Classique à la provençale

A la provençale... you have said ? Aren't we with Boismortier, Haydn or Mozart in the opposite of a typically regional music? And nevertheless... The instrument representing the identity of the Provence, the flute (pipe) with three holes, named "galoubet" nowadays, accompanied by the big drum (tabor) opens some curious perspectives about the relationship of popular milieus of the Provence with music.

Provence has been at the crossroads of different civilizations and has cultivated the paradox to be a very open country and yet constructing a particularly strong regional identity. Indeed, the Provence has welcomed music from abroad, even the most "serious" one, but not without putting a particular imprint on it - you may say: a frank steadiness, clarity.... Since ever the tabor players have adopted the French and foreign "classics" arranging them in their own manner. They have played Lully and Rameau, Mozart and Devienne, Grétry and Boïeldieu, Weber and Rossini, Verdi, Gounod, Bizet... just to mention some of them. Let us not forget that the baroque version of the "pipe and tabor"("flûte de tambourin") has known the salons of the Paris aristocracy and has acquired there a virtuoso and gallant repertoire. We are confronted here to a true popular tradition where he who likes only the picturesque aspects will be possibly frustrated, but where the musician enjoys his accomplishment. Therefore it is not surprising that the present recording resembles a lot to other "classical" recordings, but it does never concede a doubt about its cultural identity.

One has to know, too, that the pipe-tabor players liked to join other instruments because of their repertoire - harpsichord, viola, violin, bassoon, organ and later the piano and even orchestra. The organ built by Pierre Rochas in the salon of his house in Brignoles - right in the middle of the Provence - has contributed magnificently to this recording with its particularly rich and various sounds. This program is mostly - but not exclusively - featuring music of the 18th century- one of the golden centuries of pastoral instruments.

 

INSTRUMENTS

The harmonic flute with only three holes was widely spread in Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It is still played in different forms in Portugal, Spain, England, Holland and Provence.

The remaining free hand strikes a percussion instrument (skin tabor or string tabor tambourin à peaux ou tambourin à cordes)

Three instruments of the pipe (flute with 3 holes) have been used in this recording:
a) a Provencal pipe (galoubet) , a modèle named "in a", a work of the instrument-maker André Fabre.


It is accompanied by the big skin tabor which is traditionally sculpted in walnut wood and assembled in a manner that is produces a protracted sound similar to the bordon ans le noyer et agencé de manière à produire un son continu semblable à un bourdon, with a very particular effect,


b) a pipe of tabor ("flûte de tambourin") baroque, also due to André Fabre. The range and the sonority of this instrument are quite different form those of the traditional Provencal pipe (galoubet),

c) a big flute (grand flûtet) of the end of the Middle Ages and 16thcentury, which is bigger and therefore has a much deeper register. It has been reconstructed by the instrument-maker Antoine (Orgon). It is accompanied by a small tabor with a higher sonority.

The hurdy gurdy is a reconstruction by Jean Ribouillot of the 17th century "champenois" model.

The organ used in this recording has been built and harmonized by Pierre Rochas in the 1960s according to a baroque aesthetics. Various single registers (bourdons, flutes, regale, Petits principaux) have been chosen from this important salon instrument (46 registers, 3 keyboards) for accompanying the pipes (galoubets). These have been specially built, harmonized and adapted by André Fabre to the unequal temperament of the organ.