Roussel, Albert

Roussel, Albert – Psaume LXXX (Psalm 80) Op. 37 for tenor, choir & orchestra

(b. Tourcoing, 5 April 1869 — d. Royan, 23 August 1937)

Preface
Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel was born in the northern French town of Tourcoing on 5 April 1869. Having suffered a number of severe setbacks in early childhood (his father, grandparents, and mother Louise all died within the space of a few years), he was raised by his aunt Eugénie Réquillart from 1879 on. Although he revealed a great talent for music in his early piano and organ lessons, he chose to train for the career of a naval officer and enrolled at the École Navale in 1887. As part of his training, he criss-crossed the oceans of the world in the years that followed, paying especially frequent visits to the Middle East. These travels brought him into contact with the music of other cultures, which would later have a signal influence on his own music. He also made a deep study of the foundations of music theory and harmony. After taking private lessons from Julien Koszul in 1893-94, he decided in 1894 to become a composer, resigning his naval commission and studying with Eugène Gigout in Paris. Being too old to attend the Conservatoire, he enrolled at the Schola Cantorum in 1898, where he spent four years studying with Vincent d’Indy. On completing his studies he was appointed teacher of counterpoint at the Schola – a position he held until 1914. Among his pupils were Jean Martinon, Erik Satie, Alexis Roland-Manuel und Edgard Varèse. In 1908 he married Blanche Preisach, with whom he traveled through India and Indochina the following year. The impressions he gathered on this journey found their way into his symphonic triptych Évocations (1910-11) and the opera-ballet Padmâvatî (1914-18). During the Great War, he served as a transport office with the Red Cross, leaving the service in January 1918. In his early years as a composer, his style was heavily influenced by French Impressionism; later, in the 1920s, he developed a more terse, sinewy, accurate style. On the occasion of his sixtieth birthday in 1929 a large-scale festival was held to illustrate his importance to French music. His final years were marked by increasing ill-health, and he died in Royan on 23 August 1937.

Psaume LXXX occupies a special place among the roughly sixty works in Roussel’s oeuvre. He set the Biblical verses in August and September 1928 and dedicated the work to Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. For his text, he used an English version taken from the Anglican translation of the Bible. For Roussel, a lifelong agnostic, the psalm’s religious significance was not of primary importance; rather, he was inspired by the dramatic nature and general validity of the Biblical text.

Psalm 80 is a psalm of lamentation. The people of Israel no longer understand their God Yahweh, who seemingly rescued them from Egypt only to abandon them. Their former glory is captured in the metaphor of a vine: once planted by Yahweh, it spread miraculously; then God tore down the protecting walls, allowing wild beasts (symbolizing Israel’s neighbors) to devour the vines and lay waste to the vineyards. The people implore God for mercy: He should return to his people and save them from perdition.

The work opens with dissonant chords (Maestoso) into which the chorus intones the threefold cry “Give ear,” clearly focusing on the lamentation or imploration of God’s people. One melody – an ascending series of five scalar steps spanning a fifth – becomes highly important for the further progress of the piece (“Turn us again, O God,” Andantino).

The next large section is marked Andante. The words of the solo tenor recall the happy and glorious days of the people’s past – a scene of pastoral grace. Now the chorus gradually enters, singing wordless vocalises, and the texture becomes increasingly complex (Andantino). Roussel uses this device to lend musical expression to the words, which speak of the vine that has sent out its branches as far as the sea. Once again, the recurrence of the opening five-note motif becomes significant, this time in triple forte.

The idyllic scene ends with an abrupt change of mood (Allegro molto). The new section opens with dissonant fanfares in the winds, followed again by the solo tenor, who finally pleads for Yahweh’s care and protection of his people (“Let thy hand,” Moderato). The piece ends quietly and peacefully. The tenor’s supplication is followed by the full chorus, which again takes up the familiar five-note motif and ends the piece pianissimo on a B major chord (“Turn us again, O Lord,” Lento).

Psaume LXXX was given its first performance at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra, Paris, on 25 April 1929. Alfred Wolff conducted the Orchestre Lamoureux and the chorus of the Schola de Nantes, and Georges Jouatte sang the tenor part. The work was issued in print as early as 1929 by the American publisher C.C. Birchard.

Translation: Bradford Robinson

For parts please contact Kalmus, Boca Raton (http:www.kalmus-music.com). Reprint of a copy from the library of the Conservatoire de musique Genève, Geneva.