MARIN MARAIS
Dr David C F Wright
Gerald Hayes, in his important book on viols and other
bowed instruments published in 1930, was, I think, the first to suggest
that Marais was 'a composer whose gifts, were they but fully appreciated
by his countrymen, should set his name beside that of Couperin, at the
head of French music'.
Marais published five part-books of music for viola
da gamba, Book I in 1686, although there was a further wait of three
years for the basse continue parts, Book II in 1701 in the same divided
way, Book III in 1711 , Book IV in 1717 and finally Book V in 1725
The chief source of information for Marais's imperfectly
documented life is Titon du Tillet's "Parnasse Français"
(1732), a goldmine of penetrating insight into the lives of musicians
and composers active in France in the early 18th century, many of whom
would otherwise be lost to posterity. We know nothing of Marais's parents
or antecedents, but he was born in Paris on 31 May 1656. As a child
he entered the choir of Sainte-Chapelle and, as a youth, he studied
the viol with Hottemann and with Saint-Colombe, a great master of the
instrument, whose sixty seven "Concerts a deux violes esgales",
an astonishing corpus of music for gamba duet, remained totally unknown
until transcribed and edited by Paul Hooreman and published by Heugel
in 1973.
But Marais's apprenticeship with Saint-Colombe was
short-lived. After six months he was dismissed, not because his master
could teach him nothing further, but because Saint-Colombe feared that,
as things were going, the pupil would soon outstrip the master. He went
on to become "bateur de la mesure" in the orchestra of the Academie
Royale de Musique under Lully, with whom he studied composition. From
then on, until his retirement in 1725, he was to hold the position of
’Ordinaire de la Chambre du Roy pour le Viole" for forty six years.
Not all that surprisingly, his first Book of "Pieces
de Viole" was dedicated to his master, Lully. It is a publication of
great historical significance, being the first collection of its kind
in France written for viol with basso continuo, the few earlier publications
of viol music being for unaccompanied viols. In this book and his subsequent
books of viol pieces, Marais set standards of viol technique that inaugurated
a whole school of French viol players and composers such as De Caix
d'Hervelois, the great François Couperin himself, and lesser
luminaries about whom we know so little, but whose music is of the very
highest quality such as Charles Dolle and Jacques Morel. And yet this
flowering was of short duration. At the very peak of its excellence,
the popularity of the viol came to a sudden end as changing tastes and
changing styles overtook the older composers from about the mid-18th
century. The golden age was over almost as suddenly as it had begun
and only recently has the music of Marais and that of his disciples
been re-examined and brought back to life.
Marais's part-books abound in detailed directions not
only about the correct ornamentation for the interpretation of this
music, but also a wealth of information about performing techniques
of bowing and fingering that are of importance for a true understanding
of a much wider range of French music of this period which performers
will ignore at their peril. His "Pieces de Viole" constitute a
"Gradus ad Parnassum" for the instrument that has been approached
by no other composer, but, while constituting by far the most extensive,
as well as the most important, part of his output, Marais did, in fact,
write other and impressive things. His "Pieces en Trio" of 1692
are a case in point. He also wrote at least four operas, much praised
in their time --- "Alcide" in 1693, "Ariane et Bacchus" in
1969, "Alcyone" in 1706 and "Semele" in 1709. "Alcyone"
in particular, achieved especial fame with a notable storm scene, and
a suite from this opera was recorded. There was also a celebrated "Te
Deum", now seemingly lost, composed, as Titon du Tillet tells us, for
the convalescence of Monsigneur le Dauphin, presumably after that famous
occasion in 1701 when he recovered from an 'acces d'indigestion' after
eating a surfeit of fish which rendered him unconscious. Thought to
be on the point of death, he was saved only after doctors had effected
'un evacuation prodigieuse haut et bas' and a great service of thanksgiving
was celebrated at the Orataire.
Marais lived all his life in Paris and, except on the
domestic level, it appears to have been rather uneventful. He married,
at the age of nineteen, one Catherine d'Amicourt, who bore him no less
than nineteen children, nine of which survived infancy and four ---
three boys and a girl --- achieved fame as viol players. Another daughter
married the great composer of cantatas, Nicolas Bernier. If we are to
believe the constantly changing addresses found on his publications,
Marais moved house a great deal. Perhaps his ever increasing and growing
family required a series of moves requiring more spacious apartments,
who knows? But in 1686 we find him living in the Rue de Jour; by 1692
he is in the somewhat notorious Rue Quincampoix in the financial quarter
of Paris; in 1709 he is found in the Rue Bertin Poirée and later
in the Rue de la Harpe. According to Titon du Tillet he finally retired
to a house in the Rue de l'Oursine with a fine garden when he tended
in his declining years.
The pieces included in Marais's five books are sub-divided
into a number of suites according to key. While they are devised to
exploit every aspect of viol technique they are also arranged to provide
pieces of varying difficulty to suit performers at all stages of development.
Most of the suites contain a great many movements, mostly in dance forms
and the player would have been free to select both the number and order
of the movements he chose to play. The last movement of the first Suite
in D from Book II ends with the "Folies d'Espagne". The original
suite contains twenty pieces including four preludes, two sarabandes,
two gigues, three menuets besides other individual movements and the
’Folies", an extensive set of thirty-two variations on the old Spanish
sarabande that inspired so many other composers right up to the present
day, provides the impressive finale. Marais's variations obviously invite
comparison with those of his famous Italian contemporary, Corelli. Corelli's
variations are a brilliant display of violin virtuoso technique; Marais
offers a totally different approach of grace and finesse and subtlety
of expression -- a different aesthetic and a different musical world
altogether, yet in their own way they are as impressive to hear and
as challenging to the performer as anything Corelli could provide.
"Les Voix humaines" is the penultimate movement
of the third suite. It has a quality of dark and brooding contemplation.
The Suite no. 5 in B minor has thirteen movements including two sarabandes,
two gigues and two menuets and other dance movements all leading up
to an impressive "Tombeau pour Mons. de Lully", Marais's tribute
to his master, who had died some years before. It is a wonderfully expressive
piece. It is an object lesson in the variety of expression that can
be effected by a performer who has mastered the subtleties of unequal
bowing technique and who fully understands the great opportunities offered
by Marais's delicate "agréments" which, if properly executed,
make his music so individual and utterly French, as opposed to the brash
Italian virtuosity that some French composers of the time adopted as
their own --- most notable Antoine Forqueray, who offers an approach
so different that it led Hubert de Blanc to make his much quoted remark
in his "Defense de la Basse de Viole" (1740) in which he compared
Marais to a performer who played like an angel and Forqueray like the
devil.
On his own terms Forqueray wrote some magnificent music
for the gamba and being more extrovert it has enjoyed greater popular
appeal. His ’Pieces de Viole" is a much more modest offering in terms
of size (five suites in all). With Marais , the performer and recording
companies are confronted with a corpus of music as extensive as, say,
the sonatas of Scarlatti.
Pieces like the "Folies d'Espagne" and "Les
Voix humaines" show one side of Marais. There is also his amazing "Suite
d'un Gout Etranger" and the tragi-comic "Tableau de l'operation
de la Talle" found in the seventh and last suite of Book V which tells
in graphic, hair-raising detail the ordeal of a gall-stone operation,
clearly based on Marais's personal experience, which is routine enough
misfortune today, but in the 18th century was performed without anaesthetics
and was often fatal.
When Marais died on 15 August 1728 he was buried in
the church of Saint-Hippolyte in the Quartier Saint-Marcel with all
the honour due to a celebrated musician. Shortly before the Second World
War his first modern champion, Arnold Dolmetsch, with his wife Mabel,
went on a pilgrimage to this church with the intention of leaving a
bouquet of flowers on his tomb but they were shattered to find no trace
of the church remained. Unknown to them it had, in fact, been destroyed
at the time of the French revolution and with it Marais's earthly remains
have been lost forever. In consolation they scattered their flowers
in the gardens of Versailles where he must have so often walked. Thus
Marais, with no known grave, shares a distinction with another great
composer, namely Mozart.
Since this article was written more information has
come to light including the identity of Saint-Colombe and, happily,
a lot of Marais's music is available on CD
Copyright David C F Wright
