Music In The French Idiom

16 / MUSIC IN THE FRENCH IDIOM FAURE/BALLADE FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA

RAVEL / PA VANE FOR A DEAD INFANTA

BERLIOZ/REVERIE AND CAPRICE

DUKAS/THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE

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Clement J. McNaspy, S. J., D. Mils.

Music editor of America, is the former dean of Loyola University’s College of Music, New Orleans.

For more than tweny years he taught music history and appreciation there and in other colleges. He has often lectured on music on Educational Television programs and has written

widely on music in this country and abroad. He did musicological studies at Oxford and Montreal Universities,

and is a member of the American Musicological Society.

■ For such a long time our “classical” music has been so domi¬ nated by the enormous symphonic output of Germanic composers and by the immensely impressive success of Italian masters in the realm of opera, that we may easily overlook the role of France.

■ Back in the Middle Ages, music historians remind us, the area around Paris was as pre-eminent in music as in Gothic archi¬ tecture, stained glass and other arts. The school of St. Martial, in the mid 12th century, gave us a polyphonic tradition that we are only now beginning to appreciate. In the next century, the period of the great cathedrals, the school of Notre-Dame gave us the first big composers in European music—Leonin and Perotin.

■ Then came other giants like Philippe de Vitry and Guillaume de Machaut. The Burgundian school dominated much of the 15th century, ivith composers like Dufay and Binchois. And so on, throughout the centuries. There was never a time when French composers were not important. The Renaissance and Baroque periods produced their Jannequin, Lully, Rameau, Couperin.

■ Paris, from the Middle Ages to the present, has alivays at¬ tracted composers (like other artists) from other countries. Some even became “French”—Gluck, Cherubini, Rossini and Meyerbeer —in much of their thinking and musical styles. Others, not at all French, ivere still much attracted by Paris—Liszt, Wagner and a host of American composers of our time.

■ Is there a characteristically “French” way of looking at music? Many scholars say Yes. They find the typically French idiom something fundamentally “classic.” Its stress is on form, rather than on emotion. Clarity, as in so much French art, is prized above what others might consider to be depth.

■ Even when the French composer is most profoundly “romantic ” he seems more interested in exquisiteness, stylishness, that elu¬ sive thing called “taste,” than in the expression of emotion, at least in the manner traditional across the Rhine or the Alps.

■ Little wonder that people brought up exclusively on German music often find it hard to appreciate Faure or Debussy or Ravel. The elegance of these composers may be easily taken for softness or mere prettiness. Their understatements may be confused with oversubtlety. Their formal perfection may be put down as coldness.

■ Our previous records have already presented some Debussy, Franck, Berlioz and Bizet, together with Chabrier’s interpreta¬ tion of Spain. This disk will attempt to supplement what has already been given.

■ Berlioz is an early 19th-century master who has only recently been “discovered” by the world at large. Then came a period in which he ivas made something of a fetish. Today, however, enthu¬ siasm has subsided into equilibrium, and Berlioz is an accepted master, not “top-drawer” perhaps, but significant.

■ Faure’s turn has now come. For a long time he teas unknown except in France. Then his incomparable Requiem began to be heard, and it proved one of the most satisfying works of the entire 19th century. Some of the songs are now generally known —also some of his chamber music and, finally, piano music.

■ Dukas, like many a French composer, produced a rather small, but refined, number of major works.

■ Ravel has become a household name thanks to his Bolero. Yet, he is a master ivho rather perfectly symbolizes everything that is French—-sensibility, subtlety, a certain coldness.

■ With Ravel, and especially until Debussy, French music came to the center of the musical stage, at least for a while. Duparc, Poulenc, Milhaud, Honegger, Roussel, Satie and others have played leading roles in 20th-century music. Stravinsky and other expatriates lived long in Paris and came under the French spell. And who can measure the influence of a teacher like Nadia Bou¬ langer? More recently, too, Varese (who came to America), Boulez, Messiaen, Jolivet and other significant composers have added to the glory of France.

C. J- McNaspy

16/MUSIC in the french idiom side one FAURE / BALLADE FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA

RAVEL/PA VANE FOR A DEAD INFANTA

side two BERLIOZ/REVERIE AND CAPRICE DUKAS/THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE

A STUDY AID AND GUIDE FOR THE NON-MUSICIAN

■ Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) became more famous in his lifetime as a teacher — of important com¬ posers like Ravel, Schmitt, Aubert, Roger-Ducasse, Koechlin and Nadia Boulanger — than as a com¬ poser. His art has been described as “the spirit of Hellenism.” It is restrained, understated, classic in the finest sense. Yet, beneath the subtlety and per¬ fection one senses a deep warmth. The Ballade in F-sharp Minor for Piano and Orchestra is full of his finest qualities. Listening to it you feel the presence of a master of the song.

Opening - An accompaniment figure in the piano. After 4 seconds - The principal theme, falling. After 44 - The theme presented again in new key,

poetic and leisurely in character. 1:04 - The accompanying lower strings are

heard. 1:24 - End of a section. 1:45-Flute and piano play in counterpoint;

same theme. 2:06 - Dialogue between violins and piano. 2:55- End of a section. Cello interlude. 3:01 - Variations in piano, very lyrical. 3:24 - Violins take theme, filigree work in piano. 4:02 - Variation in minor mode. 4:22 - Clarinet variation; new melodic develop¬

ment. 4:43 - Typical of Faure's pianistic style. 5:00 - Elaborate, Chopinesque variation. 5:19 - Woodwinds and piano start dialogue. 5:54 - Piano variations, much like Franck's Sym¬

phonic Variations. 6:40 - Gay, almost jazzy variation. 7:20 - Piano assumes control. 8:27 - Naive, childlike variation. 8:56 - Entry of woodwinds again. Alternations of

intensity and repose until end, 13:40 - End.

■ Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) is one of the most polished of modern masters. He is always in search of new harmonies and new sonorities. The present selection, Pavane pour une Infante Defunte (Pavane for a Dead Infanta), is an early work, very much in the manner of Debussy, very French and (thanks to a popular song) quite popular. A pavane is a cere¬ monial court dance of Spain.

Opening - Rich, lavish harmonies and orchestration; theme, with plucked string accompaniment.

After 37 seconds - Second part of theme. After 1:05 - Extension of melody, oboe prominent.

2:22 - Opening part of theme, lighter instru¬ mentation.

3:30 - Woodwinds discuss elements of theme. 3:40 - Muted sonorities; very “impression¬

istic.” 4:55 - Restatement in fuller orchestra, with

harp obbligato. 6:06 - End.

■ Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was perhaps the out¬ standing French exponent of the Romantic school. He was particularly skilled as an orchestrator. The Reverie and Caprice, Opus 8, was composed in 1839 and is a remarkable virtuoso piece for violin and orchestra. The title suggests its double mood: a quiet, dreamlike composition, with capricious, play¬ ful bursts.

Opening - Orchestra introduces the soloist. After 13 seconds - Enter the violin, with a romantic

flourish. After 39 - Theme in violin, accompanied by orches¬

tra; a long, flowing melody — romantic, yet “cool.”

1:38-Theme in low tonalities, the G-string of the violin.

1:53 - Woodwinds predominant. 1:59 - Violin, with strumming accompaniment. 2:34 - Dialogue of violin and woodwinds, ca¬

pricious. 3:08 - Theme again, broken into bits. 3:35 - The capriciousness again. 4:13 - Melodious passage, violin playing in

thirds. 5:08 - Theme, with dramatic overtones in or¬

chestra. 5:57 - Saucy orchestration, typical of Berlioz. 6:28 - More capriciousness. 6:45 - A Cadenza, or free fantasy, by the violin. 7:18 - End.

■ Paul Dukas (1865-1935) made his reputation with the Sorcerer’s Apprentice when he was only 32. The work is a musical expression of Goethe’s story. An apprentice tries his skill, in his master’s absence, and orders a broom to go and draw water. The broom obeys. But the apprentice does not know how to stop it, and the house floods. Cutting the broom does not help. Luckily, the master returns in time to save the apprentice. This tone poem, like any good “program music,” is delightful for itself. It was composed in 1897, just a year or two after Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel, with which it has a lot in common. Opening - A mysterious mood, suggested by strings. After 21 seconds - Descending basic motif, in muted

violins. After 44 - Opening repeated.

55 - Motif given over and over. 1:19 - Whimsical effort of motif to get started. 1:59 - More efforts. 2:42 - Theme in double bassoon, strings plucked

(pizzicato). 3:04 - Alternations of bit of opening and motif. 3:28 - Motif taken by fuller orchestra. 3:59 - More and more impish and triumphant. 4:13 - Horns take up motif; woodwinds frenzied. 4:27 - Development of motif in different keys

and instrumentation. 5:58 - Fuller orchestra, with strings in obbligato. 7:13-The apprentice splits the broom with a

hatchet. 7:21 - New trouble abrewing. Two brooms now. 8:52 - Fullest musical statement. Cry for help.

Master comes. 10:27 - Opening is repeated. Calm and mystery. 11:30 - End.

ARS. © 1962 • THE AMERICA RECORD SOCIE1

SIDE ONE

" Reverie and

DUKAS The Sorcerer

muK^m Apprentice rmjtip ravel

Pavane for a Dead Infanta

33V& RPM LONG PLAY

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