As a border region at the historical crossroads of Europe, the Hainaut is heir and trustee to a rich musical tradition born of a long cultural intermingling, successively drawing on French, Flemish, Spanish, Austrian, German, English and Italian influences.
The Patrimoine musical du Hainaut collection will be devoted to the publication and distribution of relevant unpublished works in the form of scholarly editions accessible to professional and amateur musicians alike.
More broadly, the collection will house works from the repertoire of the baroque ensemble Harmonia Sacra or those performed during the Embar(o)quement immédiat ! festival of the Valenciennes region.
Fabien Guilloux
Jacques Duponchel (fl. 1652-1685)
A native of Douai, the Conventual Franciscan friar Jacques [Giacomo] Duponchel or Du Ponchel (fl. 1652-1685) began his career as an organist and composer in the Austrian Low Countries, then, after a short stint at the Bavarian ducal court in Bonn in the 1640s, took up definitive residence in Italy at the service of cardinal Antonio Bichi (1641-1691). From 1663 to 1665 he was the organist at Osimo Cathedral (March of Ancona) while at the same time filling the role of Choir Prefect for the Franciscan friary in that town. Between 1665 and 1670 he held the position of Musical Prefect at the Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles before moving back to Osimo from 1670 to 1685, after which date we lose track of him.
Well-known for his talents as a composer and teacher, Jacques Duponchel was particularly admired by his contemporaries. Three of his collections of printed music are now extant : Psalmi vespertini (Rome, 1665), Sacrae cantiones (Bologna, 1671), Messe (1 / Rome, 1676; 2 / Venice, 1685) as well as one psalm published in the anthology Salmi vespertini (Rome, 1683).
- Domine ad adjuvandum
- Dixit Dominus
- Confitebor tibi Domine
- Beatus vir
- Laudate pueri Dominum
- Laudate Dominum omnes gentes
- Magnificat
- Beatus vir qui inventus
- Messe à 5 parties
- Franciscus vir Catholicus
- Salva nos
Louis Le Quoynte (1652-1717)
Born in Ypres in 1652, Louis Le Quoynte received a musical education with the choir of St Martin’s Cathedral, which he joined in 1665. Three years later, when his voice broke, he entered the seminary in Ypres (1668-1672), then left to study philosophy (1672-1674) and theology (1674-1675) at Douai. In 1675 he entered the Society of Jesus and spent two years in the novitiate at Tournai; he was ordained priest in March 1683. During the first twenty years he spent in the Society, Louis Le Quoynte lived in several communities of the Jesuit Gallo-Belgian Province (Armentières, Béthune, Douai, Huy, Lille, Maubeuge, Mons, Valenciennes) before settling in 1699 at the Walloon college at St Omer where he died on 9 June 1717. In these various houses, Louis Le Quoynte placed his musical abilities at the service of his order taking on, in addition to his tasks as teacher, catechist or visitor of the sick, the duties of organist and prefect of music. He also distinguished himself as a composer. Up to now, four collections of printed music have been discovered of the thirteen opuses attributed to him : the Airs spirituels nouveaux, op. 2 (Valenciennes, 1696), the Psalmi concertati, op. 6 (Antwerp, 1704), the Bouquet de fleurs (Paris, 1722) and the Compositione sacre, op. 11 (Antwerp, 1708).
