Issuu

FA L L 2026

Volume 63 | Number 2

WWW.NCCO-USA.ORG

Table of Contents

1 3 4 7 21 25

Executive Leadership Editor Letter Research Reviews Kimberly Dunn Adams, editor contributors: Dr. Richard Hutton, Benjamin Saunders The Inherent Dichotomy of Good and Evil: An Analysis of Francis Poulenc’s Choral Cycle Figure Humaine Brennan Michaels Choral Reviews Nathan Reiff, editor contributors: Liz Olson, Jack Reeder Recording Reviews Morgan Luttig, editor contributors: Brian Niu, Reina Dickey

WWW.NCCO-USA.ORG

NCCO Executive Leadership Merrin Guice Gill PRESIDENT-ELECT

Dr. Merrin Guice Gill is the Director of Choral Activities at Bethel University. Her choirs have received international awards including first and second prizes in the Riva Del Garda International Choral Competition, Silver Medal at the World Choir Games, and as finalists in the American Prize for Choral Performance. She is an accomplished soprano in opera and new music, frequent guest clinician, and scholar whose research has been presented widely. With NCCO, she has served on the National Board, published in The Choral Scholar, and presented “Feldenkrais Method and Mental Health in the Choral Room” at the 2023 National Conference.

Jonathan Talberg PRESIDENT-ELECT

Dr. Jonathan Talberg is the Director of Choral Studies at California State University, Long Beach, where he conducts the internationally acclaimed Bob Cole Chamber Choir. His ensembles have appeared at three NCCO Conferences, multiple Western regional and national ACDA conventions, and won numerous first-place awards at international competitions. A devoted mentor to emerging conductors and educators, Dr. Talberg’s teaching has shaped a generation of collegiate choral artists. He is invited frequently as a guest conductor and clinician, and CSULB alums hold significant positions nationwide. He is committed to advancing artistic and scholarly excellence, equity, and collaboration in higher education, which reflects the values and mission that define and guide the National Collegiate Choral Organization.

Hana Cai VICE PRESIDENT I currently serve as the Associate Director of Choral Activities at Harvard University, where I conduct the Radcliffe Choral Society and co-conduct the Harvard–Radcliffe Collegium Musicum alongside my colleague, Andy Clark. Before joining Harvard, I held faculty appointments at Lehigh University and Ithaca College. I gave a presentation at NCCO10 on breaking down the choral hierarchy and cultivating the morale of treble choirs and am serving as a National Board member for the Eastern Division. In that capacity, I was on the adjudication panels for the conducting masterclass and scores for NCCO11. My Mandarin diction guide for choral conductors and singers is published in The Choral Scholar & American Choral Review.

Jenny Bent TREASURER Dr. Jenny Bent is Director of Choral and Voice Activities at Sonoma State University and Choral Director of the Santa Rosa Symphony. Dr. Bent’s contributions to the field of choral music have been recognized through accolades including the 2019 CMEA Bay Section Outstanding Choral Educator Award and the 2023 CMEA Pearson/Scott Foresman/Silver Burdett Choral Educator Award. The San Francisco Classical Voice described her symphony chorus as “superb” with “excellent diction and well-controlled dynamics,” and her ensemble SonoVoce performed at the 2023 California All State Music Education Conference. Dr. Bent is currently Repertoire & Resources Collegiate Choirs Coordinator for National ACDA and Western Region Representative for NCCO. From 2007 to 2014, Dr. Bent enjoyed hosting The Choir Loft on the Sonoma County NPR affiliate, KRCB-FM. She holds degrees from Boston University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 1

Cordara Harper SECRETARY Dr. Cordara Harper is a native of Cove City, North Carolina, the Director of Choral Activities, Voice Area Coordinator, and Assistant Professor of Music Education at Grambling State University. Harper is an international presenter and acclaimed versatile musician active as a music educator, choral conductor, instructional leader, and vocal musician. Dr. Harper completed a Ph.D. in Music Education with a cognate in Choral Conducting at the University of Memphis.

Angelica Dunsavage CHIEF EDITOR OF PUBLICATIONS Dr. Angelica Dunsavage [she/they] serves as Artistic Director for Valley Women’s Ensemble, and is the choir and piano teacher at Paradise Valley High School.. She has previously taught at the K-12 and university levels in Ohio, Arizona, Washington, and Tennessee. She received her DMA in Choral Conducting and Music Education from University of Arizona. Dr. Dunsavage currently serves as Chief Editor of Publications for the National Collegiate Choral Organization. She has presented posters and interest sessions for ACDA, NCCO, NAfME and College Music Society conferences. She remains in demand as a clinician, composer/ arranger, vocal teacher, professional chorister, and mezzo-soprano soloist. Her primary research interests are early secular music and Alexander Technique.

TCS ACR

From the Editor

Rejoicing in Beauty and Work

VO L U M E 6 3 | N U M B E R 2 | FA L L 2 0 2 6

Angelica Dunsavage

“It is better to hope that music may always be transcendental language in the most extravagant sense”

scholars. In this framework, we are excited to writing, and podcasts. If you have an idea —Charles Ivesto share, or want to get involved, please see announce the following changes to our submission guidelines present on our website, https://nccoour website or email editor@ncco-usa.org usa.org/publications/the-choral-scholar-americancareer in choral conducting is built of twoChoral Scandinavian Kaija Saariaho choral-review: The Scholar and composers, American Choral Review

asking the right questions: of the music, of •the composer, of the our Peer-reviewed articles will sound remain aand feature of this publication. Authors who wish to singers, and of each other. This edition of The submitand completed articlesChoral for peer review American Review Choral Scholar are encouraged to do so but will have the highlights that practice of discovery.

and Gjermund Larsen. In organization’s research reviews, is a reflection of NCCO: it is our mission and vision putChoral into the practice ofA Life of Dale Warland’s book Conducting: research. As such, this edition challenges us Building answers the questions asked every day in to move forward into change. Patrick Freer’s rehearsal by a true legend in ourthat field. article A Beloved Community reminds there is much work to be done to align the choral field’s values with its research. Kirsten Hedegaard’s The Choral Scholar and American Choral Review article Environmentalism through Choral Music is alwayshow looking new writers, and highlights choral for music canideas, be a message creative expansions to Sienkiewicz our offerings. If you have for social change. Nicholas combines psychology with musical analysis to unpack the out to a passion you wish to share, please reach emotional impact of Considering Matthew Shepard. us at editor@ncco-usa.org! If you are interested We hope that this publication continues to expand in submitting article or becoming a review what is possible inan choral scholarship and be the panelist, please visit https://ncco-usa.org/ change we seek.

option for additional feedback from an Editorial Mentor if requested.

Our feature article by Brennan Michaels • Submissions are struggle now openoffor article demonstrates the internal good and ideas and works in progress. We would evil in Poulenc’s Figure Humaine. Though one of like to hear from a growing number of his least performed works, Poulenc believed this authors, particularly those who may have piece to be abeen capstone of his compositional style uninspired to submit an article, and and personalcommit spirituality. In this piece, conductors to guiding groundbreaking ideas into publication. tackle a musical battle of epic proportions, asking the most of their singers on a piece Poulenc was ChoralinScholar will be expanding to never able•toThe record his lifetime.

publications/the-choral-scholar-american-choralreview to view our submission guidelines.

Sincerely,

include new methods of scholarship, including interviews, videos, creative

Angelica Dunsavage

Chief Editor of Publications Sincerely,

In our review columns, The Choral Scholar is bringing discovery around every corner. The recording review of Marianna Martines: Messa Terza by University of Arizona’s Symphonic Choir brings to life a piece forgotten in time for close to 300 years. Our score reviews shine light on

Angelica Dunsavage

Chief Editor of Publications

TCS ACR

Research Reviews Dr. Kimberly Dunn Adams, editor

mentors, aural training, conducting and rehearsal technique, score preparation, and interpretation. He offers practical observations throughout, from avoiding excessive left-hand mirroring to resisting the temptation to over-cue, and illustrates his approach to score study with examples from his own marked scores. One of the most memorable reminders is to know the score thoroughly, and early enough, that the conductor’s eyes can remain on the singers rather than buried in the music. The book then shifts to the choir itself, addressing leadership teams, auditions, and the many factors that shape choral tone before concluding with chapters on programming and commissioning composers. This final section is among the book’s strongest, pairing Warland’s reflections with the perspectives of a dozen respected conductors and offering a range of thoughtful approaches to repertoire selection.

Choral Conducting: A Life of Building Dale Warland with Brian Newhouse

GIA Publications, 2026

or choral conductors, Dale Warland is a household name, and Choral Conducting: A Life of Building gathers his wisdom into a concise and practical volume. Rather than another conducting-method textbook, this book is best understood as the reflections of a master teacher from his upbringing on a dairy farm in Iowa to his years leading the Dale Warland Singers. Organized around three themes: (1) building the conductor’s leadership, (2) building the choir as an instrument, and (3) building repertoire and programming, the book covers much ground yet is concise enough to read in only a few sittings. Like a sermon one has heard many times, Warland revisits familiar lessons that seasoned conductors already know but still need to hear. Choral conductors will find themselves nodding along in affirmation as Warland intersperses practical advice with personal anecdotes and many quotations from admired colleagues.

One of the book’s greatest strengths is its emphasis on listening as the conductor’s primary skill. Warland moves beyond simple pitch-error detection, encouraging conductors to cultivate an ever-expanding “audio palette” capable of discerning nuance in tone, balance, and ensemble color. Throughout, he also consistently returns to the importance of treating people well and of

Warland begins with the conductor, exploring the development of musicianship and leadership through podium experience, observation of

VO L U M E 6 3 | N U M B E R 2 | FA L L 2 0 2 6

remaining authentically oneself as a conductor, programmer, and artist. “Being yourself” was emphasized even when it comes to which repertoire to program and whether to use baton.

Growing Your Choral Program: A Practical Guide for New Directors Nicolás Alberto Dosman

ISBN 978-1538158968 147 pages Rowman & Littlefield, 2024 $111.10 hardcover $28.60 softcover

The chapters were somewhat uneven in length as some subjects received concise treatment, while others reveal Warland’s particular interests (i.e., two thoughtful pages devoted to the musical significance of rests and an unexpectedly lengthier chapter on audition considerations and procedures). For conductors leading selective ensembles, some material may feel unnecessarily granular. By contrast, the chapter on the “Fifteen Factors Affecting Choral Tone” provides a useful checklist for younger conductors learning what to listen for in an ensemble’s sound.

n Growing Your Choral Program: A Practical Guide for New Directors, Dr. Nicolás Alberto Dosman states that “many new teachers need quick practical resources while they become acclimated to the profession… My hope is that this book will help those who, like me, struggled early in their career and need quick practical guidance” (vii). He provides introductory strategies for new choral teachers to apply quickly and effectively in their pedagogy and choir leadership, drawn from his experience leading a variety of ensembles.

Ultimately, Choral Conducting: A Life of Building succeeds because it continually answers the question of why we conduct choirs. Warland’s aesthetic, inspired in part by Charles Ives’s notion of “rejoicing in beauty and work,” reminds readers that the expressive possibilities of choral music are virtually limitless. Experienced conductors will find affirmation, younger conductors will discover a thoughtful primer, and nearly every reader will encounter insights worth applying to their musical lives. I plan to adopt the book as supplemental reading for my undergraduate conducting practicum, where students first begin wrestling with many of these ideas from the podium.

The eight chapters cover four main concepts for early educators: 1. Building connection and inclusivity in ensembles, 2. Developing literacy and musicianship through rehearsals tailored to different ensembles, 3. Creating the infrastructure and support networks for successful choral programs, and 4. Programming accessible and meaningful repertoire. The appendices include lesson plan outlines for various ensembles based on the Kodály-Chosky Model, as well as audition forms and rubrics from the Florida and Minnesota state educator associations and Jean Ashworth Bartle.

— Dr. Richard Hutton Dr. Richard Hutton is the Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at Boise State University.

Connection, diversity and inclusivity are central to Dosman’s message. He states that “making the human connection is just as important as musical competency” (2). He explores the balance of vulnerability with capability that make for an effective and influential director. This balance is connected to creating a welcoming environment

for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC singers through language, rehearsal tactics, and repertoire selection. The text also provides structure on selecting, researching, teaching, and performing music from cultures with which the conductor is less familiar.

including composer/arranger, voicing, age range, and language for each selection. Publisher information was not included, but would be a welcome addition to a second edition. Dosman briefly analyzes each piece, offering a short explanation of historical or cultural context, approaches in studying and rehearsing the piece, and technical considerations for the choir. These analyses could form the basis of a framework for examining new repertoire a conductor selects for their ensemble. While Marques Garrett’s The Oxford Book of Choral Music by Black Composers is mentioned as a resource for minority composers, including a broader range of repertoire databases and resources featuring musics by marginalized composers and arrangers would provide greater depth in this area.

One of the greatest assets of the book is the reallife scenarios of choral ensembles presented in chapter six. These seven scenarios illustrate contexts conductors may encounter, including ensemble culture, external influences, and singer engagement. Dosman provides frameworks for navigating these situations, helping directors create positive environments where singers, supporters, and church or community leadership work together toward unified goals. Another key strength is the guidance on garnering support from administration, booster organizations, guardians, or board members of school, church, or community choirs. Chapter seven addresses each ensemble’s hierarchies, organization, and processes, showing how to build relationships that support a shared vision.

Not overly academic, Growing Your Choral Program is intentionally practical in delivery to aid new directors as they begin their pursuit of choral leadership and collaboration. It serves as a helpful guide for undergraduate students before student teaching, teachers in their first few years, or for new volunteer church or community directors who would gain insight into cultivating key characteristics and skills essential for early-career success. Dosman emphasizes that “being a choral director in any scenario is to be of service–and enhance the human experience through music. If we focus on our true mission, then our legacy will write itself” (107).

While this book provides a helpful foundation for new directors, supplemental materials may be needed to provide greater depth in key areas, particularly rehearsal strategies, vocal technique, and literacy training. Dosman acknowledges that the strategies are not “intended to be a silver bullet or solve every issue” (13), suggesting that new directors should draw on additional resources as they develop these skills.

— Benjamin Saunders

Chapter eight provides a diverse list of twenty recommended pieces for mixed novice choirs,

Benjamin Saunders is a DMA Candidate in Choral Conducting at Michigan State University.

TCS ACR

The Inherent Dichotomy of Good and Evil:

An Analysis of Francis Poulenc’s Choral Cycle Figure Humaine Brennan Michaels

rancis Poulenc’s Figure Humaine [The Human Figure] remains one of the most virtuosic and daunting choral works of the twentieth century. Fraught with dense sixpart a cappella scoring in two respective choirs, a sweeping surrealist text by poet Paul Éluard, and demanding vocal dexterity required to sing it, Figure Humaine is a tour de force that not only lacks a substantial performance history but also a significant body of analytical scholarship. Current Poulencian scholarship includes only brief anecdotes about the piece, primarily focusing on the German Occupation and the French La Resistánce narrative of the 1940s. And yet, countless letters and interviews between the composer and his contemporaries reveal that Poulenc regarded his cantata to not only be one of his most prized compositions, but a work that offers a spiritual, introspective, and private dimension even with its secular text.

elements reveal that Figure Humaine depicts not only outward combat between two independent forces, namely France and Germany, but also an internal dichotomy between good and evil, embodied by the two choirs as protagonist and antagonist within a single mind. French musicologist Claude Rostand’s oversimplified description of this bipolarity is described as “half bad boy, half monk.”1 With more professional choirs now performing this work—Tenebrae in 2026, Skylark Vocal Ensemble in 2024, BBC Singers in 2023—scholarship must follow suit. Musicologists Leslie A. Sprout and Carl B. Schmidt appropriately describe the political circumstances surrounding the composition, yet Poulenc himself considered his secular cantata to personify a spiritual and human emancipation and yearned for the piece to be held in higher public esteem

Addressing scholarship that has historically prioritized an interpretation based solely on wartime resistance, this article examines the sacred overtones that Poulenc himself enabled through an overarching dominant-to-tonic tonal structure, as well as the compositional parallels that surface between this cantata and his sacred choral output. It further considers how Poulenc conceived the double-choir texture as two opposing internal voices, painting Éluard’s surrealist poetry and its pervasive use of firstperson and possessive language. Together, these

Stēphane Audel, My Friends and Myself, trans. James Harding (London: Dennis Dobson, 1963), 8.

VO L U M E 6 3 | N U M B E R 2 | FA L L 2 0 2 6

than his other choral works.2 A year after the work was finished, Poulenc wrote to the notable music patron Princesse de Polignac, “Happily, there is a work—perhaps the only one—which proves to me that I have been able to compose well. It is my cantata [Figure Humaine] on the poetry of Eluard.”3 In an interview with Stēphane Audel ten years later, after being questioned multiple times about his sacred choral works, Poulenc continually redirected Audel to consider his Figure Humaine. When Audel remarked, “I don’t think you’ll contradict me if I say that choral and religious music has enabled you to fully realize yourself,” Poulenc responded, “I think, in fact, that I’ve put the best and most genuine part of myself into it. Even the secular choral works… especially Figure Humaine, I’ve always brought to it a texture that’s very different from the rest of my work.”4

and conductor Yvonne Gouverné said years later of Poulenc’s pilgrimage that “outwardly, nothing happened, yet from that moment everything in the spiritual life of Poulenc changed.”6 This mystical revelation gave Poulenc what Keith Daniel calls “compositional refuge and solace,” and Poulenc’s sacred compositional language was born.7 Later in life, Poulenc remembered and recounted the significance in a conversation with Claude Rostand: In 1936, a significant date in my life and my career, taking advantage of a working holiday with Yvonne Gouverné and Bernac at Uzerche, I asked the latter to drive me in his car to Rocamadour, a place about which I had often heard my father speak. I had just learned, several days before, of the tragic death [on August 17] of my colleague, Pierre-Octave Ferroud. The tragic decapitation of this musician so full of vitality had stupefied me. Thinking about the frailty of the human condition, I was once again attracted to the spiritual life. Rocamadour served to lead me back to the faith of my youth. This sanctuary, certainly the oldest in France, completely captivated me. Suspended in full sunlight in a vertiginous rock crevice, Rocamadour is a place of extraordinary peace, which accentuates again the very limited number of tourists…. From that day onward, I returned often to Rocamadour, putting under the protection of the Black Virgin such varied works as Figure humaine. Now you know, my dear Claude, the true source of inspiration for my religious works.8

Rocamadour: The Spiritual Genesis for Figure Humaine All accounts that detail Figure Humaine’s genesis point to an inciting incident seven years before the piece was finished: Poulenc’s first visit to Rocamadour. In 1936, shortly following the death of his close friend Pierre-Octave Ferroud, Poulenc journeyed to the Catholic pilgrimage site of Rocamadour, where he confronted the Vierge Noire [Black Virgin] icon and recommitted himself to God and Catholicism.5 French pianist 2

Leslie A. Sprout provides a detailed account of “Figure Humaine” in her book “The Musical Legacy of Wartime France” where she remarks that Poulenc’s decision to write “Figure Humaine” was a much more solitary, heroic, and even spiritual act. Carl B. Schmidt similarly comments about the piece’s political association, while additionally endorsing a spiritual construct and nuance due to Poulenc’s recommitment to the Catholic faith after his pilgrimage to Rocamadour in 1936.

In reference specifically to Figure Humaine, Poulenc writes, “The idea of composing a clandestine work […] had come to me at the

3 Francis Poulenc, Correspondence: 1915–1963, ed. by Hêléne De Wendel (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1967), 123. 4 5

Audel, 56.

Black Virgins were associated with the Catholic faith, but their origins derived from pre-Christian cults and were a symbol for healing, birth, and rebirth. At the sanctuary that Poulenc visited, the Marian icon was sculpted from black wood by Saint Amadour and depicted thick lips, heavy eyebrows, high cheek bones, and a beak-like nose. The name Rocamadour suggests hardness, bitterness, and love.

Yvonne Gouverné, “Poulenc et Rocamadour,” Zodiaque, no. 99 (January 1974): 16, 21. 7 8

Daniel, 48.

Quoted in Carl B. Schmidt, Entrancing Muse: A Documented Biography of Francis Poulenc (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2001), 231.

Analysis Overview: Tonal Structure, Choral Texture, and Text Painting

end of a votive pilgrimage to Rocamadour, quite near to Beaulieu. I enthusiastically began Figure Humaine, which I completed by the end of the summer [of 1943].”9 As the war continued to destroy the comforts and lifestyle Poulenc had enjoyed in Paris, he retreated in 1943 to the quiet town of Noizay, where composing Figure Humaine became a source of escape from the horrors overtaking the capital.

Given the cantata’s history, sacred interpretations are supported with evidence of Poulenc’s tonal structure, the double-choir texture, and Poulenc’s painting of Éluard’s poetry. Borrowing from theorist Patrick McCreless’s definition of a song cycle, Figure Humaine functions as a choral cycle with an interconnected key center. The analysis below defends that the tonal architecture of Figure Humaine is guided by the key centers E major— the cycle’s tonic, B—its dominant, and C-sharp, E-flat, and A—developing keys/movements. The first and last movements assume a structural dominant-tonic relationship, moving from B to E and transporting the listener from futility to deliverance. Movements three, five, and seven cluster together as action-packed scenes where, in the latter two, C-sharp draws the two choirs into battle, leading first to Choir I’s conformity to evil and later to Choir II’s surrender to good. Lastly, the major and minor modes of A serve as the key centers for movements four and six respectively, the two single choir movements. By assembling the first two movements together, one can see a highly organized construction in which, despite the false arrival of the liberty key in the second movement, Choir I’s failure to reach the tonic scale degree in movement three is prolonged through an oscillation between the key centers of A and C-sharp until E major is finally reached in the final song. (Figure 1)

Though scholars have paid little attention to this spiritual influence and correlation with his secular works, the notion of divorcing the icon’s relationship from Figure Humaine would be shortsighted. The sacred choral compositions that emerged from his pilgrimage include some of his most demanding choral works prior to Figure Humaine: Litanies à la vierge noire (1936), Mass in G (1937), Quatre Motets pour un temps de Pénitence (1938–39) and his Exultate Deo (1941). These works reveal Poulenc’s enchantment with archaic sacred choral idioms as he folds them into his modern diatonic vocabulary, supplemented with chromatic coloring and deviation.10 With the exception of using a Latin text, all techniques used in his sacred works are recycled and elaborated in Figure Humaine. Gabriel Crouch supports this notion in his liner notes from the British choir Tenebrae’s 2010 recording when he states, “Even though the subject matter is earthy, he saw Figure Humaine as the fulfillment of a sacred duty as well as a patriotic one.”11

Figure 1 shown on next page. Supporting this tonal framework, Poulenc implemented what he calls mélodies tremplins [springboard songs] as a device to provide contrast to the subsequent song while simultaneously adhering the two. Poulenc comments that a mélodie tremplin “has no other pretension than to heighten the effect of the next song.”12 In Figure

Quoted in Schmidt, 290–29.

Toby Patrick Moschard, “The Sacred Choral Music of Francis Poulenc: A Contextual and Analytical Study” (Master’s thesis, Durham University, 2004), 68. 11

Gabriel Crouch, liner notes to Figure Humaine: Choral Works by Francis Poulenc, Tenebrae conducted by Nigel Short, Signum Classics SIGCD197, CD, 2010.

Cited in Laura Tunbridge, The Song Cycle (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 19.

Figure 1. Tonal Structure and Literary Connection

Movement I. B minor | Introduction of good (Choir I) and evil (Choir II) Movement II. E major | Alternate ending; evil (Choir II) wins Movement III. E-flat | Evil (Choir II) poisons good (Choir I) Movement IV. A major | Choir I monologue Movement V. C-sharp | Choir I and Choir II haste into battle Movement VI. A minor | Choir II monologue Movement VII. C-sharp | Choir I and Choir II conform together through fugal writing Movement VIII. E major | Liberty; good (Choir I) wins

Humaine, the tonic key of E major unsurprisingly anchors the final movement, “Liberté,” but also appears in the second movement, “En chantant les servantes s’élancent.” B minor, established in the first movement, “De tous les printemps du monde,” serves as the cycle’s dominant key center, functioning as both a micro-springboard to the second movement and a macro-springboard to the final, teleological movement, “Liberté.”

this conflict through the relationship between the two choirs as they argue through antiphonal dialogue in movements one, two, three, and five; speak independently in movements four and six; and finally join in movements seven and eight.14 Sidney Buckland’s observation that Paul Éluard’s poetry is “the coherence of opposites” validates this dichotomy between good and evil in Figure Humaine.15 Wilfred Mellers depicts it this way: “Poulenc opens with a poem that opposes a dark night of the soul and of France to the hope (not promise) of a spring that might banish ‘monsters’ and rehabilitate ‘lovely faces, good faces full of trust.’”16

Examining Poulenc’s setting of Paul Éluard’s surrealist text alongside the tonal center analysis further underlines a conflict that is not only political, but personal. Surrealist poetry is filled with paradox, contradiction, and opposing ideas—qualities that closely parallel Poulenc’s own compositional process.13 Within the doublechoir structure, these oppositions take on distinct roles: Choir I sings of hope, trust, ecstasy, and freedom, while Choir II sings of evil, terror, conflict, and destruction. The text’s frequent use of first-person and possessive language suggests that these two choirs can be understood as opposing voices within a single mind: Choir I serves as the protagonist, while Choir II represents the antagonist. Poulenc dramatizes

14 “Figure Humaine” captures Poulenc’s apparent bipolarity via a chasm of alternation between sacred and secular, fast and slow, literal and figurative, serene and chaotic, spiritual and human. Biographers suggest that Poulenc’s duality and bipolar way of thinking and composing reflects the relationship of his parents Émile and Jenny. 15 Sidney Buckland, “‘The coherence of opposites’: Éluard, Poulenc and the poems of Tel jour telle nuit,” in Francis Poulenc: Music, Art and Literature, ed. Sidney Buckland and Myriam Chiménes, 145–177 (Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1999), 145–147.

Poulenc most frequently set texts by contemporaries Paul Éluard and Guillaume Apollinaire.

Wilfred Mellers, Francis Poulenc (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 84.

Analysis of Individual Songs

texts sung by each choir; they are linked together only by sharing the same first-person subject “I”. (Figure 2)

Movement One: “De tous les printemps du monde” Controlled by one mind harnessing two incompatible inner voices, the first movement establishes the internal conflict that governs Figure Humaine. Poulenc establishes B as the movement’s key center, a dominant landscape that anticipates the tonic resolution secured in the final movement, “Liberté.” The first movement’s text exclusively uses first-person singular language, yet the movement presents contradictory images and statements from both choirs. Poulenc’s text painting brings these declarations into musical conflict, allowing the two choirs to be understood as opposing voices within a single mind.

Figure 2 shown on next page Beginning at m. 12 in the distant key of E-flat minor, Choir I states, “I may have many ways of being but the best is the most trusting.” Choir II exploits this vulnerability, responding, “I see only lovely faces, good faces full of trust.” The shared language of “trust” connects the two inner voices, but what Choir I identifies as its own virtue becomes an element for Choir II to observe and weaponize. At this movement’s conclusion, Choir II has the upper hand. The final text, “sure to ruin their masters,” begun by the Choir I basses in the opening key of B minor is later matched by the tutti ensemble, recapping Choir I’s inferiority. The fusion of the two choirs on this text implies that, no matter which inner force ultimately wins, the bodily host will show signs of decay from the exhaustion of their conflict.

Set in spring season, known for rebirth and renewal, Choir I’s cheerful demeanor is held hostage by a corrupt Choir II and its defective version of spring. Poulenc begins “De tous” with a fortissimo five-note pattern by the basses in Choir II, hastily infiltrating the source mind with pessimism: “Of all the spring times of the world, never was there one so vile.” Their rising and falling triadic sequence contains a jarring juxtaposition of “spring” and “vile.” Rather than competing with this toxic theme, the altos from Choir I have no choice but to succumb to the distorted motive. This rising and falling triadic sequence is an economical means of unveiling the bipolar mind that houses both a good and evil inner voice.17

Movement Two: “En chantant les servantes s’élancent” Illustrative of Poulenc’s other song cycles, such as Tel jour, telle nuit (1937), the second movement unfolds much quicker than its two neighboring songs and serves as a mélodie tremplin. Though in the redemptive key of E major (tonic to the previous movement), “En chantant” stands in contrast to the victorious text of “Liberté,” creating a reversal of the narrative’s ultimate ending: evil vanquishes good this time. The contradictory texts of “En chantant” and “Liberté” represent a musical paradox for which Poulenc was known. (Figure 3)

Apart from Choir I’s opening alto line, their texture sounds exclusively sacred and homorhythmic, singing with quiet dynamics as opposed to the verbose Choir II which breaks off in imitation as if flanking an opponent from all sides. Discord and a fight for superiority are evident given the

Figure 3 shown on next page.

17 Carol Kimball, “Francis Poulenc’s Settings of Poetry of Paul Éluard: Style and Imagery in Two Song Cycles” (DMA diss., University of Arizona, 1980)], 4.

Figure 2. Text Division in “De tous les printemps du monde” between Choir I and Choir II

Choir I & II

Of all the spring times in the world, never was there one so vile.

Choir I

I have many ways of being, but the best is the most trusting.

Choir II

See how the grass lifts the snow, as if it were a graveyard stone.

Choir I

I myself sleep in the tempest, and I awake with undimmed eyes.

Choir II

Slow moving time comes to an end, traversing all my most secret places so that I could meet someone.

Choir I

I do not hear the monsters talking, I know them well; all that they say.

Choir II

But I see only lovely faces, good faces full of trust.

Choir I & II

Sure to ruin their masters.

Figure 3. Select translated sections from Movements Two and Eight Figure 3. Select translated sections from MovementMovements II. For 18 the ultimate toilet of time. No poignant memory remains. Two and Eight “En chantant les servantes At those dry wells devoid of virtue. s’élancent” At long absences which we find awkward. Yet we surrender all. To the spell of our human weakness.

Movement VIII. “Liberté”

And through the power of one word I learn again how to live. I am born to know you. And call your name, Liberty.

War is painted here not as a landscape but as a portrait of “maids rushing forward; to tidy the place where blood has flowed.” Continuing the antiphonal interplay expressed in the first movement, the two choirs rapidly exchange words and phrases without time to think. Paradox is in full force as optimistic phrases such as “are blue like a new sensation,” “on some great joyous day,” and the pseudo-Renaissance “la, la, la” are accompanied by hypnotic and metronomic voices that swarm forward to “the ultimate toilet

of time,” where “no poignant memory remains.” The agile octave leap at m. 42 by the sopranos in Choir I, though vocally challenging, personifies their fragile and feeble stamina as they “surrender to human weakness.” Concluding in the virtuous key of E major, Poulenc defies what is right and just. Movement Three: “Aussi bas que le silence” Mellers says of Éluard’s poem, “’Aussi bas que le silence’ concerns death in the heart and shame in the mind.”19 Translating the title to “As low as

18 The English translation by Rollo Meyers, found in the Salabert edition, will be used in place of the French text to provide clearer understanding for the reader. This was the translation used at the work’s premiere in 1945.

Mellers, 85.

the silence,” this movement begins in the woeful key of E-flat minor, an unrelated and distant key to the liberation key of E major. The two choirs remain in stark opposition to each other, never singing together, and both on their own trajectory for complete domination. Choir II begins with bass, tenor, and alto voices alone, painting the text, “hushed and still; its head full of darkness and shadows.” Their unyielding and unbending homophonic texture creates a dark sonority that stifles any murmurings from Choir I. Choir I lays dormant during Choir II’s statement, avoiding hostility. At its turn to respond, Choir I sings in a higher tessitura than Choir II, with basses absent, and with a softer dynamic—pianissimo compared to Choir II’s piano. Their part is marked infiniment doux [as softly as possible]. Choir I silently screams: “As deaf and monotonous as autumn in the pond, covered with dull shame.”

The secretive messages in this movement are marked with pianissimo dynamics and instructions to sing Trés calme et sobre [Very calm and somber], suggesting mankind’s impulse to silence reason. Fear of surrender occurs on both sides, yet Choir II uses the upper hand established in movement two to strong-arm the prospect of an inner good into submission. At the song’s halfway point, Choir II crescendos over three successive triads—E minor, C major, A major—accentuating the text “le poison.” (Figure 4) This descending triadic progression emphasizes the poison that Choir II will “spit out… over all men” (mm. 2022). This blatant attack weakens Choir I for, at the song’s conclusion, only four of Choir I’s voices sing an exposed unison E-flat on the text “on all men.” (Figure 5) Devoid of any sound from Choir II, the unison E-flat signifies Choir I’s inability and failure to reach E-natural, the key of liberty.

Figure 4. Choir II poisons Choir I

Figure 5. Choir I Fails to Reach E-natural

Movement Four: “Toi ma patiente” and Movement Six: “Le jour m’étonne et la nuit me fait peur”

image “throat held high” conveys vulnerability while the tenors wordlessly hum a dominant pedal on E5, foreshadowing the liberation to come.

Interspersed within the cycle, movements four and six are introspective monologues for each choir, momentarily pausing the conflict between them. (Figure 6) Constructed in nearly identical AB, AB¹, CD forms, suggesting that they were fabricated from the same mind, both are marked calmly and softly and revolve around A: Choir I in A major and Choir II in A minor. Yet despite their structural similarities, the movements reveal a reversal in the apparent strength of the two choirs. Whereas the conclusions of movements one and three suggest Choir II’s superiority, these monologues discover Choir I’s growing confidence and Choir II’s underlying instability.

Prayer eventually turns to action as the timbre shifts from tranquility to brilliance. Choir I’s harmonic and dynamic language finally equal that of Choir II on the text, “Prepare for vengeance, a bed where I’ll be born.” For the first time in the cycle, Choir I surfaces without objection from its antagonist. Returning to the A section and its lucent sonorities, the movement suggests that Choir I’s spring has arrived and rebirth is on the horizon. Choir II’s monologue in movement six presents an opposite trajectory. Although similarly calm in construction, the minor modality, rhythmic agitation, and octave displacement create an unstable foundation for Choir II. The surrealist text intensifies this instability. Images of summer and daylight that might suggest warmth instead become sources of fear and trepidation, not unlike the unexpectedly vile spring in the first movement. The poem depicts evil as a predator hunting its prey, but unlike the acceptance of evil heard earlier in the cycle, here the predator becomes threatened by its own existence. Put plainly, evil fears itself. The coda’s whole-tone harmonies leave Choir II with an unsettling conclusion: “Summer haunts me and winter pursues me” (mm. 17–19).

Movement four immediately follows Choir I’s failure to reach E-natural in the previous movement and functions as a soliloquy of renewed confidence and vengeance. Its prayerful invocation of rolling seventh chords for divine intervention recalls Poulenc’s own supplication at the site of the Black Virgin, and, more than any other movement in the cycle, is aurally reminiscent of his sacred compositions. Consonant, root-position harmonies create a sense of stability, along with the Très calme et doux [very calm and sweet] score marking that nurtures relief and comfort in a voice that has so far been silenced. Even the

Figure 6. Movements Four and Six Translation and Narrative

Movement IV. “Toi ma patiente”

Thou patient one, thou, O my patience, O my parent. Throat held high, proudly carried; slow nights resounding organ. Curtsey hiding all heaven in its grace, hiding heaven Prepare for vengeance a bed where I’ll be born.

Surprised by day, and by night made afraid, the summer haunts me, Movement VI. “Le jour m’étonne et la nuit and winter pursues me. me fait peur” An animal on the snow has placed its paws upon the sand or in the mire. Paws that came from further than my steps, upon a track where death with life’s own hallmark is imprinted.

The parallel construction of these two monologues exposes what the preceding engagements have concealed. While Choir II may appear dominant, its private voice reveals fear and instability. Choir I, previously silenced by its aggressor, emerges from its solo with swelling optimism. The opposing modalities from the same tonal center sharpen this contrast. By the end of movement four, Choir I is prepared to confront its antagonist directly in movement five.

Hearing this exchange without a score, it is nearly impossible to tell which side is which. As referenced above, C-sharp serves as the tonality for confrontation, and this movement hitches the two choirs together as one independent cosmos where responsibility is now shared. At this point, the single mind is left with one united but disillusioned voice. Before the confrontation continues in the remaining movements, Choir II responds in their monologue “Le jour m’étonne” (see above). The message of vengeance sung earlier by Choir I in their solo movement has intimidated Choir II into a stance of surrender.

Movement Five: “Riant du ciel et des planètes” In “Riant du ciel et des planètes,” the two choirs riot against each other in the action-packed key of C-sharp minor, by flaunting and flinging brief but poignant statements of arrogance. Marked Très vite et très violent [Very fast and violent], this is the first time the two choirs conform to a shared melodic and rhythmic motive. Though the shortest movement of the entire cycle, Poulenc defies its brevity with missile-like, cacophonous sounds, merging the two choirs through three antiphonal repetitions of Éluard’s verse. Mellers calls this viciousness a “ding-dong antiphony between the choirs.”20

Movement Seven: “La menace sous le ciel rouge” The opening line of “La menace sous le ciel rouge” translates to “Came the dark threat beneath the red sky. From underneath gaping jaws and scales and links the dark threat came.” Poulenc sets this text as a fugal subject, and just as Baroque composers utilized fugal writing to represent timelessness and eternity, Poulenc captures infinity. Yet in his case, it represents a tragic fate for humanity. Key centers throughout the movement are haphazard, modulating by descending fifths and tritones.

The second repetition (mm. 12–23) is identical to the first (mm. 1–11), with Choir I singing one motive and Choir II answering. In the third (mm. 24–37), the choirs divide into fourteen parts and switch roles of protagonist and antagonist, carrying each other’s previous textual and musical declamation of the first two verses. (Figure 9) Matthew Guard pointedly remarks that on this third repeat with swapped texts and melodic content, Poulenc is “illustrating Éluard’s allusion to implicit guilt on any side of a conflict.”21

Beginning in C-sharp, the familiar key of conformity through surrender, the altos in Choir I enter forcefully with instructions to sing Très emporté et rude [Very rigorous and rough]. Poulenc employs polyphonic and contrapuntal techniques for the first time with a shared twelvenote chromatic fugal subject (Figure 8). It matters not which choir is singing, for both text and melody imply that the protagonist, Choir I, is lost forever and evil triumphs. Figures 7, 8, and 9 shown on next page.

20 21

At mm. 26–35, the two choirs banter back and forth, with Choir II concluding the section singing “La pourriture avait du cœur.” Musicologist

Mellers, 88..

Matthew Guard, “Clear Voices in the Dark,” program notes to Figure Humaine, The Skylark Vocal Ensemble conducted by Matthew Guard, New York: Florence Gould Hall, April 27 2017.

Figure 7. Antiphonal Effects in “Riant du ciel et des planètes” First and second iteration of the verse:

Third iteration of the verse:

Figure 8. Fugue Subject Containing a Twelve-Note Chromatic Fugal Subject

Figure 9. Oscillation of C-sharp in Bass

Rollo Meyers poetically translates this sentence as “And putrefaction grew bold,” but a more literal translation says, “Decay held the heart.” Poulenc first encounters Éluard’s “red sky” in the movement as one which dawns on wickedness, but it transforms into one that dawns the prospect of hope: “Underneath the baleful famine, the cavern closed its mouth.” The cavern is closed; evil can no longer penetrate.

returning to ‘objets familiers’ and the foreheads and hands of friends, whereon to write the sacred name.25 Freedom invades every aspect of existence during this litany, and the music is no longer dismal or pensive, but free and exultant. The exposition commences appropriately with protagonist Choir I carrying much of the musical weight, while Choir II answers in obedience with the refrain, “I write your name.” Over the course of the many verses, Poulenc delves into multiple key areas without any discernable configuration, enhancing the depth and height of liberty. The whole world must be touched by this word. Range and tessitura rise theatrically every few measures, centering around a new key and propelling the movement toward its final proclamation.

A moment of great significance follows where all twelve voices join together in a march towards liberation.22 At m. 37, C-sharp acts not as a key of surrender, but a key of progress, swinging back and forth in the bass section like a tolling bell, propelling the choirs toward the key of liberation (Figure 9). The musical marking at this section indicates psalmodié et très peu articulé [psalmody, with little to no articulation]. With triple forte, the choirs link arms and declare their newfound resolve. Henri Hell agrees as he refers to the forthcoming song as a “Hymn to Liberty.”23

Twelve measures from the end, singers broaden their pace, enhancing the final strophe: “And on hope from mem’ry free, I write your name. And through power of a word I learn again how to live. I am born to know you. And call your name, Liberty.”26 At quadruple forte, in sixteen parts and spanning four octaves, “Liberté” is well and truly proclaimed. With basses singing a low E2 and two sopranos—one from each choir—singing an E6, the sonority is divine. Any remaining hint of evil is snuffed.

Movement Eight: “Liberté” The final and long-awaited “Liberté” movement is remarkably constructed.24 The choirs comment in twenty-one quatrains with musical adaptability on both animate and inanimate objects such as “cahiers” [“notebooks”], “pupitre” [“desks”], “les arbres” [“trees”], and “le sable” [“sand”]: anything on which to write “Liberté” [“Liberty”].

Conclusion

Starting from his desk, the poet embraces the wide world—the arms of warriors and the crowns of kings, the wonders of the night, the wings of birds, the moss of clouds, the sweat of the storm, and the plethora of cosmic marvels—before 22 23

When Poulenc first experimented with sacred choral composition in 1936, his subsequent choral works in one way or another reflected the inner spirituality that was born the day he confronted the icon of the Black Virgin. Figure Humaine was clearly not meant to be a statement of French Resistance alone. When the cantata was finally published, Poulenc

“Et la bêtise et la démence… À des hommes indestructibles.”

Henri Hell, Francis Poulenc, trans. Edward Lockspeiser (New York: Grove Press, 1959), 66.

This poem was airdropped in 1943 all over France to encourage morale among its citizens. Poulenc responded viscerally to its message and began working on Figure Humaine immediately.

Mellers, 89.

“Sur l’espoir sans souvenir/ J’écris ton nom/ Et par le pouvoir d’un mot/ Je recommence ma vie/ Je suis né/ pour te connaître/ Pour te nommer Liberté”

wrote to his confidant and lifelong musical partner Pierre Bernac on June 24, 1944:

performances are ever increasing as choral ensembles continue to seek and uncover historical works that have undeniable merit and relevance in today’s culture and society. Correspondingly, present-day biographers persist in refining the vagueness and ambiguity once associated with Poulenc, as historians of the past merely conjectured. Made available only a few years before this article was published, a new biography titled Poulenc: The Life in Songs authored by pianist and professor Graham Johnson was released by Liveright Publishing. Not having had the chance to study this resource, but only gaining an impression based on consumer reviews, there is no doubt that Johnson’s biography is an exceptional guide connecting Poulenc’s mélodies to his life.

How comforted I am by this work in my hours of despondency. I implore heaven to let me hear it at least once in my lifetime. When I received it, I did not wish, as happens frequently with my other compositions, after an evil glance, to revise it. It succeeds both in its inspiration and in its craftsmanship which invigorates me. Too bad it is so difficult to perform. Yet this is also one of its strengths. Paul E[luard] mysteriously sent me a typewritten poem inscribed: “My dear Francis… Paul.” The tone of the poem, quite beautiful, moreover, and the terseness of the writing, touched me deeply. It is really Éluard who has brought out my best.27

Dating back to the BBC premiere of Figure Humaine, Georges Auric said that through this work, Poulenc “suddenly acquired a humanity that might surprise you but which you will recognize.”30 Claude Rostand comments this way: “[Poulenc’s] place is definitely in the highest ranks of great contemporary French composers.”31 Indeed, it is no far reach to embellish Rostand’s comment and instead argue Poulenc’s place in the highest ranks of all composers.

Obvious is Poulenc’s own satisfaction and sense of freedom for having finished the piece, but more telling is his vulnerability with one of his closest friends, and someone who knew his music well.28 On June 3, 1962, half a year before his death, Poulenc made his last pilgrimage to the sanctuary at Rocamadour and penned a letter to choral conductor Yvonne Gouverné testifying, “How long ago it was, the time of Les Litanies, yet still so warm in my heart, dear Yvonne. I have asked our Holy Mother for a beautiful record of Figure Humaine for this winter.”29 While no commercial recording was made during his lifetime, there are a handful of recordings made in the past twenty years: Skylark Vocal Ensemble (2024), Ensemble Aedes (2019), RIAS Kammerchor (2013), Swedish Radio Choir (2011), Tenebrae (2010).

—Brennan Michaels Brennan Michaels serves as Director of Worship at BelPres Church in Bellevue, Washington, and Artistic Director of Kirkland Choral Society. An active conductor, clinician, and presenter, Brennan has conducted performances in the United States, England, and Greece, with upcoming tours to Central Europe and the Baltic countries. In 2024, the BelPres Sanctuary Chorus performed at the ACDA Northwest Regional Conference. Michaels has conducted in churches and schools in Minnesota, Texas, and Washington, including on the faculty of Northwest University. He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts from Michigan State University, with additional degrees from Baylor University and Concordia College.

Though performances of Figure Humaine were few and far between during Poulenc’s lifetime, 27 28

Poulenc, 164.

Pierre Bernac premiered and recorded several of Poulenc’s song-cycles. Bernac’s relationship with Poulenc and his music culminated in a book titled Francis Poulenc: The Man and His Songs. 29

30 31

Poulenc, 290.

Sprout, 34. Ibid, 123.

Bibliography Audel, Stēphane. My Friends and Myself. Translated by James Harding. London: Dennis Dobson, 1963. Balakian, Anna Elizabeth. Surrealism: The Road to the Absolute. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Bernac, Pierre. Francis Poulenc: The Man and His Songs. Translated by Winifred Radford. London: Victor Gollancz, 1977. Breton, André. Manifestoes of Surrealism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969. Buckland, Sidney and Myriam Chiménes, eds. Francis Poulenc: Music, Art and Literature. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1999. Crouch, Gabriel. Liner notes to Figure Humaine: Choral Works by Francis Poulenc. Tenebrae conducted by Nigel Short. Signum Classics SIGCD197. CD. 2010. Dawson, Terence Evan. “Unifying Devices in Poulenc: A Study of the Cycles ‘Banalités’ and ‘Tel jour telle nuit’.” DMA diss. University of British Columbia, 1991. Deeter, Alissa and Robert Peavler. The Mélodies of Francis Poulenc: A Study Guide. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2014. Gouverné, Yvonne. “Poulenc et Rocamadour.” Zodiaque, no. 99 (January 1974): 16, 21. Guard, Matthew. “Clear Voices in the Dark,” Program notes to Figure Humaine, The Skylark Vocal Ensemble, Matthew Guard. New York: Florence Gould Hall, April 27, 2017. Hell, Henri. Francis Poulenc. Translated by Edward Lockspeiser. New York: Grove Press, 1959. Ivry, Benjamin. Francis Poulenc. London: Phaidon Press, 1996. Kimball, Carol. “Francis Poulenc’s Settings of Poetry of Paul Éluard: Style and Imagery in Two Song Cycles.” DMA diss. University of Arizona, 1980. McCreless, Patrick. “Song Order in the Song Cycle: Schumann’s ‘Liederkreis’, Op. 39,” Music Analysis 5, no. 1 (March 1986): 5-28. Accessed June 25, 2020, https://www.jstor.org/stable/854339. Mellers, Wilfred. Francis Poulenc. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. Minneman, Ginger. “Francis Poulenc and Surrealism.” Master’s Thesis, Wright State University, 2019. Moschard, Toby Patrick. “The Sacred Choral Music of Francis Poulenc: A Contextual and Analytical Study.” Master’s Thesis, Durham University, 2004. Parrot, Louis. L’Intelligence en guerre: Panorama de la pensée française dans la clandestinité. Paris: La Jeune Parque, 1945. Poulenc, Francis. Correspondence: 1915-1963. Edited by Sidney Buckland and Hêléne De Gollancz, 1991.

Wendel. London: Victor

Poulenc, Francis. Figure Humaine. Noisy-Le-Sec, France: Editions Salabert, 1959. Poulenc, Francis. Jubilate Deo. Monteverdi Choir conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. Phillips #446116. CD. 1997. Schmidt, Carl B. Entrancing Muse: A Documented Biography of Francis Poulenc. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2001. Sellers, Henry. “Francis Poulenc and His Sacred Choral Music: Poulenc—The Man and the Musician,” Choral Journal 17, no. 6 (February 1977): 16-19. Accessed February 27, 2018, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23544218.

Sellers, Henry. “The Place of Francis Poulenc as Seen in Some of His Choral Works.” Master’s Thesis, Texas Christian University, 1975. Sprout, Leslie A. The Musical Legacy of Wartime France. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013. Tunbridge, Laura. The Song Cycle. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

TCS ACR

Choral Reviews Nathan Reiff, editor

Gropen (2011) Gjermund Larsen (b. 1981), arranger

when developing the appropriate style and interpretation. Both are included in the printed octavo (the recording is linked above).

Text: Nonsense syllables in the Norwegian “Tralling” tradition

Written in D major and set in the simple triple time of 3/4, Gropen creates rhythmic interest through contrasting metric feels. Beginning in measure 5, immediately following the fiddle introduction, the tenor and bass lines establish a duple feel against the prevailing triple meter. The soprano and alto voices then enter with a syncopated echo effect for two measures using the pitches D, G# and A. These sustained dissonances provide a harmonic foundation beneath the melodic fiddle line, which remains in the foreground of the texture.

SATB and fiddle (c. 2’)

Recording

Score available from Walton Music

rranged by well-known Norwegian composer and folk musician Gjermund Larsen (b. 1981), “Gropen” is a traditional Norwegian dancing tune scored for a mixed SATB ensemble with a prominent, florid fiddle instrumental addition. This upbeat arrangement is based on the traditional dance tune created by Ashbjørn Indahl (1912–1982) of Verdal. The title translates to “the dark deep,” referencing the low register of the opening phrase played by the fiddle which continues throughout much of the work. Approximately two minutes in length, the piece is published by GIA Publications as part of the Walton Music series.

For most of the piece, the fiddle serves as the primary melodic voice, reflecting the character of a Norwegian folk song traditionally performed by a fiddle. This treatment is somewhat distinctive within the standard choral repertoire, where instrumental parts more commonly function as supportive accompaniment. Here, the fiddle is an integral feature of the arrangement and could be programmed to showcase an experienced fiddle player independently from the ensemble, further expanding the concert’s instrumental soundscape.

This piece is scored with limited divisi, including occasional two-part writing in the soprano line, and the vocal parts are sung entirely on nonsense syllables. These syllables derive from a style of improvised Norwegian folk singing used to imitate the sounds of a fiddle, known as “tralling.” Larsen provides a pronunciation guide to assist with teaching the text and also recommends a specific recording for performers to reference

VO L U M E 6 3 | N U M B E R 2 | FA L L 2 0 2 6

As the piece progresses, the soprano and alto voices fully demonstrate the Norwegian tralling technique by singing a melodic line that alternates between doubling and harmonizing with the continuously active fiddle. The melody passes between the upper voices as it ascends and descends, creating a sense of movement and dialogue within the texture. Simultaneously, the tenor and bass voices sing homophonically, using blocked parallel harmonies primarily built from fourths and fifths. This harmonic foundation in the lower voices supports the upper parts and can help reinforce intonation as the treble voices navigate the more complex rhythmic and melodic material.

an almost waltz-like nature. At approximately 3:45 in length, it is considerably longer than Gropen and could serve as a complementary work on a concert program. Together, these pieces could provide valuable opportunities to explore polyrhythm, instrumental imitation, parallel harmonies, tuning, and the interaction between instrumental and vocal textures. They could also serve as an engaging introduction to Norwegian culture and folk traditions, providing performers and audiences with a broader understanding of the musical practices that inform Larsen’s work.

Gropen presents a medium level of difficulty, primarily because of the polyrhythmic relationship between the fiddle and the vocal parts. The sustained dissonances in the upper voices at the beginning of the piece may present tuning challenges, while the use of nonsense syllables adds another layer of difficulty for singers who must become comfortable with the pronunciation and stylistic conventions of the Norwegian folk tradition. For these reasons, the arrangement would be appropriate for an advanced high school or community choir and would also be well suited to a collegiate or professional ensemble.

Dr. Liz Olson is the Director of Choral Activities at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, where she conducts two curricular choirs and teaches courses within the music department.

Despite the rhythmic complexity, the tenor and bass parts remain relatively repetitive throughout the work. This characteristic could make Gropen an effective programming choice for an ensemble with experienced soprano and alto sections and less experienced tenor and bass sections. The repetitive lower-voice material provides a stable harmonic foundation while allowing the upper voices and fiddle to take on more demanding melodic and rhythmic responsibilities.

Recording: Saariaho, Kaija, and Helena Tulve, I am a river. Helsinki Chamber Choir, Nils Scweckendiek. BIS Records, BIS-2742. April, 2026. MP3 or compact disc.

— Liz Olson

Lumen Valosta (2002) Kaija Saariaho (1952–2023)

SATB div., unaccompanied (c. 4’)

Text: Finnish, from Tämä matka by Eeva-Liisa Manner

Score available from Chester Music

he Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho is best known for her large-scale symphonic or operatic works. The Metropolitan Opera staged two of her operas in the last decade and her symphonic works continue to feature on nearly every major orchestral stage, especially since her passing in 2023. Her choral works have

There are several similarities between Gropen and Solistvals, another work originally composed by Larsen and scored for SATB ensemble and fiddle. Solistvals also features a triple-meter feel and has

received new interest, due in part from the 2024 GRAMMY-winning CD Reconnaissance by the Helsinki Chamber Choir.

“reddening” light through its reflection and refraction on snow. Saariaho’s own form of light and dark synesthesia makes for an apt setting for choirs to perform. The piece begins with a pedal note in the basses and a line of the poem spoken by each of the upper voices. The lines are then scrambled as the tenors join the sung material of the basses an open fifth above. The sopranos continue speaking fractured lines as the altos sing with the lower voices in sets of half-steps and emphatic glissandi.

Saariaho’s choral works are lesser-known but represent both her appreciation of poetry and her distinct musical language that blends scientific analysis of sound and deeply moving emotions. These choral works, shorter in length and smaller in scale compared to her larger works, are nonetheless related to her operas through their inherent drama; Saariaho sets poems with multiple viewpoints or characters, creating micro-forms of music-theatre. These choral works date throughout her life, ranging from early compositional experiments for treble choir in 1979 to the 2023 Reconnaissance, a science fiction madrigal influenced by Ockeghem, Andrei Tarkovsky, and used car dealers.

Saariaho structures the work in clearly defined sections, divided by line. The text is set in syllabic and singable melodies sung by various voice parts while the accompanying voices provide sustained harmonic content derived from the melody. Although Saariaho never settles into one key, loose tonal centers define each section. Although the work may initially appear on the page as an exercise in audiation, Saariaho’s intelligent construction of melody and harmony, along with her voice leading within the full texture, allows for singers to easily connect their vocal line to both the prominent melody and the harmony.

Her work Lumen Valosta was commissioned by Lumen Valo, a Finnish ensemble dedicated to early music and to commissioning new works. The work was composed in 2002 for the tenth anniversary of the ensemble, premiered in 2003, and published in 2023. It marks a period of works following Saariaho’s first opera L’amour de loin and reflects her compositional style of that time: spacious sonorities constructed in the style of a harmonic series, initiating in the basses and building up through the sopranos.

Manner’s paradoxically plain and profound text is capably set by Saariaho in moments of word-painting. In the first line, a homorhythmic declaration of “avara” (spacious) is set on a widely voiced chord, ranging from C#3 in the basses to F#5 in the first soprano. In the second line, the alto and tenor melody ascends on the word “kohoavat” (rises). These madrigalisms represent her later choral style, which is found in all of her works for choir from the 21st century.

Lumen Valosta sets a poem of the same title by Eeva-Liisa Manner, a Finnish poet, playwright, and translator. She is considered a leader of the modernist literature movement in post-war Finland, and her 1956 collection of poems Tämä matka (This Journey) demonstrates her rejection of metered poetry for a new, more ephemeral free verse. That collection contains “Lumen valosta” (From/On the Light of Snow), a brief six-line poem that depicts the gradual setting of the sun, viewed through its reflection on snow. Manner interrogates the physical quality of that

Saariaho’s exploration of the sound-noise axis, a key compositional principle and research topic, is reflected in this work as she depicts the gradient of light. Noise in Saariaho’s works is unpitched, spoken, or whispered text and often corresponds to darkness. In the third line, the second sopranos,

altos, and tenors all repeatedly whisper “hämyssa punertuvat” (the twilight reddens) while the first alto and tenor accompany the first soprano’s melody on the same text. The gradually setting sun, represented by pitched material that descends from G5 to A4, fades into the dark as all that remains is the whispered text in the second tenor.

melodic voice; however, its context and repeated appearance sound consonant. Saariaho’s unique harmonic language and compositional style are fully present in the miniature Lumen Valosta. The work is an excellent introduction for choirs and audiences to her music. It is filled with unique sonorities that ebb and flow, and multiple moments of word painting, which draw both the singer and the listener in to focus on perhaps the most visible but overlooked transformation of our lives: day into night.

The principal difficulty with the piece is the Finnish language; however, Saariaho’s spoken and sung repetitions of the poem provide ample opportunities for the ensemble to refine their Finnish pronunciation. The harmonic language, although challenging, proves rewarding as singers work on melodic independence in the context of more complex harmony. One of Saariaho’s favorite intervals, the tritone, is frequently present in the

— Jack Reeder Dr. Jack Reeder serves as the Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Choral Music at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.

TCS ACR

Recording Reviews Morgan Luttig, editor

dish” canon through their consistent treatment of diction and rhythmic precision across the choir. DiOrio’s work omits the final four sentences of Megan Levad’s poem, “When a compass is broken,” and concludes with the choir in unison on the word “desert” as the piano echoes the haunting opening motif of the introduction.

In Spirit We Will Fly Orlando Sings Harmonia

Sandra Shafer, conductor (2025, 30:00)

Harmonia’s performance of Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria” is well-balanced and especially impressive given the 8-part divisi. The melody lines soar, the lush chords are well-tuned, and the balance between the choir and the solo trio contributes to the ethereal and reverent quality of the performance. In particular, the lower parts stand out for the depth of tone and consistency of sound in maintaining a stable foundation for the upper voices. Each of the invocation lines features lovely solo voices, a glimpse into the wealth of individual talent within the ensemble.

rlando Sings is a community choir organization based in Orlando, Florida that range from a symphonic chorus and a professional choir to a senior singers’ ensemble. Orlando Sings Harmonia, also known as Harmonia, is their auditioned adult SSAA choir. They are directed by Sandra Shafer and accompanied by Ledean Williams. Released August 1, 2025, In Spirit We Will Fly is Harmonia’s inaugural album and a wonderful contribution to the treble choir discography. The album features imaginative programming that showcases the ensemble’s versatility, musicianship, and emotional depth. Their program features works by Dominick DiOrio, Franz Biebl, Katerina Gimon, Joni Jensen, Jocelyn Hagen, and Kim André Arnesen. The program is both challenging and awe-inspiring as Harmonia takes listeners through a journey of mesmerizing choral sound.

Harmonia demonstrates the range of their tonal capabilities with Katerina Gimon’s “Spellbound.” This piece reenacts a story of a group of stars awakening, illuminating the night sky. Harmonia’s ability to shift from the taller, traditional western choral tone used in the Biebl to a brighter, more forward-placed tone is a testament to their artistry

The first track on the album, Dominick DiOrio’s “Broken,” is powerful and percussive. It brings to light the repetitive cycles and patterns of life that are difficult to break through short motivic material that DiOrio develops through use of the composing-out technique. Harmonia displays superb balance during the “needle, cork, shallow

VO L U M E 6 3 | N U M B E R 2 | FA L L 2 0 2 6

Song” is cathartic, bringing to a close a wellpolished, diverse set of musical selections.

and musicianship. Harmonia’s vocal control as an ensemble is especially impressive at the decrescendo towards the end of the piece as the voices thin from a forte, dramatic wall of sound to a unified “ooh.”

All in all, Orlando Sings Harmonia’s initial foray into the world of choral recording features technically demanding works that are well navigated. The tone of the ensemble is warm and strikes the balance between managing vibrato and clarity of the pitch. Sandra Shafer’s attention to musical details elicits a consistently expressive performance from the ensemble that is always cognizant of the musical line and its purpose. Ledean Williams delivers artful accompaniment throughout which is especially evident in the echoing motifs of “While I Breathe, I Hope,” and in voicing the melody within the piano introduction of “Flight Song.” Shafer’s thoughtful programming blends together themes of breath, spirituality, and the inherent hope and freedom found only in song. Orlando Sings Harmonia offers a compelling model of refined treble choral singing, and their debut leaves much to look forward to in future recordings.

In Joni Jensen’s “Turning,” the unisons and soli sections stand out for the beautiful blend found within the individual sections. The middle of the work provides significant challenge as each voice part is stretched to the top of the staff before the final triumphant restatement of the refrain. This is further complicated by the extended divisi and thin accompaniment under the voices leaving the choir fairly exposed at the extremes of their registers. Nevertheless, Harmonia brings an exuberance to the conclusion of the work that speaks to the ensemble’s vocal agility and stamina. The final two pieces of Harmonia’s program are standouts from the album, demonstrating the ensemble’s remarkable sensitivity and musicality. Jocelyn Hagen’s “While I Breathe, I Hope” draws from a poem written by Brian Newhouse that explores the association between the symbolism of breath and hope. The Latin phrase “Dum Spiro Spero,” which gives the piece its English title, is particularly poignant because of the work’s conception during the COVID-19 pandemic, where singing posed unique threats due to the respiratory nature of the virus’s transmission. The work is challenging in that several of the sustained chords are voiced as first inversion triads. Harmonia does well to balance and tune the chords without overpowering the thirds the soprano 1s are responsible for. Their attention to dynamics and expressive articulation of the text is on full display through Shafer’s choice of tempi. Kim André Arnesen’s “Flight Song” lends the line “…in spirit we will fly…,” which is the namesake of the album title. Harmonia’s performance is both passionate and intimate, drawing the listener into the power of song. The final sustain of “Flight

— Brian Niu California Baptist University, CA

Marianna Martines: Messa Terza University of Arizona Symphonic Choir and Orchestra

Dr. Elizabeth Schauer, conductor (2024, 41:40)

erza Messa, or Mass No. 3 is a concerted mass by Marianna Martines featured on the University of Arizona’s Symphonic Choir’s 2024 album. The work is one of Martines’ four

concerted masses, written in 1761. Marianna von Martines was a Viennese composer, keyboardist, vocalist, and teacher, who was a contemporary of Mozart, and whose teachers included Joseph Haydn and Nicolas Poporpora. She received recognition and notoriety as a composer during her lifetime, but her works were largely forgotten after her death. As such, her third mass had not received a performance in 262 years prior to this performance. Recent editions and scholarship by editors, including Shirley Bean, James Higgs, Conrad Misch, and Joseph Taff, have provided additional access for conductors to obtain scholarly editions of Martines’ four masses.

Martines’ nine-part Gloria movement offers contrast throughout, alternating solemn choral sections with dance-like solo parts. The opening “Gloria” features bright trumpets introducing the main thematic materials, ending with a chantlike “et in terra pax” in the choir, before moving into the triple meter “Laudamus Te” with soli duet and trilling flute obligato. The choral “Qui sedes” section parallels musical material from the fifth section of the Gloria, “Qui Tollis I.” Although the dangers of drawn-out mass text include the chance of monotony, the phrase-shaping and dynamic shifts are executed with expressive intent by the choir and orchestra, creating a dramatic effect. In the final movement, the “Cum Sancto” fugue with the choir and orchestra vibrantly articulates the subject (climbing up a scalar 4th passage) and its culminating cadence, which brings the nine-part Gloria to a satisfying close.

Terza Messa features numerous highlights of Martines’ compositional style, both emblematic of practices of her time and her hybridization of “learned” and “galante” styles in sacred music, illustrating the significance and contextualization of Martines’ works within 18th-century sacred Viennese music.

In Credo, a spritely tempo sets off choir and soli alternatim. With through-composed melodic material set for each line of text, the forwardmoving tempo maintains momentum throughout. The steady and dignified tempo emphasizes the last words of this section: “passus et sepultus est,” ending with open fifths. Of note are the basses in this final cadence, emphasizing the low octave in a moment of text painting. The “Et Resurrexit” section returns to a minuet, complete with trumpet calls, trilling violins, and expressive oboe thematic duets, between homophonic choral declarations of text. Martines’ overlapping phrases and quick alternating sections between solo and choir build tension towards the final word: “mortuorum.” The choir and orchestra each exhibit expressive articulation changes and tapered phrasing, allowing the ear to quickly latch onto new thematic ideas popping through the vocal and instrumental lines. The Credo closes with the “Et Vitam Venturi Saeculi” fugue. In this triumphant section, the clarity of the fugue subject is heard throughout, well-balanced with a descending “Amen” countersubject. The

The University of Arizona’s Symphonic Choir, under Dr. Elizabeth Schauer’s direction, offers numerous moments of expressivity and interpretative choices, which showcase Martines’ writing. The tri-part Kyrie opens with an orchestral introduction of the movement’s motives. The choir and strings use vibrato as an ornament to warm sustained notes, allowing the imitative textures to pop and Martines’ sequences to build beautifully to clear and triumphant cadences throughout. The solemn and minor Christe section is the first entrance of the solo quartet, before launching into the Kyrie II, an active fugue subject ascending up a scalar fourth before dropping athletically downwards. The tempi throughout the movement are both regal and forward-moving, sung and played with rhythmic clarity and precision. 27

sound from the choir and orchestra is full and vibrant, sung with conviction and excitement, rather than with sanitized technicality. In this recording, the final cadence highlights the third in the trumpets and tenors, making a definitive statement of resolution in contrast to the prior section’s open fifths.

group playing engine-like 8th notes, propelling the music forward. The syncopated upper strings and the chain suspensions in the choral voices increases momentum to the entrance of the mezzo soloist. The choir’s second iteration of “Dona Nobis Pacem” is also its last - the final movement wraps up quickly in the last 11 seconds without any repeated text. The result leaves the listener wanting more, but Martines’ text setting contains no repeats, which would prolong the musical setting. The result is laconic and triumphant.

Sanctus and Hosanna return to a stately triple meter. The portative and cello are balanced so that the effect is of one sound. Martines provides a surprise, ending the solo section with a half cadence, resolved by the choir, now in duple meter with ascending arpeggios in the low strings. The “Hosanna” section brings back imitative duets in the soli lines, followed by extended imitative sections of choral responses. The Benedictus includes the orchestral addition of regal horn calls, supporting the tenor soloist before the return of the “Hosanna.”

Dr. Schauer, Dr. Higgs, and the University of Arizona Symphonic Choir bring to light a work which has helped create a more nuanced contextualization of the 18th-century Viennese soundscape and helped substantiate and promote this music alongside Martines’ oft-programmed and canonized contemporaries like Haydn and Mozart. This recording provides rediscovered works to explore and study and brings the work of Martines to our musical present.

Agnus Dei opens with the mezzo soloist, followed soon after by the choir with homophonic, sigh-like gestures of “miserere.” The soprano soloist leads the Dona Nobis Pacem section, with the continuo

— Reina Dickey Miami University, OH

TCS ACR