Trumpets were once the typical instruments of war. They blared out to incite the soldiers to combat; they communicated orders to distant garrisons; they celebrated victory. They were therefore the ideal instruments for glorifying the power and prestige of a kingdom or an empire.
But trumpets also made music in peacetime. They were often coupled with other wind instruments – usually the bombard, a small, double-reed medieval ancestor of the oboe. Their music marked the events of city life, heralding the passing of the hours from the high towers, calling the population to assemble for religious or civil ceremonies, or accompanying the nobles in procession.
The French court – the most important in Europe in the 1600s – boasted large numbers of musicians, grouped according to their specialties. There were, for instance, Les Grands Hautbois (the Grand Oboes) and the Grande Écurie (the Grand Stable), where oboes played together with trumpets and drums.
The Philidor Manuscript, the source of much of the music in the first part of tonight’s program, collects the compositions written expressly for these two groups of musicians. Some was written to commemorate the French army’s victories and celebrate the nation’s power in official ceremonies, and some, of course, to keep the King amused while he strolled through the gardens at Versailles.
Louis XIV’s court greatly influenced German culture and customs. and, in fact, Frederick the Great once complained that “… nowadays all the Germans go there… French taste has influenced our food, our furniture and our fashions”. German composers who travelled to France to learn how to write music in Louis XIV’s court style were fascinated by the oboe, which was a new instrument that had become very fashionable, and planned to use it in their works.
Muffat and Fischer were two of these composers, and their suites do in fact follow the style of the French Ouverture, as conceived by Lully; it starts with a two-part introductory movement, followed by a series of dances. The dance titles in Muffat’s suite in tonight’s program refer to different national styles, reflecting a desire (shared by many musicians of the time) to reunite musical tastes. Perhaps they hoped music would help establish peace in those years of constant warring and strife.

Paolo Grazzi