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THE CHANTRES OF THE ROYAL ABBEY OF SAINT-RIQUIER DOULCE MÉMOIRE (CHORUS & ORCHESTRA) DENIS RAISIN DADRE, CONDUCTOR The Ensemble Doulce Mémoire offers a reconstruction of a great liturgical ceremony around the Missa pro Victoria by Tomàs Luis de Victoria, in the company of the Chantres of the Royal Abbey of Saint-Riquier. In 1555, Clément Janequin composed La Bataille, a polyphonic mass in honor of the victory of François I at Marignano, in 1515. This work was an international success that notably marked the Spanish musician Tomàs Luis de Victoria (c. 1535-1608). The latter was inspired by it to compose in 1600 a Mass for double choir, one of four voices and the other of five, or nine voices, the number of angelic choirs. This Missa pro Victoria (mass for victory) is a polyphonic battle mass dedicated to King Philip III. The musician and Director of the Ensemble Doulce Mémoire, Denis Raisin Dadre, explains that in order to reproduce the sounds of the Spanish chapels, the singers are sometimes doubled this evening by wind instruments, played by the ministriles (bassoons, chalemias – with double reeds –, flute). These are tuned according to their original pitch very high, of 520 Hz (the current A being 443 Hz; or a minor third higher). It is also the reconstruction of a great liturgical ceremony, centered on the mass, which is proposed: the Music Chapel sings the mass, made up of the best singers, here the singers of Doulce Mémoire. The Plain-Chant Chapel intervenes for the Gregorian plain-chant, here the six Chantres of the Royal Abbey of Saint-Riquier surrounded by an amateur male choir formed for the occasion, with the ministeriles, musicians of Doulce Mémoire.
