Marais goes to the movies

Synopsis

A talented performer sacrifices everything, including his integrity, his happiness, his friends and even his lover to climb to the top, only to realize (too late!) what he has sacrificed along the way...

Yes, thanks to countless Hollywood “show-biz” films, the basic outline is familiar, and, whether based on fact or fiction, has resulted in countless movies: some memorable, some not.

In 1991 a French film was released that combined a little fact, and a lot of fiction, to tell the story of a 17th century performer and composer named Marin Marais, who was baptized in Paris on today’s date in 1656.

Marais was a virtuoso on the viola da gamba, an early ancestor of the modern cello. Sparked by the period-instrument movement of the late 20th century, interest in Marais’ music had been growing for some time before the release of the film, which was titled “Tous les matins du monde,” which translates as "all the mornings of the world [leave] without [ever] returning."

Well, it DOES sounds a lot better in French, and whether or not the film tells the truth about Marais, it does conjure up some haunting images as a backdrop for some equally haunting music from the 17th century.

Music Played in Today's Program

Marin Marais (1656 - 1728) The Bells of St. Genevieve Spectre de la Rose Ensemble Naxos 8.550750

On This Day

Births

• 1656 - French composer and viola da gamba virtuoso, Marin Marais, in Paris;

• 1804 - French composer, pianist and teacher (Jeanne-) Louise Farrenc (née Dumont), in Paris;

Deaths

• 1809 - Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn, age 77, in Vienna;

• 1967 - American composer and arranger Billy Strayhorn, age 51, in New York City;

Premieres

• 1817 - Rossini: "La Gazza Ladra" (The Thieving Magpie"), at La Scala in Milan;

• 1884 - Puccini: opera "Le villi" (The Willies), in Milan at the Teatro dal Verme;

• 1961 - Penderecki: "Threnody in Memory of the Victims of Hiroshima" for strings, in Warsaw;

• 1998 - Melinda Wagner: Concerto for Flute, Strings and Percussion, at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Purchase, with flutist Paul Lustig Dunkel and the Westchester Philharmonic, Mark Mandarano conducting; This work won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1999.