MARCHAND Pieces d’orgue et de clavecin. Lyrebird Editions

Louis Marchand’s fiery temperament is well documented. It led to a series of encounters with his peers that included shirking a competition with J S Bach, being sued for domestic violence, sacked for impertinence and an attempt to embroil the priest-organist of Saint-Barthélemy in a sex scandal.
Yet, despite a turbulent personal life, he was held in such high esteem that the public would follow him from place to place to listen to him play. He published little: a single book of organ pieces (1701 (supposedly lost)), a posthumous collection of organ pieces (1742) and two harpsichord suites (1699 and 1702). In addition are two volumes of organ pieces housed in the municipal library of Versailles. These amount to a considerable amount of music which editor Jon Baxendale has now established are autograph workbook copies and sketches.
The new edition is the only available publication of any of Marchand’s music, and it is the first to have drawn all the known sources of his keyboard works together into a single volume. This includes previously unpublished pieces that were attributed to the composer. The preface, which examines Marchand’s life, re-assesses the unpublished sources and the posthumous edition and contains detailed notes on performance style, ornamentation, fingering and registration that uses contemporary French sources as reference material. The book includes the chant for the alternatim setting of the Te Deum, making it viable for liturgical performance.