Henri Hardouin

about

Henri Hardouin was a French composer, born in Grandpré (Ardennes) on April 7, 1727 and died at Grandpré on August 13, 1808. Born into a modest family, he was admitted in 1735, at the age of 8, as a choirboy within the mastery of the cathedral of Reims . He sang there alongside adult choristers (professionals at the time) while receiving a solid musical and general training. Children (and young people) were trained both in plain chant (or Gregorian chant ) sung in its various forms, and in polyphonic music and learned counterpoint. Later he entered the seminary and became, in 1749, the master of music (today we would say the "chapel master", therefore the choirmaster and composer) of this choir founded at the end of the 13th century ( 1285). Priest in 1751, he was received canon within the chapter, in 1776, which allowed him to benefit from a canonical prebend and to take part in the deliberations. From 1749 to 1773, he also directed the new Music Academy of the city (municipal association of concerts and education), installed in a place adjoining the town hall. Concerts were held there weekly. Very attached to the liturgy, Hardouin abandoned this position in 1773, in disagreement with the increasing place given to secular music. When the Revolution dispersed the ecclesiastical chapters,November 1790, he lost his functions at the mastery, but will try to find them in 1794, after Thermidor and the end of the Terror. This would tend to show that he had become a constitutional

top songs

albums

Hardouin: Complete Four-Part a cappella Masses, Volume One

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Hardouin: Complete 4-Part A Cappella Masses, Vol. 2

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