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Audible Landscapes
Rameau's Pièces de clavecin en concerts illuminated by the poetry of Rilke
December 22, 2013
Multnomah Central Library
THE WILDWOOD CONSORT
Hannah Brewer, harpsichord
Leslie Hirsch, baroque violin
Michael Wilhite, viola da gamba
with
Brian Myers, poetry reader
PROGRAM
Music of Jean-Philippe Rameau:
Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke:
Premier concert in C minor
La Coulicam
La Livri
Le Vézinet
Sense of Something Coming
The Swan
[The Wingèd Energy of Delight]
Deuxième concert in G major
La Laborde
La Boucon
L'agaçante
Menuet I, Menuet II
Woman at Her Mirror
For Hans Carossa
Before Summer Rain
To Music
Troisième concert in A major
La Lapoplinière
La timide
Tambourin I, Tambourin II
[We're Only Mouth]
Sonnets to Orpheus I
Spanish Dancer
Cinquième concert in D minor
La Marais
La Cupis
La Forqueray
Moving Forward
Song
Sonnets to Orpheus XIX
The operas and ballets of Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) are replete with colorful
instrumental music which depicts the many dramatic scenes and situations therein. His Pièces de
clavecin en concerts (1741) are the the composer's only example of chamber music not intended for
the stage. Stylistically they share much with his dramatic music; in fact some of the Pièces were
reworked and used in his operas from that period. The Pièces are mature works which
demonstrate Rameau's great expressive powers, despite their short length and limited
instrumental palette.
The center of the Pièces is the clavecin or harpsichord. Earlier in his career Rameau wrote three
books of Pièces de clavecin for solo harpsichord. Pièces de clavecin en concerts may be viewed as his
fourth harpsichord book; "en concerts" indicates the presence of two stringed instruments (flute
optional) in accompaniment roles. This is the opposite of the Italian model in which the
harpsichord provides accompaniment to the stringed instruments. Although Rameau in his
preface claimed the Pièces de clavecin en concerts could stand as harpsichord solos without
accompaniment (perhaps to promote the publication to a wider audience), analysis of the scores
shows carefully orchestrated textures in which no part is dispensable.
Some of the Pièces are named after, and perhaps descriptive of, patrons (La Lapoplinière) or fellow
artists (La Cupis, La Forqueray). Others are character pieces with fanciful titles (L'agaçante – "the
annoying woman"). Throughout the collection Rameau's many-faceted genius surfaces in
moments that are idyllic, restless, dreamlike, humorous, elegaic, tragic, pensive or brilliant. The
composer once stated "The expression of thoughts, of feelings, and of passions, should be the true
aim of music". In this program we invite the listener to ponder the thoughts, feelings and
passions of an artist from a different time and place as they listen to Rameau's music.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) influenced a generation of twentieth century poets including
Galway Kinnell, Sidney Keyes, Stephen Spender, Robert Bly, W. S. Merwin, John Ashbery, and W.
H. Auden. In certain early works Rilke concentrated profound depth in short pieces about simple
things such as a flag, a swan, or the moment before a rain begins. Rilke originated a new way of
dealing with abstractions through concrete things, a technique he developed working as assistant
to Auguste Rodin, from whom he learned something of an artist's skill in observing objects.
Rilke is always looking for a way through things in the world to things beyond the world—a
particularly difficult challenge for a poet struggling with depression, living through the First
World War, and influenced by the likes of Freud, Nietzsche, and Cocteau. How can one commune
with the ineffable in an age of disbelief? His approach is deeply personal and at times mystical.
Rilke's most important work, the Duino Elegies, has been called "one of the most successful
attempts a modern man has made to orientate himself within his chaotic world."
Music has a particular appeal for Rilke. His poems are full of music imagined or remembered: the
song of the sap rising in trees, Death playing a violin, a song from childhood, a dancer's castanets.
One of his best-known works is a set of sonnets dedicated to Orpheus, and it's worth
remembering that Orpheus sang as well as played. His voice as well as his lyre quieted the beasts
who came out to listen. Our hypothesis for pairing these selections from Rilke's works with music
by Rameau may be found in the following loose translation from Sonnet to Orpheus II:
It was almost a girl who appeared
In this union of lyric and lyre
Her diaphanous form shone clear
And she made her bed in my ear.
Notes by Michael Wilhite and Brian Myers