Cantique de Jean Racine

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"Hearing Faurt's Ryrriem as he intended it instrumentation is restrained and mellowv: to be performed would be a revelation to dividedviolas and cellos, basses, harp, timpani most people." - Robert Orledge, Gabriel and organ, with a solo violin in the Snnctlts. Fn'nnr;, p. 110 The strings - probably no more than a handfid at the first performance - mostly double the organ, which plays throughout It is one of musical history's mischances that like a Baroque continuo. the Faurt Reqrriem was for almost a century Faurt then prepared an expanded version, known and performed only in a version with first given in January 1893. This included two fidl orchestra for which Faurt was very possi- extra movements, the Offertoire (written in bly not responsible; the composer's original 1889) and the Libera me, both calling for version of the work wvith instrumental ensem- baritone solo; the Libevn me, dating from ble remained unpublished and, until this 1877, was originally an independent recording, wvas unperformed since his lifetime. composition for baritone and organ. The Behind this neglect lies a fascinating story. instrumentation wvas also expanded for the Faurk began work on the Reqzrierrt in 1887 1893 performance: Faurk added horn and purely, in his own words, 'for the pleasure of trumpet parts to his earlier manuscript, and it', though the death of his father in 1885 and violins were incorporated in the In Pnradimm. of his mother avo years later may well have The trumpet parts are fragmentary and lent impetus to the composition. He wvas 42 unimportant, but the horns have an essential years of age, choirmaster at the fashionable role in the Libern me and a useful one church of the Madeleine in Paris, and gaining elsewhere; their fanfare-like figure in the a growing reputation as a composer. He com- Snnctus is hard to imagine left out, in fact. pleted the work early in 1888 and directed The third version of the Reqrriern - the the premiere on 16th January of that year; the familiar one wvith fdl orchestra - received its occasion wvas a funeral service at the premiere in July 1900 at the Trocadkro Madeleine. This 'first version' (of which the Palace under the conductor Taffanel; manuscript of all but the Pie Jesrr survives) shortly afterwards Hamelle published vocal consisted of five movements: the Introit et and orchestral scores. How and wvhy this ICyrie, Snnctry Pie Jest4 Agnrrs Dei and In third version came about is not clear. In Paradisilm - a personal selection of texts lay- 1898 Faurt wrote to Hamelle promising to ing emphasis on rest and peace wvith no prepare the Requiem for publication but reference to the Day of Judgement. The asking ifhe could delegate the piano reduction W
for the vocal score to someone else (his horn parts also seem to represent genuine secstudent Roger-Ducasse~vas entrustedwvith the ond thoughts on Faurk's part. At the same task). No question of reorchestration was time the 1893 Requiern remains a liturgical mentioned at this stage; possibly Hamelle later work for modest forces to perform in urged Faur6 to rescore the work for 11l church, which is how the composer conorchestra because it would receive more ceived it. Performing it in this form for the performances as a concert work than as a first time in over 80 years was as exciting for liturgical Requiem. Faur6 was at the time me as seeing an old master painting stripped burdened with teaching and administrative of cloudy varnish and shining forth in all its work and may or may not have delegated the pristine clarity and splendour. rescoring to Roger-Ducasse, who is known to have scored more than one of Fauro's works. - k * S r * * . k At all events the published score of 1900 (for which the source manuscript is lost) is Like the Requiern, the Messe Bnsse for extraordinarily inaccurate and fd of misprints, sopranos and altos had a complex genesis. It which suggests that the meticulous Faur6 was originally written in 1881 in collaboration never saw printer's proofi, at least. There are, w i t h Faurc's composer-fiend Messager for a moreover, many curious infelicities in the benefit performance at the fishing village of scoring - for example arbitrary recasting of ViUerville here the two men were on holiday: the 1893 horn parts, downwd transposition Messager wrote the I(r.ie and an 0 salrttnris, of the ethereal high violin solo in the Snvrctrrs, Faurk wrote the Glorin, Snnctrrs and &nus alterations of string bowing and distortion of Dei. The following year it wvas orchestrated, the original dynamic markings -which seem again in collaboration; then in 1906 Faurk disto betray an inexperienced hand. Above all, carded Messager's ICyrie, substituting one of the nature of the RepGent music itself seems his own, at the same time discarding his own to call for the intimacy and clarity of a Glorin but adding a Benerlicttrs based on the chamber ensemble rather than 11l symphonic Q~ti tollis section of it. He also recast for forces which would swamp a choir such as the organ the original accompaniment of harmodest-sized group of boys and men at the monium and violin. In this final form the Madeleine for whom the work was written. Messe Bnsse was published in 1907. The ideal Reqrriern version seems to me to be that of 1893. The two extra movements in Faurt wrote over a dozen other sacred choral it are surely worth including, and the added pieces which span the first forty years of his
Page 2 and 3: Carol ine Ask Lton (so Steph .en Va
Page 6 and 7: career. The earliest published one
Page 8 and 9: Sanctus Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus,
Page 10 and 11: Tantum ergo Tantum ergo Sacramentum
Page 13: instrumental ensemble, other items

Cantique de Jean Racine

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