Les Bergers ~ Joyeux Noël (12/12/24)

This was part of the Gotham Early Music series.

Ben Matus ~ musette & bassoon; Kevin Devine ~ hurdy-gurdy & harpsichord; Kelsey Burnham ~ flauto traverso; Jimmy Drancsak & Amelia Sie ~ violins; Dan McCarthy ~ viola; Sarah Stone ~ violoncello

Symphonie en quatuor sur les noëls, No. 5 in A minor – Michel Corrette (1707–1795)
Nouveau Recueil de Noëls pour deux musettes ou vièles – Esprit Philippe Chédeville (1696–1762)
Symphonie en quatuor sur les noëls, Nos. 2, 4 & 6 – Michel Corrette

So much new to me. Musette de cour and hurdy-gurdy. And both composers. Each work had numerous miniature movements (eight, fifteen, and six, respectively, ask, if you're really, really interested). Here's a brief description from the well-written program notes – the musette de cour (bagpipe) ... the vielle à roue (hurdy-gurdy or literally “wheel-violin”). The musette (from what I read) has a bellows mechanism. My guess is that the air sac refills when pressure on it is released, because I saw no blowing into it by the musettist, which I would expect in a bagpipe-style instrument. Re. literally “wheel-violin”, yes, the hurdy-gurdy is like a hand-cranked violin that can create a drone sound to be paired with the musette. Did I mention new to me?

All three pieces were based on noëls—folk songs that would easily be recognizable to audiences of the time. The general basis was, play the tune, embellish the tune, keep embellishing until you're done. I could stop right here, but I did actually take a few notes.

The first Corrette piece was, indeed, in a minor key but it was neither sad nor mournful; it was gently jolly, essentially a string quartet with added harpsichord and flute (which was wooden and a little larger than the silvery one you'd expect). As a result, it had a bit of a deeper tone while still adding the brightness you'd want from a flute. One movement featured the above-mentioned flute, one featured the violin and cello, and one featured some rather fancy fiddling.

As a nod to Joyeux Noël, one violinist had a bow (the ribbon kind) on the lapel of his jacket, another had a bow at the hip of her skirt and at the end of the neck of her violin. The flautist had a bow in her hair. Both the musettist (is so a word) and the hurdy-gurdyist (is so a word) had bows on their music stands. Alas, sightlines did not let me see whether or not the violist and cellist joined in. My guess would be yes.

The second work was for hurdy-gurdy and musette de cour (bagpipe). While pleasant, it tended to drone on (pun intended).

The third work included all seven performers, with the bagpiper switching to the bassoon and the hurdy-gurdyist returning to the harpsichord. It also included some pizzicato (plucked) string playing.

All in all, a fun concert with just a tip of the chapeau to Joyeux Noël.

ConcertMeister