Michel Corrette (1707-1795) - Concerto 'Le Phénix' (1735)
Channel: Pau NG
Date: 2022-01-21

★ Follow music ► https://www.instagram.com/reciclassicat/

Composer: Michel Corrette (1707-1795)
Work: Concerto 'Le Phénix' (1735)
Performers: Fritz Wοlkеn, George Zukеrman, Jürgen Gode, Karl Stеinbrеchеr (fagots);
Martin Gаlling (clavecin)

Engraving: Jean-François Daumont (1717-1768) - Gezicht op de stad Parijs
Image in high resolution: https://flic.kr/p/2mXxfdM

Further info: https://www.discogs.com/es/release/5605479-Couperin-Corrette-Boismortier-Devienne-Works-For-Bassoon
Listen free: No available

---

Michel Corrette [Corette]
(Rouen, 10 April 1707 - Paris, 21 January 1795)

French organist, teacher, composer-arranger and author of methods on performing practice; son of Gaspard Corrette. Though little is known of his life, his works, which span nearly 75 years, provide an extraordinarily broad view of ordinary light music in France during the 18th century, and his methods are a rich source of information about performing practice and music of the period. He was married on 8 January 1733 to Marie-Catherine Morize. They had a daughter Marie-Anne (1734-c1822) and a son Pierre-Michel (1744-1801), who became an organist. Corrette first established his reputation by becoming musical director of the Foire St Germain and the Foire St Laurent, where he arranged and composed vaudevilles and divertissements for the opéras comiques (1732-39). From 1737 until its closure in 1790 he was organist at Ste Marie within the temple of the grand prieur of France, thus serving the Chevalier d’Orléans, then the Prince de Conti (1749), and finally the Duke d’Angoulême (1776). About a year after beginning at the temple, he became organist at the Jesuit College in the rue St-Antoine, a position he retained until the Jesuits were expelled in 1762. In 1734 he was styled Grand maître des Chevaliers du Pivois, from 1750 Chevalier de l’Ordre de Christ. He was well known as a teacher, though his reputation was not always favourable. Unsympathetic people called his pupils ‘anachorètes’ (ânes à Corrette) and in 1779 the Mercure said of a new edition of Les amusemens du Parnasse (a harpsichord method) that it was good in its time but contemporary students would find little of value in it. Yet for historians his little treatises are full of value. An anecdote in his double bass method (1773) shows that he visited England: 

"I suppose it is unnecessary to warn those who wear glasses to have some for distance vision. I remember having been at a concert in a little town in England where I saw a trio of spectacles at the harpsichord. Each of the players was competing for the closest position to the music desk. After the heads had knocked against one another, the singer, who was a castrato newly arrived from Italy and who was having difficulty seeing in spite of three pairs of glasses on his nose, had the idea of sitting astride the harpsichordist’s hump-back. This advantage didn’t last long, because the archlute player at one side of the grotesque group had – unfortunately for him – a wooden leg; and as he was playing standing up and in spite of the telescope that he wore on his beet-nose saw no better than the others, he contrived through his contortions of beating time now on the castrato’s back, now on the harpsichordist’s hump, and of signalling the page-turn in Hebrew-fashion for the da capo, to let his wooden leg slip causing them all to fall like Phaeton. A spectator who appreciated novelty called out, ‘Bravo, bravo’."

The wording suggests that the trip took place well before 1773; perhaps the contredanses angloises for flute duo published in 1740 were gathered at first hand. These two quotations illustrate one of the most valuable features of Corrette’s works: the bits of historical information presented with a rare clarity and concreteness. In his violin method, L’école d’Orphée, there are 23 pages of pieces illustrating French and Italian styles, giving a valuable idea of what Frenchmen of the period meant by these designations, so important for the understanding of their explanations of performing practice. A large proportion of Corrette’s music is based on popular tunes of all sorts and constitutes an important source for their study. Music from, or written for, opéra comiques is presented fully scored, sometimes with place and date of performance. The arrangements run from simple harmonizations to transformations of the tunes into concerto movements, as in the 25 concertos comiques.