The entire baroque period delighted in “parodying” and drawing inspiration from the music of the Masters, to whose style this programme is dedicated : Vivaldi and Rameau are the symbols of this, but their style, too, was much-copied.

In the final third of the 18th century, an unknown composer created a Requiem Mass after Rameau’s opera Castor et Pollux. “Que tout gémisse” became the beginning of the Introït, “Séjour de l’éternelle paix” the Hostias, and “Tristes apprêts” took on the words “Requiem æternam”. Far more than a simple exercise in style, this score testifies to the esteem in which one of Rameau’s masterpieces was held. It takes the practice of “parody” or contrafactum – one that dates back to the Middle Ages and consists of adding new words to existing music – to the extreme.

Anonyme (XVIII^e siècle)

Messe de Requiem sur des thèmes de Castor et Pollux

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)

Deus Judicium (1737)

Michel Corrette (1707-1795)

Laudate Dominum (1766) sur le Printemps d’Antonio Vivaldi

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