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 Good Composers Can Be Bad People

Shrewsbury Cantata Choir, conducted by Anthony Coupe, will be performing Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit and Handel’s Dixit Dominus at St Alkmund's Church, Shrewsbury, on Saturday, 11th December at 7.30 p.m.

‘Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit is a lovely optimistic way to celebrate our freedom from the dreaded Covid,' says Cantata bass, Bob Fowke, 'and Handel’s Dixit Dominus is a work of genius. It’s wonderful to be singing and performing again and what a way to start!'

Marc-Antoine Charpentier was one of the best composers of late-seventeenth century France. He was held back from complete success by the seedy and selfish genius, Jean-Baptiste Lully, most famous of all French composers of the period. Lully was music master of the court of Louis XIV and he made sure that no one else got a look in, especially not another musician as talented as he was.

Charpentier kept on composing as best he could but it was only after Lully died in 1687 that he fully came into his own. His beautiful Messe de Minuit was composed in 1690, three years after Lully’s death, and is one of his most popular pieces. ‘It’s a wonderful weaving together of traditional French Christmas music,’ says Bob.

Meanwhile, 480 miles to the north in the German state of Hanover, in 1690 George Frederick Handel was just five years old but he was soon attracting attention. In 1707 he travelled to Rome, Italy being then the Mecca of musicians. It was while he was in Rome and at the tender age of twenty-two, that Handel wrote his extraordinary Dixit Dominus, the greatest of his early works.

‘Handel was lucky that he had no hostile Lully to contend with,’ says Bob, ‘but his genius would have shone through anyway I imagine. It’s a wonderful piece and a fabulous way to finish our celebration.’

If one can compare a seedy seventeenth-century French composer to Covid19 (and why not?) there were indeed no malignant elderly composers to block Handel’s path, and so far Covid has not blocked Cantata and their chamber orchestra from performing for us on 17 July. At £12, it’s well worth a ticket.

Tickets are £12, (students, unwaged and under-18s free) and are available from choir members, on the door or by request through this link.

Please note: Audience members are asked that they have been double jabbed or have had a negative lateral flow test in the previous 48 hours. This also applies to all performers.