Jacques Champion de Chambonnières, Livre premier de clavecin.
Harpsichord by Sebastien Garnier, 1747, Two manuals, GG-d3 from the Michael Thomas Collection
Released 1979 by The Decca Record Company Limited, London order number ZK.80 (Argo Division)
Producer: Michael Bremner
Recording Engineers: Stan Goodall, Simon Eadon, Malcolm Hogg
Recording Location: Christchurch, Chelsea
Cover Photograph: By Merlin Turville-Petre

SIDE ONE
1. SUITE NO.1 in A MINOR (12’32)
00:00 Allemande ‘La Rare’
03:44 Courante and 2me Double de la Courante
05:09 Courante
06:32 Courante
07:52 Sarabande
09:52 Gaillarde.

2. SUITE NO.2 in C MAJOR (7’43)
12:15 Allemande ‘La Dunquerque’
15:04 Courante ‘Iris’ and Double
16:36 Courante and Double
17:52 Sarabande de la Reyne

3. SUITE NO.3 in D MINOR (first part 10’27)
19:52 Allemande ‘La Loureuse’
22:45 Courante ‘La Toute Belle’
24:50 Courante de Madame
26:34 Courante
27:54 Sarabande

SIDE TWO
1. SUITE NO.3 in D MINOR (continued 5’36)
30:08 Courante ‘Les Barricades’
32:09 Gigue ‘La Madelainette’
33:48 Gigue

2. SUITE NO.4 in F MAJOR (8’27)
35:41 Allemande
38:16 Courante
39:41 Courante
40:50 Courante
41:55 Sarabande

3. SUITE NO.5 in G MINOR (14’34)
44:01 Pavanne ‘L’ Entretien des Dieux’
48:50 Courante
50:15 Sarabande
51:50 Courante
53:21 Sarabande
55:26 Gigue ‘La Vilageoise’
56:57 Canaris

To his contemporaries, Jacques Champion de Chambonnières (1602 -1672) was the harpsichord’s supreme master, an unequivocal assessment for which his name has been honoured in hjstory books ever since. Why then do so” few harpsichordists play his music? If there is an answer it can only be that so few of them understand his essential nature. If we come to Chambonnieres expecting the dramatic virtuosity of Rameau or the poised grandeur of Francois Couperin, we shall certainly miss his true beauty.
“After having heard the harpsichord played by the Sieur de Chambonnieres there is nothing more to hear” wrote Marin Mersenne in about 1630. He mentions “beautiful melodies, magnificent harmonies, wonderful tempi, and the fine touch, the smoothness and speed of the hands … The instrument has found its ultimate master. 40 years later, after Chambonnières’ death, the Abbé Ie Gallois commented “everyone knows that this famous man was pre-eminent. among all others, both.on account of his compositions and because he was the source of the beautiful manner of playing which combined a brilliance and delicacy impossible to improve upon”. When Chambonnières played a chord and someone else immediately played exactly the same chord one could nevertheless hear a great difference, for he had an approach and a way of using his fingers on the keys which were not understood by other people.This was Chambonnières true virtuosity: his ability to make eloquent an instrument which, until his time, had hardly been considered appropriate for artistic expression of noble thoughts. His virtuosity was a sophisticated excellence which !like that of the great lutenists whom he so admired) was based on an extremely delicate understanding of, and sympathy for, his instruments unique character.
This sensitivity, which can only have resulted from an extraordinarily attentive pair of ears working in conjunction with experimental fingers and a fertile imagination, is the well-spring of his highly ornamented style. His music has an essentially two-part texture, derived .(like so much else in his style) from lute music. The melodies are deceptively simple, with an elegant grace and naturalness which often hides considerable complexity of construction. The texture is enriched with a variety of chords and snatches of imitation in inner voices. The third suite shows these stylistic details particularly clearly. The allemande uses the sweet, singing treble range of the instrument, exploring it first in the middle register and then, .towards the end, right up at the top (a quite different sound, the effect of which transforms the piece when heard on the right instrument). The courantes are in the typical two-voiced style; the hints at inner voices never distract the ear from the essential dialogue between treble and bass. The Courante de Madame exploits richer sonorities with the judiciously-placed affective dissonances for which Chambonnières was well-known. The simple, elegant sarabande shows his melodic gift at its best, as well as his feeling for delicate harmonic colouring, minor and major versions’ of the same chord being heard in close proximity to each other. Les Barricades is a more genuinely polyphonic piece, but the most fruitful relationship is still between the outer voices, and the other voices are rather fragmentary.The gigues (both in the major) show Chambonnières’ most exhilarating and rhythmically assertive side.

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