(Song for closed mouth), JA 039, is a composition for unaccompanied four-part choir by
Jehan Alain. He wrote the music in 1933. It is to be performed with closed mouth. It was published in 1989, edited by his sister
Marie-Claire Alain.
History
Jehan Alain composed in 1933 for a four-part choir (
), to be sung without text and with closed mouth, in the vocal technique. It is one of few secular choral works by Alain. It was published in 1989 by Editions de la Schola Cantorum, edited by his sister, the organist
Marie-Claire Alain.
Music
The music is written in
G minor and
common time. The duration is about three minutes. It has the character of a
lullaby, with a gentle swing of simple melodic
motif
Motif may refer to:
General concepts
* Motif (chess composition), an element of a move in the consideration of its purpose
* Motif (folkloristics), a recurring element that creates recognizable patterns in folklore and folk-art traditions
* Moti ...
s. The first motiv has only three notes, with beginning and ending with G, the ending being a sequence of eighth-notes G-A-G-A-G. This characteristic figure appears in the four voices at different times and levels. The music begins softly, is carefully marked for ''
crescendo'' and ''
decrescendo'' and ends ''
perdendoso'', fading away.
The music is repeated, and then seems to begin another repetition, creating a sense of a "perpetual movement". The harmonies are modal, and use some distant tones for colouring.
Performance and recording
''Chanson à bouche fermée'' was included in a concert program of the
Maîtrise de Radio France and
Maîtrise de Radio France - Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris at
Notre-Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...
on 17 November 2017, in a program of French choral music around 1900, including Poulenc's
Litanies à la Vierge noire and Duruflé's
Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens
' (Four motets on Gregorian themes), Opus number, Op. 10, are four Sacred music, sacred motets composed by Maurice Duruflé in 1960, based on Gregorian chant, Gregorian Theme (music), themes. He set Ubi caritas et amor, Tota pulchra es, Tu es Petr ...
. The program was broadcast by
Radio France.
The piece was recorded in 1999 by the Camerata Saint Louis, conducted by
Georges Guillard, and in 2005 by the Ensemble Vocal Sequenza 9.3, conducted by Catherine Simonpietri. It was included in the first complete recording of Alain's vocal music. ''Jean Alain retrouvé : Oeuvre vocale'', which was recorded in 2004 and released in 2005, performed by the vocal ensemble Sequenza 9.3 conducted by Catherine Simonpietri.
References
Cited sources
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External links
*
Alain Jehan Ariste / 1911-1940musicologie.org
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Choral music
1933 compositions
compositions in G minor