Recent and upcoming concerts involving works published by Musik Fabrik for October

October 3, 2010: Solomons: Japanese première of Tants Fraylach for Clarinet Quartet, The Iris Clarinet Quartet, The Concert Hall at the Electricity Museum (Denki-Bunka-Kaikan) Nagoya, Japan

October 8, 2010: Brenet: World première of Concerto pour violoncelle et petite orchestre
MUSICARAMA 2010, Artem Konstantinov, Violoncello, the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong under the direction of Jean Thorel,
Kwai Tsing Theatre Auditorium, Hong Kong

October 10, 2010: Maeda: Japanese Folksongs and Haikus for women's chorus, Ensemble Vocale Akané, 17h00, Paroisse Sainte Rosalie, (For more information, please click here.)

October 12, 2010: Tailleferre: Finnish Première of Guitare, Otto Tolonen, Guitarist, 19H00 at the Sibelius-Akatemia, konserttisali
Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 00100 Helsinki, Finland (For more information, please click here.)

new recording of Tailleferre's "Trois danses de la Nouvelle Cythère" by the Brillaner Duo

The Brillaner duo, composed of Shirley Brill, clarinet and Jonathan Aner, piano, have recorded Tailleferre's "Trois Danses de La Nouvelle Cythère" on their new CD Petite Pièce, which is available on their website. The recording is first-rate in every way and highly recommended!

Divertissement dans le Style Louis XV by Germaine Tailleferre

In 1935, Germaine Tailleferre wrote the theater music for a play by Jean Sarment about Madame de Pompadour and Louis XV of France, Madame Quinze. In addition to the orchestra of the Comédie Française, where the work was produced, the musical forces included the Société de la Musique Ancienne, which was composed of members of the Casadesus Family playing viols and harpsichord.

Tailleferre further revised the work for another production in 1950, re-orchestrating some of the movements for smaller forces and adding further military sequences. Her score, which had been given as a gift to the French architect and stage designer André Boll, was bequeathed to the Paris Opera Library after Boll's death. The performance materials for the 1950 production are currently located at the Library of the Comédie Française.

Musik Fabrik has published this work, with several performance editions also available. These editions are:

Divertissement dans le Style Louis XV for orchestra with early instruments (011(bscl)0/2200/tymp/perc/cel/strings plus 4 violes and harpsichord), complete score with performance notes (parts on rental)


Divertissement pour violes for 4 viols, score and parts

Sonneries dans le Style Louis XV for 3 Trumpets and field drum (with an alternative version of 1 piece for 4 trumpets, and one work with 2 trumpets/Tympani/snare drum/bass drum), score and parts

Suite dans le Style Louis XV for harpsichord or piano (five movements)

Trois Petites Danses dans le Style Louis XV for 2 oboes and 2 bassoons, with arrangements of two marches by Lully

Trois Petites Danses dans le Style Louis XV The same music orchestrated for oboe, violin, viola, violoncello and harpsichord

More information about the work is available at this page at the Musik Fabrik site.

Tailleferre/Wehage "Choral et Fugue" by the Italian Police Band in Rome on Sunday

Paul Wehage's orchestration of Germaine Tailleferre's Choral et Fugue will be presented in Rome in a concert by the Italian National Police band under the direction of Ten Col. Massimo Martinelli. The concert, on 30 november, 2008 at 11 a.m. at the Via Aurelia, is part of the 30th anniversary celebration of the Adkins-Chiti Donne In Musica foundation.

The work, which has also been performed by James Ripley and the Carthage Wind Ensemble in Kenosha, Wisconsin, will be presented in its European Première. The work is available from the Musik Fabrik Concert Band Catalog.

From the notes for the published version :

The two pieces which make up “Choral et Fugue” were used by Tailleferre in several ways throughout her long career as a composer. The “Choral” was probably first written as a work for organ, with optional trumpet and trombone which dates from around 1934. It is possible that the “Fugue” was perhaps part of this initial setting, but the manuscrit title page lists only “Choral”. The Fugue was used in Tailleferre’s 1954 film score “L’Aigle des Rues” which exists in a version for piano (which was most likely orchestrated for the film) and a version with two of five pieces arranged into a “Prelude et Fugue” for Organ.

In 2003, I came across a manuscript with a title page of “Choral et Fugue” with the dedication “à L’Harmonie Municipale de Lyon” which consisted of the first version of the Choral for organ with optional brass followed by the orchestral score of the Fugue (probably from the film music). I asked Mrs. Elvire de Rudder, Tailleferre’s granddaughter and heir, whether or not she had any recollection of this work and she only remembered her grandmother talking about it. I called up the City of Lyons and discovered that the Town Band had been disbanded several years before. My letters to the Lyons City archives went unanswered. Questions to Désiré Dondeyne, a French band conductor who worked with Tailleferre during the last ten years of her life, did not lead to anything of significance.

So, it appeared that either Tailleferre orchestrated this work for wind band and it is lost somewhere in Lyons or that she intended to orchestrate it for wind band and never finished the project. When this hypothetical score is finally discovered, I shall gladly withdraw this arrangement to make way for the composer‘s original work, but until such time, this version will allow the work to be performed. The “Choral” is entirely my own orchestration, retaining the scoring for the trumpet and the trombone in the original version of the Choral, but the “Fugue”, being for orchestra, retains the scoring for winds and percussion largely as Tailleferre conceived it.

I would like to add that this orchestration was completed with the approval and the participation of Mrs. Elvire de Rudder, Tailleferre’s heir and herself a musician and musicologist.

(a note for Anglophones: The term “Choral” in French is spelled correctly without the “e” at the end. The word “Chorale” in French refers to a Chorus or a Choral Society.)

Hommage à Germaine Tailleferre tomorrow at the University of Mexico

There will be a concert in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Death of Germaine Tailleferre tommorow (Friday, November 7, 2008) at 12h30 at the National School of Music of the National University of Mexico, Mexico City.

Hommage à Germaine TAILLEFERRE

XXV Anniversaire de son décès

Sala Huehuecóyotl

Escuela Nacional de Música

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Xicoténcatl 126, Coyoacán, Ciudad de México

Vendredi 7 novembre 2008, 12:30 hs.

Xicoténcatl 126, Coyoacán, Ciudad de México

The programme, which will be presented by musicologist and pianist Carmen Betancourt and performed by students of the Academy of Singing, features the Three Jean Tardieu Songs, the Two Poemes of Lord Byron, and Tailleferre's hommage to Francis Poulenc, L'Adieu du Cavalier.

The program will be repeated in another concert on November 27th, again at the University of Mexico.

Germaine Tailleferre - Catalog questions

One of the really frustrating things about working on Tailleferre is not knowing exactly what's there. Why this is so is a huge problem (for which we don't yet have all of the answers, nor do we know whether this will ever really be "solved" on way or the other), but the fact remains that there are several published catalogues who do not give the number of works, nor do they give the same titles. There are also the unpublished records of deposits made in Tailleferre's name at the SACEM, which sometimes match the published catalogues, and often give other information.

The five catalogues are as follows :

• Janelle Gelfand "Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) Piano and Chamber works", Doctoral Dissertation, 1999 University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music

• Laura Mitgang "Germaine Tailleferre : Before, During and After Les Six" in The Musical Woman, Vol. 11 Judith Lang Zaimont, editor (Greenwood Press 1987)

• Robert Orledge : Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) : A Centenary Appraisal" Muziek & Wetenshap 2 (Summer 1992) pp. 109-130

• Robert Shapiro "Germaine Tailleferre : a bio-Bibliography" (Greenwood Press 1994)

• Georges Hacquard "Germaine Tailleferre: La Dame des Six" (L'Harmatten 1997)

Out of these five catalogs, the most solid in terms of musicological methodology is without question that of Robert Orledge (not surprisingly, given Dr. Orledge's fine reputation as a musicologist), giving sources, complete scientific descriptions of manuscripts examined, location of said manuscripts, and information about the works themselves. The work by Mitgang only lists published works, as Mitgang was intending on doing more extended work at a later date.

The three other catalogs, Shapiro, Gelfand and Hacquard, are in contradiction in terms of number of works, the composition of various works, the titles of works, instrumentation etc and do not provide complete sources for their information. Shapiro and Hacquard give no localization for manuscript sources. Gelfand frequently refers to a mysterious "Paris Archive" but does not give a specific location. And all of these catalogues have information which is contradicted by the SACEM catalogue.

So, what to do? Who is right? There's no denying that the titles given in the SACEM listings are sourced, as the composer has to provide the work's title, instrumentation, and provide a copy of the work itself. A publisher has to provide a contract with the composer or the rightsholder. The SACEM does indeed make mistakes, but they are not usually in terms of titles or instrumentation. So, it seems logical that the base of any established catalog must start with these records.

Once this has been established, then the questions mainly of sources: who gives their sources and how? In this case, Orledge wins hands down here. Everything else, including the physical existence of the works themselves as well as their titles and instrumentations, must be questioned until sources are located. Once sources are located, then one has to establish if the sources are authentic, if the titles are authentic and if the text has been modified or not.

I'll be writing more about this in the upcoming weeks, but this is a means of beginning an explanation of these issues and what we are doing to establish a completely, sourced, catalog of Tailleferre's works.

Musik Fabrik composers performed this week and next

The Piano Duo of Ellen Kendall and Susan Wheatley gave a lecture-recital on The Two Piano Music of Germaine Tailleferre at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania's Festival of Women Composers on Thurday, March 27, 2008. The duo performed Tailleferre's Sonata for Two Pianos, The Intermezzo for Two Pianos and the Nocturne from La Nouvelle Cythère.

Jean-Yves Malmasson's work Trois Miniatures Burlesques for violin and piano was performed by Adam Banda, violin; Cima Moussalli, piano on Friday, March 28, 2008 at the Institut Hongrois in Paris.

Next week, on March 31, 2008, Carson Cooman's work The Doors in the Sky (2007) for solo violin by Piotr Szewczyk, violin at University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.