Jehan Titelouze
Hymnes de l’église & Le Magnificat
Ed. Jon Baxendale
251 pages • ISMN 979-0-706670-54-6 (Hardback) • 979-0-706670-55-3 (Wire)
Lyrebird Music. LBMP–026

The latest in the enterprising range of music editions from Lyrebird Music features the only known organ publications of Jehan Titelouze (c1562-1633), organist at Rouen Cathedral and generally considered to be the founder of the French organ school. He composed his two books of organ versets in 1623 and 1626. The 1623 Hymnes de l’Église pour toucher sur l’orgue, avec les fugues et recherches sur leur plain-chant was the first published collections of organ music in 17th-century France, and the first since the 1530s. It contained sets of three or four verses for each of the twelve major hymns of the church year. The 1626 Le Magnificat ou Cantique de la Vierge pour toucher sur l’orgue suivant les huit tons de l’Église included settings of eight Magnificats in all eight church modes, each with seven verses. They both used the alternatim format with organ (odd-numbered) verses alternating with the even-numbered verses which would have been sung by a cantor or a choir.

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