Christmas Noels by Marc-Antoine Charpentier

Noëls sur les instruments (H. 534) & "Offertoire" from Messe de minuit (H. 9)
EMMo Chamber Orchestra
Audio courtesy Barry Hufker
Videography by Pat Weaver
Early Music Missouri's 2023-2024 Christmas concert, "Music for the Season by Marc-Antoine Charpentier" featured the music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643 - 1704), one of the most prolific and significant composers of the late seventeenth century.
Like English carols or nowells, French noëls were simple strophic songs linked since the Middle Ages to shepherds and the Christmas story. One early source describes noëls as songs sung by French families around the supper table, but in time they were sung principally only in the Christmas season, including during the offertory at Midnight Mass. While the earliest were monophonic, by the fifteenth century, three- and four-part settings developed and they were published by the dozens through the sixteenth century.
Charpentier created a number of instrumental settings of noëls, all intended for use in services or devotions in the Christmas season. While they retain a bit of their rustic roots, Charpentier’s arrangements are polished miniatures, confirming his gift for orchestration. He skillfully blends strings and flutes in these pieces, evoking the rustic shepherd pipes with the winds while creating delicate and refined settings for the tunes with his string arrangements. Unlike many composers who employ simple tunes as a means to display their virtuosity (as a player or composer), Charpentier allows the rustic simplicity of the noëls to shine through, setting them subtly with sophisticated harmonies and colorful voicings. This video features three: “Les Bourgeois de Chastre,” “Ou sen vont ces guays bergers,” and “Joseph est bien marié,” as well as the instrumental "Offertoire" from Charpentier’s Messe de minuit (H. 9). (The “Gloria in excelsis Deo” from this mass can be found at • "Gloria in excelsis De... )
Baroque violins: Samuel Breene & Celina Boldrey
Baroque viola: Timothy Eshing
Viola da gamba: Stephanie Hunt
Recorders: Rachel Siegel & Lisette Kielson
Chamber organ: Matthew Gerhardt
Theorbo: Jeffrey Noonan
Baroque guitars: Patrick Rafferty & Tristan Frampton