6/12/20

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Jean Françaix (1912-1997)

I was first exposed to today’s piece when a friend of mine (who is an oboist at Blair School of Music) explained to me that it was among her favorite works for the oboe. Before that, I had never heard of (or to my knowledge, heard any piece by) the 20th century French composer Jean Françaix. From his youth, Françaix was encouraged by Maurice Ravel, who was the topic of a previous post, as well as the famous Nadia Boulanger (who was the sister of Lili Boulanger, another composer which I’ve previously written about). Additionally, in my research about him, I also found out just how prolific of a composer Françaix was - after establishing himself as a gifted pianist, he went on to dedicate himself almost entirely to composing, and ended up writing over 200 works. Prolific as he was, his music also showcased an incredible range of styles, but was most often defined by an underlying lightheartedness and a tasteful wittiness.

L’Horloge de Flore (which translates to “The Flower Clock” or “Flora Clock”) was composed in 1959 and serves as the only large-scale work of Jean Françaix’s that features the oboe. The concerto is only 15-18 minutes in length, and serves as an incredible example of not just his style, but concertante oboe literature as a whole. Perhaps one of the more interesting things about the piece is the form: in seven movements, the piece goes from one ‘time’ (starting at 3 AM) to the next, with no particular pattern to dictate the intervals of hours. Each of the movements moves into the next, showcasing a variety of moods in a very seamless fashion. The concept of writing a piece based on the time frame of a day is one that many composers have used (including Richard Strauss in his work Eine Alpensinfonie - another piece which I’ve written about in this series of blog posts), but what I find sets Françaix apart is his refreshing take on how to portray the various times of the day. For example, consider the final movement, VII. “21 Heures - Silène Noctiflore,” which serves as one of the more jovial and upbeat movements despite representing (what one might describe as) the gloomy and subdued evening hour of 9 PM. It is that little bit of unexpectedness that keeps the world of music (pop, rap, and classical alike) interesting. Let’s also not sell L’Horloge de Flore short here - beyond the interesting form and theme of the piece, Françaix shows just how beautiful and intuitive mid-20th century French harmony can be. Throughout the entire piece, you can hear the iconic sound of parallel movement as well as the occasional pivot to distant key (which often takes the form of a chromatic mediant relationship). This harmonic language is what sets a large amount of French and Impressionistic music apart from the dramatic world of the Romantic Era, presenting a harmonic setting to the listener that moves gracefully with an almost ‘floating’ quality while still including a fresh burst of color from time to time.

However you may feel listening to L’Horloge de Flore, I hope that the piece reminds you of a more fun and playful (yet still beautiful) side of classical music. In that way, I believe that today’s piece bears some small resemblence to last week’s piece, Marc-André Hamelin’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini, despite how different the two may be in aural effect. Below I am linking a recording (which is unsurprisingly accompanied by the score) by the legendary American oboist John de Lancie. John de Lancie started his professional career at ripe old age of 19 as principal oboist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (before enlisting in the military), and went on to be principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1954 to 1977 and then director of the Curtis Institute of Music from 1977 to 1985. Needless to say, the recording below is oboe playing at its finest. It seems to be a bit of a pattern that with posts that feature a work made up of several movements, I usually share my own personal favorite - for L’Horloge de Flore, I must go with II. “5 Heures - Cupidone bleue.” So with that, I will keep this post on the slightly shorter side so that you can get to listening to the piece.