Le Temps L'Horloge

The Work

"Le Temps L'Horloge" is a work for soprano and orchestra, written by French composer Henri Dutilleux. It was jointly commissioned by the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto (Seiji Ozawa, Director), the Boston Symphony Orchestra (James Levine, Music Director), and the Orchestre National de France (Kurt Masur, Music Director). Dutilleux composed the three songs in this cycle between 2006 and 2007. Seiji Ozawa led Fleming and the Saito Kinen Orchestra in the world premiere on September 6, 2007, at the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto City, Japan. The Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered the piece on November 29, 2007.

"Le Temps L’Horloge" is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, three horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timbales, two percussionists (playing crotales, acute and medium suspended cymbals, two tam-tams, wood block, and bass drum), vibraphone, marimba, harp, celesta, harpsichord, accordion and strings. It is based on two poems by Jean Tardieu ("Le Temps l'Horloge" and "Le Masque") and one by Robert Desnos ("Le Dernier Poème")

It has not reached yet its final version. Dutilleux intends to complete the cycle (currently consisting of three songs by two 20th-century poets) by setting Charles Baudelaire’s prose-poem, “Enivrez-vous” (“Get Drunk!”).

The Text

The two poems by Jean Tardieu strike dramatically contrasting attitudes. “Le Temps l’horloge” (from which the whole song cycle takes its title) plays off the irony of mechanically measured time versus the tricks and feints of psychological time.

I. "Time and the Clock"

The other day I was listening to time/As it passed through the clock./Chains, clappers and cogs/It made more noise than one hundred/At the village bell/And this pleased my soul./

I prefer time when it shows itself/Rather than passing among us noiselessly/Like a thief in the night.

"Jean Tardieu", from "Plaisantineries"

II. "The Mask"

A heavy object of hollow bronze/In the shape of a mask with eyes closed/Rises slowly and alone/Very high in the sonorous desert./

Up to this green star, to this Visage/Which has remained silent for ten thousand years/I fly with no effort, /I approach with no fear./I knock with my curled finger/On the hard forehead on the convex eyelids,/The sound terrifies and overwhelms me:/Far away in the limpid night /My eternal soul echoes./

Radiance, darkness, smile, solitude!/I will not go violate the secret/I remain next to the Face/Since I speak and resemble it./Meanwhile all around the splendor is emptiness,/Brilliant nocturnal crystals of summer.

"Jean Tardieu", from "Histoires obscures"

III. "The Last Poem"

I’ve dreamt so strongly of you,/I’ve walked so much, talked so much,/So loved your shadow,/That I’ve nothing left of you,/I’m left to be the shadow among shadows/To be one hundred times more shadow than the shadow/To be the shadow that will appear and reappear/In your sun-filled life.

"Robert Desnos"

Translations by Benjamin Schwartz.

Musical Setting

I. "Le Temps l’Horloge"

A triple-meter flow (sped up in the winds and harpsichord). The song nearly comes to a standstill in the middle as the clarinet erupts in a brief, meter-defying solo. The soprano’s rising and falling lines meanwhile hint at time’s recurrent patterns.

II. "Le Masque"

The longest of the three songs. It presents a different atmosphere than that of the first: a confrontation between the narrator and a sphinx-like mask whose mystery is left unexplained. The vocal line’s wide-ranging intervals seem palpably to trace the object. Muted brass bring in the briefest tinge of nightclub jazz.

III. "Le Dernier Poème"

The text was believed to have literally been Desnos’s final poem, written in ultimate desperation at a death camp. The musical setting is profound sparseness. A sonority mixing timpani strokes and strings frames the song, creating an oddly unsettling ambiance of hollowed-out nostalgia. A brief cluster of instruments gathers at the moment the narrator tries to embrace the absent lover. The music thins out at the conclusion of the piece.

The Performer

“Le Temps l’Horloge” was written specifically for American soprano Renee Fleming. Dutilleux called Fleming “a great artist” and wrote that “I constantly thought of her voice’s character, of her power of lyrical expression" while writing the piece.

Recordings

There are currently no recordings of "Le Temps l’Horloge" available.

References

* Caroline Potter. "Dutilleux, Henri", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001), vii, 770-772.
* Henri Dutilleux: His Life and Works. Aldershot (UK): Ashgate Publishing Company, 1997.
* Thomas May. "Henri Dutilleux: Le Temps L'Horloge". Boston Symphony Orchestra, 2007.

External Links

* http://www.schott-music.com/news/archiv/show,1254.html
* http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2007/11/23/bso_composer_relationship_proves_fruitful/
* http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/review/review.aspx?id=2207