Henri SAUGUET (1901-1989). - Lot 68

Lot 68
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Henri SAUGUET (1901-1989). - Lot 68
Henri SAUGUET (1901-1989). MUSICAL MANUSCRIPT autograph signed "Henri Sauguet", L'Oiseau a vu tout ça, cantata for baritone voice and string orchestra (1960); notebook of 58 folio pages (35 x 27.5 cm; traces of yellowed scotch tape on the outer edge). Orchestral score of this beautiful and moving cantata. This cantata for baritone and string orchestra was composed in May 1960 on a moving poem by Jean CAYROL (1911-2005), inspired by the tortures he had undergone during his arrest as a Resistance fighter: "A ruined man with arms too long who stood around the trunk"... It was premiered on September 3, 1960 at the Besançon Festival, by the baritone Louis-Jacques Rondeleux with the Kammerorchester der Saar, conducted by Karl Ristenpart. The 18-minute work was published by Heugel, and dedicated "To Louis-Jacques Rondeleux, Karl Ristenpart and the city of Besançon". The day after the premiere, Bernard Gavoty wrote: "What did he see, the bird on the branch? Neither the flight of winter nor the blossoming of flowers, but the torture of a man tied to the tree itself and skilfully tortured by the executioner. The strength and interest of this moving page are in the antithesis between the innocence of the bird who looks on without understanding and the despair of the man who knows he is dying. To translate this cruel poem by Jean Cayrol into music, Sauguet did not, as one might have thought, and feared, radically change his best manner - that of an elegiac musician. On a theme of twelve notes - which gave the dodecaphonists a quickly disappointed hope - Sauguet embroiders a whole series of verses, as in a Gregorian prose. He refrains from describing, in the realistic manner, what is happening, and follows the progression of the drama from the inside. Sometimes, it even seemed to me that the bird lent him its fresh voice to put a little poetry in this night of horror. [...] This Cantata is in Sauguet's work, rich in colorful pages, a pathetic and sincere image that does him credit " (Le Figaro, September 6, 1960). "L'Oiseau a vu tout cela, a cantata for baritone and string orchestra on an admirable poem by Jean Cayrol, is one of the major works of our time. It is no longer possible today for the artist to affect detachment in the face of the unleashing of violence and the oppression of cruelty. [The simplicity, the firmness of the writing and the order of the style are the counterweight to the overwhelming emotion that emanates from this poem and this music united in an indissoluble alliance. That the heart shudders and that the pen does not tremble, is it not the sign of a superior serenity and the surest guarantee of the absolute beauty of a work? "This pastoral-sounding title covers a tragedy with a modest sweetness: the torture and death of a man tied to a tree, and in this tree, the only witness to this agony, a bird. [Made of harmonic tensions, rhythmic impulses, great melodic surges alternating with moments of tragic, almost serene immobility, the music closely follows the poem without ever trying to comment on it. Listening to and echoing the inner feelings of the tortured, it allows the emotion, distress and resignation of the one who is going to die in front of his executioners to emerge. This cantata was composed between Passion Sunday and Easter Day 1960. [...] Anxious to preserve the vibrant intensity and restrained emotion of Jean Cayrol's poem, the musician wanted only the strings to orchestrate the gravity of the song" (Raphaël Cluzel). The manuscript is noted very carefully in black ink on 16-line paper; dated at the end " Coutras 17/27 May 60 ", it served as a conductor. The orchestra includes: first violins I (2) and II (2), second violins I (2) and II (2), 3 violas, 2 cellos and double bass. Discography: Michel Piquemal, Jean-Walter Audoli Instrumental Ensemble, dir. Jean-Walter Audoli (Arion 1989).
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