Uma viagem no Barroco - 17 Henry Du Mont - Memorare (1610-1684)

Henry Du Mont - Memorare (Herreweghe)

Walloon musician, born near Liège. Dumont became a choirboy in Maastricht in 1621, receiving there his musical education. He remained there 17 years, becoming successively chorister, clerk, and organist. Hearrived in France in 1938 and is recorded in Paris as organist of the Church of Saint Paul. In 1652 he became harpsichordist to the Duc d'Anjou, Louis XIV's brother. He was appointed harpsichordist to the Queen in 1662, and in the following he became assistane Maître de Chapelle Royale.

When Dumont arrived in Paris, he must have found sacred music remarkably conservative, for at the time in his native Flanders Italian music of the early seventeenth century had already bee widely adopted in churches. Probably this led to the hyperbolic claim in his first publication, Cantica sacra cum vocibus tum instrumentis modulata, to be the first to use the basso continuo, although he may well have been the first to use the trio texture of two solo voices and continuo in the for of the petits motets, which would become the most popular form of sacred music during LouisX IV's grand siècle. Certainly it was the first to be printed in France with a basso continuo.

In 1657, Ballard published Dumont's Melanges containing galant and drinking chansons, psalms, pieces for viols, for organ and harpsichord, three Magnificats, and motets for 2, 4, 5 and 6 voices. Dumont's Grand Motets pour la Chapelle Royale was published posthumously in 1686 (hoasm). Conferir também Musicologie.