Pendant la tempête

Lili Boulanger keeps only the first three stanzas of the poem, the first returning to close the piece. In the piano, the right hand unfolds a triplet figure depicting the churning sea and the surge of the waves, while the left hand states a vigorous theme, doubled at the octave, in the Phrygian mode, evoking the menace of the storm. The three voices of the men’s chorus develop a counterpoint that conveys agitation and anxiety. Key words such as “courroux” (wrath) and “démence” (madness) are underlined by startling chords far removed from the home key. The piano writing is similar in the second stanza, with still more distant modulations, the text now given to the baritones alone. For the third stanza, close to a prayer, the tempo grows calmer and the writing sparer and more inward, in a static tonality over a C-sharp pedal, with the piano doubling the voices. The piece ends with a literal repeat of the first stanza, the piano continuing for a few measures after the chorus.

© Durand 2000

This was a preparatory exercise for the qualifying rounds of the Prix de Rome, written in four days. Though the first two stanzas are remarkable, especially the first, whose choral writing vividly conveys the turmoil of sailors in distress, this is an unfinished composition: the decision to bring back the first stanza looks like an easy way out; the third stanza is less fully realized; and at several points the piano part is laid out like the sketch of a future orchestral score. The current edition, probably faithful to the manuscript, suffers from imprecise dynamic markings, which will be revised in the critical edition of Lili Boulanger’s complete works now in progress.

© Anthony Girard