Charles d'Helfer

Charles d'Helfer (1598–1661) was a French baroque composer and maître de musique at Soissons Cathedral. His masses follow a strict one syllable per note style.

Soissons Cathedral

He is best remembered for his requiem for four voices of 1656[1][2] which was used for the funeral of composer Michel Richard Delalande in 1726[3] and was the basis of Julien-Amable Mathieu (1734-1811) and François Giroust's requiem mass for Louis XV in 1775.[4][5]

Works
  • Missa quatuor vocum ad imitationem moduli Benedicam Dominum, Paris 1653
  • Missa pro defunctis quatuor vocum, Paris 1656
  • Missa quatuor vocum ad moduli Lorsque d'un désir curieux, Paris 1658
  • Missa sex vocum ad imitationem moduli In aeternum cantabo, Paris 1658
  • Vespres et Hymnes de l'année avec plusieurs motets du St. Sacrement, de la Vierge des SS. et patrons de lieux etc à 4 parties, Paris 1660
  • Missa quatuor vocum ad imitationem moduli Deliciae Regum, Paris 1664
  • Missa sex vocum ad imitationem moduli Quid videbis in Sunamitae, Paris 1674
  • Missa quatuor vocibus ad imitationem moduli Laetatus sum, Paris 1678

Recordings

References
  1. Charles d'Helfer: Requiem, Messe de Funerailles des Ducs de Lorraine Reconstitution musicale des funerailles de Charles III (1608) et de Henri II (1624). A Sei Voci, Les Sacqueboutiers de Toulouse
  2. "A propos d'une messe de Charles d'Helfer. Le probléme de l'exécution des messes réputées a capella en France, aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siecles, " in Les Collogues de Wégimont, IV/1 - 1957: Le "Baroque" Musical. Paris:
  3. Music in the Seventeenth Century - Page 152 Lorenzo Bianconi - 1987 "Charles d'Helfer's severe 4-part requiem of 1656 was sung in 1726 at the funeral service of de La Lande (who himself wrote no masses whatever) and again, as late as 1774, for the repose of the soul of Louis XV.
  4. Jack Eby, A Requiem Mass for Louis XV: Charles d'Helfer, Francois Giroust and the Missa pro defunctis of 1775, in Oxford Journal for Early Music, May 2001, pp. 218-231
  5. Revue de musicologie: Volume 86 Société française de musicologie - 2000 "La Missa pro Defunctis de Charles d'Helfer sera en effet intimement liée aux cérémonies accompagnant les rites funéraires du défunt roi. Julien-Aimable Mathieu, maître de chapelle en charge du premier semestre de l'année ... Giroust était alors en charge du premier semestre à la chapelle royale. La cérémonie comprit bien entendu un De profundis"

Sources

Jean-Paul C. Montagnier, The Polyphonic Mass in France, 1600-1780: The Evidence of the Printed Choirbooks, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

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