Programme Notes (for translations please see separate sheet) Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) is not a typical 20th-century musician. He lived in Paris during one of its most chaotic and creative periods, yet he allowed duty as an organist at a Parisian church to exclude him from literary and musical circles. As a composer, Duruflé was extremely self-critical, often continuing to edit and change pieces after publication. He composed a surprisingly small amount of music, yet his perfectionism has ensured its survival, as evidenced by choirs’ recurring performances of Requiem, Duruflé’s masterpiece.
Quatre motets sur des thèmes grégoriens, dating from 1960, are polyphonic settings of Gregorian melodies which had been used since the eighth century in the Roman Catholic Church. The three we shall hear tonight show how in each motet the theme weaves among the voice parts to create a choral tapestry.
Josquin des Prez (c.1450-1521), a French composer of the Renaissance period, is widely considered to be the first master of polyphonic music (in which each vocal part has a melody of its own). His mastery of polyphony, disseminated through continuous employment by aristocracy, royalty and prelates of the Roman Church, made Josquin the most influential composer in Europe and the first to have a book of printed music solely devoted to his works. Josquin thus became a leading figure in the emergence of an international musical language.
Josquin’s Stabat Mater is a 13th century Catholic poem which portrays Mary’s suffering during Christ’s crucifixion. Generally ascribed to the Franciscan monk Jacopone da Todi, and originally meant for private reading or prayer, the poem depicts aspects of the Passion as described in the biblical New Testament’s Gospel of John, Chapter 19, verses 25-35. Josquin’s setting, one of many, places the listener in a central position, resting with Mary before Christ’s cross. Mille Regrets is an expressive French chanson by Josquin, which is said to have been a favourite of King Carlos I of Spain. Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) was one of the most important and influential French composers of the 20th century. In his music he sought to capture the beauty of the natural world and the spirituality underlying Roman Catholic faith.
Although much of Messiaen’s music is deeply Christian in content, O Sacrum Convivium is his only liturgical motet. This short piece, intended to be sung during Communion, abounds in Messiaen’s hallmark harmonic complexity; its flowing movement recalls medieval plainchant. The phrasing diligently copies speech rhythms. Beginning pianissimo, the dynamic remains low until the words ‘et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur ’ (future glory is promised to us). The music then subsides at a quietly uplifting coda.
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) was one of the most prominent figures of the early 20th century working within the field of impressionist music, although he himself, and his friend Ravel, disliked the application of that label to their compositions. Debussy’s use of non-traditional scales and sensuous harmonies remain influential to this day. Debussy’s Trois Chansons refer to the past through their poetry, written by Charles d’Orleans, a duke who was wounded at the battle of Agincourt in 1415 and imprisoned in England for more than twenty years. It was there that he wrote the texts which Debussy uses for this piece. Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder is a shimmering love song; in Quant j'ai ouy le tabourin a languorous melody for contralto soloist meanders through a percussive chorus; the aggressive Y ver! brims with resentment for winter’s challenges. The three pieces make a memorable set, leaving regret that Debussy wrote no more for unaccompanied choir. Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937) was an innovator whose unorthodox style put him on a collision course with the musical establishment. His failure, after three attempts, to win the coveted Prix de Rome for composition caused a scandal with Parisian concert-goers at the time, as style and craftsmanship had characterised Ravel’s entire output. He experimented with jazz in his later works, but his Basque roots also gave him a special affinity with Spanish culture. Ravel remains one of the most popular of all French composers.
Ravel’s Trois Chansons were written in late 1914 and early 1915. We present the first two of these tonight. Ravel wrote both the music and text to these songs, his only a cappella choral work. In the first song, Nicolette, a maid loses her honour by choosing to marry a rich old man, and in the process leaves behind her innocent past. The playful passages illustrate Ravel’s acute ability to re-engage childhood sensations. In the second song, three birds of paradise come to tell the singer of the death of a loved one in the war. Ravel was deeply affected emotionally by the events of World War I. This song depicts the sadness and pain of a broken heart.
The many chansons of the sixteenth-century actor-singer-composer Pierre Sandrin (c.1490-1561) capture the chivalrous mood at the court of Francis I. Among these pieces Doulce memoire, the setting of a poem attributed to the king himself, became one of the most popular pieces of the 16th century. Its subject matter, like so many of its genre, is lost love. Nicolas Gombert (c.1495- c.1560) was one of the leading figures from the generation between Josquin des Prez and Palestrina. Born in Flanders, he became a court composer for the Emperor Charles V. Consequently, his reputation and influence spread, and his music was printed throughout Europe. A contemporary wrote in 1556: ‘Yet in our very time there are innovators, among whom is Nicolas Gombert, pupil of Josquin of blessed memory, who shows all musicians the way, nay more, the exact path to the desired imitative manner and to refinement; and he composes music entirely different from the past.’ Gombert’s musical language develops that of Josquin, adding dissonance to engage listener and performer alike.
As a young man, Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) was a keyboard prodigy, yet his enthusiasm for experimental music rarely moved him to compose outside the conventional classical tradition. As a teacher in Paris, he influenced pupils such as Fauré, whose pupil Ravel also acquired lasting respect for Saint-Saëns’ compositional skills. In addition to being a composer, Saint-Saëns was a poet; providing words and music for tonight’s lovely choral miniatures, Calme des Nuits and Les Fleurs et les Arbres. Both pieces, written in 1882, evoke atmosphere and romance; of the night and of nature.
Pierre Passereau (1509-1547) was one of the most popular composers of chansons in France in the 1530s. His output consisted almost exclusively of madrigals, most of which were rustic in character and full of ‘double entendres’, a common feature of popular French music of the time. Passereau liked to use nonsense syllables, often in imitation of animals, as in Il est bel et bon, his most popular piece, which mimics the clucking of chickens. Pierre Certon (c.1510-1572) issued a collection of his popular chansons in 1552; it became a hit. His little ditty on the text, "La la la, je ne l'ose dire," offers a charming example. Renaissance writers delighted in joking about cuckolded husbands and their unfaithful wives. Certon cleverly evokes the sound of gossiping in the refrain.