Upcoming A Joyful Noyse Concert at Hancock Church
Messe de minuit pour Nöel
Midnight Mass for Christmas
with motets written for the convents of Paris by
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Sunday, January 5, 2025, at 2:00 pm
Hancock Church, 1912 Mass. Ave., Lexington, MA $15
donation to support the Hancock Music Program
Charpentier wrote the Messe de minuit in 1694 while employed by the Jesuit
Church. During a time when the low mass, or recited mass, accompanied by
the now popular grand motets gained favor, Charpentier was singular in his
unique and distinctive settings of the high mass, or sung mass. But even among
the exceptionalness of Charpentier’s other masses, the Messe de Minuit stands alone.
What is so remarkable about this mass is Charpentier’s use of French
Christmas carols. Folk melodies and carols had been used in numerous works
by other composers, but only as the bricks and mortar with which they
constructed their compositions. Here Charpentier uses no fewer than ten carols
throughout the mass. They are no longer just building blocks. Their spirit of
joy, simplicity and charm become the life blood and essence of the mass.
What a wonderfully ironic twist to have these spirited folk melodies ring out in
the formal ceremonial setting of a high midnight Christmas mass. A night that
itself is so bound in irony, wonder and mystery. A night when shepherds and
celestial bands rejoiced together in the fields of Bethlehem. A night when king
and commoner alike fell to their knees to honor the king of kings: a tiny Christ
Child rocked lovingly in Virgin Mary’s arms.