"Gloria" Diary 2004(1)

In "Gloria Ensemble & Choir Vol.11", the time when I am on the stage of the concert is very short. So I began to approach the piece of "Gloria Vol.12". The pieces which will be treated in "Gloria Vol.12" have been already known. It will be the two requiems by G.Fauré & M.Duruflé. I already bought the CD on September 25, and orchestra score on the end of October. Both pieces of music needs keyboard instrument -- organ -- as an important part. Good! I will act up after the pause of one year!(Bomb!)

But ... Fauré's requiem was written on the end of the 19th century, and Duruflé's was on the middle of the 20th century. I do not have enough knowledge or experience of the music in these periods. It is more difficult for me than J. S. Bach in the year 2002. In addition, I should notice that I am still in recovery from depression disease. It may be too heavy work for me to treat both.

So I started one "operation". I had a meeting with Ms. Sakamato. She is the pianist for the training of chorus. I offered her to make cooperation, i.e., to share to play keyboard on the concert. She has been wanted to be on the stage of the concert. She and I coincided in our speculations.

After the meeting, we decided that she plays Fauré and I play Durufé;...my main target is Durufé!

"Duruflé used Gregorian chant in his requiem." - I found this description in the liner notes or sleeve notes of the CD I have. It suggests that it is needed to recognize Gregorian chant of "missa pro defunctis"(requiem) in order to seize Duruflé's requiem. I looked for the music sheet of Gregorian missa pro defunctis in WWW, but... I cannot find! After that I discovered that Gregorian chat is described with neuma(Lat.) or neumatic music sheet and that it cannot be written down with the modern system of the description of music. I gave up to looking for. Umm...serious problem occured!

For about one weeks, I will be in the aftergow of this concert(^^;).

As the alternation of the "music sheet", I bought the CD of Gregorian chant missa pro defunctis. The liner notes/sleeve notes have neumatic music sheets. This CD will help to grasp Gregorian chant missa pro defunctis. I started to listen to the CD with reading the music sheet of Duruflé's requiem and to compare these two.

I have listened to the beginning two movements, that is, "Introitus" and "Kyrie". My first impression was "It is 'an arrangement', isn't it?". For Introitus and Kyrie, I could easily found the Gregorian missa pro defunctis in Duruflé's requiem and I discovered that he traced Gregorian chant in his requiem rather exactly. I felt (not only thought but felt!) the significance of Gregorian chant in his requiem. How did he use Gregorian chant in his music? To study this issue is important for me.

By the way...I am thinking around. Which requiem is more difficult to approach, Fauré's or Duruflé's? Normally saying, Duruflé seem to be more difficult to approach. Indeed, Fauré's one is more familiar than Duruflé's.

But I have not played nor listened to neither Fauré's nor Duruflé's. It means that the both are same for me considering my experience of them. Rather, Duruflé would be slightly easier because I have already known one of keys to approach his requiem, i.e, the existence of Gregorian chant.

I've heard that both of Fauré and Duruflé were religious. It is needed to know their devotion in order to play thier requiems. And it is heavy for me. But in the case of Duruflé, "Gregorian chant" would be one key to enter the world of his devotion. I still have not found such key in the case of Fauré. I feel that it would be better for me to select Duruflé than Fauré.

I will see how Duruflé arranged Gregorian chant in his requiem. Firstly, I go to the beginning "Introitus".

The music of "Introitus" in "requiem" of Gregorian chant is started with the following music sheet.

As mentioned before, there are no modern music sheet for Gregorian chant. The above music is my reading of the neumatic music sheet of the "requiem" of Gregorian chant.

Then let me show the beginning of Duruflé's requiem.

You can see that tenor and bass sing Gregorian chant in its original form.

In the middle section of "Introitus", Duruflé uses the chant in its original form almost. See the next music sheet.

And the 3rd section,

Gregorian chant is played by the 1st violin in its original form, with the 2nd violin's imitation. Violin parts have the indication of "espressivo". It is special indication of expression and it shows us that the main melody is on two violin parts and the chorus is accompaniment in this section.

Seeing "Introitus", we can grasp Duruflé's treatment of Gregorian chant in his requiem. He treated Gregorian chant with respect of its original form. And not only chorus, but also instrumental parts play important role to perform the Gregorian.

Buy the way, where do I play as organist in "Introitus"? There are nothing(^o^;). Organ appears from the 2nd music, "Kyrie".

From January 9, I started to re-write from neumes to modern notation. It is "ascetic" for me to compare with Duruflé's music with reading neumes directly. I had been always thinking that it would be easier using music sheet with modern notation and had translated neumes into modern notation. It was completed today. "Gregorian chant 'requiem' in modern notation" is the result. Here you can see it.

Humm ... it is easy to read Gregorian chant in modern notation. It means that the prerequisite condition for researching the treatment of Gregorian chant in Duruflé's requiem was completed at last. OK! I will accelerate to read Duruflé's requiem ... is it correct? The problem is that I am lazy☆＼(--;)

I am not a member of the chorus but of the orchestra in "Gloria Ensemble and Choir" and the training of the orchestra is not started yet. The orchestra is "off-season" now. But the chorus has already started its training from February. Especially, today's training is large and after the training, party will be opened. I am interested not in training, but party. so I would go.

But I could not be on time. When I arrived to the party room, it was already one hour after the beginning of the party. Some people seemed to have been over-drunk. I said hello to many persons. I met again the conductors, Mr.Kataoka and Uttchy.

The first purpose of my attendance was, (of course!) to run riot (bomb!), but I had another purpose. It was to show my "Gregorian Chant in Modern Notation" to the conductor and ask him to check it. To Mr.Kataoka, I said "Well, I made this book". He replied "Oh? What thing did you make? Let me seeEoh! It's great! Thank you!" You're welcomeEell, additionally sayingEI would like Mr.Kataoka to check it(^^;)

It is the day of the training camp of the orchestra, that is, the first training of the orchestra. It is the first time for the member of the orchestra to meet each other and train for the piece of the "Gloria" concert.

The following is the time-chart of the training camp.

• March 27(Saturday)
  • 13:00 - 17:00 Free training
  • 17:00 - 18:00 Training (Duruflé)
  • 18:30 - 19:30 Dinner
  • 19:30 - 21:00 Training(Fauré)
  • 21:00 - 27:00 Free Ensemble
• March 28(Sunday)
  • 07:30 - 08:30 Breakfast
  • 09:00 - 10:00 Training (Duruflé)
  • 10:00 - 12:00 Free Ensemble
  • 12:00 - 13:00 Lunch
  • 13:00 - Free Ensemble

You can see that only about 4 hours is for the training of the music of "Gloria" in two days(^^;). The remaining times are mainly "Free ensemble".

I will mention my thinking from the 4 hours. Firstly, the result of training was almost good about the music of Fauré. Perhaps the reason is that it is already familiar music for many of members. However, for Duruflé, it was not good. For my part, i.e., organ-part, it has many whole-rest measures so I should count the times or beats of these rests, but I mistook in many times. Especially, it is egregious for "Domine Jesu Christe(Offertorium)" and "Libera me".

For example, I will show the some measures from "Libera me". It is as following.

Organ appears at the measure (1) with stopping with fermata. And then music starts again with the entrance of female chorus(2). And music is received by violas and cellos.

In this training, there are no choruses. Suppose that there are no choruses in the above music sheet. Organ should determine the tempo. I hope you can understand it is not easy. It could not be solved in this training camp. The problem remained.

By the way, "free ensemble" was exciting. There were various types music in that time. I took the 1st movement of my "piano trio" (composed by me!)(^-^) and performed trial playing with violinist and cellist. I invited them by constraint(^^;) but their impression was good. So I can conclude that the trial playing was in success. It was the biggest fruitage of this training camp, wasn't it?☆＼(--;)