Messe de Minuit pour Noël (Midnight Mass for Christmas)
Arrangement for soloists, choir and organ (arr. A. Gräsle) H 9
Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Christmas mass, the Messe de Minuit,
stands fully in the French tradition of celebrating the happy message
of Christ’s birth with exuberant cheerfulness. Composed around 1694,
this midnight mass incorporates ten old French Christmas carols, giving
it both a dance-like swing and special tonal colors. For this edition
Andreas Gräsle has transcribed the orchestral writing for organ. His
distribution of the parts between manuals and pedals allows the
distinctive tonal and dynamic gradations of the work to be transferred
to the organ in an ideal way. So this version with reduced scoring
offers a delightful alternative to the original version. The vocal parts
(for soloists and choir) are identical with the edition of the original
version, so that the vocal score and choral score of that version can
be used.
Also available in the original scoring (Carus 21.029/00).
Original version | Arrangement for organ |
Soli SST(A)TB, Coro ST(A)TB, 2 Fl, 2 Vl, 2 Va (Vl, Va), Vc/Tiorba/Org, Bc | Soli SS(A)TTB, Coro S(A)TTB, Org |
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Composer
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
| 1643-1704
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Arranger
Andreas Gräsle
| 1964Andreas Gräsle (harmonium) studied church music in Stuttgart (organ: Jon Laukvik) and took his concert diploma in organ with Daniel Roth in Saarbrücken, followed by early music studies with Andrea Marcon. He was a scholarship holder of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and a prizewinner at the International Johann Pachelbel Competition in Nuremberg in 1991. From 1996 to 2003 he was choirmaster and organist at the Augustinuskirche in Schwäbisch Gmünd, and in April 2003 he became district choirmaster in Ditzingen. In addition, he is much in demand as chamber music partner, organist and harpsichordist. He has made several CDs of organ and chamber music, and his own improvisations and arrangements of children’s songs round off his musical activities. He has taught score reading at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart since 1997. Personal details
Reviews
Chorzeit, Nov. 2021