Autumn Concert ~ 2012
 
Francis PoulencPoulenc: Gloria

Francis Poulenc was one of a somewhat notorious group of young French composers who became known as ‘Les Six’, an epithet clearly derived from the earlier ‘Russian Five’.

The aims of the French group were to break away from the twin influences of Germanic formality and French impressionism, and to employ a direct and simple style in their own music. Of the six, Poulenc was by far the most successful.

Although Poulenc saw himself as primarily a composer of religious music, it was not in fact until 1936, following his return to Catholicism, that he produced his first sacred work. A steady stream of religious pieces then flowed from his pen, including a Mass and a series of motets. 

His first large-scale choral work, the Stabat Mater, appeared in 1950, and the Gloria in 1959, only four years before his death. Both employ the same forces - chorus, soprano solo and large orchestra - and both enjoyed immediate acclaim.

They have remained firm favourites with performers and audiences ever since. Poulenc’s very distinctive style relies principally on strong musical contrasts. The harmony moves between Stravinskian dissonance and lush, sensuous chord progressions; vigorous counterpoint in clipped, angular phrases alternates with lyrical melodic writing; dynamics frequently range from a hushed piano to an emphatic forte within the space of a bar or two.

Poulenc skilfully uses this colourful musical palette to express a wide range of emotions, from lyrical serenity to unashamed glee. The Gloria was commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation of America. The words from the Mass are set to music of an unmistakable freshness and vivacity.

Some critics at the time suggested that it bordered on the sacrilegious; Poulenc replied,‘While writing it I had in mind those Crozzoli frescoes with angels sticking out their tongues, and also some solemn-looking Benedictine monks that I saw playing football one day.’ The work is divided into six short movements.

After a brief introduction, the chorus enters with a prominent dotted figure to the word ‘Gloria’, which forms the basis of this movement. The animated second movement, ‘Laudamus Te’, reveals Poulenc in playful mood, with the chorus for the most part divided into pairs of voices - sopranos and tenors; altos and basses - exchanging a series of short, pithy phrases.

In the expressive third section, ‘Domine Deus’, the soprano soloist is heard for the first time with a typically yearning melody, whilst the chorus is allocated a supporting role. We are then abruptly whisked back to the playground for the brief and chirpy ‘Domine Fili Unigenite’.

The soprano soloist returns for the exquisite ‘Dominus Deus, Agnus Dei’, with soloist and chorus sometimes combining and sometimes exchanging lyrical phrases. In the sixth movement a short, majestic opening soon gives way to an animated section at the words ‘Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris’.

Peace and serenity suffuses the radiant closing pages of the work but, characteristically, Poulenc cannot resist a last, loud interjection at the first ‘Amen’, where he briefly recalls the dotted ‘Gloria’ figure of the very opening, before calm is restored for the final ‘Amen’. Poulenc’s sense of humour and love of life shine through all his music, however solemn the text might be. One of his friends said of him, ‘There is in him something of the monk and the street urchin.’ The Gloria brilliantly expresses these characteristics, with its captivating mixture of solemnity and mischievous exuberance. 

Programme notes courtesy of John Bawden.

Read about Poulenc.

DCU last sang Poulenc's Gloria on 31st. March, 1984.
Giacomo PucciniPuccini: Messa di Gloria

Though Giacomo Puccini is famous for his contribution to the world of opera through such works as La Boheme, Tosca, Madame Butterfly and Turandot, he actually began his musical career playing and composing church music.

The son of a well known composer and organist, he followed the family tradition, becoming organist of San Martino in Lucca, Italy, at the age of 14.

As his musical studies progressed, it was clear that young Giacomo had leanings towards operatic writing and possessed the talent to become one of the world's greatest operatic composers - one need look no further than the Messa di Gloria itself for evidence of such promise! Puccini himself wrote: "the Almighty touched me with his little finger and said, 'Write for the theatre - mind, only for the theatre!'"

Puccini's Mass for Four Voices and Orchestra, as this work was originally known - probably derives its Messa di Gloria designation from the importance this setting gives to its wonderful second movement, the Gloria, which accounts for almost half the performance time of the whole work.

Written as his graduation thesis from the Institute Musicale of Lucca, Italy when he was only 22 years of age, the Messa di Gloria is an unmistakably youthful work, but shows a mature grasp of musical conventions.

It prefigures many of Puccini's operas in the lyrical freshness of its themes, its sense of drama and the range of its expression. Four years earlier, in 1876, he had demonstrated his mastery of the orchestra in his Preludio Sinfonico; in the Messa di Gloria he combined this flair for orchestration with a similar command of vocal writing in a style which opera aficionados will recognise as unmistakable Puccini.

It is probably due to Puccini's preoccupation with opera that the Messa di Gloria remained unperformed for a further 72 years after its first performance, in spite of its undoubted quality and the rapturous critical reception it had first received. The manuscript remained undiscovered until 1952 when Catholic priest and musicologist, Father Dante del Fiorentino unearthed it while researching in Lucca for a new biography of Puccini.

Programme Notes courtesy of Halifax Choral Society.

Read about Giacomo Puccini.
DCU last sang Puccini's Messa di Gloria on 25th. April, 1998.