuning, as a stack of perfect fifths, but in meantone, each fifth is narrow compared to the ratio 27/12:1 in 12 equal temperament, the opposite of...
prevailed in France until the end of the 18th century, above all in religious music using the organ (Dumont's instrument). - Note on instrumentationOrchestrationOrchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
: The orchestra for grands motets contained théorbos and harpsichord (and organ), violins and viols.
His five plainchant masses
Ordinary of the Mass
The ordinary, in Roman Catholic and other Western Christian liturgies, refers to the part of the Eucharist or of the canonical hours that is reasonably constant without regard to the date on which the service is performed...
, known as the Messes Royales, survived up to the mid 20th century (before Vatican II), though they display little of the genius developed in his motet writing. Nevertheless one can still hear them sung at major feasts in a few Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
places of worship (for example at St Eugène in Paris) and his motets also continue to find a place in the liturgy.
In the 1681 Motets à ii iii & iv parties the following note appears, suggesting four singers as the normal size for a choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
(as Joshua Rifkin
Joshua Rifkin
Joshua Rifkin is an American conductor, keyboard player, and musicologist. He is best known by the general public for having played a central role in the ragtime revival in the 1970s with the three albums he recorded of Scott Joplin's works for Nonesuch Records, and to classical musicians for his...
argues in Bach's Chorus: A Preliminary Report): "Quand on voudra deux pourrant chanter dans une mesme Partie, & la petit lettre italique signifie qu'une des deux doit chanter seul, & la grosse lettre ronde pour chanter Tous ensemble comme si c'estoir à deux choeurs."
Recordings
- Motets pour la chapelle du roi (La Chapelle royale, Philippe Herreweghe)
- Motets à voix seule (Ricercar Consort, Henri Ledroit haute-contre)
- Motets et dialogue (Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe RoussetChristophe RoussetChristophe Rousset is a French harpsichordist and conductor, specializing in the performance of baroque music on period instruments.-Biography:...
) - Les litanies de la vierge (Ensemble Dumont, Peter Bennet)
- A fairly extensive discography