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French music

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jowcol
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« Reply #60 on: April 28, 2016, 02:18:57 am »

Music of Francis Poulenc III



Poulenc divides the liturgical text of the Gloria into six sections that are organized rather in pairs. The second and fourth movements reveal Poulenc in his lighthearted mood, while the third and fifth are pious in their bearing. These are framed by the first movement, in which a positive spirit is ennobled by a degree of monumentality, and the sixth, which makes use of both of these contrasting attitudes and recalls some music from the opening section, which provides a nice balance to what the composer described as “a large choral symphony.”

Not infrequently, the Gloria bespeaks Poulenc’s admiration of Stravinsky, who had been the lodestar for all the composers of Les Six when they came of age circa 1920. The opening movement has something of that earlier flavor, its forthright neo-classicism here extending to double-dotted, maestoso fanfare figures that summon up the idea of a French Baroque overture. The two measures (scored for winds alone) that conclude the orchestra’s introduction could almost have been plucked from Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments. These herald the entry of the chorus, which wends its way fluidly through a thicket of harmonic centers, always preserving a tone of jubilation.

Already in the first movement Poulenc has doled out his music in relatively short phrases. This tendency becomes even more pronounced in the playful “Laudamus te.” The brief phrases are constantly revisited and reassembled, though Poulenc often injects slight changes are they recur, which keeps performers on their toes and listeners on the alert.

Small cells of music continue to be the norm throughout the piece. In the “Domine Deus” movement, their material is perfectly in tune with the prayerful posture of the soprano soloist. If the music up to this point has reminded us of an earlier, somewhat obstreperous Poulenc, this movement could only be a work of his more sobering maturity. After this expanse of entreaty, the “Domine fili unigenite” breaks forth with vibrant buoyancy and passes by in a flash. Now the “pious Poulenc” returns, in “Domine Deus, Agnus Dei.” In its opening measures, the clarinet proposes an embellished octave leap that is one of Poulenc’s musical fingerprints, frequently encountered in his scores and soon to appear with heartbreaking purpose in his end-of-life sonatas for oboe and for clarinet. The soprano soloist also takes up a variant on the same, to haunting, mystical effect. The concluding section,” Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris”—again opening maestoso—includes not only references to music heard earlier, but also provides some new sounds. At the words “Quoniam tu solus sanctus” the choir sings a cappella in tight four-part harmony, much in the mode of Poulenc’s more severe choral compositions. In the work’s closing minutes, the soprano intones a fervent “Amen” and joins with the chorus to conclude in a spirit of harmonic luxury (reminiscent of Ravel), ardent sincerity, and transcendent calm.

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