The Suite of Symphonies for brass, strings & timpani No. 1 (Suite De Symphonies, Première Suite de Symphonies) is a composition by

Jean-Joseph Mouret Jean-Joseph Mouret (11 April 1682 in Avignon – 22 December 1738 in Charenton-le-Pont) was a French composer whose dramatic works made him one of the leading exponents of Baroque music in his country. Even though most of his works are rarely per ...

. The first movement of this piece, the rondeau, is widely known and commonly used in weddings, and notably on the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

program ''

Masterpiece A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

''. Mouret composed this piece in 1729, while being the director for the

Concert Spirituel The Concert Spirituel ( en, Spiritual Concert) was one of the first public concert series in existence. The concerts began in Paris in 1725 and ended in 1790. Later, concerts or series of concerts of the same name occurred in Paris, Vienna, Londo ...

, which was one of the first concert series known in existence.

Structure

This piece is a four-movement work that consists of the ''Rondeau'', which is a piece of music where the main theme or melody is repeated several times throughout; the second movement is the ''Gracieusement sans lenteur''; the third movement is the ''Allegro''; the final movement being the ''Guay''.

Background and premiere

The Symphony was written for Prince of Dombes, Louis Auguste de Bourbon, the grandson of King

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

of France. Auguste had served under the military commander

Prince Eugene of Savoy Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy–Carignano, (18 October 1663 – 21 April 1736) better known as Prince Eugene, was a Generalfeldmarschall, field marshal in the army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty during the 17th a ...

. Mouret dedicated this suite to his skill in battle, inspired by the Austro-Turkish War.Morita, Patsy
"Jean-Joseph Mouret: Suite of Symphonies for brass, strings & timpani No. 1"

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

. Retrieved 25 March 2014. Mouret first played this piece for

King Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

in the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 19 ...

Fanfare-Rondeau Legacy

This ''rondeau'' from the first ''Suite de Symphonies'' is well known as the theme from ''

Masterpiece Theatre ''Masterpiece'' (formerly known as ''Masterpiece Theatre'') is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH-TV, WGBH Boston. It premiered on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on January 10, 1971. The series has presented numerous acclaim ...

'', and remains popular at

wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...

s. In 1991 ''rondeau'' was part of the soundtrack for the video game

Civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). Ci ...

as the 'English theme'. In 2008, the first four episodes of '' Boing Boing Video''s ''

SPAMasterpiece Theater ''SPAMasterpiece Theater'' (or ''S.P.A.M. Theater'') is an American web series starring humorist John Hodgman where he does dramatic readings of unsolicited email spam received by ''Boing Boing'' editors in a parody of ''Masterpiece Theatre''. T ...

'' opened with a

chiptune Chiptune, also known as chip music or 8-bit music, is a style of synthesized electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The t ...

remix of Jean-Joseph Mouret's "Rondeau: Fanfare" by Hamhocks Buttermilk Johnson as a parody of ''Masterpiece Theatre''. Between June and September 2020, the song was used as the opening to the "Word Play" vocabulary short films on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

NOGGIN Noggin may refer to: General * Noggin or gill (volume), a unit of volume * Noggin (cup), a small cup * Noggin, slang for head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, an ...

SVOD channel/app.

References

External links

One reference to Jean-Joseph Mouret and ''Fanfare-Rondeau''
*
Score for the ''Rondeau'' movement
at the

IMSLP The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. The project, which uses MediaWiki software ...

1729 compositions Compositions by Jean-Joseph Mouret {{classical-composition-stub

Structure

Background and premiere

Fanfare-Rondeau Legacy

See also

References

External links