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*Jean GILLES* (1668-1705):
Messe des Morts
_1764 version for the funeral service of J.P.Rameau_
Judith van Wanroij _soprano_
Robert Getchell _haute-contre_
Juan Sancho _tenor_
Lisandro Abadie _bass_
*Collegium Vocale Gent*
Capriccio Stravagante Les 24 Violons
Skip Sempé
We have André Campra to thank for the fact that the _Messe des Morts_ by Provençal composer Jean Gilles (1668-1705) was not lost in the mists of time. After his colleague’s untimely death Campra conducted this five-voice mass in Paris’s Concert Spirituel series, laying the foundation for its later popularity. Even Jean-Philippe Rameau and King Louis XV were escorted to their graves with this unusually expressive and dramatic music. The dominant tone of this requiem is nevertheless light and dance-like, like the French-Italian style of Lully’s tragédies lyriques. Like the opera, funerals had an element of theatricality, in which tears were discreetly wiped away.