The complete music for organ and harpsichord
Louis Marchand’s fiery temperament is well documented. It led to a series of encounters with his peers that included shirking a competition with JS Bach, being sued for domestic violence, being sacked for impertinence towards Louis XIV, and an attempt to defame the priest-organist of Saint-Barthélemy, Paris, a position that had been bequeathed to Marchand by the outgoing organist, his father-in-law Robert Denis
Yet, despite a tempestuous personal life, he was held in such high esteem that the public would follow him from place to place to listen to him play. He published little: a single book of organ pieces (1701 – supposedly lost), a posthumous collection of organ pieces (1742) and two harpsichord suites (1699 and 1702). In addition are two autograph volumes of organ pieces housed in the municipal library of Versailles.
This new Cantando edition is the first to draw all the known sources of Marchand’s keyboard music together into a single volume and includes previously unpublished pieces that are attributed to the composer. The preface, which examines Marchand’s life, re-assesses the unpublished sources and the posthumous edition, and contains notes on performance style, fingering and registration using contemporary sources as reference material.
Edited by musicologist Jon Baxendale, the book is published with a durable hardcover and clear print and is the seventh publication in his critically-acclaimed series of early keyboard music.
Hardcover, 164 Seiten
