The "trumpet prelude," the eight introductory bars of Charpentier's Te Deum, was used as a signature tune for "Eurovision" broadcasts (the annual New Year's Concert from Vienna and Eurovision Song Contests) on TV when I was young, so this is really familiar music - in fact, it is also music that deserves a much better fate!
The "Te Deum" (of which there are also great settings by Zelenka, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi, Bruckner, Dvořák, Britten, Kodály, and Pärt among the better known) is a Latin Christian hymn with ancient antecedents, going back at least to the 4th century. The Te Deum was (and still is often) sung at solemn thanksgiving services of a national character. "Te Deum" are the first two words of the phrase "Te Deum laudamus," Latin for "We praise Thee, O God".
Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Te Deum (H. 146) in D major is a "grand motet versaillais" (a musical form born at the court of Louis XIV). It was composed between 1688 and 1698, during the composer's stay at the Jesuit church of Saint-Louis, in Paris, where he was musical director. The work is written for four-part chorus, eight soloists, and an instrumental ensemble including strings, flutes, oboes, trumpets and timpani.
The instrumental introduction (the one misused as Eurovision melody) precedes the first verse
sung by the bass alone. The choir and other soloists gradually join in.
Charpentier's music follows the Latin text: the choir predominates in
the first part (verses 1-10, praise to God, celestial dimension), and
the soloists in the second part (verses 10-20, Christological part,
secular dimension). In the following verses, nos. 21-25, soloists and
choir alternate, and the final verse is a large fugue for choir with a
short trio of soloists in the central episode.
From the beginning of the famous instrumental "Marche en rondeau" to the end of the final "In te Domine speravi" Charpentier bases his composition on the trumpet key of D major, a key considered as glorious and victorious (see my article about "Music in D Major" at this blog). The Te Deum has always been associated with times of national rejoicing (victories, a monarch's recovery from illness, royal births) and it has been suggested that this masterpiece was part of the celebrations which followed the French victory in a battle at at Steinkerque on August 3, 1692.
Following the rediscovery of this Te Deum by the musicologist Carl de Nys in 1953, it has been numerous times recorded.
Listen to: B'Rock Orchestra, Vox Luminis & Lionel Meunier