Messe de Minuit pour Noël (Charpentier)

PREAMBLE

Charpentier composed the Messe de Minuit pour Noël (c. 1694) for the Jesuit church of the Église Saint-Louis in Paris where he was music director. He upheld a longstanding tradition for this mass to be celebrated around midnight as the first of three on Christmas Day: to base the music on melodies of French noëls (Christmas carols). Some of these tunes were secular in origin, and in theory the use of secular material in church music had been forbidden by the Council of Trent, but long traditions were tolerated.

In different program notes for this work, including our choral transcript, it is often mentioned that although the Messe de Minuit is not Charpentier’s “most spectacular” or “profound” Mass (he wrote about 12 known Masses), it is undoubtedly his “most charming” for the fact that it is based on French Christmas carols. It is fun, and surprisingly upbeat for the most part.

Interpretation Notes [PDF]