"Nocturne", for Harp, solo strings, choir (sample) clarinet (modelisation) and voice (mine).

Hello,

je vous présente ma dernière composition, achevée hier... (février 2023). C'est écrit sur deux strophes du poème "nocturne" de Stuart Merill.
L'effectif est une clarinette soliste, une harpe, un quatuor à cordes, et un petit choeur de chambre, le tout pour accompagner un baryton solo (je chante, car je m'avais sous la main et c'était plus pratique que de faire venir quelqu'un d'autre dans mon petit bureau home studio)...
bonne écoute ! J'ai hâte de lire vos conseils.

EDIT

Ohhh Sorry ! In English !

I present to you my last composition, completed yesterday... (February 2023). It is written on two stanzas of Stuart Merill's poem "nocturne".

I is written for a solo clarinet, a harp, a string quartet, and a small chamber choir, all to surround a solo baritone (I sing, because I had myself at hand and it was more convenient than bringing someone else to my small home studio office)...

Good listening! I can't wait to read your advice.

(le visuel est mon manuscrit photographié en macro. J'utilise ce genre de visuel pour mes dernières compositions).

I love the harmonic language. It sounds ambiguous and reminds me a bit of berg. I like it.

One thing I'm worried about though is the harp writing, because what I hear sounds bit pianistic and chromatic at places and I'm wondering if this piece would be possible on a standard concert harp. I'm not completely certain since I don't have a score though. Maybe specify to use a cross-strung harp or some other chromatic harp? That's all I can suggest.

Thanks for sharing.

Hello thanks for your listening.

You point to a crucial element!
You are right... I need to check that (my daughter is harpist and I have to give her the manuscript soon so that she can see her pedals...)

Hi @Krisp,

As @ComposaBoi noted, very refreshing harmonic language which fits the night mood! It's not completely atonal and is quite Bergian with some occasional tonal harmonies. I enjoy your combination of instruments and voice. The clarinet is the best choice of the winds here with its mellow chalumeau and blues sound. You singing is very professional for me and I love your baritone voice. It's fuller than a tenor but not as deep as a bass (yeah I am a bass), and here the range fits well with the not-too-agitated high register of the baritone while still expressing the dark mood here. I am not familiar with any French literature nor anything French itself but I love this!

I've just subscribed to your channel and there are quite a number of videos there!

Thanks for sharing!

Henry

This is powerful.

Your voice is not only nice but if fits with all the sound you created. Won't insist on the score (I would like to read it too, though). I also subscribed to your channel, obviously. Would you mind if I shared this with my friends and in my (empty) twitter? I honestly don't think I can give you any advice of use, not for this piece at least, it was just delicious. Thank you for sharing this and welcome to the forums!

Salut,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

5 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi @Krisp,

As @ComposaBoi noted, very refreshing harmonic language which fits the night mood! It's not completely atonal and is quite Bergian with some occasional tonal harmonies. I enjoy your combination of instruments and voice. The clarinet is the best choice of the winds here with its mellow chalumeau and blues sound. You singing is very professional for me and I love your baritone voice. It's fuller than a tenor but not as deep as a bass (yeah I am a bass), and here the range fits well with the not-too-agitated high register of the baritone while still expressing the dark mood here. I am not familiar with any French literature nor anything French itself but I love this!

I've just subscribed to your channel and there are quite a number of videos there!

Thanks for sharing!

Henry

 

2 hours ago, Omicronrg9 said:

This is powerful.

Your voice is not only nice but if fits with all the sound you created. Won't insist on the score (I would like to read it too, though). I also subscribed to your channel, obviously. Would you mind if I shared this with my friends and in my (empty) twitter? I honestly don't think I can give you any advice of use, not for this piece at least, it was just delicious. Thank you for sharing this and welcome to the forums!

Salut,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

 

Hello and a very big thank you.

Very happy that you like it. It's been a long time since I tried this kind of poem set to music for one voice.

As said above, this piece could also have been simply accompanied by a piano, and moreover I think I will make a reduction of it (usually the opposite, I rather do an orchestration, but here, I wrote directly for the set).

In order, it was the vocal line from the poem, with ideas of harmonization, then the chorus part, which is a fairly static expression; then the harp that integrates a pendulum movement, then the clarinet part (I initially imagined an English horn, but the clarinet imposed itself before writing the line because finally the English horn seemed to me to convey this cliché of nocturna) So I wanted to explore its expressive potential that pure classical style uses little or not (the vibrato, excessively blown sounds, everything that lies more in the idea of improvisation). And finally, the whole seemed to me to be more homogenized with a sound heart on which to aggregate all this and the string quartet was necessary. He takes up the main lines of the vocal choir, Support him, but sometimes escapes to light more extensive registers (and a few violin jumps)...

For the form, it is just variant strophic, with a bridge that allows the two stanzas to be joined, witch are preceded by a few intro measures and a small coda follows.

The role of the clarinet, at the melodic level, as you have noted, is to embody the night bird of the poem (a Nightingale owl in need of love). His scrolls are inserted like improvisations (free but written) to prolong or emphasize certain words. It is written on a basis of varied (and sometimes distant) appoggias around the harmonies it overlooks.

I plan to write one or two other small miniatures of this type on very beautiful other poems by the same author, perhaps varying the instrumentation. For now, I'm in the research phase. (and I have to clean up my manuscript on Musescore... If only to properly validate the few acrobatic slides of the harp pedals by my daughter, who is harpist!)
But my work will leave me little time in the coming weeks...

In any case, thank you for your welcome, your very kind comments. No problem sharing my work on Tweeter! (It's even an honor).

To be complete, here is the translation of the poem.

I should have joined her from the beginning. (and maybe make it a subtitle on the video, but I'm afraid of betraying the literary spirit).

The pale moon kindles in the shining pond
Mirror of golden glories, a stir of fire.
Everything sleeps. Alone, half-dead, a nightingale
Lovesick modulates its soft melody.

Nothing emanates from the dark, neither flight, nor wind, nor voice,
Except when far away in the woods, with sudden jerks,
A rufous stream crumbles over the gravel:
The echo is then moved by the brilliance of the waterfalls.

1 hour ago, Krisp said:

As said above, this piece could also have been simply accompanied by a piano, and moreover I think I will make a reduction of it (usually the opposite, I rather do an orchestration, but here, I wrote directly for the set).

I think using piano will lose its nocturnal colour here!!

1 hour ago, Krisp said:

then the clarinet part (I initially imagined an English horn, but the clarinet imposed itself before writing the line because finally the English horn seemed to me to convey this cliché of nocturna)

Personally I love the chalumeau clarinet more than an English Horn since Clarinet is more blue, and the timbre is more varied than the English Horn.

55 minutes ago, Krisp said:

To be complete, here is the translation of the poem.

A nice poem and its translation as well!

I also like it very much. I think the piece has influences from impressionism. Beautiful.

3 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

I also like it very much. I think the piece has influences from impressionism. Beautiful.

 

Yes, it is indeed impressionism that is actually in question. The text was a direct line towards this style.

I think I'm using another text by this poet for a future play. It's a little retrograde, but I assume!

I love this! The atmosphere is absolutely wonderful, I agree that the clarinet is just perfect, and the singing fits wonderfully. Just a curiosity: is the title "Nocturne" or "Noctune"? The latter also works 🙂 The darkness is deep, but not overwhelming and the diversity of the instruments used so artfully balanced. It's really a pleasure to listen to, merci!

6 hours ago, Giacomo925 said:

I love this! The atmosphere is absolutely wonderful, I agree that the clarinet is just perfect, and the singing fits wonderfully. Just a curiosity: is the title "Nocturne" or "Noctune"? The latter also works 🙂 The darkness is deep, but not overwhelming and the diversity of the instruments used so artfully balanced. It's really a pleasure to listen to, merci!

 

Good morning,
I'm glad you like it And your comment makes me extremely happy.
about the title "noctune" I think it's a great idea and you should keep it preciously. congratulations for this invention (which however works less well in French since tune does not mean sound but money in slang 🙃

1 minute ago, Krisp said:

Good morning,
I'm glad you like it And your comment makes me extremely happy.
about the title "noctune" I think it's a great idea and you should keep it preciously. congratulations for this invention (which however works less well in French since tune does not mean sound but money in slang 🙃

 

I didn't invent it! it's in the youtube video!

Opooohhhhhh !!!!!!!!!!! 

hahaha well then thank you for your vigilance! It's a typing error that I made during the editing of the video!
poetic involuntziremetn (in English)
haha that's fun
and I'll leave with a quick note to thank you in the comments for flushing out the lapsus !