Poulenc: Figure Humaine & Other Choral Works

In loving memory of Barbara Pollock 1956 - 2010 On behalf of myself and all those involved in Tenebrae this recording is dedicated to a very special and much loved friend, Barbara Pollock, without whose constant support, energy and enthusiasm Tenebrae would simply not exist. Anyone involved with the choir over these last ten years will know what a remarkable lady Barbara was, combining so many wonderful qualities – extraordinary generosity, intelligence, charm and beauty – that one can only feel truly privileged to have known her. In fighting breast cancer for several years she also showed what incredible inner strength, determination and courage she had and will always serve as an inspiration to me both personally and in my work with Tenebrae. She was so proud of the choir and loved nothing more than to sit and listen to us sing. We were proud of her too! We give thanks for such a wonderful lady to whom we owe so much but take comfort in knowing she is now finally at peace. She will be sorely missed by us all. Nigel - 2 - FIGURE HUMAINE Francis Poulenc t Mass in G Kyrie [3.25] Gloria [4.09] Sanctus [2.26] o Benedictus [3.46] Agnus Dei [4.56] Soloist: Natalie Clifton-Griffith, soprano a Litanies á la Vierge Noire [8.19] Salve Regina [4.23] Un Soir de Neige De grandes cuillers de neige [1.09] La bonne neige le ciel noir [1.37] Bois meurtri [2.12] - La nuit le froid la solitude [1.05] Figure Humaine 3 I. Bientôt [2.45] ! II. Le Rôle des Femmes [2.05] . III. Aussi bas que le silence [1.34] n 0 IV. Patience [1.58] 5 V. Premiere Marche la voix d’un autre [1.00] A f 1 VI. Un Loup [1.42] % VII. Un feu sans tache [3.49] + VIII. Liberté [4.30] d Quatre petites prières de Saint François d’Assise , Salut, Dame Sainte [2.10] o Tout Puissant [1.15] / Seigneur, je vous en prie [1.21] s p O mes très chers frères [1.55] f w c i Total Timings [63.33]d d f t f t c TENEBRAE NIGEL SHORT DIRECTOR o c www.signumrecords.com Figure Humaine, and the Awakening of music fifty years from now it will be more in the Francis Poulenc Stabat Mater than in the Mouvements Perpétuels”. “With a courtyard in front, pink with oleanders in A gradual reawakening of Poulenc’s dormant tubs, next to a simple chapel hollowed into the rock, Catholicism (handed down by his father but shelters a miraculous figure of the Virgin, carved, neglected in the Parisian social whirl of the 1920s) according to tradition, in black wood by Saint was suddenly intensified after one of his closest Amadour, the little Zacchaeus of the gospel who friends, the composer Pierre-Octave Ferroud, had to climb a tree to see the Christ. That same was killed in a road accident in 1936. Poulenc evening I began my Litanies á la Vierge Noire ...” was devastated, the more so after the gruesome details of the accident were disclosed (Ferroud was Francis Poulenc is now considered to be among the apparently decapitated), and he travelled to the most important composers of choral music of the great Catholic pilgrimage site of Rocamadour in 20th Century. Yet his early career reveals no trace the Pyrenées in search of consolation. At the foot of the dazzling and idiosyncratic unaccompanied of the famous statue of the black virgin he found choral textures so abundantly produced in the it, and from this point embarked on a decade-long second half of his life. Poulenc’s Parisian period of almost exclusive choral and vocal forebears were often reluctant choralists, and his writing. Appropriately given the source of his contemporaries in the modernist world were inspiration, this period began with the Litanies disinclined to explore an antiquated and even á la Vierge Noire (1936) originally composed for discredited form associated most recently with female voices and organ and later adapted for the German Romantics. Up until 1936, Poulenc female voices and orchestra, and followed soon wrote only one piece of choral music, and even after with his first works for full SATB chorus – that is a slight and whimsical offering for male the Sept Chansons, and the Mass in G ( 1 9 3 7 ) , voices – the Chanson á Boire of 1922. Yet by the composed in memory of his father now 20 years end of his life Poulenc had so fully embraced the deceased, but exerting renewed spiritual influence idiom that he felt able to assert: “I think I’ve put over his son. Here we experience for the first time the best and most genuine part of myself into my that fusion of playfulness and devotion which choral music ... If people are still interested in my characterizes Poulenc’s sacred music. Listening - 5 - to the juxtaposition of the comically marcato bass received the works of Eluard under plain cover part in the “qui tollis peccata mundi” section of during the Second World War, including the L the Gloria, alongside the chant-like three-part collection Poésie et Verité 42. One of the poems setting of “qui sedes ad dexteram patris” which from this collection, Liberté, was dropped in e a immediately follows, it is hard to imagine the leaflet form over occupied France by the British P composer writing without a little smirk on his face. Royal Air Force so as to boost morale among the civilian population and within the French c Poulenc’s awakening to choral music (and to Resistance. Poulenc was so captivated by this s Catholicism) naturally brought with it new particular volume, and so intent on setting it to l explorations in the world of sacred and secular music right away, that he abandoned (and never p literature and poetry. For his sacred music, he revisited) the violin concerto he was working on, g b was drawn to poetic non-biblical texts (the words and instead set about composing his great choral t of St Francis inspired his setting for mens’ voices cantata Figure Humaine in 1943. t o of the Quatre petits prières de Saint François i d’Assise in 1948), as well as liturgical texts which Poulenc’s social and creative circle was destroyed reflected his continued devotion to the statue of by the war. The status of Paris as the cultural h the black virgin, as with the marian motet Salve capital of the world had been rudely revoked, Regina (1941). Amongst the secular French so Poulenc retreated to his country residence poets, Poulenc explored Charles d’Orléans, and at Noizay. He grew paranoid about what was the naturalist works of Maurice Fombeure, but he happening to Paris in his absence, and fell f found most inspiration in the surrealist works of victim to every rumour going. In his search to find ( contemporary writers Guillaume Apollinaire and a good creative outlet for his feelings, these years Paul Eluard, discovering that their synthesis of became fruitful ones for composition. He revealed f levity and profundity matched his compositional something of his motives in a letter sent after o style perfectly. Sadly, Apollinaire died too young the armistice: “When I think that Noizay is so to have a meaningful influence on Poulenc completely untouched I almost feel ashamed. during his lifetime, but with Eluard the relationship I trust that Figure Humaine will be a sufficient was more organic, and yielded much more choral tribute from a Frenchman”. With the statue of a music. Poulenc was one of a select few who the black virgin continuing to exert a powerful s - 6 - - r influence over his conscience, he visited terrible struggle which Europe was engaged in for d Rocamadour again before beginning work on Liberté. Even though it is only 20 minutes in length, c the piece (even though the subject matter is the work is a supreme test of stamina, technical earthly, he saw Figure Humaine as the fulfillment agility, range, aural skill and musicianship. l of a sacred duty as well as a patriotic Poulenc maintains a basic antiphonal structure c R one). His initial plan was for the work to be in each of the movements, juxtaposing the two clandestinely rehearsed and premiered on the choirs in virtuosic ways (at various times R day of liberation in Paris. However, Parisian suggesting argument, distance, amplification C liberation came quicker (in 1944) than he had etc) and bringing them together at moments of e been expecting, so after the score was complete he particular textual significance. Poulenc’s rigid l gave agreement for a first performance to be belief in the primacy of text is apparent w given by the BBC Singers in London (in an English throughout, as amongst all the complications translation) after the BBC expressed great interest of the score there is not a single moment where in the unpublished score. Naturally Poulenc still the lines of text risk being clouded by excessive wanted to make some sort of symbolic gesture polyphonic writing. Even in the fugal sections with his work to mark the day when the Nazis were he is careful to repeat lines of text a sufficient c driven out of Paris, so as he wrote in a letter to number of times to ensure their absorption. the singer Pierre Bernac: “The day the Americans p arrived, I triumphantly placed my cantata on the The first seven poems are clearly intended to h studio desk, beneath my flag, at the window”. form a sequence, capped by a longer epilogue v (the eighth).

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