FAURE REQUIEM
Though he was trained at the Ecole de Musique Classique et Religieuse and held a succession of important posts as a church organist, composer and choirmaster, Gabriel was never entirely comfortable with conventional Catholic doctrine. Always a most mild-mannered and kind person, he sought to compose a Requiem that would express “…something new…”: not “the fear of death….but an aspiration towards happiness above.” For this reason, even the largest-scale of the three orchestrations of the work Faure completed omits oboes and includes a movement (the Pie Jesu) for boy soprano, giving the work an distinctive other-wordly, ethereal sound-palette.
This heaven-centered conception found expression also in the choice of texts, especially in the omission of most of the traditional Dies Irae, and the inclusion of the Libera me and In Paradisium. The final version of the work is in seven movements: Introit and Kyrie, Offertory, Sanctus, Pie Jesu, Agnus Dei and Lux Aeterna, Libera me, and In Paradisium.
Faure made also some small but significant changes to the words, most significantly the removal of the word “fidelium” (faithful) from the line “libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum,” thus changing its meaning to the omni-inclusive “deliver the souls of the departed.”
The music is in many ways deceptively simple – no great rhythmic surprises and no bursts of histrionic harmonic passion like the Wagner he so admired – but also infinitely subtle, beautiful and affecting.
RAVEL DAPHNIS AND CHLOE, SUITE NO. 2
Ravel’s superb full-length ballet was written for the collaborators that had already produced Stravinsky’s sensational Firebird and Petrushka: Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes with choreographers Mikhail Fokine and Vaslav Nijinsky. Working in the famously creative environment that was Paris circa 1910, Ravel wrote a score that remains an iconic masterpiece of motivic integration, sensuous harmony and glorious orchestral color.
The scenario is very loosely based on a story by the C2nd. Greek poet Longus, adapted for the stage by Fokine. It is in three parts, the third of which comprises the material that is found in the Suite No. 2.
In part one Daphnis and Chloe, foundlings currently working as shepherds amongst the Nymphs and shepherds of Lesbos, meet and experience the first awkward pangs of love and jealousy. A dancing contest is arranged between Daphis and his rival Dorcon, with a kiss from Chloe as the prize. Daphnis wins. He receives his reward but Chloe is led away by her companions. Daphnis is approached by the nymph Lyceion. She attempts a dancing seduction without success, leaving Daphnis confused and mocked. He hears pirates in the distance, realizes that Chloe has been carried off, and beseeches the god Pan for intervention on her behalf.
In part two Chloe tries to no avail to escape from the Bryaxis, the pirate king. Pan appears.
The final part begins with a beautiful evocation of dawn. Daphnis and Chloe are joyfully reunited. They act out the story of the love of Pan and Syrinx, the memory of which had inspired Pan to undertake Chloe’s rescue. Temporarily rebuffed, Daphnis, playing the part of Pan, plays a sad melody on his reed flute. Finally, Chloe, as Syrinx, relents and embraces her love. A general dance ends the ballet.
RAVEL LA VALSE
In his preface to the orchestra score, Ravel describes the scene depicted in La Valse:
“Through whirling clouds, a waltzing couple may be faintly distinguished. The clouds gradually scatter: one sees….an immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd. the scene becomes gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth….Set in an imperial court about 1855.”
The work is in a classic form - an introduction, a “chain” of waltz melodies, a recapitulation and a coda - all structured in much the manner established by the Strauss family. However the genre is almost deconstructed in Ravel’s hands, the introduction being all shadows, the recapitulation becoming a grotesquerie of harmonic and melodic distortion and the coda winding into a frenzied whirl. |
