VERS SATANIQUES [Satanic Verse], Symphonic Song Cycle After Baudelaire
Harold Blumenfeld
About this work:
VERS SATANIQUES - [Satanic Verse] - sets three cardinal Baudelaire poems in all-encompassing cycle for dramatic baritone with mezzo coloratura, orchestra. Sung in French.
I: "Le Jet d'eau".
II: "L'Horloge".
III: "La Vie anterieure".
["The Fountain" / "The Clock" / "A Past Life"].
Issued 2008 on compact disk by Albany Records, TROY 1034. Recorded 2007 by Polish Radio National Orchestra, Joel Eric Suben conducting, Donnie Ray Albert singing leading baritone role, Christine Schadeberg supporting on mezzo coloratura...
Conductor writes of this work: "...I come away with the conviction that you are the most significant composer today for voice/orchestra. It's partly due to complexity of your treatment of orchestra, partly to your exploitation of motivic and intervallic material, and hugely due to restraint, limits which you impose on all the complexity. I honestly can't think of another composer active today who has achieved anything close, and I am in awe of your work..."
Orchestra: 3.3.3.3./4.2.3.1./ 4 perc, timp; piano & celesta; 2 harps; strings, tape. [This is correct listing: later, on this site, orchestra listing is uncorrectable.]
Poems of this half-hour work encompass ultimates in human experience: Love, Death, Remembrance: sensuous Eros, threatening, inescapable Thanatos, and a wistful Recalling of Life from far side of Tomb.
Former Pub. MMB Music, now closed. Published by COMPOSER: blumenf@wustl.edu
Large score, 11x15: $110.
Standard score, 8 1/2 x 11: $90.
[Available unbound for libraries]
PAGES OF SCORE available on site:
First set: from "L'Horloge", shows scoring at its most dense; second set: from "La Vie anterieure", scoring at its most translucent.
[Orchestra: standard, with 5 percussion, 2 harps, amplified piano, celesta; strings, tape.]
In I, "Le Jet d'eau", mezzo is lightly miked for reverb and echo of intricate mezzo coloratura passages.
In II, "L'Horloge", toward end, taped church bells herald approaching doom.
There follows a brief "Interlude".
Part III, "La Vie anterieure", is introduced by magical passage for bells. In "Vie anterieure", orchestral sound is reduced, tone is wistful, serene.
In this work, intricate orchestral fabrics color everything from charged, passionate eroticism to terrifying contemplation of Death's unimpedable advance; and then - a wistful, transmuted vision of life as recalled from the Hereafter.
Composition initiated 1995 in Cassis, Scored 1997 in St Louis, comprehensively re-done 2007 into present form in preparation for recording.
TEXT EXTRACTS---
The three poems are here taken up in reverse order, accompanied by composer's translations.
From III - "La Vie anterieure":
"J'ai longtemps habite
sous de vastes portiques
[I LONG HAVE DWELLED
BENEATH VAST PORTICOES]
Que les soleils marins
teignaient de mille feux,
[TINTED BY MARINE SUNS
IN A THOUSAND FLAMES,]
Et que leurs grands piliers,
droits et majestueux
[AND WHOSE GREAT PILLARS,
STRAIGHT AND MAJESTIC]
Rendaient pareils, le soir,
aux grottes basaltiques.
[MADE THEM SEEM, AT EVENING,
AS BASALT GROTTOES]...
C'est la que j'ai vecu
dans les voluptes calmes,
[IT IS THERE I LIVED,
IN VOLUPTUOUS CALM]
Au milieu de l'azur,
des vagues, des splendeurs
[AMID THE AZURE, WAVES, SPLENDORS]
Et des esclaves nus,
tout impregnes d'odeurs
[AND NAKED SLAVES,
ALL SCENTED WITH PERFUME]
Qui me refraichissaient le front
avec des palmes,
[WHO REFRESHED MY BROW
WITH PALM FRONDS,]
Et dont l'unique soin
etait de'approfondir
[AND WHOSE ONLY DUTY WAS TO FATHOM]
le secret douloureux
qui me faisait languir.
[THE MOURNFUL SECRET
FROM WHICH I LANGUISHED."]...
Next, proceeding backwards: the opening lines from II... - "L'Horloge"--..
"Horloge! dieu sinistre, effrayant, impassible [CLOCK! SINISTER,
TERRIFYING, IMPASSIVE GOD]
Dont le doigt nous menace
et nous dit: souviens-toi!
[WHOSE FINGER MENACES US
AND CRIES: 'REMEMBER!]
Les vibrantes Douleurs
dans ton coeur plein d'effroi
[VIBRANT PAIN SOON WILL IMPLANT ITSELF]
Se planteront bientot
comme dans une cible. [IN YOUR TREMULOUS HEART AS INTO A TARGET.]etc...
And now from I - "Le Jet d'eau", starting with baritone's lines:
"Tes beaux yeux sont las, pauvre amante!
[YOUR BEAUTIFUL EYES ARE TIRED,
POOR LOVE!]
Reste longtemps, sans les rouvrir
[REMAIN LONG WITHOUT OPENING THEM]
Dans cette pose nonchalante
[IN THAT NONCHALANT POSE]
Ou t'as surprise le Plaisir.
[WHERE PLEASURE SURPRISED YOU".]...
...and continuing with intricate, reverb-enhanced Soprano Coloratura:
"La gerbe epanouie En mille fleurs,
Ou Phoebe rejouie Met ses couleurs,
[THE SHEAF OUTSPREAD
IN A THOUSAND FLOWERS,
WHERE PHOEBE, REJOICING,
PAINTS HER HUES,]
Tombe comme une pluie De larges pleurs.
[FALLS AS IN A FLOOD OF GREAT TEARS."]
....(After baritone's next strophe, Phoebe passage is repeated with greater floridity, this shadowed with reverb-laced echoings).
This languorous opening poem ends: "Lune, eau sonore, nuit benie,
Arbres qui frissonnez autour,
Votre pure melancolie
Est le miroir de mon amour."
["MOON, RESONANT WATERS, BLESSED NIGHT,
TREES WHICH TREMBLE ALL AROUND,
YOUR PURE MELANCHOLY
IS THE MIRROR OF MY LOVE."]...
[Translations copyrighted 1997 by composer.]
Version: 2007
Year composed: 2007
Duration: 00:27:00
Ensemble type: Orchestra:Orchestra with Soloist(s)
Instrumentation: 1 Alto Flute, 2 Oboe, 1 Eb Clarinet, 1 Bass Clarinet, 2 Bassoon, 1 Contrabassoon, 4 Horn in F, 3 Trumpet, 1 Bass Trombone, 1 Tuba, 1 Timpani, 4 Percussion (General), 12 Violin, 6 Viola, 6 Cello, 3 Double bass, 2 Harp, ,1 Baritone soloist(s)
Instrumentation notes: INSTRUMENTATION LISTING above is flawed, incomplete and resists correction. Here is complete correct list:
3 fl [incl pic, alto]; 2 ob incl Eng Hrn); 2 cl [incl Eb]; bass cl; 2 bn, cbn; 4 horns, 2 C tpts, 3 trombs, bass tuba;
4 percussion, timp, 2 harps, piano & celesta, tape.
Strings: minimum 12 vln, 6 vla, 6 vc, 3 cb.
Requires lyric-dramatic baritone, wide range, flawless French diction; mezzo with pyrotechnical coloratura.
Baritone is ubiquitous. Mezzo quietly miked for echo, reverb in I. Church bells on tape at end of II.
Whitehall bells [or chimes struck w rawhde mallets] used for bell music introducing III.
Onstring piano effects, rain sticks, and certain other instruments require amplification.
Baritone: major throughout. Mezzo sings intricate coloraturas in I, brief echoings in II, tacet in III.