Instrumentation : for organ
Composition : 17th century
Duration : 20 mn
The five organ pieces in this volume come from a manuscript kept in Berkeley (USA). This source, less known than the Montreal organ book, also contains the Third Organ Book (1685) by Lebègue. It consists of 4 hymns, Ave Maris Stella, Ave verum, Pange lingua, Veni creator, and a sequence, or prose, Victimæ Paschali.
There is a strong presumption that these organ pieces, first attributed to Lebègue, then to Boyvin, were composed, according to the analysis of the ornaments, in the entourage of Jacques Boyvin and Gaspard Corrette, perhaps in Rouen. Probably written for convents, the organ must have been a two-manual instrument of small dimensions.
The figured bass of the first verse of the Victimæ Paschali is an ordinary practice of organists at that time; Jean-Baptiste Robin here offers a production for four voices, drawing inspiration from the plein-jeux of Ave Maris Stella and Ave verum.