The Ranums' Panat Times
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The Ranums' Panat Times |
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Patricia's book is now available
for a sharply reduced price ($35)
from Amazon.com. Just click the following link and you can order her
Portraits Around Marc-Antoine Charpentier It can also be obtained by clicking: Some excerpts from reviews of
Portraits
"The absence of a portrait [of Charpentier],
together with the paucity of specific biographical information, is the starting
point for Patricia M. Ranum's book. In it she seeks to bring the composer ... to
life by examining the biographies of his associates, making links wherever
possible with his compositional activity. Ranum's richly drawn verbal portraits
are based on her analysis of an immense amount of documentary evidence.
Furthermore, the way in which she organizes this material is extremely
imaginative, not least by taking the reader on a .... promenade around a
fictional portrait gallery. ... Ranum certainly succeeds in revealing 'the
exceedingly complex network that shaped the career of Marc-Antoine Charpentier,'
a network she compares to a spider's web. .... Although this book is essential
reading for all those involved in Charpentier studies, its usefulness extends
much further. Apart from being a mine of information on individuals and groups,
it provides innumerable insights into the cultural, social and political life of
late 17th-century France and to some extent Italy. Particularly
absorbing are Ranum's observations on the patron-protégé relations, above all in
her analysis of Charpentier's position within the Guise household. ... Ranum's
lively and groundbreaking book enables a much richer appreciation of the context
in which [Charpentier's music] was composed." "If a literary journal publishes a review about
a composer ... it is because the book is, as its title indicates, more about
Charpentier's associates than about himself, a man whom, Ranum admits, she never
succeeded in unveiling, in spite of an huge amount of archival research. And
these associates include not only Charpentier's collaborators Molière, Dassoucy,
Thomas Corneille, and Donneau de Visé, but also a model for Tartuffe (Gabriel de
Roquette), the painter Le Brun, an abbess of Port-Royal (Marguerite de Harlay),
and a host of fascinating characters from the royal family to lineners and
scriveners, all of whom crossed the path of Charpentier and who, along with many
like them, make up the 'cultural moment' in which writers and composers
circulated.... A book such as this one, especially when it is put together with
loving, painstaking care, is of both general and specific interest. ... Ranum
has a gift for making famous and little-known characters spring to life from
dusty archives, and what might at first seem a series of disjointed portraits
becomes an absorbing story. ... 'Monsieur Charpentier' is fortunate to have such
a champion." "Patricia M. Ranum est bien connue des specialistes de Marc-Antoine Charpentier pour ses remarquables et nombreux travaux dans les divers dépôts d'archives européens, à la quête du moindre indice permettant d'éclairer la vie et l'œuvre du compositeur français. Elle se devait donc de marquer à sa manière le tricentenaire de la mort de celui qui fut parmi les grands rivaux de Lully. ... Plutôt que de rédiger une biographie de son héros, [elle] propose ici une visite guidée de onze galeries de portraits de personnes ou de lieux plus ou moins directement liés au musicien ... Portraits around Marc-Antoine Charpentier n'est pas un ouvrage qui se lit de la première à la dernière page, mais plutôt un livre que l'on consulte comme un dictionnaire au gré de sa fantaisie." |
