Louis-Claude Daquin’s “Le Coucou”

02 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Baroque, France, Quebec, Traditional Music

Tags

Books of Hours, Candlemas, Le Coucou, Louis-Claude Daquin, Phillip Sear, Solstices and Equinoxes

Phillip Sear plays Louis-Claude Daquin‘s “Le Coucou”

Above is Louis-Claude Daquin’s “Le Coucou” (The Cuckoo). Les Grands Hurleurs’ “Coucou” is an arrangement of Louis-Claude Daquin‘s “Coucou.” Daquin’s “Coucou” is not folklore, but it borders on traditional music and music we call “classical.” Daquin composed several Noëls, Christmas Carols. Christmas Carols are not looked upon as “folklore,” but they are traditional music. Christians sing Carols on Christmas Day and during the Christmas period. For Christians, Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, but it is also on or near the Winter solstice, the day of the longest night. Today is Candlemas (La Chandeleur), a festival of lights and currently Groundhog Day (le Jour de la Marmotte).

Calendar page from the Hours of Catherine of Cleves for June 1–15. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

FEASTS …

Feasts are celebrated according to a natural calendar. This begins with the degree of light and darkness: two solstices, and in the middle of the two solstices (Christmas and la Saint-Jean) are the Vernal equinox of Spring and the Autumnal equinox (Michaelmas). And to return to traditional music, it is associated with feasts that are celebrated according to the above-mentioned natural calendar. Noëls are performed during the Christmas season.

Antonio Vivaldi‘s Four Seasons is an ode to the four seasons. We also have Books of Hours. Les Très Riches Heures de Jean de France, Duc de Berry records the labours of the month. The January page is exceptional. The enluminures were the work of les frères Limbourg (the Limbourg Brothers). Illuminated Books of Hours are consummate art, but we should not underestimate our calendars and agendas.

However, Books of Hours are not pieces of music. Noëls are, and they probably constitute traditional music. Then come Liturgical music and the Canonical Hours.

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Love to everyone 💕

**Les Très Riches Heures de Jean de France, Duc de Berry** (January)

Les Grands Hurleurs’ “Le Coucou”

01 Monday Feb 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, Quebec, Traditional Music

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Le Coucou, Les Grands Hurleurs, Louis-Claude d'Aquin, podorythmie

Les Grands Hurleurs play an arrangement of “Le Coucou,” composed by Louis-Claude Daquin (1694-1772)[1]

This is a very short post. It features Nicolas Pellerin‘s Grands Hurleurs (howlers). We heard the Grands Hurleurs in Quebec Folklore: Celtic Roots. In Le Coucou, Nicolas uses podorythmie.

I started researching podorythmie. It may have Acadian origins, which surprises me. I lived in Nova Scotia for 22 years. The Scots and Acadians are very close.

I noticed that WordPress put Would that Robert Baldwin and Sir Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine… as a related article to Quebec Ensembles. Looking at the photograph of members of La Nef, I saw Canada as it could have been. The inhabitants of Louis Riel‘s Red River Colony were Scottish crofters, disbanded members of the Régiment de Meuron and De Watteville Régiment, French-speaking and English-speaking Métis, retired Voyageurs and their descendants, former explorers (Scottish and others).

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Quebec Ensembles (29 January 2021)
Quebec Folklore: Celtic Roots (24 October 2020)
Canadiana.1

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[1] Louis-Claude Daquin was a “French composer of Jewish ancestry, writing in the Baroque and Galant styles. He was a virtuoso organist and harpsichordist.” (See Louis-Claude Daquin, Wikipedia.)

Love to everyone 💕