Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, also known as Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonvil… Read Full Bio ↴Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, also known as Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, (December 25, 1711 (baptised) – October 8, 1772) was a French violinist and composer. He was a younger contemporary of Jean-Philippe Rameau and enjoyed great success in his day. Pierre-Louis Daquin (son of the composer Louis Claude Daquin) claimed: "If I couldn't be Rameau, there's no one I would rather be than Mondonville.
Life
Mondonville was born in Narbonne in Southwest France to an aristocratic family which had fallen on hard times. In 1733 he moved to Paris where he gained the patronage of the king's mistress Madame de Pompadour and won several musical posts, including violinist for the Concert Spirituel.
His first opus was a volume of violin sonatas, published in 1733. He became a violinist of the royal chapel and chamber and performed in some 100 concerts; some of his grands motets were also performed that year receiving considerable acclaim. He was appointed sous-maître in 1740 and then, in 1744, intendant of the Royal Chapel. He produced operas and grands motets for the Opéra and Concert spirituel respectively, and was associated with the Théatre des Petits-Cabinets, all the while maintaining his career as a violinist throughout the 1740s. In 1755, he became director of the Concert Spirituel on the death of Royer. He died in Belleville near Paris at the age of sixty.
Music
Sacred music
Between 1734 and 1755 Mondonville composed 17 grands motets, of which only nine have survived. The motet Venite exultemus domino, published in 1740, won him the post of Maître de musique de la Chapelle (Master of Music of the Chapel). Thanks to his mastery of both orchestral and vocal music, Mondonville brought to the grand motet -- the dominant genre of music in the repertory of the Chapelle royale (Royal Chapel) before the Revolution -- an intensity of colour and a dramatic quality hitherto unknown.
Operas
Although Mondonville's first stage work, Isbé, was a failure he enjoyed great success with the lighter forms of French Baroque opera: the opéra-ballet and the pastorale héroïque. His most popular works were Le carnaval de Parnasse, Titon et l'Aurore and Daphnis et Alcimadure (for which Mondonville wrote his own libretto in his native Languedocien dialect). Titon et l'Aurore played an important role in the Querelle des Bouffons, the controversy between partisans of French and Italian opera which raged in Paris in the early 1750s. Members of the "French party" ensured that Titon's premiere was a resounding success (their opponents even alleged they had guaranteed this result by packing the Académie Royale de Musique, where the staging took place, with royal soldiers). Mondonville's one foray into serious French opera - the genre known as tragédie en musique- was a failure however. He took the unusual step of reusing a libretto, Thésée, which had originally been set by the "father of French opera", Lully in 1675. Mondonville's bold move to substitute Lully's much loved music with his own did not pay off. The premiere at the court in 1765 had a mixed reception and a public performance two years later ended with the audience demanding it be replaced by the original. Yet Mondonville was merely slightly ahead of his time; in the 1770s, it became fashionable to reset Lully's tragedies with new music, the most famous example being Armide by Gluck.
Life
Mondonville was born in Narbonne in Southwest France to an aristocratic family which had fallen on hard times. In 1733 he moved to Paris where he gained the patronage of the king's mistress Madame de Pompadour and won several musical posts, including violinist for the Concert Spirituel.
His first opus was a volume of violin sonatas, published in 1733. He became a violinist of the royal chapel and chamber and performed in some 100 concerts; some of his grands motets were also performed that year receiving considerable acclaim. He was appointed sous-maître in 1740 and then, in 1744, intendant of the Royal Chapel. He produced operas and grands motets for the Opéra and Concert spirituel respectively, and was associated with the Théatre des Petits-Cabinets, all the while maintaining his career as a violinist throughout the 1740s. In 1755, he became director of the Concert Spirituel on the death of Royer. He died in Belleville near Paris at the age of sixty.
Music
Sacred music
Between 1734 and 1755 Mondonville composed 17 grands motets, of which only nine have survived. The motet Venite exultemus domino, published in 1740, won him the post of Maître de musique de la Chapelle (Master of Music of the Chapel). Thanks to his mastery of both orchestral and vocal music, Mondonville brought to the grand motet -- the dominant genre of music in the repertory of the Chapelle royale (Royal Chapel) before the Revolution -- an intensity of colour and a dramatic quality hitherto unknown.
Operas
Although Mondonville's first stage work, Isbé, was a failure he enjoyed great success with the lighter forms of French Baroque opera: the opéra-ballet and the pastorale héroïque. His most popular works were Le carnaval de Parnasse, Titon et l'Aurore and Daphnis et Alcimadure (for which Mondonville wrote his own libretto in his native Languedocien dialect). Titon et l'Aurore played an important role in the Querelle des Bouffons, the controversy between partisans of French and Italian opera which raged in Paris in the early 1750s. Members of the "French party" ensured that Titon's premiere was a resounding success (their opponents even alleged they had guaranteed this result by packing the Académie Royale de Musique, where the staging took place, with royal soldiers). Mondonville's one foray into serious French opera - the genre known as tragédie en musique- was a failure however. He took the unusual step of reusing a libretto, Thésée, which had originally been set by the "father of French opera", Lully in 1675. Mondonville's bold move to substitute Lully's much loved music with his own did not pay off. The premiere at the court in 1765 had a mixed reception and a public performance two years later ended with the audience demanding it be replaced by the original. Yet Mondonville was merely slightly ahead of his time; in the 1770s, it became fashionable to reset Lully's tragedies with new music, the most famous example being Armide by Gluck.
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01Sonate No.4 (Six Sonates en symphonies op.3): 2. Aria: Andante gratiosoJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
02Dominus regnavit: Duet: Parata sedesJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
03Sonate No. 4 (Six Sonates en symphonies op.3): 2. Aria: Andante gratiosoJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
04Mondonville : Dominus regnavit : IJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
06Mondonville : In exitu Israel : "Mare vivit"Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
07Mondonville: Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord in B-Flat Major, Op. 3 No. 3: III. AllegroJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
08Pièces De Clavecin Avec Voix Et Violon, Op. 5: Regna Terrae, Cantate Deo (PS. 67, V. 35 Et 36)Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
09Mondonville : Dominus regnavit : IV. Elevaverunt fluminaJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
10Mondonville : In exitu IsraelJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
11Sonate No.6 (Six Sonates en symphonies op. 3): 3. Gigha: AllegrettoJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
12Mondonville : Dominus regnavit : IIJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
13Mondonville : In exitu Israel : "Jordanis conversus est retrorsum"Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
14Dominus regnavit: I. Dominus regnavitJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
15Dominus regnavit: Trio: Elevaverunt fluminaJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
16Le carnaval du Parnasse: Air lent et gracieuxJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
17Mondonville : Dominus regnavit : VIJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
18Trio Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 2: Trio Sonata No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 2: I. AdagioJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
19Sonate No.1 (Six Sonates ex symphonies op. 3): 2. Aria: Gratioso e poco pianoJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
20Mondonville : In exitu Israel : VJean-Joseph Cassanéa de MondonvilleJean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
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