On an autumn afternoon in 1682, in the Music Hall, next to the Orangerie, at the Palace of Versailles, a 10-year-old boy stood facing the monarch, looking bravely and defiantly, holding a 3/4 violin in his hand, which was too big for him, as everyone immediately noticed. Despite this, his playing completely impressed the curious court audience, and especially Louis XIV, the 'Sun King'.
Antoine Forqueray then received the best education, his talent very quickly blossomed, and at a very young age, at the age of 17, he was appointed as a musician, the 'musicien ordinaire', in the famous La Chambre du Roy, of which he remained a member until his retirement.
His career took off nicely, the Sun King with great skill 'running' two famous viola players in the court, practically at the same time; they pulled each other up as rivals.
His career took off nicely, the Sun King with great skill 'running' two famous viola players in the court, practically at the same time; they pulled each other up as rivals.
 |
| Antoine Forqueray |
 |
| Marin Marais |
It was Marin Marais, 16 years his senior, who brought the viola da gamba and raised it to its peak, as Daquin wrote about them after their death:
"We can say that no one surpassed Marais, only one man could equal him, and that is the famous Forqueray",
And Le Blanc, in his work 'Defense of the Viola da gamba against the aspirations of the violin and the demands of the cello', wrote:
"The empire of the viola da gamba was founded and greatly strengthened by Father Marais, […] and Father Forcroi has beautifully expanded this empire. […] One was proclaimed as an angel, the other plays like a devil."
Marais' music is rich in harmony, deeply emotional, sometimes a bit meditative, an 'introverted' type, the Swiss doctor would say, while Forqueray, with his explosive, virtuoso, extremely expressive music, could be a basic example of the 'extraverted' type.
Is this true?
I suspect that the situation is much more complicated and seems to break out of the reassuring typological classification.
"We can say that no one surpassed Marais, only one man could equal him, and that is the famous Forqueray",
And Le Blanc, in his work 'Defense of the Viola da gamba against the aspirations of the violin and the demands of the cello', wrote:
"The empire of the viola da gamba was founded and greatly strengthened by Father Marais, […] and Father Forcroi has beautifully expanded this empire. […] One was proclaimed as an angel, the other plays like a devil."
Marais' music is rich in harmony, deeply emotional, sometimes a bit meditative, an 'introverted' type, the Swiss doctor would say, while Forqueray, with his explosive, virtuoso, extremely expressive music, could be a basic example of the 'extraverted' type.
Is this true?
I suspect that the situation is much more complicated and seems to break out of the reassuring typological classification.
*
He had access to the highest court circles, often giving concerts at the invitation of the Duchess of Maine at the Chateau de Sceaux, and participating in the nightly celebrations of the Grandes Nuits de Sceaux, with the knights who gathered under the banner of the Order of the Honey Flies from time to time, practicing secret-joking rituals.
This order was founded in 1703, by Anne Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon, Duchess of Maine, in the 'Little Court', this court-within-a-court was created on the estate of Sceaux because she could only be the secret wife of the Sun King's son, so she needed a place where she could hide from intrigues and have fun. The order was a parody order, it initially had thirty-nine members. They all wear clothes embroidered with silver thread, a beehive-shaped wig and a medal engraved with the profile of Louise-Bénédicte, wearing the medal was mandatory day and night...
The origin of the humorous name may have been that this queen-maiden was short in stature and uttered the proverb that the bee is Piccola si, ma fa pur gravi le ferite, meaning that the bee may be small, but its sting is serious.
From this perspective, this was a bit foolish and pointless and wasteful and ridiculous, but our opinion immediately improves if we add what a high-quality cultural life took place here, with lavish theatrical performances, public readings, high-level patronage, the most famous writers and poets, musicians, Marais, Forqueray and de Visée all exchanged doorknobs in the palace.
*
Forqueray, with his fiery nature, retired in 1736, remaining in favor throughout, and living for another eight years. He was so respected that he received not a favor, not a pension, but a full salary, with all the benefits, for the rest of his life.
He published nothing during his lifetime, his works were published by his son, the 29 pieces that remained out of the alleged several hundred.
*
There's a record that's pretty old, but it seems to get better with time. If you look at the year, 1980, the recording was made in 1977, it's an 'impossible' category, given the sudden rise of Early Music in the '90s, when all previous performing practices went down the drain.
So, a very strong exception. School-creating? I don't think so, rather completely unique.
And a performance of such a high standard that it is unmissable. Myself, and many futurologists/foresighters, envisioned around '90 that by the 2020s there would be a million great Forqueray recordings, and the old ones could quietly gather dust, in peace.
That's not what happened. The rise of Early Music is over, the whole movement has normalized and settled into place, it is still somewhat on the periphery, the average standard of gamba performances is delightfully great, but for example. they don't reach this record.
*
Forqueray's approach is probably not simple. Neither on the presenting side nor on the receiving side.
Because there is some secret factor in his music that perhaps makes it a little incomprehensible. Sometimes.
Because there is a slight restlessness, or rather excitement-movements, even in the very slow pieces. No, it is not bouncy or anything like that, nor the fast movements. It does not operate with primary rhythm, but it completely feels as if the old mystical tripundum were returning, from the era of early polyphony, from about 300 years back. Which is the art of rhythm creation, where the rhythmic formula indicated by the score is just the tip of the iceberg, it is just a suggestion, a distant position, an approx. opinion experiment on how the external / internal rhythms, vibrations, periods are actually connected in an extremely complex fractal-like network, from the smallest vibrations to the spherical movement of the planets, through the human psyche. This gives a slightly strange feeling, as if the music is packed everywhere, or rather denser than usual, and there is never, really, a single second of it being boring or uninteresting.
Because there is a slight restlessness, or rather excitement-movements, even in the very slow pieces. No, it is not bouncy or anything like that, nor the fast movements. It does not operate with primary rhythm, but it completely feels as if the old mystical tripundum were returning, from the era of early polyphony, from about 300 years back. Which is the art of rhythm creation, where the rhythmic formula indicated by the score is just the tip of the iceberg, it is just a suggestion, a distant position, an approx. opinion experiment on how the external / internal rhythms, vibrations, periods are actually connected in an extremely complex fractal-like network, from the smallest vibrations to the spherical movement of the planets, through the human psyche. This gives a slightly strange feeling, as if the music is packed everywhere, or rather denser than usual, and there is never, really, a single second of it being boring or uninteresting.
Because it's full of gratuitous interruptions, when the melody is going, nicely, in the usual harmony of the early Baroque, then, swoosh, the notes drop to around the lowest seventh string, there are strange semi-dissonant frictions that are simply beautiful. Beautiful. It's really good to listen to.
... nem feledem a verseit: se értelme, se metruma, se cadentiája; zászlók, körtvélyek, erdők, tavak keringnek, úsznak, rend nékűl, vagy a bolondság isméretlen rendgyében. Mit tagadgyam, nékem igen tetszett: álmomban hallok illy költeményeket, s ha fel-ébredek, nem marad bellűle semmi...
Roughly:
... I will not forget his poems: neither their meaning, nor their meter, nor their cadence; flags, circles, forests, lakes circle, swim, order, or madness in immeasurable order. What can I deny, I really liked them: I hear such poems in my dreams, and when I wake up, nothing remains inside them...
This feeling quickly fades away, because you can sense that the whole thing is meticulously planned, more like it's showing us Beauty and Harmony with boundless vehemence and enthusiasm.
 |
| Carl Gustav Jung |
The typification of the Swiss doctor becomes very complicated here, because the strange situation arises that the extraverted, very expressive and very virtuoso Forqueray, with his difficult and quarrelsome nature, who draws his energy from external factors, seems to have created very complicated and layered and deep-creating music. Some linguistic metaphysics also comes into play here, because for some reason the 'expressive', the very expressive, is usually given the 'slightly superficial' meaning field, and on the other side, we think that turning inward automatically means depth.
However, here it is exactly the opposite.
However, here it is exactly the opposite.
*
The performance.
Here you can see something like in the very old Poirot stories, I'm thinking of the English series starring David Suchet.
Here you can see something like in the very old Poirot stories, I'm thinking of the English series starring David Suchet.
In the first series, where the actors are still very young. It seems that there are the same, very complicated, almost unsolvable crimes as in the episodes filmed 20 years later, where they maturely give the best of their art, but here, on the ancient, still 4:3 screen, the magic of youth works. The world is somehow more colorful. Behind the scenes, there is a delicate, unwavering good humor.
And the pipe.
Secret, inner smiles, twinkling eyes, and as if everything, really everything, were a little simpler, clearer. And more wonderful.
And always with a little humor in the background, no matter what happens.
And always with a little humor in the background, no matter what happens.
Forqueray's complexities roll so effortlessly that we don't even notice.
That they penetrate straight to the center of our hearts.
* * *
_________________________________________
