Miserere - Leçons de ténèbres

Description

Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres represent one of the pinnacles of early 18th-century French sacred art. Vocality and spirituality are combined here with artistry, bearing witness to the refinement of the beautiful French singing practiced under Louis XIV, both in salons and theaters and in places of worship. People indeed flocked to listen, in Paris convents, to these divine voices intoning the Lessons for the days of Holy Week, faceless voices of young convent recluses, voices from heaven. The three surviving lessons by François Couperin are written for Holy Wednesday. Clérambault’s Miserere for women’s voices, a contemporary work, unfolds an equally contrasting expressive palette.