A Choral Timeline: Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963) |
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 LISTEN: Vinea mea electa
from Quatre Motets pour un temps de Penitence (1938)
Despite being refused entry to the Paris Conservatoire on the grounds that his music wasn't good enough, Poulenc was to become one of the most prominent French composers of the age. As a young man, the death of his close friend - the composer Pierre-Octave Ferroud - came as a huge personal blow. But the spiritual crisis it provoked led, eventually, to the restoration of his near-dormant catholic faith. And the musical result of this religious journey was the composition a sequence of inspired and unique sacred works, amongst them a brilliant setting of the mass, and two collections of motets - of which the Quatre Motets pour un temps de Penitence is one.
The most important choral work from this period of creativity is a secular one: Figure humaine, a cantata for unaccompanied chorus which sets words by the Resistance poet Paul Eluard dealing with the horrors of war and human suffering. One of the major choral works of the last century, the manuscript was famously smuggled across the Thames during the German occupation of France and premiered by the BBC Chorus - the predecessors of today's Singers - in 1945.
Vinea mea electa sets Latin words in which Christ meditates on his betrayal by comparing his disciples to a lovingly-tended vine which has turned to bitterness. The style of the piece is typical of Poulenc - a skilful combination of muted French Renaissance and religious and spiritual strength.
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