Grand Suite
I. Grand Jeu
II. Fugue
III. Duo
IV. Quatour
V. Basse de Trompette
VI. Tierce en taille
VII. Récit
VIII. Dialogue
Petite Suite
I. Fond d'Orgue
II. Trio (II)
III. Basse de Trompette (II)
IV. Tierce en Taille (II)
V. Récit (II)
VI. [Dialogue (II)]
Luois Marchand was born in 1669 at Lyon.
After the Marchand family had moved to Nevers had been offered the post as organist at the Nevers cathedral to the fourteen years old Luois Marchand.
Louis Marchand moved to Paris in the age of twenty years. He was organist there at different churches: Saint-Jacques, Saint-Benoît-le-Bétourné, and Saint-Honoré. In 1708 he was promoted to one of four royal organists. 1713 to 1717 lived Marchand in Germany. Back at Paris he was organist of the Cordeliers' abbey church. He died in 1732 at Paris.
Louis Marchand was in his time an admired musician and a scandaleous person. He startet an intrigue against the organist and priest Pierre Dandrieu. His wife got divorced from him because he has beatet she. The king Louis XIV. payed after that the half of Marchand's fee as royal organist to her. Therefor stopped Marchand his organ playing in the middle of the service and said to the king: "My wife should play the other half of the service because she gets the half of my fee.". Louis XIV. was one day amused about Marchan's hands, and Marchand answered an offending remark about the king's ears. The most famous story about Marchand is his escape before a harpsichord competition with Johann Sebastian Bach in 1717 at Dresden.
The organ music of Louis Marchand is remarkable. The Premier Livre d'Orgue contains the juwels of his organ compositions.
The scores of Marchand's organ music are not very exact. Playing Marchand one has to clear many problems about the ornamentation beside some real othographical mistakes. It means that has to decide between "notes inegales (long - short)", "notes coulées" (short - long), "tierce coulé", and "port de voix" which all are not exactly definated in the scores.
Louis Marchand was a very innovativ organ composer. He invented some new elements of composition and performed some existing elements to a high level. At first I will name structural elements. The large double-pedal-part in the Plein Jeu, the mirror-theme in his Fugue, the form of his Basse de Trompette as an Dialogue between Trompette and Cornet, and the Quatour. It means a playing on four keyboards at the same time: Pédale, Positiv, Grand Orgue, and Récit. His two or three "tempi" in the movements Duo and Récit are unique. Addionally Marchand used very speciel harmonies: a chord based on the Septime as solution to the "Dominante" an chords with high alterated Quinte.
The pieces of the Grande Suite are very impressive: majestic and sensitive in a romantic sense.
Organ at St.-Maximin (F) 1775 J.-E. Isnard (Hauptwerk, Sonus Paradisi)
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14 ноя 2020
