Roussel, Albert

Albert Roussel

Le Bardit des Francs

(b. Tourcoing, France, April 5, 1869 – d. Paris, France, August 23, 1937)

Preface
Albert Charles Roussel was born into a French family of tradespeople; after losing both his parents by age ten, he was raised by an aunt. His earliest musical training came from organ lessons taken as a child, and although he showed talent, Roussel did not explore the possibility of a professional career in music. By the age of 15, he was studying at the Collège Stanislas in Paris and in 1887 joined the French Navy. Roussel’s first works were small chamber pieces composed during his military career; his naval voyages took him to India and China where he was to experience a wide range of Eastern tonalities that influenced many of his musical compositions. By 1894, he left the navy to devote himself to the study of music, eventually entering the Schola Cantorum in Paris where he was a pupil of Vincent d’Indy. Roussel became a teacher of counterpoint at the Schola and later offered private instruction in composition; his students included Edgar Varèse, Erik Satie, and Bohuslav Martinů. Roussel stopped composing to serve his country during World War I, and following the war he and his wife settled in Normandy at Varengeville-sur-Mer. From this time, he devoted himself to musical composition until his death in 1937.

Roussel composed both large scale compositions for orchestra and the stage as well as chamber music. While some critics describe Roussel’s music as showing the influence of Impressionism and later, Neoclassicism, many of his works defy categorization; while some follow conventional musical forms and structure, they showcase Roussel’s individual flair for harmonization and vivid tonal palettes. Roussel’s first major piece, the opera-ballet Padmȃvatî, was premiered at the Paris Opéra in 1923 and brought the composer’s work to the forefront of the French musical scene. Other important stage compositions include the ballets Bacchus et Ariane (1930) and Aeneas (1935) and his ballet-pantomime Le festin de l’araignée (1913). Roussell’s orchestral output includes four symphonies, a piano concerto, a cello concerto, and a number of tone poems that serve as testaments to his abilities as a composer of expressive musical portraits. Throughout his career, Roussel composed art songs and choral pieces using both traditional forms (such as his sets of madrigals) and more contemporary settings. His most famous choral work, Psalm 80 for Tenor, Chorus and Orchestra (1928) features a text set in English arranged for mixed choir. Roussel was also influenced by the increased popularity in Europe of American jazz music, and some of his works, such as the chamber piece, Jazz dans la nuit (1928), show traces of this musical genre.

Composed in 1926, Le Bardit des Francs was dedicated to the memory of Christian Preisach, a relative of Roussel’s wife. It was premiered on April 28, 1928 by the Chorale Strasbourgeoise at Strasbourg under the baton of Ernest-Geoffroy Munch. The full score was published in 1934 by Durand. Very little is known about the origin of the piece: few references can be found in literature about the composer, and it is not frequently performed or recorded. Within the composer’s output, Le Bardit des Francs is a work without opus number. The verse is based on a classic text written in 1809, Les Martyrs, by French writer François-René de Chȃteaubriand. From this lengthy volume, Roussel took an excerpt from the sixth book which focuses on the preparations by the Franks for battle as they rally around their king, Pharamond.

Le Bardit des Francs is a single movement choral work for four male voice parts and optional percussion accompaniment. A bardit, or war chant, is meant to unify and rouse troops, giving them courage as they go into battle. Here, the text focuses on the warlike qualities of the Franks and their ability to overcome their foes; imagery is stark and violent. The repeated cry “Pharamond! Pharamond! We have fought with the sword” is followed first, by descriptions of the carnage the Franks have left in their wake, then with the promise of their valor in battle being passed down to their descendants. Vocally, tenors and basses are divided for a lush harmonization. The vocal writing is mainly homophonic, and the resulting dense, full texture conveys the strength and power of the assembled fighting men. If used, the instrumental accompaniment includes two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, and brass drum. The choice of only brass and percussion instruments in the optional accompaniment further underscores the warlike tone and echoes the instrumentation used in military bands. The overall mood created is very dramatic invoking images of the brutality of war, and Roussel, who served during World War I, would have been well acquainted with this subject matter. While the Bardit is brief in length, Roussel tells a turbulent musical story, full of dissonance and rhythmic and dynamic contrasts.

The piece is ternary in form and opens in the key of C minor. Brass accompaniment enters with a sequence of chords in a double sixteenth note-quarter note pattern that replicates a herald’s cry, immediately capturing the listener’s attention. With a forte dynamic level and harmonic dissonance in the brass, the opening conveys a sense of growing tension. Voice parts are subdivided and appear, rhythmically, in staggered fashion, with pitches rising in an upward motion with each invocation of Pharamond’s name. The rest of the text for this section is set homophonically as the soldiers describe their victory and again call upon their king to recognize their achievements. A second reiteration of the Pharamond sequence adds emotional impact as each repetition rises in dynamic level from forte to fortississimo, but vocal lines descend chromatically.
Section B features a time change from 4 / 4 to 3 / 4 as well as a downward shift in dynamic level to piano. As the text describes the extent of the slaughter (“the whole ocean was but a wound”), tenor voices rise upward chromatically while basses harmonize wordlessly with the lower line moving in a disjunct fashion which, together with an increasing dynamic level, creates a sense of mounting anxiety. Roussel demonstrates a very effective use of rhythm here as the timpani tolls a dirge like pattern to underscore the serious scene described by the text. Cymbals crash in the accompaniment and move from a piano to fortissimo level, adding to the heightened suspense.

The returning A section begins again with staggered vocal lines, but the brass accompaniment is more dynamic with trombones at times moving in contrary motion and sometimes mirroring the tenors’ melody. Roussel uses text painting to emphasize the line “our fathers died in battle” as the basses sing wordless syllables in a descending four note pattern, which is echoed in the accompaniment. When the text describes the courage of future generations (“Let us choose spouses whose milk is blood, and who will fill the hearts of our sons with valor”), the accompaniment disappears altogether, forcing the listener to focus solely on the gravity of the words. The coda displays a stark contrast to the rest of the piece as the energy level winds down as the warriors affirm a resolve to face whatever their fate may be (“the hours of life go by, we shall smile when we shall die”). The dynamic level begins at mezzo piano, but fades away like a whispering ghost as the tempo gradually slows. The accompaniment initially knells a repeated rhythm in the timpani, again echoing a funeral dirge, until the final sustained chords played by trombones decrease to a pianissimo level by the final measure. The total effect is otherworldly as the listener pauses to reflect upon the many generations of men who have fought and died on the battlefield throughout history.

Performance time runs about six minutes.

Lisa M. Woznicki, 2016

For performance material please contact Durand, Paris.