Pour les funérailles d’un soldat

Over a rhythmic cell typical of the funeral march, treated as an ostinato in the timpani and drum pianissimo, woodwinds and horns in their low register evoke an atmosphere of mourning and contemplation, to which trumpets and trombones add a note of cold solemnity and the strings a touch of human desolation. The basses enter to declaim the text (“Qu’on voile les tambours…”), introducing in the strings the prayer for the dead, with its readily recognizable Gregorian intonation associated with the Dies Irae. The second half of the first stanza (“Nous voulons au tombeau porter le capitaine…”) is stated twice: first energetically by the tenors, in a declamatory surge; then more softly, beginning with the chorus a cappella (against which bell sonorities will stand out), in a vocal writing close to the old organum. A break in tempo and more agitated writing then introduce the second stanza (“Si ces rideaux de pourpre…”) for solo baritone: a phrase full of nobility that surges upward toward the high register, up to a brief, theatrical orchestral climax. The closing section returns to the opening text, the chorus beginning at half voice and gradually fading into silence. As a countermelody, the Dies Irae in augmented note values is stated like a chorale, while timpani and drum repeat to the very end the same rhythmic cell, emblematic of death.

Nadia Boulanger made a transcription for organ; the manuscript remains lost to this day. However, the third set of corrected proofs of the score for chorus and piano bears registrations for grand organ, performance indications, and a Latin translation of the French text. She played this transcription on March 29, 1919, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, at the charity festival held for the benefit of War Widows and Orphans.

For this work (and for Renouveau, composed the previous year), Lili Boulanger received the Prix Lepaulle of the Institut de France on February 7, 1913.

© Anthony Girard

© Ricordi 1916 then 1918
© Durand 1999