Late 19th and first half of the 20th century French music production is characterized by a taste for sophisticated melodies, refined and unusual timbral mixtures. The influence of composers such as Debussy and Ravel is deep and widespread, but the more avant-garde experimentation, as to be found in the rarefied atmospheres and rhythmic fluidity of musique d’ameublement, is also an undeniable element in the fin de siècle French soundscape.
In this context, the flute and harp duo plays a significant and prominent role. The timbral blend, already popular among post-Mozartian German composers at the turn of the 19th century, owes its best literature precisely to the late 19th-century French composers, who captured its potential (aprés Debussy).
A booster to the flute’s potential were the technological innovations made by Theobald Böhm (1794 – 1881), flutist and inventor, son of a Bavarian goldsmith. More appreciated in France than in his homeland, Böhm’s flute paved the way for a true “flute revolution,” led by the genius of great teachers and musicians, including Paul Taffanel (1844 – 1908), who succeded to Henri Altès (1826 -1895) in the chair of flute at the Paris Conservatory in 1893. Through his method and performance style, Taffanel greatly contributed to the improvement of the flute’s tonal and interpretive abilities and raised a new generation of flute-soloists. Under his far-sighted leadership and that of other great teachers, such as Philippe Gaubert (1879 – 1941) and Marcel Moyse (1889-1984), the French flute school made extensive progress in the emission technique, giving the instrument – hitherto limited by faint timbre, inconsistency among registers and inaccurate intonation – new sonority, power and expressiveness. These characteristics, which won the flute vast popularity, are perfectly depicted in theis repertoire.
Jean Michel Damase, Sonata for Flute and Harp
The precocious musical talent of Jean-Michel Damase (1928 – 2013) was cultivated in a highly stimulating family environment, plenty of fine acquaintances: his father, Albert, a composer and harmony teacher, was his first mentor; his mother, Micheline Khan (1889- 1987), a renowned and talented harpist, enjoyed the company of artists and writers, such as the eccentric Colette, and was undoubtedly the reason for the composer’s fondness for this instrument.
A pupil of Alfred Cortot (1877- 1972), Damase was admitted very young to Armand Ferté’s (1881 – 1973) piano class at the Paris Conservatory, and studied composition and harmony with Henri Busser (1872 – 1973) and Marcel Dupré (1886 – 1971). In 1947 he won the Grand Prix de Rome for composition with the cantata Et la belle se réveilla. In addition to his piano career and teaching, he always brought on his compositional activity, albeit outside the avant-garde movements of the 20th century. The style of his chamber music production, for which he is best known, is inspired by Impressionism and Neoclassicism and characterized by the elegant timbral combinations. Among his favorite instruments there certainly were the harp and flute, and it is interesting to note that about one-third of his chamber production involves them both.
Sonate No. 1, published in 1964, is now a classic in the chamber repertoire for this appreciated duo, partly due to the recording byJean Pierre Rampal and Lily Laskine, its dedicatees, who worked closely to the composer.
Damase was able to take full advantage of the technical possibilities of the instruments, and his peculiar compositional style, though still making use of classical devices (scales, arpeggios, chords) and avoiding unusual timbral effects, is anything but predictable. His fascinating and highly personal writing for the harp reveals a deep knowledge of the technique, due to his mother, for whom Gabriel Fauré (1845 – 1924) wrote the virtuosic Op. 110, Une châtelaine en sa tour, inspired by Paul Verlaine’s poem. The Sonata’s apparent ease and lightness of sound should not, in fact, mislead on the technical difficulties given, for example, by the variety of the harmonic palette, full of modulations and accidentals that need expert and skillful use of the pedals. Although the care for the variety and subtleties of articulation and dynamics are not to be underestimated. Damase is also able to highlight the flute’s agility, richness of timbre across the entire range and particularly the virtuosic use of pianissimo in the high register, still preserving the utmost and constant flexibility of sound.
The gorgeous melodic invention is peculiar of this sonata – whose hallmarks are fluidity and momentum. It is divided into four movements: the first, Allegro moderato, flaunts a sinuous line that runs through the flute register from low to high with great clarity and freshness, while the harp accompanies with rapid and regular rhythmic patterning and chromatic harmonies. The second movement, Andante, lingers in a relaxed and lulling atmosphere, given by the binary rhythm, and the instruments take turns in thematic exposition. The harmonic texture is never predictable. Some passages require refined sonic virtuosity and full executive mastery, such as the repetition of the thematic motif in the flute’s highest pitches and in fortissimo, though with lightness and smoothness. The third movement, a sparkling scherzo Allegro vivo, further highlights the duo’s expressive and virtuosic technical skills with a staccato motif and asymmetrical rhythm. The sonata concludes with a bipartite movement, Adagio-Presto, whose dramatic melody shares another glimpse into the timbral and interpretative abilities of the flute.
Jean Michel Damase, Pavane a cinq temps
La Pavane a cinq temps is a 1996 composition: in its scant five minutes, it is a precious miniature, that takes up the slow solemnity of the Renaissance dance, transfiguring it in a contemporary style. The arpeggio texture of the accompaniment blurs harmonies as in a watercolor and lingers fleetingly between the keys of D minor and F major. The odd rhythm disarticulates the choreographic symmetry and channels attention to the mellifluous embroidery of the flute melody.
Jules Mouquet, Divertissement Grec, op. 23.
Of much humbler origins than Damase, Jules Mouquet (1867-1946), the son of a Parisian butcher, became a professor of harmony at the Conservatoire in 1913. At nineteen, he joined the flute class of the aforementioned Altés and studied composition with the great organist and longtime Conservatory director Theodore Dubois (1837 – 1924), who described him as «shy gentle and not very expansive». Withdrawn, then, but undoubtedly determined, so much so that in 1896 he achieved the highest musical recognition, winning, after three failed attempts, the Grand Prix de Rome with the cantata Mélusine. In addition to Celtic legends, in the wake of French Neoclassicism with a Debussian and anti-Wagnerian flavor, Mouquet showed interest in Greek mythology, whose themes are evoked in his compositions. He authored orchestral works, chamber music, and pieces for piano and organ, and granted special attention to wind instruments: saxophone, oboe, bassoon, and especially the flute, for whose repertoire the composer has remained best known. His fascination with Greek antiquity reverberates in titles such as La flute de Pan, perhaps his best known piece, Danse Greque, Pan et les Oiseaux and precisely this Divertissement Grec, dating 1908.
Sorted in three movements named after the ancient Greek modes, on which the composer sets the modal harmonic structure, the piece is dedicated to Taffanel and involves some mastery of legato and digital technique. The first movement, Lydienne, in a relaxed 6/4 with a calm, cantabile character, alternates two simple thematic ideas in the Lidian and Ipolidian modes, respectively. The second, Dorienne, is more passional and excited, thanks to an assertive motif and character and to the staccato accompaniment. It ideally echoes the virile ethos associated with the ancient Greek tetrachord that accompanied serious, martial and solemn lyrics. The third movement, Phrygienne, alternates between two thematic ideas: the first, in Frigian mode, consists of a short motif with a descending profile, accompanied by arpeggios in anapestic rhythm; the second, in Hypophrygian, characterized by the tercinate movement of the melody in legato, superimposed on a quaver accompaniment that proceeds in wide intervals. Both ideas tend to highlight the variety of articulation and flexibility of the flute, through flowing and expressive volutes, rapid scales and arpeggios, while the harp counterpoints the virtuosic movement.
Jean Cras, Suite en duo
The particular biography of the Breton Jean Cras (1879-1932) makes him a fascinating example of eclectic talent and polymath. Naval officer by family tradition, inventor, scientist, philosopher, and composer by vocation, Cras combined his work with the conviction, proper to a man of great faith, that he was «a voice through which the Unknown had chosen to manifest himself» (Benpéchat).
He was very close to Henri Duparc (1848-1933) who called him «le fils de mon âme» (Lethel). The latter had been a pupil of César Frank (1822-1890), and by this sort of genealogical line Cras was enrolled among the emulators of the great Belgian organist. Self-conscious and introspective, his compositional style reflects his character: indeed, it is defined by open textures and extended harmonies while framed in a tonal framework, over which melodies often have a traditional flavor. He composed much chamber music before approaching symphonism in an impressionistic style, inspired by the sea and the Breton atmospheres to which he was intimately bonded. Given his profession, he also had the opportunity to study instruments and musical systems of distant cultures, especially from the African colonies he had visited, but this does not seem to be reflected in his compositional choices.
The Suite en duo, in four movements, opens with a theatrical éntrée, Preambule-Moderé, where the flute performs an ornate recitative-style line and the harp accompanies in fluent arpeggios. The lively melody of the Moderé introduces bucolic atmospheres. Assez Lent is a posed and shadier movement: it exploits the intensity of the middle register of the flute, which steadily punctuates an insistent double-dotted rhythm motif. It then merges with the following dialogue between the two instruments, airy at times or convoluted. Danse a onze temps – Très animé lively and sparkingly concludes the piece: the odd meter reminds of Balkan, Greek or Anatolian dances, and allows the instruments for virtuosity and agility.