Lili Boulanger: Vieille Prière bouddhique for tenor, choir and orchestra (1917)

Prière quotidienne pour tout l’univers


Lili Boulanger

born 21 August 1893
died 15 March 1918 in Mézy-sur-Seine near Paris

Composition and première:

Composed: 1914-17
premiered posthumously 9 June 1921, Salle Pleyel, with Henri Büsser (conductor), Gabriel Paulet (tenor) and Nadia Boulanger (piano).


Lili Boulanger only had 7 years to compose. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 24. She had been ill since her youth, which prevented her from studying music properly. Nevertheless, at the age of 19 she was the first woman ever to win the prestigious Rome Prize of the Paris Conservatoire. She came from a family of musicians steeped in tradition; her older sister Nadia Boulanger was also a composer.


The subtitle of the composition Vieille Prière bouddhique, which was only published posthumously, is: ‘Prière quotidienne pour tout l'univers: Lili Boulanger set a wonderful Buddhist prayer text for peace and tolerance to music, known as “Metta sutta” and translated into French by Suzanne Karpelès. It should be noted that the work was written in the midst of the First World War in 1917.


Just as the prayer text emphasises the concerns of an interreligious dialogue between the world's religions, the composition combines Gregorian and Asian melismas. The sparseness of the choral sound contrasts with the romantic religious understanding of the sweet mood.


Listen here (approx. 8 min.)!


Listening companion:

(With quotations by Konstantin Galluhn, 2010)

Musically, the setting of this prayer is based on a single melody (in the church key of Phrygian C, a minor scale with a lowered second degree, often used in funeral music in the tradition).

‘Bass and alto together perform the first verse in unison. Two basic melodic figures can be recognised, which recur throughout the piece: One is the two-bar formula of the beginning, which is characterised by intense repetition of the note g. The dotted rhythm contributes to the movement, while the tritone frame creates a certain melodic tension.

The second melodic figure can be found - as a counterpart to the first, so to speak - in bars 11 and 12. The melodic tension is lower here due to the fifth limitation. The constant repetition of these two formulas creates an impression of prayer reminiscent of oriental music or early Christian church music.’ (Konstantin Galluhn).

In a longer interlude, a solo flute meditatively takes over the motifs from the first two verses and varies them.
A tenor begins the third verse of the prayer solo. At ‘qui sont déchus’, the music also stumbles, as it were, and becomes dissonant. At the end of the verse, the bass and soprano voices of the choir join in and imitate the melody of the solo tenor. A humming chorus concludes this verse.

The choir and strings now enter powerfully in unison with the fourth verse. ‘Here, too, the theme is again treated imitatively (bar 85) and finally intensified to great expressivity. A short coda (from bar 98) concludes the work: a gradually increasing crescendo of the textless choir can once again increase the expression - up to the radiant final chord in triple forte.’ (Konstantin Galluhn).






Que toute chose qui respire, sans ennemis, sans obstacles, surmontant la douleur et atteignant le bonheur, puisse se mouvoir librement, chacune dans la voie qui lui est destinée.





Que toutes les créatures et partout, tous les esprits et tous ceux qui sont nés, sans ennemis, sans obstacles, surmontant la douleur et atteignant le bonheur, puisse se mouvoir librement, chacun dans la voie qui lui est destinée.






Que toutes les femmes, que tous les hommes, les Aryens et les non Aryens, tous les dieux et tous les humains et ceux qui sont déchus, sans ennemis, sans obstacles, surmontant la douleur et atteignant le bonheur, puisse se mouvoir librement, chacun dans la voie qui lui est destinée.

En Orient et en Occident, au Nord et au Sud, que tous les êtres qui existent, sans ennemis, sans obstacles, surmontant la douleur et atteignant le bonheur, puisse se mouvoir librement, chacun dans la voie qui lui est destinée.

 






May everything that breathes, without enemies, without obstacles, overcoming pain and achieving happiness, be able to move freely, each in the path that is destined for it.





May all creatures everywhere, all spirits and all those born, without enemies, without obstacles, overcoming pain and achieving happiness, be able to move freely, each in the path that is destined for him or her.







May all women, all men, Aryans and non-Aryans, all gods and all humans and the fallen, without enemies, without obstacles, overcoming pain and achieving happiness, be able to move freely, each along the path that is destined for him or her.

In the East and in the West, in the North and in the South, may all beings who exist, without enemies, without obstacles, overcoming pain and achieving happiness, be able to move freely, each on the path that is destined for him or her.

Note for music lovers:

Website: Unknown Violin Concertos