Arthur Honneger, Symphony No. 3, "Liturgique"

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0:00Hello, and welcome to Sticky Notes, the classical music podcast. My name is Joshua Weilerstein. I'm a conductor, and I'm the music director of the Orchestre National de Lille, and the chief conductor of the Allborg Symphony. This podcast is for anyone who loves classical music, works in the field, or is just getting ready to dive in to this amazing world of incredible music. Before we get started, I want to thank my new Patreon sponsors, Sylvia, Kate, Cameron, Kate with a C, Ben,

0:32Leon, Gordon, and all of my Patreon sponsors for making Season 11 possible. If you'd like to support the show, please head over to patreon.com slash sticky notes podcast. And if you are a fan of the show, please take a moment to give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts. It is greatly appreciated. I was in Chicago last week with the amazing Chicago Symphony doing an American program with the music of Jesse Montgomery, Aaron Copeland, Charles Ives, Duke Ellington, Boslav Martinu.

1:04It was obviously just such a special experience to conduct such a wonderful orchestra and to do such a varied program that really shows off this tapestry of American music that I love just so much. I'm really excited for today's episode on Honiger's Third Symphony, which was sponsored by Stefan. And I wanted to also mention my Patreon page because we are in the midst of the 21-part series on Schubert's Songcycle die Schöne-Müllerin. It's been already really fun to have some conversations

1:34with people about the piece. And each week, we're putting up an episode just about 5-10 minutes long about each song in Die Schöne-Müllerin. So do check that out over at patreon.com slash stickynotespodcast. Enjoy today's episode, and thanks again to Stefan.

Arthur Honegger and his Third Symphony

2:00In the aftermath of World War II, the Swiss composer Arthur Honiger, who had been living in occupied Paris throughout the war, wrote a new symphony entitled Liturgical. He wrote an extended commentary on the piece, which included these lines, quote, My intention in this work was to symbolize the reaction of modern man against the morass of barbarism, stupidity, suffering, machine-mindedness, and bureaucracy that has been besieging us for some years now. I have reproduced in musical terms the combat that is joined in man's heart

2:35between yielding to the blind forces that enclose him and his instinct for happiness, his love of peace, his apprehension of a divine refuge. My symphony is, if you like, a drama played out between three characters, whether real or symbolic. Misery, happiness, and man. These are everlasting themes. I have tried to give them new life. Doesn't get much clearer than that in terms of a message behind a piece. And this third symphony reflects these feelings of Honiger in almost every

3:11note. This is not a symphony to be taken lightly, and over the course of its around 30-minute runtime, Honiger explores these ideas from three different perspectives, all centered around the Catholic liturgy. In this symphony, we find attempt for understanding after the unthinkable had occurred, a passionate condemnation of war, and a search for eternal peace. This is a symphony that in its heyday was fairly popular, with recordings by two of the world's great conductors, Herbert von

3:42Karajan and Charles Munch. But it slowly faded from concert stages and is now very rarely performed. So thanks to Stefan for sponsoring this episode today on the symphony, which was a discovery for me, and I think it will be a discovery for many of you as well. Today we'll talk about this detailed program that Honiger attached to the symphony, the liturgical connections in the piece, and of course, about the music itself. All this and more is coming right up on Sticky Notes.

Honegger's background and wartime actions

4:25There's a fair number of you who probably have never heard of Honiger, so I wanted to give you a quick biographical background of him, because I actually think it's very important for this piece. Honiger was raised as a Protestant, but became closer and closer to French Catholicism during his adulthood, which is reflected strongly in this piece. He was a member of Les Cis, a group of five French composers and one Swiss, Honiger himself. They constituted a kind of neoclassical reaction

4:59against Wagnerism in music, which included a reaction, interestingly, against the music of Debussy as well. Les Cis constituted Arthur Honiger, François Poulenc, Germain Taillefer, Georges Auric, Darius Millot, and Louis Durie. The six composers actually didn't have that much in common, which was put into very funny terms by the composer Poulenc, a member of Les Cis who had a lot to say about the other composers in the group. The diversity of our music, of our tastes

5:32and distastes, precluded any common aesthetic. What could be more different than the music of Honiger and Auric? Millot admired Magnard. I did not. Neither of us liked Florent Schmidt, whom Honiger respected. Arthur, Honiger, on the other hand, had a deep-seated scorn for Satie, whom Auric, Millot, and I adored. And Millot said this, quote, He chose six names absolutely arbitrarily, those of Auric, Durie, Honiger, Poulenc,

6:03Taillefer, and myself, simply because we knew each other, and we were pals and appeared on the same musical programs, no matter if our temperaments and personalities weren't at all the same. Auric and Poulenc followed ideas of Cocteau, Honiger followed German Romanticism, and myself, Mediterranean Lyricism. Honiger definitely stood apart from Les Cis in his musical outlook, claiming that he was much more serious than the other five. But his association with the group was an important part of establishing his name. He became a relatively successful and working composer

6:38up until World War II. He decided to stay in Paris during the war, even though he was Swiss and could have escaped to Switzerland. This is where things become a bit murky in terms of Honiger's activities during the war. Honiger was a committed pacifist and was certainly no admirer of the Nazi regime. Nevertheless, the Nazis essentially did not meddle with Honiger's activities as a composer. And in 1941, he was invited to Vienna for the International Mozart Festival organized by none other than Joseph

7:10Goebbels. Honiger wrote very enthusiastically about this experience, and about the German music he heard there. He was also relatively close to the Vichy government. And in 1942, his 50th birthday was celebrated with a week of celebrations of his music, all officially sanctioned by the occupying Nazis. With all this said, Honiger had joined the Front National des Musiciens, the resistance group of musicians and artists, against the Nazis in 1941, though he was kicked out later for the actions I just

7:45detailed above. He also wrote a song of liberation in 1944, which made him seem like a card-carrying member of the resistance all along. But he lied about when he had actually written it, saying that he had written the song in 1942 when it was actually written in 1944. In the end, it seems that Honiger, while no lover of the Nazis by any means, in his activities during the war, he at the same time tried to stay out of the way of them, and was also an opportunist regarding his own works. One of the

8:18justifications for that 1941 trip to Vienna was a networking trip for him to have his music performed more. Honiger was a lifelong friend and supporter to Jewish musicians such as Mio, so there certainly doesn't seem to be any personal animus involved in Honiger's wartime actions. But I think it does put the passionately anti-war color of this symphony in a slightly different context, considering Honiger's complicated behavior during the war.

The first movement Dies Irae

8:46Let's go into the symphony now. As I mentioned, the Catholic liturgy is vital to understanding this piece. Each movement is titled with a different part of the

9:22Catholic liturgy, and the symphony itself, as I said, is titled liturgical. The first movement is titled Dies Irae. The Dies Irae has been an obsession for composers ever since the medieval era. It was especially popular during the Romantic era and into the 20th century, with composers such as Mahler, Verdi, Verdi, Verdi, Verdi, Verdi, and especially Rachmaninoff, prominently using the plain chant representing the Day of Wrath from the Catholic Requiem Mass. Here is that plain chant. There is a recording of Honiger talking about this piece, though it's in French, so I'll do a quick

10:10translation after you hear a bit of it.

10:31What Honiger is saying is that he doesn't actually use the plain chant in the movement, but instead the text is what he used. In this way, he distinguishes himself from, again, Rachmaninoff, who used the music as a sort of talisman in dozens of his works, but who I think was less interested in the text from a religious perspective. Honiger, though, wants to use that text, the first lines of which are the day of wrath, that day will dissolve the world in ashes, in order to portray a kind of devastation

11:02that is palpable from the first notes of the piece. The symphony begins with a kind of shudder and quickly explodes into an expression of terror and rage that is shocking and arresting. It continues to escalate throughout the opening.

11:32Honiger described the movement this way, quote, I think the strongest impression one gets in this opening is of that unchanging feeling.

12:21The harmony keeps escalating, yet the fundamental sound of the orchestra, the marked military-esque rhythms in the trumpets, the violent interjections of the strings, and the relentless almost screams of the winds begin to feel almost oppressive in themselves, which I think is exactly what Honiger is going for. This will escalate until a breakthrough, but a breakthrough that provides no comfort. Instead, the strings take over the marked military-like lines, while the low brass bulldoze bulldoze bulldoze their way through the orchestra. Within 30 seconds of this piece

12:56beginning, we are thrust into a terrifying and merciless world. This culminates with a remarkable moment, where the marked rhythm is played by the upper winds in brass, while the piano and strings slither up a chromatic scale. This is deeply unsettling music. music plays

13:30The strings now begin an ostinato that might remind you of some of Shostakovich's most violent music. And what happens above is variations of what we heard before. Violent interjections from

14:05all over the orchestra, marked rhythms, and a sense of uncompromising brutality.

14:28A lyrical melody finally begins, but it is constantly attacked by short and violent notes in the brass, even as the theme is passed between the upper winds and strings. The theme itself is

15:00expressive but highly dissonant. It's like a distorted version of a lyrical theme, one that is infected by all the violence around it.

15:35This first section ends with a brilliant and unusual color from Honiger. As the music finally dies down after nearly three minutes of uninterrupted fortissimo, the French horns are heard playing tremolo, fast-repeated notes. This is a color that is usually used for the strings.

16:05But with the horns, it creates a kind of blur to the sound, and also a feeling of tremendous uncertainty. I've never quite heard a color like it. The ideas of the opening minutes of the movement are thrown around in fragments, including a stereotypical march rhythm played by a snare drum. And that would be an opportunity. So. If you didn't see it, it's a piece of a drum.

16:36And when it's turned on by it, it's a canoe that goes into reference. It was a sort of wooden body called a big dream of a guitar that was not a person. And that was a sort of a thing that was a little important part of the movement of a The lyrical theme makes its return, now not unsettled, but truly screaming.

17:09This leads to a tremendous climax, with a violin lament and horn countermelody that sounds like a distorted version of the Dies Irae music itself. All the while, as it has for the whole movement, those violent military-esque, but also in a distorted way, rhythms continue.

17:48The Lyrical theme The Lyrical theme The End

18:23Or in taking combinations that seem to be quite typical and turning them on their heads, and here's an example of one. The cellos play another one of these angular, dissonant lyrical themes, while the trombones, a natural partner of the cello, well, they don't support them at all. Instead, they violently interject words I know I've been using a lot so far, and seem to be trying to destroy the theme itself.

18:53And then again, on the unusual side of things, Honiger now brings the strings back, with those punishing Shostakovich-like ostinatos, while the trombones take over that big tune. But it is no longer even lyrical, it is just a wall of sound and agony.

19:26¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ But just like that, this relentless seven-minute explosion starts to dissipate, and with echoes of the shutters of the beginning, it ends not with a bang, but with a whisper.

20:10¶¶ ¶¶ That's the first movement of this around half-hour-long symphony in three movements. ¶¶

20:42¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶

21:14¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶

21:44¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶

22:16¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ century, and at one moment in the piece, this text appears. One thinks everything is finished, but then a robin begins to sing. Here's the music at that moment.

22:57Apparently, it corresponds to this moment in the first movement of the symphony.

23:27This is quite a stretch, and it's definitely not something I would have picked up on unless it was explicitly pointed out to me. But as we move into the second movement, things begin to get a

The second movement De Profundis

23:50bit clearer. The second movement is the longest movement of the symphony, and its title comes from Psalm 130, the same text that inspired Lily Boulanger's Psalm 30 from an episode earlier this year. The title of the movement is Out of the Depths Have I Cried, and the movement begins in those depths, as if in shock from the violence of the first movement. In this moment,

24:42we can hear a clear reference to that robin theme from Joan of Arc. It is played in a brilliant orchestration by cellos playing near the very top of their registers, creating a kind of choked sound. But this is what Hanager is going for. It's as if the cellos can barely speak or sing, but they do it anyway. The text of the robin song is, there is hope which is the strongest. This is one of the first almost purely tonal moments of the piece, so it is extremely stark.

25:14music plays music plays music plays ORGAN PLAYS

25:51The mood of this opening part of the movement is meditative but strained, as if it can't quite believe what it is saying. Dissonances creep in here and there, but there is also a strong will to keep going. The gentle flow of this movement is its secret, I think, and the atmosphere is profoundly moving and tender at the same time.

26:21One of the most beautiful moments of the movement comes a bit later on. The general course of the movement so far has been a clear split between the strings and the winds, with both groups taking over for one another with the main voice. But finally, Hanager combines them, but not in a climactic way.

26:54Instead, he has a muted trumpet gently float over a beautiful collection of chords in the strings. It's another moment of unique orchestration on Hanager's part, and it is my favorite part of the whole piece so far. Hanager plays the rhyme again and the rhythm of the 1900s of Hanager. The letter of the 19th century is the word by Miss Holly Matvis. athom Sikker is aerman's part of the title of the文章. The word by Miss Holly Matvis. The word by Miss Holly Matvis.

27:24The word by Miss Holly Matvis. The word by Miss Holly Matvis. Structurally, this movement, frankly, wanders. There's nothing wrong with that, and I think it fits in with the idea of this prayer that sort of doesn't know where to go. As Honiger said, how hard is it, too, to put a prayer without hope into human mouths?

27:57There's a lost quality to this music that I don't think Honiger would have denied, so structurally, there's not a lot to hold on to. The way to listen to this movement, I think, is to not look for those typical structural frameworks that bind together a symphonic movement. Instead, allow yourself to be taken on this journey of reflection, loss, and perhaps some hope.

28:26The way to listen to this movement is to be taken on this journey of reflection, loss, and the way to listen to this movement is to be taken on this journey of reflection. But with an accent in the brass, things change markedly.

28:59It's like the lights have suddenly been switched off, and the music suddenly returns to the depths from which it began. Any hope that we had earlier on in the movement is extinguished. I would call this the second section of the movement. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you.

29:53A new theme begins, a lamenting, sighing, crying theme, first played by muted trumpets, but then taken over by the violas and cellos at the top of their register. This is a theme full of pain, a reflection of the violence of the first movement and its aftermath.

30:23This leads us to the first climactic moment of the movement, nearly halfway through its 14-minute duration. The pain and agony escalates as Honiger adds more and more to his orchestra, which he has carefully kept separated and paced so far. If I could put a word to this music, it feels like it cannot stop asking why.

30:57But actually, there are words to this music, even though, of course, they aren't spoken. The rhythm of the melodic line here corresponds exactly to the first words of the De Profundis Psalm. De Profundis clamavi ad te. Honiger clearly wanted there to be a reference here,

31:42even if it flies over most of our heads. It leads us to a tremendous cry from the orchestra, which almost immediately begins to dissipate, and remarkably, to find itself in a similar harmonic world as the beginning of the movement, as if this desperation created hope in itself. never againkal miro давно.

32:18Keep your pompe into the right direction. However, if this concern continues, Won't you enlect that lesson? Thank you.

32:55Thank you.

33:25Hanager references that de profundis rhythm several times, but this time it doesn't lead to another huge lament, instead just to more reflection. I wouldn't call this music peaceful, but it certainly wishes that it could be. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

34:14There is one more horrifying moment in this movement. We have been lulled into a false sense of security. After all, after the first outburst of pain, it resolved back to hopeful music. But now the military snare drum returns from the first movement, and the de profundis music leads us to grotesquely dissonant harmonies and cries of pain. It seems we are about to arrive at another terrifying climax. The next spree...

34:58And then we have a funniest嚢se. But no, instead of the bulldozers of war returning, Honiger switches gears and returns to his hopeful music. But this time, the harmonies are a bit less settled than before. This is music that still wants to be peaceful, but it's having a harder time than before.

35:29I find the atmosphere in this movement to be quite remarkable. It's peaceful and yet deeply unsettling at the same time. To be able to portray such complex emotions in music is a true skill, and Honiger absolutely does it here.

35:58A brass chorale begins the coda of the movement. It feels as if the story is coming to an end, unresolved as, of course, it has to be. But then the bird theme returns, much more obviously than before,

36:44played by the flute, and over chords and the lowest instruments in the orchestra, and a wonderfully and mysteriously unsettled E major chord, the movement comes to a close. That prayer is over, and we certainly don't know if any of it has been heard. Don't know if any of it has been answered.

37:08If any of it has been answered... Number Three Returny Thank you.

The third movement Dona Nobis Pacem

37:53Honecker described the Third Movement, titled Dona Nobis Pachem, this way. Quote, There is nothing so stupid as barbarism unleashed on a civilization. What I wanted to express at the beginning of the Third Movement was precisely this increase in collective stupidity. It's the march of the robots against the bodies and souls of men. I'll leave the rest of the description of the movement until later, because this Third Movement is split up into two distinct sections.

38:28The Honecker passage I just read to you is his description of the first part of the movement. This is a dangerous idea, to try to portray something so literally, especially something that is intentionally musically poor. That's a huge risk to take with your audience. But listen to how Honecker does it. The Honecker

39:16Somehow, there is a massive amount of tension in this robotic music. Perhaps it's that we've had the context of the terror of the first movement and the unsettled hope of the second that influences us. But I hear something quite ominous in this music, as if the robots are on their way in and nothing can stop them. I can't quite help thinking about AI as I listen to this music. The main theme of the movement now appears in the French horns, and it is just as banal as you would expect and hope it to be.

39:52It is imposing, brash, and goes absolutely nowhere. A perfect description for this barbarism Honecker speaks of. A perfect description for this movie.

40:29A lot of horror chords and glissandi now appear, adding to the grotesquerie that we are hearing. This is really shocking music. It's absolutely uncompromising in the best possible way. The strings enter to try to add some humanity to these proceedings, with a huge theme marked to be played expressively. But we can't quite help getting the feeling that this is all in vain. I'm going to ask you all. The Belly One gets the impression that the robots completely ignored this human theme

41:27And just continue marching forward The low brass now fulfill the destiny of that rhythm at the beginning With music that John Williams would love There's definitely a bit of the empire in this music

41:57The strings again cry out, but they are almost literally being hammered into submission at this point I'm going to stop here to say that if you're still with me

42:27I can fully accept that this hasn't been any kind of relaxing or even beautiful experience listening to this music I'll talk a bit more about that at the end of the show Because I think this relentlessness has a bit to do with the piece's lack of popularity these days Over the top of this cry of lament from the strings, though The horn theme comes pounding in louder than ever The first section culminates

43:19With the trumpets playing fortissimo, flutter tongue Which sounds alarmingly like a machine gun The strings now fully infected with the robotic barbarism Now play violent sixteenth notes And the snare drum returns with its merciless march rhythm We are fully into the sound world of the first movement now With those hopeful prayers from the second movement completely forgotten And the snare drum

44:11And finally, the tempo grinds to practically a halt. Honiger writes, But now a feeling of rebellion surfaces among the victims. The revolt takes shape and grows. Suddenly, an immense clamor.

44:41Listen again to the rhythm of that climactic moment, and then try to add the words, Do, Na, No, Bis, Pa, Cem.

45:11That's exactly what happens here. The crowd screams, Give us peace! And after that catastrophic collapse, something remarkable happens. Honiger explains, And then, as though the cup of suffering were full, the clouds part, and amid the glory of the rising sun,

45:42for the last time the bird sings. In this way the bird hovers over the symphony, just as once the dove hovered over the immensity of the waters.

46:09Honiger writes this section in F-sharp major, a key associated with heaven due to its extremely bright color.

46:40The music here is hypertonal, soft, gentle, and profoundly radiant. The music. The music. The

47:33bird now returns, though the harmonies become less stable than they just were. It is accompanied by a solo cello which seems to be trying to reach out, as if it is just a bit too far away. It also is playing the de profundis motive from the second movement, coming out of the depths to try to reach into the sky.

48:03The A solo violin then enters, bringing us ever closer.

48:47We end the piece in C-sharp major, the brightest possible key. The sun has risen again.

49:22The This piece was

Why the symphony is rarely played

50:11quite a discovery for me. It got me thinking, why did I never know about it before? Why is it almost never played? Well, I think there are a few reasons for this. One, Honegger's murky behavior during World War II, which I talked about earlier. I don't really know what to think about this, and I'm not a historian. It's clear from this piece that Honegger abhorred war, but he didn't seem to be willing to take many risks to either join the French resistance or to help out those who were being rounded up. Well, this makes him like millions of other people who did that, so

50:41I don't want to act like Honegger is especially guilty, but it's a data point when listening to this music. Two, the relentless nature of this music. You might be asking, this symphony is only 30-ish minutes long, and we listen to hour-long Shostakovich symphonies, which are brutal and violent too, so what's the difference? Well, Shostakovich's music, just as an example, is most of the time less dissonant, even in its most violent moments. It also retains a level of humanity that

51:14this piece very intentionally thrusts aside. I think that this piece actually might just be a bit too much for many audiences, and perhaps this explains its lack of popularity. And three, the most shallow reason of all, this piece ends quietly. This has doomed some big symphonies, and if you don't believe me, check out the performance numbers of Brahms's third symphony versus the other ones. So those are my three theories, but I'm curious to hear yours as well. In the end, I now am left to contemplate

51:49whether this is a symphony that I want to perform, and I think the answer is yes, though the context for it would have to be right. This is a remarkable time capsule of one of the darkest times in human history, and a piece that absolutely deserves to be heard more often. I want to thank Stefan for introducing me to this piece through a Patreon sponsorship, and thank you so much for listening to Sticky Notes today. We'll have some more exciting stuff for you in a couple of weeks, so don't miss our next episode. This episode was mixed by Charlie Cozella, so a huge thank you to him. If you like what you

52:21heard today, please feel free to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps the show gain more visibility. And please send any questions to stickynotespodcast at gmail.com, and if you'd like to support the podcast monetarily, just head over to patreon.com slash stickynotespodcast. Thanks, and I'll talk to you again after a while. I'll talk to you again after a while.