Récit de Tierce en taille - Nicolas de Grigny 

Récit de Tierce en taille by Nicolas de Grigny
David Kriewall, organ
University of Washington graduate recital
Saint Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle
June 8, 2014
Full recital: • 2014 Graduate Recital ...
Program notes:
In 1697, Nicolas de Grigny (1672-1703) was appointed titular organist of Notre-Dame de Reims, the city’s famous cathedral in which French kings were crowned. In 1699 the composer published his Premier livre d’orgue (First Organ Book), and represents the highest point in the highly stylized but profoundly expressive organ music of its period in France. In this Golden Age, style in organ music divided into the so-called “Parisian” style, exemplified in François Couperin’s exquisite evocation of courtly dance and song disguised as liturgical music, and the “Provincial,” led by Grigny. The word today suggests a sense of simplicity, but the reverse is true here; it came to indicate music of great sophistication, less dashing and elegant than its Parisian counterpart, but instead serious, devout, often complex, and always beautiful.
By custom at that time, the organ performed sections of the liturgy in alternation with the choir. The sublimely mystical Récit, conveyed on the sensuous sounds of the Tierce combination, comes from the Domine Deus, rex caelestis (Lord God, heavenly King) section of the Gloria in Excelsis.