November 2, 2014 - All Saint's

Gloria FP177 - Francis Poulenc

Requiem Op.9 - Maurice Durufle

This week for the feast of All Saint’s the choir of St. David’s will present the Gloria by Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) and the Requiem by Maurice Durufle (1902-1986) both with organ accompaniment. These monumental pieces of 20th century French choral literature showcase the beauty of Gregorian chant and lush jazz influenced harmonies.

The Gloria of Francis Poulenc was commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation in honor of Sergei and Natalia Koussevitsky. It was premiered on January 21, 1961 by by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Chorus Pro Musica under conductor Charles Münch with Adele Addison as soloist. The piece was written with Leontyne Price in mind but when she was unavailable Addison was contracted for the performance.

The piece in six movements is a setting of the Gloria from the Latin mass. The music is heavily influenced by the extended harmonies of jazz that are prevalent in all of Poulenc’s compositions. The piece opens with fanfare but a fanfare that already shows us the rather “crunchy” harmonies in store. Laudamus Te, the second movement has criticized for its totally irreverent word stress. It is a joyous romp that gives way to a plaintive alto solo before return to the jovial material of the opening.

The soprano soloist enters for the first time in movement three, Domine Deus, Rex coelestis in b minor. The choir serves primarily as background here occasionally doubling with the soloist or adding colorful countermelodies. The joy of the opening returns in Domini Fili in a bright G major despite the chorus’s minor entrance and a very catchy recurring theme.

Movement five resembles movement three in that both feature the soprano soloist in a minor key on the text “Domine Deus” (this time followed by “Agnus Dei”). The winding chromatic line is reminiscent of a sweeping film score rather than a setting of a religious text. This piece winds its way around until finally settling on an eerie final chord. The last movement begins with an a cappella fanfare like section that is punctuated by dissonant chords. This movement perfectly combines the spritely characteristics of the fast movements with the lush string sounds of movements 3 and 5 in the B section. The fanfare returns just before the meditative final chord is held under the pianissimo soprano solo.

Durufle’s Op. 9 Requiem was commissioned in 1947 by the French publisher Durand. It is sited as being in memory of the composer’s father but is just as much inspired by the very music that it is based on. When Durufle received the commission he had already begun work on a suite for organ based on the Gregorian chants for the Mass for the Dead but had decided that these pieces are too wedded to the texts that they set to be separated. He then used them as the basis for his Requiem.

Three versions of the work were written and published. The first is the version for full orchestra written in 1947. The second (which will be the one that we present) is for organ only. A third version was written which preserves much of the organ part from the version for solo organ and adds a small orchestra (trumpets, timpani, harp and strings) for color.

The piece is based primarily on traditional Gregorian chants. Like Faure’s Requiem (which it is often [mistakenly] compared to) this piece does not set the Dies Irae but does include a portion of it in the Libera Me. The use of chant in this work is very interesting. It is usually sung at least once in each movement but Durufle is inconsistent about his treatment of it. In some movements like Lux Aeterna it seems clear that the meter is completely defined by the word stress of the chant while in other movements like the Sanctus and portions of Libera Me the word stress is completely disregarded.

The sectional nature of some of the movements shows the way that Durufle dealt with the different aspects of diverse texts. The most disparate movements, Domine Jesu Christe and Libera Me both employ a baritone soloist to deliver a portion of the text as well as a change of character. In some movements such as the Kyrie Durufle adhered to the traditional form (a fugue) but disregarded the tripartite iteration of each plea. It seems that while much of the work is inspired and informed by the traditions of these texts that they only serve as a guideline for the composer’s writing.