JAVS Spring 2019

How different are the instrumental rapsodies from the vocal rapsodies for voice, clarinet, viola and piano? Loeffler kept the musical structure of “L’Étang” intact between both versions. More specifically, the stanzas of the poem and the music that accompanies each stanza are clearly defined and consistent between Rapsodies and Deux Rapsodies , which can be seen in ex. 1. The instrumental rapsodies often have longer and more developed thematic material; however, both versions have musical themes that correlate directly with the poetry. As mentioned above, the structure of “L’Étang” in the instrumental rapsodies is very similar to the vocal rapsodies. This was possibly out of respect to his friend Pourtau for whom he originally conceived the piece. The result is an instrumental setting of “L’Étang” that is a chronological musical depiction of the poem, where each stanza and sometimes each line of the poem can be matched to its musical counterpart (theme or section). Figure 2 outlines the text translation with its corresponding measure numbers in the score. These texts were translated to English by Philip Hale, who was the program annotator for the Boston Symphony during this era and a prominent supporter and admirer of Loeffler. 19 His translation of the poems from French to English was later published with the score for Deux Rapsodies . The only oddity about his translation is that he compressed four stanzas of French text in “L’Étang” into three stanzas of English. Upon examination of the above chart, there may have been a musical reason to combine stanzas three and four. These are the only stanzas that Loeffler doesn’t separate with an instrumental interlude in his vocal rapsodies. is the appearance of the chant Dies Irae in the piano part that accompanies any textual reference to death or a specter (e.g. mm. 37, 40, 43–44), as shown in example 2. In the instrumental rapsodies instead of inserting Dies Irae as a countermelody in the piano, he gives it to the viola in a two-bar solo (mm. 106–107) marked “ponticello.” The harsher quality of ponticello adds an extra layer of eeriness to this morbid motive (ex. 3). Another example of “text-painting” the musical motive associated with “spectral figure” occurs in mm. 99–100 of the instrumental rapsodies, as illustrated in example 4. Text painting is clearly evident in his vocal rapsodies. One of the most easily identifiable examples of text painting

It was extremely well received. The Boston Transcript described the performance as “for mere beauty of sound, anything more striking has not been heard here in years; the combination of oboe and viola formed a mass of tone the strange loneliness of which can only be described as haunting.” The Boston Journal declared that “no sensitive hearer could have failed to recognize the presence of something rarely and wildly beautiful.” The trio performed the work many more times and it became a personal favorite of Loeffler’s. Schirmer Music published Deux Rapsodies in 1905. 16 Loeffler dedicated the “L’Étang” to Pourtau and “La Cornemuse” to Longy. Deux Rapsodies is one of just a few of Loeffler’s works that was published during his lifetime. The work was also one of Loeffler’s favorites to perform and is Loeffler’s most recorded composition. 17 For clarity moving forward when comparing the works, the first composition, Rapsodies will be referred to as his “vocal rapsodies” and the Deux Rapsodies will be referred to as his “instrumental rapsodies.”

Loeffler’s Rapsodies

This section is dedicated to the study and comparison between his vocal rapsodies and his instrumental rapsodies. Analysis and relevant structural correlations between the poems and the musical compositions are noted, drawing direct correlations between text and musical motives.

The text of the first poem “L’Étang” appears below.

L’Étang (The Pond) Full of old fish, blind-stricken long ago, the pool, under a near sky rumbling dull thunder, bares between centuries-old rushes the splashing horror of its gloom. Over yonder, goblins light up more than one marsh that is black, sinister, unbearable; but the pool is revealed in this lonely place only by the croakings of consumptive frogs. Now the moon, piercing at this very moment, seems to look here at herself fantastically; as though, one might say, to see her spectral face, her flat nose, the strange vacuity of teeth–a death’s–head lighted from within, about to peer into a dull mirror. 18 – Maurice Rollinat (translated by Philip Hale)

40

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 35, No. 1, Spring 2019