Joseph-Guy Ropartz (1864-1955) is an often forgotten and neglected French composer. Ropartz studied composition under Francoise Clement Theodore Dubois and Jules Massanet. Modern composers of the time, such as Debussy, can be heard in Ropartz's music, but perhaps the largest influence of his music is Cesar Franck, with whom he studied organ. Franck's use of cyclic forms and chromatic harmonies can be heard in much of Ropartz's music. He was also influenced by Sacred music, being a devout Catholic. He identified himself not as a Frenchman, but as a Celtic Breton, associating himself with the Breton cultural renaissance of time. Ropartz set many works of Breton writers to music. He often said he was the son of a country "where the goblins populate the moor and dance by the moony nights around the menhirs...where spirits of the unburied dead appear all white above the waters of the Bay of the Departed." Rene Dumesnil wrote in his literary work Le Monde," There is with Ropartz a science of folklore and its proper use, which one admires; but more often than the direct use of popular motifs it is an inspiration drawn from the same soil which nourishes the work, like sap in trees." During the course of his lifetime, Ropartz composed a numerous amount of works including 5 symphonies, 3 violin sonatas, 2 cello sonatas, a vast amount of chamber works such as string trios, a piano trio, and string quartets, as well as choral music and other instrumental works.
Ropartz's second cello sonata was written in 1918, when the composer was about 54 years old, during which he worked as director of the Nancy Conservatory, before taking up the position as conductor of the Strasbourg the next year. The first movement of the cello sonata opens with a very short Lent intro, then transitioning into a sweeping Ardent where the lyrical cello line is brought forth in a romantic style with sweeping piano underneath. Brief pauses in the momentum almost harken to the music of Debussy, but the original idea reappears, finally slowing down towards the end of the piece with the original theme presented as if in a memory. The second movement, Lent et Calme, begins with a introspective and reflective dialogue between the cello and piano. The movement gains complexity as the texture thickens and polyrhythm becomes a common technique. This movement ends in a bloom of C major sonoroties with the cellist sustaining the tonic, and the piano softly supporting with two struck chords at the end. Based on a folk dance from Brittany, the third movement of this work begins with a very short Tres Lent section having the piano arpeggiate up a B7 chord. It quickly turns to an ostinato bass pattern in the lively Assez anime, in which the cello chimes in the the main theme. Throughout this movement the cello and piano exchange the ostinato pattern and the main theme, until the work ends with a triumphant Tres Vif in the parallel key of A Major.
Contemporaries of Guy Ropartz, compositions by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), Gabriel Faure (1845-1924), and Claude Debussy (1862-1918) are also featured on this program. Both Ravel and Debussy are both regarded as impressionist composers, however both rejected that term. Ravel considered himself a classicist, using more traditional forms from earlier musical periods (such as Baroque). He pulled inspiration from many different nationalities of music. He drew on French composers such as Rameau and Couperin, to his contemporaries, Faure and Debussy. Piece en Forme de Habanera was written during a time when he was writing two other works with a Spanish influence, Rapsodie espagnole and the opera, L’Heure espagnole. Piece was written originally as a vocal study for low voice, however it has been transcribed for many instruments including flute, violin, and cello.
One of the biggest influences of this period of French music was Gabriel Faure. He is regarded as the bridge between Romanticism and the modernism of the late 20th century. Although he used traditional forms, Faure was known for his innovative harmonic progressions and melodies. Much like Guy Ropartz, Faure was a working composer, first a Professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire, and in 1905 became the director of the Conservatoire, where he remained until ill health forced him to resign. Faure’s output of works is vast, spanning over 100 songs, plus scores of piano music, sonatas for both violin and cello, as well as many other works including his well-known Requiem. This program features two works originally composed for cello and piano: Elegie (1880) and Sicilienne (1893). Les Berceaux (1879) and Au Bord d’leau (c.1875) are both originally written as vocal works, both part of two bigger cycles of Art Song.
Along with Ravel, Claude Debussy is one of the most prominent composers of what is known as Impressionist music. Although he disliked the term for his compositions, impressionist music has a tendency to focus on the moods and emotions aroused by the subject, rather than a detailed “tone-picture.” Impressionist music focuses on “color” via texture and harmonic usage, of which Debussy frequently used chromaticism and non-traditional scales and tonalities. Nuit d’Etoiles (1880) and Les Cloches (1885) are originally composed for voice, while Reverie (1890) is originally a piano composition. All three pieces evoke emotions of dream, sorrow, and reflection of years gone by.
-MS
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