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Diane et Endimion

Cantata for soprano, bass and continuo

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Little is known of the early life of Nicolas Bernier (1665 - 1734); at some time he studied in Italy, and was a pupil of Caldara. Returning to France, he established a reputation quite soon, for although he was unsuccessful in his bid for the post of maître de musique at Rouen cathedral in 1693, he won that position at Chartres the next year. In 1698 he was appointed to the prestigious Parisian position of maître at St Germain l'Auxerrois, the parish church of the Louvre. His big break came in 1704 when he succeeded Charpentier as maître at the Sainte-Chapelle, the chapel of the old royal palace in the Cité. This was the second most important musical post after that of sous-maître at the Chapelle Royale at Versailles. Then in 1724 the post at Versailles, where Lalande had reigned supreme for 9 years, was divided once more between four musicians; Lalande himself and three others, to wit Bernier and his friends Campra and Gervais. As well as the French cantatas, Bernier wrote many motets for small ensembles of voices and instruments, as well as Grands Motets for the larger resources of Versailles, as Lalande had done before him.

Bernier was among the first to write French cantatas, together with Morin, Stuck ("Batistin") and Campra. Bernier's earliest published cantatas appeared in Paris in or soon after 1703, and may have been the first to appear in print. This work is in the second of four volumes, which is entitled Cantates Françoises / ou / Musique de Chambre/ A Voix Seule/ Et a deux /Avec/ Symphonie et sans Symphonie/ Avec la Basse Continue.

The text is by Louis Fuzelier. He was later to become famous as the author of a large number of plays (opéras comiques), many of them parodies of well known operas. He wrote the libretto for Rameau's opéra-ballet Les Indes Galantes.

Diane et Endimion is, as we might expect therefore, a tongue-in-cheek account of the well-known Greek myth. Endymion, a mortal, became the secret lover of the moon-goddess. He complains that she is only with him at night and he is jealous of the other gods; she upbraids him for ingratitude, considering how devoted she is (she bore him 40 daughters). He concedes that true love admits of no suspicions, and they conclude with an invocation to the goddess of love. The text may be lightweight, but the music is worthy of a composer of whom David Tunley says "Bernier holds an important place among those who wrote cantatas in France in the eighteenth century. He was one of the first and most successful in this field".