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‘Le tombeau’ is one of the tracks on Passacaglia’s forthcoming album, La Parisienne, due for release in April 2026, which features chamber music by two cousins working in the royal court at the end of the reign of Louis XIV, Pierre and Anne Danican-Philidor.

Anne Danican-Philidor ‘fils aîné’ (1681–1728) holds a unique place in French musical history. Alongside his work as composer and oboist at court, his most lasting achievement was the founding of the Concert Spirituel in the centre of Paris in 1725, one of Europe’s first public concert series. At a time when French musical life had been dominated by court and opera, Anne helped open sacred and instrumental music to paying audiences, laying early foundations for the modern public concert tradition.

Anne’s two books of Pièces pour la flute traversière, flute à bec, violons et haut-bois are dated 1712 and 1714, and balance the familiar with the innovative. Alongside standard dance-suite pieces such as the courante and chaconne and whimsical character pieces like Les vents (evoking the wind) and Le badin (banter), is Anne’s powerfully haunting Tombeau from Book II – the title deriving from the French word for ‘tomb’ or memorial. Sparse and deceptively simple on the page, requiring a considerable artistic contribution and interpretation from the players, this darkly expressive work unfolds with a sense of mounting tension – from its sombre, funerary opening and twisted melodic outbursts, to the sinister bells tolling in the bass. Though clearly dedicated to a significant (unidentified) figure, it is hard to resist a more symbolic reading: a premonition of the Sun King Louis XIV’s death a year later, and an elegy for a passing world.

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‘La Parisienne’ will be released in April 2026 on Barn Cottage Records, with live performances to follow. The series of ten videos is supported by Continuo Foundation.