SO, WHERE NEXT…?
We suggest works to explore after Poulenc’s Four Christmas Motets
Poulenc Litanies à la Vierge Noire
In 1936, Poulenc’s close friend Pierreoctave Ferroud was killed in a car accident. Anguished, Poulenc turned to the Catholic church for comfort and embarked upon a pilgrimage to Notre Dame de Rocamadour, a church in mountainous south-west France. Litanies à la Vierge Noire was written just a week after the pilgrimage, and was the first of a stream of sacred works that defined the next period of Poulenc’s musical career. Litanies is a series of prayers to the Virgin Mary which beg for mercy and understanding, set here for upper voices. Poulenc’s chant-like modal writing lends a ghostly serenity to the text, though this is interrupted abruptly at points by a brash organ part.
Recommended recording: Tenebrae/nigel Short Signum SIGCD187
Milhaud Les deux cités
Just two years after he’d written Litanies à la Vierge Noire, Poulenc penned his first group of Quatre motets, for ‘un temps de pénitence’ (Lent). He’d been inspired to write them by the 1938 premiere of Milhaud’s Les deux cités, a three-movement a cappella choral work setting words by Paul Claudel. Both Milhaud and Poulenc were members of Les Six, so it’s perhaps no surprise to find a shared spirit and style in their vocal music. Les deux cités is intense and austere yet expressive, its texts based on Saint Augustine. ‘Babylone’ has an archaic quality, while the mesmerising ‘Elégie’ features a solo mezzo and humming choir backdrop. The agile ‘Jerusalem’, with its peals of scales, rounds off the piece. Recommended recording: Netherlands Chamber Choir/stephen Layton
Globe GLO5206
Messiaen O sacrum convivium
If religion played something of a bit part in Poulenc’s life, his near-contemporary Olivier Messiaen was a man of deep Christian faith. All the more remarkable, then, that his
O sacrum convivium of 1937 was the only liturgical choral work he ever wrote. Just like Poulenc’s ‘O magnum mysterium’, a work it preceded by 14 years, Messiaen’s motet, whose text expresses a sense of wonder at the sacred feast, begins in dark, sombre style, weaving slowly and chromatically around the stave. And while a climax of sorts is reached at the words ‘futurae gloriae’, the overall tone is one of hushed reverence.
Recommended recording: Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge/andrew Nethsingha Chandos CHAN10842
Naji Hakim Trois Noëls
The Lebanese-french Naji Hakim took over from Messiaen at Paris’s La Trinité a year after the latter’s death in 1992, staying for 15 years. Blessed with an astonishing talent for improvisation, Hakim is also a prolific composer of organ music as well as several striking choral works. The Trois Noëls, written in 2001, all have a 20thcentury French feel, with Poulenc an obvious influence, Hakim’s rich harmonies warmly spicing up traditional folk tunes. Poulenc’s spirit, however, is most present in the final of the three carols, ‘Noël’. Its beautifully suave opening, reminiscent of parts of Poulenc’s ‘O Magnum Mysterium’, gives way to a contrasting section where Hakim gives full rein to his love of Langlais, Duruflé and jazz. Recommended recording: Ex Cathedra/jeffrey Skidmore
Orchid Classics ORC100008
Villette Hymne à la Vierge
A chorister at Rouen Cathedral and later a student of composer Maurice Duruflé, Pierre Villette (1926-98) was immersed in the world of liturgical choral music from the outset. Of the many motets he composed, the most famous is undoubtedly the Hymne à la Vierge, a work for unaccompanied choir that, intriguingly, was premiered not in France but at the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester in 1981 – Worcester Cathedral choirmaster Donald Hunt was a long-term champion of Villette. Setting words by author Roland Bouhéret, Hymne à la Vierge is characterised by gorgeous harmonies, little chromatic twists and a general sense of serenity, and has become a regular at cathedral and church carol services.
Recommended recording: Holst Singers/ Stephen Layton Hyperion CDA67539
Langlais Venite et audite
Like Messiaen, Jean Langlais studied the organ under Dukas in Paris. Going on to become organist at the Basilica of Sainte-clotilde for over 40 years, his own music reflected his strong Catholic beliefs. Written in 1958, Venite et audite is a work for unaccompanied choir whose Latin words enthusiastically invite the listener to ‘come and listen… and I will tell you what [God] hath done for my soul.’ Less than two minutes long, it’s delightfully ebullient, with a melody that brims with energy – the effervescence of ‘Hodie Christus Natus est’ from Poulenc’s Four Motets can be heard here too, and how.
Recommended recording: Ensemble Vocal Jean Sourisse/jean Sourisse Syrius SYR 141327