!Interpreting a cappella music in 20th- and 21st-century France The project A cappella Impromptu (Graz, May 2014)

!!

!!!!Juni 2014

Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz

Institut 1: Komposition, Musiktheorie, Musikgeschichte und Dirigieren

Schriftlicher Teil der Künstlerischen Masterarbeit Chordirigieren

Anaïs Maillard de la Morandais

!Künstlerischer Betreuer: Univ.Prof. Johannes Prinz

Wissenschaftlicher Betreuer: Univ.Prof. Dr. Christian Utz

!�1

!!!Abstract !This thesis documents an artistic project in which I presented eight a cappella works from

contemporary French composers in outdoor concerts. I explicate the principal parts, its

concept and its challenges for the vocal performers. I also provide some ideas on how to

face the challenge of interpreting contemporary musical language during rehearsals and

how to make it more approachable for the public. In this thesis, I also introduce a cata-

logue of choir works by French composers written between 1900 and 2014. This corpus of

works might not only serve as a base of sources for researchers but also for choir conduc-

tors and vocal artists constantly in need to discover and increase their own repertoire.

!!Dieses Arbeit dokumentiert ein künstlerisches Projekt, in dem ich acht A-cappella-Werke

von zeitgenössischen französischen Komponisten im Freien vorgestellt habe. Ich expli-

ziere Hauptteile des Projektes, das Konzept und die Herausforderungen für die Sänger.

Ich gebe auch einige Ideen wie man probt und Schwierigkeiten überwindet bei zeitgenös-

sischer Musik und wie man sie zugänglicher für die Öffentlichkeit machen kann.

Dieser Arbeit beinhaltet auch einen Katalog, mit Chorwerken französischer Komponisten

zwischen 1900 und 2014. Dieser Korpus könnte hilfreich sein, nicht nur als Basis von

Quellen für Forscher, sondern auch für Chorleiter/Innen und Sänger/Innen, die neues Re-

pertoire suchen. !

�2

!!!!Interpreting a cappella music in 20th- and 21st-century France! 1!

Acknowledgements! 4!

I. Introduction! 5!

II. Art project! 6!

A. Project strategy! 6!

B. Rehearsal Process and Interpretation! 12!

C. Performance! 14!

III. Conclusion! 17!

IV. Sources! 19!

A. Bibliography! 19!

B. Webography! 19!

C. Works and discography! 20!

V. Appendix! 22!

A. Concert Recording and Musical scores! 22!

B. Non-exhaustive Catalogue of the French Composers and Their Vocal Works between 1900 and 2014! 23! 1. Assembling Repertoire for the Catalogue 23 2. Observed Trends. Are There some ‘French’ Tendencies in the Choral Repertoire Today? 29

�3

!!!!!!!!!! Acknowledgements !Univ.Prof. Johannes Prinz for his important time, musical advices and great support,

Univ.Prof. Dr. Christian Utz for his significant help and precious advices,

Univ.Prof. Clemens Gadenstätter for his precious time and reviews,

Régine Théodoresco, Charles Barbier, Loïc Pierre for their time, experiences and advices

in choir music,

Composers Andre-Forner, Frédérique Lory, Sophie Lacaze, Denis Chevallier, Patrick Bur-

gan, Geoffroy Dudouit, Thierry Machuel, Raphaël Terreau, Pascal Zavaro for their shared

works and precious discussions about their a cappella works,

Libraries and choir institutions: IFAC, CEPRAVOI, Madam Gourdon from Centre de Docu-

mentation Liaisons Arts Bourgogne for her inestimable time and repertoire knowing,

Jerome Austria for his unconditional support and his patient reviews,

!To family and friends.

!!!!!!!!

�4

I. Introduction

! As a choir conductor, I have always been curious about contemporary choir compo-

sitions. For me personally there is a dimension about the sound of a cappella music that is

very human but at the same time very mysterious. Contemporary musical language is of-

ten rejected by the public for a variety of different reasons: "I don't understand it. It sounds

strange. It is so hard to play. It is too hard to hear. It makes me uncomfortable…" In my

experience, when members of the public become active performing in choirs or ensem-

bles, they eventually begin to understand and become more ‘open-minded' about contem-

porary music.

The composers of today represent the art of today. They live in our society insepa-

rable from the difficulties and struggles of our time. If their music disturbs or provokes, it

can only mean that we are disturbed by the effects of our own society. Since art is a way to

sublimate our feelings and fears (as argued in sublimation theories of Nietzsche, Freud,

Jung and Lacan), deepening our knowledge of this language and experiencing it from

within might help to cope with the struggle of the times.

Since I have been an expatriate from my country, France, for more than six years, I

have decided to base my project on French composers in order to understand better the

evolution of the choir language in 20th-century France. Thus, I have decided to look into a

large corpus of works from 1900 to 2014. Through this work, I intend to specialize myself

on a specific place and period of time, so I can refine my practice and my interpretation of

choir music.

In the appendix, I introduce a catalogue of all choir works by French composers I

could find written between 1900 and 2014. This corpus of works might not only serve as a

base of sources and observations for researchers but also for choir conductors and vocal

artists constantly in need to discover and increase their own repertoire. It was an important

pre-step in my project to have an overview of the existing repertoire and to understand its

historical and cultural context.

Finally, this thesis documents an artistic project in which I have put my findings into

practice and presented it to the public. I will explicate the principal parts of this artistic

project, its concept and its challenges for the vocal performers. I will also provide some

ideas on how to face the challenge of interpreting contemporary musical language during

rehearsals and how to make it more approachable for the public.

�5

II. Art project !A. Project strategy !My main goal for this project was to create a beautiful short concert presenting some vocal

pieces of French contemporary music and to present it in places where the public does not

expect to hear it. In a way, I wanted to create a sort of flash mob in service of contempo-

rary music and a cappella music.

Too often one can see grimaces or overhear comments about contemporary music.

The aim of this project is to help bridge the sharp divide between first-time listeners and

contemporary music experts. This music urges the public to listen in a new way, prompting

more discoveries and a heightened appreciation of the musical material. 1

„Know it by experience it” would say Leon Botstein. The audience today widely has 2

become too passive. Frequently, the music does not reach them anymore, it becomes too

complex for a non-specialist. This is why I also intended to include vocal improvisation, 3

vocal games with the public using simple techniques of Gunnar Ericksson or Guy Reibel

so the listeners can experience the sound by being a part of it.

To help the public to understand the music performed, I also wanted to consider the

visual aspect of the show: therefore I decided to include a painter, Eva Zoumpouloglou,

who improvises a work during the twenty minutes concert and to work with a stage direc-

tor, Charlotte Guibert, for costumes. Our society is prominently shaped by the visual media

– and I believe that if new music has to reach people, we have to adapt our ways in the

presentation of music. This type of stage presentation is very common in North and South

America but less common in the European art culture. While the show aspect should never

�6

„L’oeuvre ne se livre pas d’un bloc, comme un objet prévisible, mais comme une construction-cigogne à 1

plusieurs niveau de lecture, un palimpseste dont le dessin secret n’est perceptible qu’au terme de nom-breuses approches.” [„The work does not open up easily, as a predictable object, but as a stork-construction with several reading levels, a palimpsest whose secret design can only be perceived after many approaches.”] PORCILE, François, Les conflits de la musique française 1940-1965, Paris: Fayard, 2001, p. 318

Talk ‘What is so great about classical music?’ from Leon BOTSTEIN in the conference Take a Stand Sym2 -posium 2014, on 20 feb. 2014, Los Angeles, Web. 16 Apr 2014, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwe5WfolZ-s&feature=youtu.be>

„La comparaison avec certaines civilisations musicales européennes est éclairante: la musique, avant 3

d’être savante - et donc en possession d’un petit nombre de spécialistes - est une pratique de beaucoup d’individus.; elle puise ses racines et cherche ses modèles dans le vécu quotidien;„ [„Comparison with some European musical cultures is illuminating: music, before being erudite - in possession of a small number of specialists - was a practice of many individuals; it has its roots and seeks its models in daily life.„] REIBEL, Guy, Jeux musicaux - Volume 1: Jeux vocaux, Paris: editions Salabert, 1984, p. 13.

take precedence over the musical quality, it might make music more accessible. Of course,

this approach creates extra rehearsal time. With these ideas in mind, I created the project

A cappella Impromptu which took place on 29 May 2014 in the streets of Graz.

For this „flash mob”, I wanted to find short pieces reflecting different choral expres4 -

sions between 1950 and 2014 in France. All pieces needed to be works from different

composers reflecting the variety of the musical production from easy pieces for an amateur

choir to more difficult work for advanced singers. I finally chose a program doable in four

rehearsals with the thirteen volunteer singers I found. Lacking rehearsal time, the staging

part was reduced to a few movements between and during some pieces underlining the

lyrics content or the choir configuration. Charlotte Guibert chose a simple but effective cos-

tumes for the singers. She used a simple black outfit and black eye contour pencil as for

contemporary theater pieces and brought details by coloring the lips and adding colored

accessories to each singers.

!The audience discovered 8 composers: Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur (1908-2002) - Voici la

Saint-Jean extract from Chansons françaises, Vol.1: Chansons du calendrier [1950], a

piece for equal voices from Maurice Ohana (1913-1992) - Neige sur les orangers extract

from Quatre choeurs [1987], and a piece for 12 advanced singers by Patrick Burgan (b.

1960) - Era un niño… no. 3 from Puerta de la Luz [1994].

To introduce vocal improvisation, I chose a piece from Andre-Forner (b. 1959) - Âm’,

charm’ dram’ extract from L'espace d'un instant, suite en 9 mouvements [2000]. I conti-

nued with works from Thierry Machuel (b. 1962) - Brass spittoon, Puzzled, Afraid from

Dark like me Op.18, for six solo voices and 6-part mixed choir [2002], followed by Jean-

Christophe Rosaz (b. 1961) - La licorne from Trois miniatures pour un bestiaire fantastique

[2009], Raphaël Terreau (b. 1977) - Yeux clos from Donnez-nous du silence [2011] and a

work by Frédérique Lory (b. 1970) - extract from Marais-Cage [2013]. The program was

complemented by the presentation of works by French-Canadian stage director Charlotte

Guibert and Greek artist Eva Zoumpouloglou. I wanted the artists to meet the audience in

a public space.

The common aspects connecting all eight pieces in the program is the work on mu-

sical density and texture :

The notion of density has been particularly developed in electroacoustic and serial music.

Density can be measured by contrasting quantity and characteristics of events and their

�7 A sort of ‘musical SMS’ for our fast communicating society.4

relationship to surrounding events. In Ha venido - canciones para Sylvia (1958), for

example, Luigi Nono develops the density of the musical material in a serial manner.

!The notion of texture is closely related to density but defines the quality of the musical ma-

terial on a smaller-scale level. The focus is on the organization of patterns and figures,

their arrangement, the mixture of elements. In the 1960s, for example, ‘clusters’ became a

popular sound texture. Maybe the best example for this texture in choir music is the first

part of György Ligeti’s Lux Aeterna (1966). Ligeti superimposes a row in canonic entrances

but rhythmically treats each voice individually, generating a very particular atmosphere of a

cluster combining density (quantity) and texture (quality). French composers like Maurice

Ohana or Thierry Machuel in a similar manner focus on the sound texture using a lot of 5

divisi in the voices and repeated sounds.

!About the composers and their works in the concert program:

Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur's music stands apart from that of his more famed contem-

poraries in La Jeune France, being more conventional in texture, rhythmically more regu-

lar, and more directly diatonic. Its modal shading probably comes from his interest in folk

music. This can be seen in the piece Voici la Saint-Jean (1950). I chose this piece as I

wanted to open the concert with a French folk song arrangement before getting into more

complex music. This melody was known in the Western part of France and in Canada

since the 19th-century. 6

Maurice Ohana is an important vocal composer in France. He became increasingly

fascinated with improvised folk music traditions, including not only Spanish folk music and

jazz he heard in Paris but also African tribal music. Writing opera, chamber opera and mu-

sic theater as well as non-dramatic works, he concentrated on vocal music in his last years

and produced some of his most personal statements. His most famous vocal works are

Cris (1982) for 12 voices and Swan Song (1987–88) for mixed choir. In Neige sur les or-

angers from Quatre choeurs (1987) for children choir, Ohana worked on a very short child

lullaby based on a major-minor scale: E, F#, G#, A, H, C, D, E. Here Ohana used a very

neat texture, holding ostinate pedals creating a gentle cluster by superimposing all the

tones of the scale (except H) at the end.

�8

I am thinking for example of Nuées in Quatre choeurs for children voices by Maurice Ohana and the end of 5

Dream variation in Dark like me by Thierry Machuel.

A.E.P.E.M, Web. 19 June 2014, <http://www.aepem.com/Bujeaud1.php>6

Patrick Burgan has a large repertoire for choir and vocal ensembles: Nativités (24

voices-2005), Archipel des saisons (12 voices and violoncello-2014), Elle (8 female voic-

es-2012), Puerta de la luz (12 voices), Apparitions (32 voices), Géhennes (1998) etc. For

him, the voice is a fragile instrument. From his point of view, the use of the potential of the

human instrument serving musical ideas should not endanger the performer’s voice. His

music is complex and dense yet again superimposes several rather simple musical ele-

ments. A choir for Burgan is like an orchestra. He particularly likes to transfer the principle

of the solo concerto to the “vocal orchestra” like in Figures for choir and piano solo or Het

zielebladje for choir and flute (2008). For him, the choice of the text/poem is of utmost im-

portance to structure and create the soundscape of a piece. In le plaisir originel for 7 voic-

es, Burgan starts on breath sounds derived from the conceptual logic of an erotic poem

about Adam and Eve. He also uses the sonorous quality of words in his music; in Puerta

de la luz (1994), the repeated quarter-notes on „El jinete se acercaba tocando el tambour

del llana” (Beating the drums of the plains, the cavalier approaches) evokes the stamping

of the horses in the plains for the listeners. 7

Beethoven in his instrumental pieces frequently used durchbrochene Arbeit (tech-

nique in which melody fragments alternate between different instruments) and this tech-

nique re-appears in many vocal scores of the 20th century. The musical line changes its

‘color’ by the alternation of different timbres or instruments. Although the human voice has

some generalizable sound qualities, the timbre of child, female and male voices, of solo

voices, small ensemble and big choir differs significantly. The split of musical material into

different voices frees the listeners from a linear listening experience and permits the com-

poser to use voices and choir more like an orchestra rather than as a traditional choir car-

ried by text and melody. Patrick Burgan uses this technique in his piece Era un niño…

from bars 34 to 54, a sort of sound continuum that goes from soprano to bass and back-

wards, creating a very ‘clean’ sound surface disturbed by ostinato tones repeating „El niño”

and later by a minor third theme in Alto 2, Tenor 2 and Bass 2. Puerta de la Luz is based

on a text by Antonio Machado. It tells a story of a man and his lifelong effort to draw a line

between dreams and reality. Starting with a children tune, the piece becomes more com-

plex reflecting the struggle of the boy growing up. In the last part one can hear an uncanny

pounding as death comes closer and the old man to his heart whispered:„¿Tú eres sueño?

/ ¡Quién sabe si despertó!”. 8

�9

Informations derived from a telephone communication with Patrick Burgan. 6 March 2014.7

My translation: Are you a dream ? / Who knows if he wake up !8

Andre-Forner is a student of Daniel-Lesur and composes vocal music for his plea-

sure. He is active as a singer, choir conductor, art director of festivals and teacher in

Sarzeau, small Brittany. Âm’, charm’ dram’, an extract from L'espace d'un instant, suite en

9 mouvements (2000) uses childlike clusters and spoken text reminiscent of the nursery

rhyme Am Stram Gram which offers possibilities of stage play.

Thierry Machuel is the most prolific and dedicated composer of choral music in

France today. His residency in the Villa Medici encouraged him to dedicate himself even 9

more to the choral cause. Playing with all the possibilities that big choirs offer (divisi, Solo/

Tutti, large sonic landscapes, superimposition of different rhythmical patterns etc.), he

uses an enlarged tonal environment. His knowledge of contemporary poetry lead him to

choose beautiful texts from France and other countries. More specifically, he has always

had a marked interest in testimony’s writings, texts from revolutionaries, or from communi-

ties with unique life experiences. The poems mostly speak in the first person, but the sin-

gular ‘I’ becomes ‘we’ through the voice of the choir and thus multiplicates the power of a

single person into a group. He also set words by female poets in his pieces and regrets

that the world knows very little about them. His belief is that music as art can help to

awaken consciousness and needs to be spread throughout society. If it becomes too elit-

ist, too complicated, it does not reach its primary purpose. I highly recommend to discover

this composer through his compositions and writings. His dream is to write more and 10 11

more choral operas where an entire narrative story is performed by a choir. Dark like me

(2002) was a request from the Jeune Choeur de Paris (Laurence Equilbey) for a big mixed

choir on a text from Langston Hugues, relating the poor living conditions of black people in

the US during the first half of the 20th century. Here, Thierry Machuel plays on textures

and density by superimposing different patterns. In the movement Brass spittoon for ex-

ample, the increasingly dense superimpositions reflect the increasing stress of a boy work-

ing as spittoon-boy in a hotel.

Jean-Christophe Rosaz is a Franco-Swiss composer living in Paris. He likes to

change, explore, invent, and sculpt sound. Soffio (2010) is a beautiful piece to discover. 12

Exploring the breath on „S” and „F” in the first part, the second part opens on the „o” with a

�10

Information derived from a telephone communication with Thierry Machuel. 18 March 2014. 9

Catalogue online of Thierry Machuel, Web. 19 Apr 2014, 10

<http://www.thierrymachuel.com/content/category/4/17/63/lang,french/>

MACHUEL, Thierry, Voyageur de la voix, éditions du Scéren/CNDP, 2012 and in his article ‘écrire le cho11 -eur’, Revue de l’éducation musicale, juillet-Août 2013.

Informations derived from a telephone communication with Jean-Christophe Rosaz. 18 march 2014.12

slow glissando, transporting the listeners into a suspended space where the singers

progress from not strictly coordinated individual parts to the homophony in the last part

„nella valle lontana, lontan” (in the faraway valley). Inspired by medieval musica ficta and 13

word-painting, Rosaz often writes a sort of shifted ‘homophony’ where voices are rhythmi-

cally independent from each other. His vocal gestures suit the voice well although com-

plexity results from the superimposition of these gestures. In Bestiaires fantastique (2009)

for a good level mixed choirs, the sound of the choir is colored with lyrics, vocalization and/

or ornaments. The composer here invites the listeners to meet mystical creatures such as

a licorne (unicorn). The piece is musically very dense even if it is written only for four voic-

es (sometimes reduced to three voices).

Raphaël Terreau is a prolific composer and choir conductor living in the region of

Sologne. Composing for all levels of choir, he wrote, for example, Donnez-nous du si14 -

lence (2011) for the choir Mikrokosmos or Anangu (2011) for the choir school of Tours. In-

spired by Thierry Machuel, Patrick Burgan, Alain Labarsouque and by his various singer

experiences, he does not pursue technical virtuosity for its own sake. He believes techni-

cal expertise must evolve from the lyrics and the music. In Donnez-nous du silence, the

performers’ virtuosity continuously raises during the three pieces, as the listeners are in-

creasingly getting involved in the struggles of World War I and its madness and absurdity.

In his music, Terreau also explores aspects of spatialization (in Ora d’oro) and aspects of

individual expression (in Luci fons gloriae (2009) or Les limites du monde (2008)). I chose

Yeux-clos from Donnez-nous du silence because the superimposition of musical material

here creates a very specific ambiance, using fragments of a story. The choir speaks and

sings different ostinato patterns relating different feelings about the first World War: young

proud soldiers, waiting in the trench, coming back from the field… simultaneously five

singers sitting among the audience recite a poem in different languages.

Frédérique Lory, female composer living in Pontivy, wrote several operas for chil-

dren, and in her compositions she incorporates easier techniques like memorizable loops

when she composes for amateurs. Her great experience with the voice as a piano ac15 -

companist has contributed to her mastery of vocal gestures. She intends to further inte-

grate stage elements in her compositions but realizes that the composer in this case

�11

Rosaz Jean-Christophe, Web. 19 Apr 2014, 13

<http://www.jeanchristopherosaz.eu/ensemblevocalchoeur.html>

Information derived from a telephone communication with Raphaël Terreau. 20 March 2014.14

Informations derived from personal communication with Frédérique Lory at the Regional Conservatory of 15

Music from Rennes. 7 January 2014.

needs to be present during the rehearsal process in order to be able to experience and

test her thinking with the vocal ensemble. In 2013, she composed the cappella piece

Marais-Cage for the female professional choir Callioppe. Although she writes in a neo-

tonal style and her musical materials are rather simple, a complexity in her music results

from the overlapping of discrete elements. A very compact texture is created, for example,

by adding a sung canon to a spoken canonic ostinato (Letter E). Thematically, this piece

refers to the forced labor in rice fields and the dream of the workers to be free from slav-

ery.

This art project allowed me to deepen the reflection and interpretation of contemporary

music. I particularly appreciate the process of creation and invention around the prepara-

tion of a concert which I will explicate in further detail in the next section.

!B. Rehearsal Process and Interpretation

!Rehearsing contemporary music can be a challenge due to increased difficulties of intona-

tion, rhythm, complex harmony, superimpositions of different sound material etc. I will ex-

plain here how I faced some of those challenges during the rehearsals for my project A

cappella Impromptu.

At the beginning and at the end of each rehearsal, I trained the singers with different

improvisation techniques from theater and music to prepare them to react quickly when

performing together with the public. This was particularly interesting since the experienced

singers showed quite different reactions when dealing with aspects of collective improvisa-

tion (some were very active, others rather uncomfortable). To enrich their creativity, I

worked on the body’s expressions, space, and introduced short vocal games. I looked for

simplicity in the musical ideas they developed during the rehearsals. This also lead me to

rethink my role as choir conductor and to adapt specific gestures. Guy Reibel in his Jeux

Musicaux explained that when he works with a choir, most of the ideas created during im-

provisation tended to be very ‘common’ at first; thus the singers are often trapped between

listening to the overall sound of the group and his wish to add his own musical element to

�12

it. Reibel strongly recommends recording group improvisations and listening to them af16 -

terwards. So I did. It was interesting to notice the evolutions and the approach of singers in

the creative process.

Nicholas McNair, a British composer based in Lisbon, describes the improvisation

process as being a „vital importance of the body in the creative process”. In his essay 17

Hamlet. Improvisation in a wider cultural context, he argues that the body and the sensa-

tions should lead the creative process since our vocal chords and our hands „are part of

an intelligent system that is far more rapid and responsive than my rational processes”. He

further adds: „The most truly creative associations or synapses are those which occur be-

tween ideas, on the one hand, and some physical aspect or sensation, on the other.” 18

My last inspiration for rehearsing the vocal improvisation part of the concert came

from Gunnar Eriksson. His work on improvisation from folk songs is substantial. Eriksson

uses minimalistic techniques of superimposing musical elements and shifting elements

and tempi, oscillating between clear and vague musical structures, canon, imitations. He

likes to work without notation so that the members of the choir listen more to the sound

they are producing. „Don’t be afraid. You have no paper. Life is life. Paper is paper.” 19

The second part of the rehearsals was dedicated to the pieces introduced above

which are written in a more ‘traditional’ manner. One of the most important secrets in con-

temporary music performance practice is to prepare key moments which become light-

houses where performers can find the way back if they are lost. Here are some techniques

among others which I used to this end during rehearsals:

The challenges of intonation resulting from the superimposition of musical elements

were hard to overcome. I worked on vowel homogeneity since I had 12 experienced

singers with differing vocal technique. This helped not only to homogenize the sound of the

ensemble but also stabilized the intonation. I even invited some of the singers to use the

tuning fork for specific passages.

�13

„La plupart des formules que nous essayons faisaient appel à l’imagination individuelle de chaque choriste 16

qui, prisonnier de ses réflexes habituels, se trouvait tout d’abord pris au dépourvu dans ce nouveau context, car il lui fallait écouter… et apporter le fruit de sa propre imagination … à la „communauté” musicale.” [„Most of the formulas we were trying appealed to the individual imagination of each chorister who, a prisoner of his usual reflexes, was first taken by surprise in this new context, because he had to listen – and bring the fruit his own imagination – to the musical "community".] REIBEL, Guy, Jeux musicaux-volume 1: jeux vocaux, Paris: édition Salabert, 1984, p. 27.

McNAIR, Nicholas, Hamlet. Improvisation in a wider cultural context, Lisboa: Escola Superior de Música 17

de Lisboa, 2012, p. 4.

ibid., p. 5.18

ERIKSSON, Gunnar, in the DVD Le choeur en liberté, CRDP de Midi-Pyrénées, 200719

In order to overcome rhythmical difficulties, I used the looping technique, spoken

text, slow tempi.

For especially difficult passages such as bars 34-55 in Era un niño…, where intona-

tion and rhythm pose great challenges, I slowed down the tempo and let the singers sing

legato instead of staccato, differentiating the sound materials.

The rehearsals also prominently features work on dynamics: Since we were per-

forming outdoors without microphones during the concert, I encouraged the singers to sing

a bit louder than written. I also trained them to sing more compact and exaggerate the

word pronunciation.

I had a very disparate range of talent from professional to amateur singers and it 20

was not easy to keep everybody busy in rehearsal since some knew their parts and other

did not. So I proposed one-to-one rehearsals to save some time in group rehearsal. This

was a great help not only for the singers but also for me as I became more aware of each

voice’s capacity in my ensemble.

What I learned in this process is that a choir not only needs to sing as perfect as

possible, but that, as choir conductor, you need to think and prepare them for all the even-

tualities of the performance, especially when improvisation is involved. Giving mental train-

ing was necessary to help them to anticipate the unexpected and to prepare them to re-

spond quickly to different audience reactions or challenges coming from auditory effects of

the immediate environment. Rehearsing for such situations also means preparing for all

the logistics of the execution; ensuring the fluidity of the performance means, facilitating

communication within the group etc. This also requires meetings with the stage director,

the sound engineer, the painter, the stylist etc. as well as creating advertising, contacting

sponsors, or radio promotions. The job of a choir conductor is truly a thousand jobs in one!

!C. Performance

!The final performance on 29 May 2014 was actually the smallest part of the project. I

gathered friends and musicians in the public performance area to increase the chance of

success during the vocal improvisation with the public. With a crowd already formed in

front of the performers, it was more enticing for folks passing by to stop and watch. This

was also a necessary decision to ‘break the ice’ between performers and listeners. Playing

�14

The ensemble was formed mostly from students from the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. I 20

had also one professional singer and two amateurs.

in an ‘open’ place is a real challenge for musicians especially because the acoustic phe-

nomena being far less flattering for a choir. Philipp Heim did a great recording that you can

see on the attached DVD.

Some reactions of members of the audience were very interesting for me: The im-

provisation of a „sound machine” became the big highlight of the concert. This success21 -

fully confirmed my ideas about the necessity of a more active participation of the audience

during a concert and of a visually conceived musical show. Interestingly, the improvisation

became also the favorite moment for the singers. They enjoyed to share this musical im-

promptu with the volunteer members of the audience.

! During Yeux-clos, some listeners got surprised to see four musicians walking

through the crowd of listeners declaiming poetry. Their first reaction was to think: „Why do

they do that? We don’t hear the singers.” – until they understood that it was a part of the

staging.

As the concert lasted only for about twenty minutes it was also possible for the au-

dience just to casually stop by and listen. Some puzzled listeners followed us to the next

performance area. On the performers’ side, it was a sort of „art-marathon”, moving from

place to place to present the show.

Improvising a work in such a short time was a real challenge for the painter. She

wanted to use different painting techniques on different surfaces to match the ambiance of

the place. All her ideas were great but some of them didn’t work and she got stuck in the 22

creative process. For a next time I would like to lead the painter towards a more focussed

performance and give her the opportunity to paint during the last rehearsal.

The rehearsal methods and techniques I used turned out to be effective during the

concerts. The last rehearsal was the best one because all the singers were present. This

gave a stability to the ensemble which we had not achieved during the preceding re-

hearsals. Especially in Era un niño… where the ensemble is split into one singer per voice,

a missing part leaves a musical gap. Even during the concert, I had to reduce the tempo of

Era un niño… due to the limited singing technique of the ensemble. In sum, however, all

pieces worked well thanks to the great musicians I was working with.

Though I think I can improve some artistic and organization matters for my next

projects, I was very satisfied with commitment of the performers, high musical quality con-

sidering the few rehearsals we had, efficient simple ideas of the stage director, reaction of

�15

A “sound machine” is an improvisation based on several artists who repeat indefinitely a body movement 21

and a rhythmical sound. It originally comes from actors training.

She painted with fingers, pencils, and sponges on fabric, on translucent plexiglas and on a mirror.22

the audience, success of the video and sound recording etc. I learned a lot about the con-

temporary French repertoire. It was a great experience.

�16

III. Conclusion !The variety of French choral works from 1900 to 2014 includes very challenging works for

professional choirs and rather accessible ones for amateur practice. In fact, many choir

masterpieces of the 20th century are written in an enlarged tonal system in relatively tradi-

tional ways. Atonal choral music remains rarely performed. Nowadays, composers often 23

pragmatically integrate innovations in their works and adapt them to the group they are

working with. Besides being complex, many contemporary works remain rather accessible.

Choir-conductors should encourage interpretation and performance of the music of our

time, meeting composers and working with them, and preparing their choirs to show their

works in the best possible light for an audience. From my point of view, contemporary mu-

sic not only opens larger sound spectra encouraging the curiosity for the unusual, but also

deals with topics of our time questioning humankind and elevating our overall conscious-

ness.

Performing high quality music is an ambition for artists, and it is without a doubt a

lifelong process of improving our craft. But the important second step is how to encourage

listeners to come to the concert.

!„So the audience has always traditionally been built on amateurs who are fascinat-ed. (…) There are more young people out there learning to play instruments than ever before and they play better than ever before. (…) So we have a very vital growing group of instrumentalists. We have a lot of people writing music for the concert stage. The trouble is actually convincing the audience. Now there are not enough young players who are not going to become musicians to make up the au-

dience, because they are studying the instrument at too high a level.” 24

! Including modern methods of presentation, mixing art, de-compartmentalizing musi-

cal styles during a performance would serve this purpose beautifully. I believe that the

choir-conductor curriculum should not only include the learning of all musical styles but

�17

„Und ähnlich gleichzeitig entstand im 20 j.h. neben eine Anzahl von atonalen Meisterwerken eine eher 23

noch grössere Anzahl von nicht-atonalen chorischen Meisterwerken in ausgeweiteter Tonartlichkeit.”[„And at the same time in the 20th century besides a number of atonal masterpieces, arose a rather large number of non-atonal choral masterpieces in enlarged tonal discourse.”] Vortrag für den Bayrischen Rundfunk im Prinz-regentheater München, 9. Nov. 2002, ZIMMERMANN, Heinz Werner, Komposition und Reflexion, Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 2005, p. 71.

Leon BOTSTEIN, conductor, scholar and president of Bard College, speech from 10 May 2010, Web. 4 24

Apr 2014, <http://bigthink.com/videos/the-future-of-classical-music>

also incorporate stage, theater, plastic art, cinema etc. Working with stage directors,

choreographers, and artists of all disciplines can only enrich vocalists’ concert experience

and help the performer to viscerally connect the music to the audience. This thinking is

progressing more and more in Europe thanks to the examples of several ensembles in

Latvia, the US, Canada, Latin America, Sweden etc.

Wouldn’t it be interesting for choir-conductors to learn the skills to design their con-

certs and make a sort of living-art out of it?

!!

�18

IV. Sources

! A. Bibliography

COLLOMB, Michel, Voix et création au XXe siècle [actes de colloque], Paris : Honoré

Champion, 1997

HAMER, Laura Ann, Musiciennes: Women Musicians in France during the Interwar Years,

1919-1939, Cardiff University, 2009, 298 p.

KRONES, Hartmut, SCHOLLUM, Robert, Vokale und allgemeine Aufführungspraxis, Wien:

Böhlau Verlag, 1983, 292 S.

KLÜPPELHOLZ, Werner, Sprache als Musik, Studien zur Vokalmomposition seit 1956,

Herrenberg: Musikverlag Gotthard F. Döring, 1976, 213 p.

LOCHHEAD, Judy, AUNER, Joseph, Postmodern music / Postmodern Thought, Taylor &

Francis, Routledge, 2001, p.281

MACHUEL, Thierry, Voyageur de la voix, Chasseneuil-du-poitou: CNDP, 2013

MAS, Josiane, texts collected by COLLOMB, Michel, Voix et création au XXe siècle [actes

de colloque], Paris : Honoré Champion, 1997, p.41

McNAIR, Nicholas, Hamlet. Improvisation in a wider cultural context, Lisboa: Escola Su-

perior de Música de Lisboa, 2012

PORCILE, François, Les conflits de la musique française 1940-1965, Paris: Fayard, 2001,

412 p.

REIBEL, Guy, Jeux musicaux : essai sur l'invention musicale, Paris : Salabert, 1984, 272 p

ROLLE, Christian, SCHNEIDER, Herbert, Studien und materialen zur Vokalmusik des 20.

Jahrhunderts, Regensburg: Conbrio Verlagsgesellschaft, 2004, 127 S.

STRIMPLE, Nick, Choral music in the twentieth century, Portland: Amadeus Press, 2002,

389 p.

TISSIER, Éric, Être compositeur, être compositrice en France au 21e siècle, l’Harmattan,

2010, 353 p.

ZIMMERMANN, Heinz Werner, Komposition und Reflexion, Tutzing: Hans Schneider,

2005, 270 p.

! B. Webography !BOTSTEIN, Leon, Speech from May, 10th, 2010, Web. 4 Apr 2014, <http://bigthink.com/

videos/the-future-of-classical-music>

�19

BOTSTEIN, Leon, Speak in the conference Take a Stand Symposium 2014, on 20 feb.

2014, Los Angeles, Web. 16 Apr 2014, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwe5WfolZ-

s&feature=youtu.be>

BUSONI, Frerruccio, Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music, New York: G. Schirmer, 1911,

Web. 4 Apr 2014, <https://archive.org/details/sketchofanewesth000125mbplamenting>

GARRIGUES, Antoine, „Avant-garde, 4. Musique”, Encyclopaedia Universalis Online,

Web. 1 Apr 2014, <http://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/avant-garde/4-musique/>

LESURE, François, HOWAT, Roy, "Debussy, Claude." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music

Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 1 Apr. 2014. <http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/

subscriber/article/grove/music/07353>

MIKROKOSMOS, Ombres vives, conducted by Loïc Pierre, Web 28 Apr 2014, <http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZBd4gkvQyk&feature=youtu.be>

SERVICE, Tom, „A guide to Lachenmann’s music”, The Guardian Online, Web. 24 march

2014 <http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2012/jun/12/helmut-lachen-

mann-contemporary-composers-guide>

VOX BIGERI, La Passion, Web 19 Apr 2014, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l-

zObn8Xqbk>

!Libraries and specific choral institutions:

Centre de Documentation pour l’Art Choral, LAB, Web. 2 Apr 2014, <http://www.le-lab.info/

cdac/>

Institut Français d’Art Choral, Web. 2 Apr 2014, <http://www.artchoral.org>

Centre de PRatique VOcales et Instrumentales en région Centre, CEPRAVOI, Web. 2 Apr

2014, <http://www.cepravoi.fr>

Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique, IRCAM, Web. 4 Apr 2014,

<http://brahms.ircam.fr/composers/composer/2553/#parcours>

Cité de la musique, Web, 20 Apr 2014, <http://www.citedelamusique.fr/francais/>

!Websites of the composers are included in the catalogue.

! C. Works and discography !ANDRE-FORNER, L'espace d'un instant, suite en 9 mouvements, manuscrit from compo-

ser, 2000

�20

BURGAN, Patrick, Puerta de la Luz, for 12 voices, lyrics from Federico Garcia Lorca and

Antonio Machado, Buillodot, 1994

DANIEL-LESUR, Jean-Yves, Chansons françaises, Vol.1: Chansons du calendrier, Paris:

Éditions Salabert, 1949/50

DUDOUIT, Geoffroy, Ciels, ciels, for female voices, poems of Marguerite Clerbout, Web 20

Apr 2014, <http://geoffroydudouit.jimdo.com/composition/>

ERIKSSON, Gunnar, Le choeur en liberté, DVD, CRDP de Midi-Pyrénées, 2007

LACAZE, Sophie, O sapienta, for female chorus, text from Hildegard von Bingen, manus-

cript from composer, 2013

LACAZE, Sophie, Fauvette, for female chorus, text from Jean-Pierre Rosnay, manuscript

from composer, 2003

LIGETI, Gyorgy, Lux Aeterna, for 16-part mixed choir, Frankfurt /M. : Schott, 1966

LORY, Frédérique, Marais-Cage, 12-part female chorus, texts and citation from the songs

‘les soldats du marais’ (Johann Esser, Rudi Goguel) and ‘o bella ciao’ (traditional songs

from Italy), manuscript from the composer, 2013

MACHUEL, Thierry, Dark like me Op.18, for 6 soli and 6-part mixed choir, label inconnu,

2002

MESSIAEN, Olivier, 5 rechants, Paris: Éditions Salabert, 1949

OHANA, Maurice, Cris, for 12 mixed voices, Paris : J. Jobert, 1982

OHANA, Maurice, Quatre choeurs (1987), for children choir, Paris: J.Jobert, 1991

OHANA, Maurice, Swan song, for mixed choir, Paris: J.Jobert, 1988

ROSAZ, Jean-Christophe, Trois miniatures pour un bestiaire fantastique, poem of Marc

Blanchet, La Sinfonie d’Orphée, 2009

TERREAU, Raphaël, Anangu (2011), for 3-part children choir, manuscript from composer

TERREAU, Raphaël, Donnez nous du silence (2011), for mixed choir, manuscript from

composer

!

�21

V. Appendix

!A. Concert Recording and Musical scores !Recorded live in the city of Graz on 29 May 2014

!Singers: Yvette Betancourt (Soprano), Sintja Smite (Soprano), Zane Klavina (Soprano),

Anna Park (Mezzo-Soprano), Anna Gitschthaler (Mezzo-Soprano), Rahela Duric (Alt), Je-

lena Kanski (Alt), Johanna Gautsch (Alto/Tenor), Americ Goh (Tenor), Matthias Frank

(Baryton), Marko Skorin (Baryton), Hee-Beom Jeon (Bass), Gerd Kenda (Bass)

!Styling and Stage Director: Charlotte Guibert

Painter-Improvisator: Eva Zoumpouloglou

Stage Director and Choir-Conductor: Anaïs Maillard de la Morandais

Recording and Mixing: Philipp Heim, Klangkabinett <www.klangkabinett.com>

!Program and musical scores:

!DANIEL-LESUR, Jean-Yves, Chansons françaises, Vol.1: Chansons du calendrier, 1950

OHANA, Maurice, Quatre choeurs for children choir, 1987

BURGAN, Patrick, Puerta de la Luz, for 12 voices, 1994

ANDRE-FORNER, L'espace d'un instant, suite en 9 mouvements, 2000

MACHUEL, Thierry, Dark like me Op.18, for 6 soli and 6-part mixed choir, 2002

ROSAZ, Jean-Christophe, Trois miniatures pour un bestiaire fantastique, 2009

TERREAU, Raphaël, Donnez nous du silence, 2011

LORY, Frédérique, Marais-Cage, 12-part female chorus, 2013 !

�22

B. Non-exhaustive Catalogue of the French Composers and Their Vocal

Works between 1900 and 2014 !1. Assembling Repertoire for the Catalogue

!This appendix serves as an introduction to the following catalogue of a broad number of

French composers and their choir works created between the years 1900 and 2014. This

catalogue was painstaking work to realize due to a general lack of centralized information.

By contacting different choral French institutions like the Institute of French Choral Art

(IFAC) or Center for Voice in Center Region (CEPRAVOI), I was consistently made aware

that no comprehensive index of contemporary choir music exists and that such an index

has to be compiled from fragments of information in different libraries such as those in the

Center of Documentation of Choral Art of Burgundy in Dijon, in la Cité de la Musique and

in the IRCAM in Paris.

!Leaving aside the fact that many French composers have not written any choir music at

all, I in the end decided to include works for choir and instruments in my catalogue as well,

in order to be able to include key composers such as Gabriel Fauré or Edgard Varèse.

However, I excluded staged works and operas. Though the catalogue mostly lists com-

posers of French nationality, additional composers from Belgium, Swiss, Canada or other

countries who had close contact to French culture have also been considered; they in-

clude Jean Absil (Belgium), Arthur Honegger (Suisse), Gilles Tremblay (Canada), Iannis

Xennakis, Georges Aperghis (Greece), and Stefano Gervasoni (Italy).

I divided the catalogue pragmatically into three large sections to better match the

general musical styles: (1) beginning of the 20th-century (post-romanticism, impression-

ism…), (2) second part of the 20th-century (serialism, electronic music, spectral music,

minimalism, ‘A Coeur Joie’ composers etc.), (3) 21st-century (composers born after 1940,

post-avant-garde etc.). The works are categorized into four different genres: (1) Children

choir, (2) Equal voices (female choir and male choir), (3) mixed choir, (4) vocal music from

three voices to chamber choir; in addition various internet sources are provided in case

these were the basis of my information on the respective pieces.

In the first part of the catalogue, we can see that most composers who wrote for the voice

were coming from an organist background and church culture. The churches commis-

�23

sioned pieces from the composers and this tradition is still perpetuated nowadays with the

church’s maîtrises and choirs.

Sacred texts and writings are still a huge source of inspiration for the voice even if

the première of the piece is not obligatory for the church. Sometimes it might be a com-

mand from the radio or other musical institutions. Until the present, we can also find can-

tatas and oratorios. However, many works in these genres have been commonly orches-

trated for smaller instrumental groups or even for only two or three instruments during the

past decades. The terms cantata and oratorio can sometimes also define a profane piece.

In its first part, the catalogue also reflects the choral tradition of the 20th century in

as much as most of the choral works are accompanied by orchestras or piano. Very few

music outside the religious context is conceived a cappella.

The second part of the 20th century sees the development of non-religious ama-

teurs choirs movement like "À Coeur Joie" and then later the flourishing of semi-professio-

nal and professional vocal ensembles: Les Choeurs de Radio France (Matthias Brauer),

Callioppe (Régine Théodoresco), Les Cris de Paris (Geoffroy Jourdain), Musicatreize (Ro-

land Hayrabedian), Mikrokosmos (Loïc Pierre), Les jeunes Choeurs de Paris (Laurence

Equillbey), choeur Britten (Nicole Corti) and many others who participate in choral life not

only by singing the traditional repertoire but also by commissioning specific pieces or ar-

rangements to contemporary composers. Composers got also interested into vocal en-

sembles a cappella like Olivier Messiaen and his Cinq rechants (1949).

We can observe an increasing technical difficulty in the pieces after the 1960s,

since composers were usually writing for more experienced singers, as well as a growing

repertoire for children choir. The government, the music schools, the choral schools called

maîtrise, and the choral festivals like Les Choralies in France were also active in commis-

sioning new works; all the factors result in an extensive variety of compositions from the

un-experienced to the experienced singer, from child to mixed choirs, from sacral to profa-

ne music.

The search for of new timbres has often lead composers to add (solo) instruments

to choral works like a violin, a viola de gamba, or percussions. This creates a new genre

which is not only interesting from an acoustic and semantic point of view but also has a 25

surprising effect on the public and gives diversity to a choral concert. We can find this

�24

Acoustic because the composer is challenged to contrast a solo instrument to a choral sound mass and 25

semantic because there is an ambiguity created between the solo instrument (main focus) and the choir (lyrics).

genre increasingly after 1970 and it is represented by works such as Carnaval II of Guy

Reibel for choir and percussions or Stabat Mater of Nicolas Bacri for choir and violin solo.

Later in the 1980s, the creation of a French Regional Polyphonic Art Centers, later

called 'mission voix' would not only encourage the development of amateur choirs’ practice

and the formation of the choir-conductors, but it would also create specialized libraries and

funds. The most important centers are the Center of Documentation of Choral Art of Bur-

gundy based in Dijon , the French Institute of Choral Art in Poitiers and the Center of 26 27

Vocal and Instrumental Practice in Center Region based in Montlouis-sur-Loire. The 28

members theses centers are professional musicians, choir-conductors, vocal teachers,

amateurs, choirs, music schools. etc.

The years after the Second World War were rich in evolution and new research: the

1950s and the avant-garde with serial music and electroacoustic music, the 1960s and the

emergence of open works and the concept of hazard and improvisation, the 1970s and

1980s with Ohana and composers of spectral music. The 1980s would also become the

moment in France of a powerful political movement, originating from the ministry of the

culture to insure the public’s participation in musical life as amateurs. We would begin to 29

see more instances of mixing ‘classical music’ with popular music, folk music , rock and 30

jazz.

Since the end of the 1990s, we can see a refreshing, growing interest in the voice,

small chamber choir, and the choral works from all level of difficulties. Today, composers

like Patrick Burgan, Philippe Hersant, Edith Canat de Chezy, Nicoas Bacri, Christophe

Looten, Philippe Schoeller, Thierry Escaich, Pascal Zavaro among others receive commis-

sions from professional ensembles or high-level amateur’s choirs. Some composers like

Thierry Machuel, Raphaël Terreau, Jean-Christophe Rosaz dedicated themselves to com-

�25

Centre de Documentation pour l’Art Choral, LAB, Web. 2 Apr. 2014, <http://www.le-lab.info/cdac/>26

Institut Français d’Art Choral, Web. 2 Apr. 2014, <http://www.artchoral.org>27

Centre de PRatique VOcales et Instrumentales en région Centre, CEPRAVOI, Web. 2 Apr. 2014, 28

<http://www.cepravoi.fr>

The Minister Jacques Lang created for example the popular fête de la musique, allowing all amateur musi29 -cians to celebrate and play in the street on 21 June.

„Always a fecund composer, Dusapin became extraordinarily prolific in the 1990s. (…) Other characteris30 -tics of this period suggest a kinship with folk music: the frequent prominence of drones, the use of restricted modes (though without tonal centres becoming obvious, since most often what is involved is a tetratonic mode allowing no triad, e.g. C–D–F–G)”.Griffiths, Paul, "Dusapin, Pascal”. Grove Music Online, Oxford Mu-sic Online. Oxford University Press, Web. 4 Apr. 2014, <http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/44939>

posing for choir repertoire. Numerous experienced singers and choir conductors who ex-

perience and perform vocal art on a daily basis also began to compose for the voice: De-

nis Chevallier, Caroline Marçot, Geoffray Dudouit, Pascal Caumont…

To give an exemple of the variety of choral life in France, i’d like to present briefly

five composers who shared with me their experiences and expertise in choral music:

(1) After travelling in several countries and specially Australia, Sophie Lacaze set-

tled down in France. Her main focus is on sound (timbres, sound production, register, su-

perimpositions…) while through simple rhythmic pattern often inspired from aborigine mu-

sic, her desire is to restore music's primary functions, i.e. ritual, incantation, dance, and its

links with nature. Although the simplicity of rhythmical aborigine pattern exists in Fauvette,

written for the female chorus, its superimposition in different contrapuntal voices create a

rather complex sound surface . In her piece o sapienta (2013) for 5 female voices, Lacaze 31

plays with both continuous and vibrato tone. The vibrato tones are also variate in speeds

(violin like). This variety of tone productions create a colorful differentiation of sounds

(Klangfarbe) . 32

! (2) Rich from his experience as a singer in Mikrokosmos, Geoffroy Dudouit com-

posed mostly for amateur choirs. Inspired by Thierry Machuel and folk music, his music is

more homophonic, modal and easy to memorize for amateur singers. In Ciels, Ciels for

female choirs, the melodic line mostly predominates, but by matching the poetry of the

lyrics, individual voices are shifted creating interesting clouds of sound . 33

! (3) Denis Chevallier is a composer who used to live in Madrid before Paris. Some of his a cappella pieces are highly contrapuntal and chromatic inspired by italian madrigals and motets of the 17th century. For him, the text leads his musical inspiration . In his work 34

Nachtlied (2003), the relative immobility of the ‘chord’, created by the canon-like voice leading, helps to create a sound cloud like which beautifully evokes the sentiment of the

nocturnal poem .!35

�26

Bar 26 in Fauvette, Sophie Lacaze, Web. 18 Apr. 2014, <http://www.sophielacaze.com/partitions/lacaze_31 -fauvette.pdf>

Informations derived from a telephone communication with Sophie Lacaze. 3 March 2014.32

informations derived from a telephone communication with Geoffray Dudouit. 13 March 2014.33

Informations derived from a telephone communication with Denis Chevallier. 6 March 2014.34

CHEVALLIER, Denis, Nachtlied, Web 18 Apr 2014, <http://www.denis-chevallier.fr/page/pieces-pour-35

choeur.html?idArt=5>

! (4) Leader of Vox Bigeri , Pascal Caumont is one of the rare composer-performer 36

inspired by folk music. His specialty: Basque chant and Pyrenees’s polyphony. This music

is characterized by homophony, ornementations and unequal temperament. Often sang in

equal voices, the individual voice, with its specific timbre, serves the common group

sound. Pascal Caumont likes to explore the richness of timbre that allow ‘one per voice’ . 37

For him composing, it is like „squeezing a lemon”: taking the maximum amount of folk

melody savory (melody, timbre, ornementations, prosody) and then adding other ingredi-

ents by creating distortions (harmony, drones, cluster, ostinatos, shift of musical material),

resulting in another overall aesthetic. The ambiance of his pieces depends totally on the

lyrics: sacral text will lead to a deeper, calmer sound than a joyful profane text. To step

away from the repetitive structure of the lyric and melody, Pascal Caumont works in

‘spiral’, introducing micro-variations matching the content of the lyrics . 38

(5) Originally percussionist, Pascal Zavaro decided to depend in musical composi-

tion on his way back from Japan. Inspired by painting works and the minimalist american

music, his music plays with the sound surfaces, colors, volumes and rhythm. He pursues

his desire of creating a music which is brought back to a certain pleasure by playing it, in-

cluding melodies, tonal elements, expressionism elements. Aware of the lack of viability of

certain contemporary works due to increased difficulties, to special material needs or to

budget restrictions, Zavaro composed his pieces so they can be played and re-played by

different performers. Like other composers, he likes to explore the principle of the concerto

with solo instruments and a vocal ‘orchestra’ like in Songs of Innocence, concerto for choir

and violin. In his vocal compositions, he use all the palette of the vocal possibilities from

noises and onomatopoeia like in retour à la raison for mixed choir to more vocal works like

in Seul dans le vide for mixed choir a cappella. Vocal music has for him a great expressive

power and can from noises to melody, from phoneme to sentences create a complex multi-

level network of communication . 39

�27

La Passion, Vox Bigeri, Web 19 Apr 2014, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lzObn8Xqbk>, còr d'òmes 36

de bigòrra, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKQVjeRFUTM>

After 10-12 singers, listeners hear the global group sound and not a specific voice anymore. An individual 37

voice has its own unique ‘grain’ which permit us to differentiate the voices. When a voice comes out of the choir, the ear is attracted to it magnet like and this can be for composers an extra possibility to explore sounds.

Informations derived from a telephone communication with Pascal Caumont. 14 March 2014.38

Informations derived from a telephone communication with Pascal Zavaro. 8 Mai 2014.39

Josianne Mas in her book observes an emergence of a new subjectivity since the

1980s, that is more individual and leads back to the semantic dimension of the text. The 40

poet condenses his words to signify so much in so few words. The composer becomes a

poet, too, by ‘re-arranging’, transposing his interpretation of the text and its meaning into

chanting which will be interpreted and understood in different ways by each individual sin-

ger. Thierry Machuel says in his article écrire le choeur that he was thrilled to share his

discovery for a poem with the performers of his music and that he was even more excited

to hear his music through their point of view. For him, the poem travels and approaches

timbres and silences in a more meditative way, introducing new meaning to the text that

may not have been carried before. 41

The text of French poets often heard in music today are among others Paul Celan,

Per-Jakez Helias, Françoise Rouquié, Benoît Machuel, Arnaud des Pallières, Andrée Che-

did, Amina Saïd, Eugène Guillevic.

Usually known for their bad reputation in foreign languages, French composers go

against this cliché and set a lot of poems from other countries into their music. We find

poems from Langston Hughes (U.S.A), Frederico Garcia Lorca and Manuel Machado

(Spain), Daniela Attanasio (Italian), Sophia de Mello Breyner (Portugal), Gabriela Mistral

(Chili), Kathleen Raine (England), Jaan Kaplinski (Finlande), Haïkus from the Japanese

monk Issa (Japan), Rabindranath Tagore (India), Hugo Ball, Hölderlin and Rilke

(Germany).

!!!!

�28

„Ce qui toutefois, se dessine nettement dans la musique des années 80, c’est l’émergence d’une nouvelle 40

subjectivité, d’une attitude sans doute plus individualiste qui revient à la dimension signifiante du discours musicale, au sémantisme donc.” [„ What is however clearly emerging in 80’s music, is this emergence of a new subjectivity, a more individualistic attitude which probably amounts to the signifying dimension of musi-cal discourse, thus to semantics.”] MAS, Josiane, texts collected by COLLOMB, Michel, Voix et création au XXe siècle [actes de colloque], Paris: Honoré Champion, 1997, p. 41.

„Je veux l’entendre (le poème) intérieurement, puis le donner à lire à d’autres, partager ma découverte et 41

me laisser surprendre à mon tour par leurs lectures, si différentes de la mienne : voilà que le poème voyage à présent, qu’il aborde des timbres et des silences qu’il ne portait pas en lui, comme autant de terres nou-velles.” [„ I want to hear (the poem) internally, then give it for others to read and share my discovery, and let them surprise me by their reading, so different from mine: thus the poem travels now, it reaches timbres and silences it did not have in itself, like so many new lands.”] MACHUEL, Thierry, Voyageur de la voix, Chas-seneuil-du-poitou: CNDP, 2013.

2. Observed Trends. Are There some ‘French’ Tendencies in the Choral Re-

pertoire Today? !In the 1950s, although it was more common to write for instruments, which explains the

lack of compositions for voice at that time, the human voice was increasingly considered

as an instrument and this marked the end of the accompanied melody. A radical change

would then appear in the writing of vocal parts and the treatment of vocal ensembles: ex-

plorations of the sound possibilities of voice (noises, Speech-choirs/Sprechchormusik ), 42

an intensified work on density and on sound textures (Klangfarbenmelodie, suono mobile),

on fragmentations, on registers etc. 43

!Nick Strimple wrote in his book Choral music in the 20th century: „During the first three de-

cades (of the 20th century) composers were profoundly affected by nationalism, technolo-

gical advances, social instability and the previously inconceivable ravages of World War I.

The influence of religious institutions declined as knowledge of the human psyche increa-

sed. Social justice beckoned.” 44

The impact of the Second World War on instrumental music urged the desire of the

artists to ‘restart’ on a better basis but choral music was still the little black swan. Avant-45

garde elements became common in choral music throughout the world from 1966-1976

1966-1976 although choral had a tendency to be more conservative than its instrumental

counterparts. Many composers disregarded the possibilities of the choir. Thierry Machuel

reported that even in the 1990s he was affected by the contempt of his colleagues for choir

music. This encouraged him to dedicate himself even more to the choral cause. Conside46 -

ring a big choir as an equivalent of the orchestra he wrote an a cappella Nocturne for 8

solo voices and 8-part mixed choir: Richter op. 7 on a text by Benoît Richter.

�29

VOGEL, Wladimir, Arpiade, for Soprano, speech-choir, instruments, 1954 or Mondträume, for speech-42

choir, 1965 or in Choéphores from Darius Milhaud.

All these features are not voice-specific but can also be found in instrumental writing; also most of these 43

developments go back to the early 20th-century and did only intensify in the 1950s.

STRIMPLE, Nick, Choral music in the twentieth century, Portland: Amadeus Press, 2002, p. 944

„For some, choral music had little credibility, either because the sound was too sensuous or because the 45

learning curve tended to be too slow for choruses newly exposed to avant-garde music.” STRIMPLE, Nick, Choral music in the twentieth century, Portland: Amadeus Press, 2002, p. 12.

Informations derived from a telephone communication with Thierry Machuel. 6 March 2014.46

Nick Strimple also notices that „the choral medium was ideally suited to the incorpo-

ration of folk elements, and in some countries, such as Bulgaria, Latvia, and Denmark, the

folk music revival in the first third of the century helped establish a vital choral tradition

outside the church through interest in new choral arrangements of folk songs.” 47

And in France? Is it still possible today to detect a particular ‘French elegance’ in

works by French composers as it is commonly attributed to Debussy, Poulenc or Messia-

en? In the second part of the century, Milhaud, Migot, Langlais and Ohana are four of the

most prolific composers for choir and are stylistically so far from each other. The trend of

voice production changes in 114 years between the romantic vibrato, the straight voice 48

becoming more like instrumental technique, and the search for a balanced voice. In 49

France, composers often write divisi in the voices this allow exploring superimpositions of

musical material (melodic or rhythmic shifts, changes of tempi, bars, different musical ide-

as superimposed ) and composing with sound patterns and collective improvisation (short 50

tones or rhythmical pattern are individually repeated ad libitum creating a very interesting 51

cloud of sound etc.).

All this said, in a period of time where renewing choir culture is slowly becoming in-

ternational thanks to several international competitions and choir festivals, I don’t think

there a specific French a cappella music today. I would say rather that every composer

nowadays explores their own path, often focused on specific choirs and their possibilities.

French music is a part of an increasing internationalization and tends to lose its specifici-

ties. It seems less true for other countries like England, for example, who has a powerful

and lively national choral culture.

�30

STRIMPLE, Nick, Choral music in the twentieth century, Portland: Amadeus Press, 2002, p. 10.47

„L’attrait de Maurice Ohana pour un son droit, non vibré, pour une voix chargée de scories, a, pour lui, 48

selon ses propres termes, le sens de „retrouvailles avec un ‘état primitif.’’ [„The appeal of Maurice Ohana for a continuous tone, not vibrated, for a voice full of scoria, has for him, in his own words, the meaning of "re-union with a primitive state.’’] MAS, Josiane, texts collected by COLLOMB, Michel, Voix et création au XXe siècle [actes de colloque], Paris : Honoré Champion, 1997, p. 41.

„…années 80, c’est l’emergence d’une nouvelle subjectivité, d’une éthique sans doute plus individualiste 49

… cette tendance s’accompagne d’un certain retour à la voix / chant, à une vocalité plus classique donc.” [„ In the 1980s … is the emergence of a new subjectivity, a doubtless more individualistic ethic … this trend is accompanied by a return to the voice / the chant, to a therefore more classical vocality.”] MAS, Josiane, texts collected by COLLOMB, Michel, Voix et création au XXe siècle [actes de colloque], Paris : Honoré Champion, 1997, p. 41.

Likely originating from the practice of organist-improvisators. Messiaen used it a lot. 50

Sound ‘reservoirs’ also induced a new behavior for the choral singer. He becomes an individual responsi51 -ble for the group’s global expression and develops his own autonomy. This comes also often in the harmo-nization or improvisation on traditional music.

Informed by his experience as a singer in the choir Mikrokosmos, Geoffroy Dudouit

composed mostly for amateur choirs. Inspired by Thierry Machuel and folk music, his mu-

sic is more homophonic, modal and easy to memorize for amateur singers. He is disap-

pointed that French traditional repertoire is not used in contemporary music whereas com-

posers like Miškinis or Eriksson use the traditional repertoire of Latvia and Sweden respec-

tively. It is ironic that France is known for being champions of centralization and homoge-

nization (Paris), yet often different regional versions of the same song. Strong general

contempt of the rural culture prevented the population from keeping their ancestral roots.

In Quebec, this notion of elitism doesn’t exist and the folk culture is much more lively. For

Dudouit, this area needs more exploration by French composers.

! Will France have a second “cultural revolution” bringing back the diversity and 52

richness of his traditional music freed from contempt and tackiness? Will France be able to

de-compartmentalize enough traditional repertoire, world music and serious music to

prompt changes in society in its attitude towards choir repertoire?

!

�31

The first ‘cultural revolution’ being the consequence of the French revolution and its homogenization of all 52

French regions on the Paris’ model.