An arrangement for flute and piano of Reynaldo Hahn’s beautiful melody “A Chloris.” This beautiful melody has its origins as a song and has bee Show More...
An arrangement for flute and piano of Reynaldo Hahn’s beautiful melody “A Chloris.” This beautiful melody has its origins as a song and has been transposed octave higher than set in the original music score. There has been some editing of the note values in the melodic line when considered appropriate whilst the step wise movement and figuration in the accompaniment suggest a composer embracing the past. Dating from 1916 it something of a pastiche on Baroque style with a bass line that clearly references Bach’s Air on a G String. The score detail is written in French. The soloist should be aiming for beauty of sound and in a performance both players needs to demonstrate a controlled and consistent approach. In the realisation the play back tempo is 30 half note beats a minute (bpm) At bar 10 the texture changes and the music editor suggests that possibly it is appropriate for there to be a slight increase in tempo until the figuration of the accompaniment returns half way through bar 12. A slight slowing down is appropriate at the end of phrases and the ornaments in bar 16 and 19 could well imitate the rhythmic shape of the accompaniment. Accompaniments are in place playing at 29, 30, 31 & 32 half note (minim) beats to the minute. Reynaldo Hahn 1874-1947 was born in Venezuela although he is more readily identified as a French composer where he lived most for most of his life and where he became a citizen in 1907. He is particularly remembered for his contribution to the song repertoire which was a strong French music tradition in his lifetime. Like many composers he is identified with the “just below the surface group of composers” who wrote fine well crafted music but never became mainstream, well known even though they might have composed a famous piece of music. Hahn's music is deserving of more attention. Hahn was very well connected to people in the arts and was friends with Marcel Proust and Sarah Bernhardt. Hahn came from a prosperous family and spoke several languages. He had great respect for Fauré and as a musician was trained by some of France’s greatest teachers. He is described as a fin de siècle composer rather than one who embraced the 20th century and its challenges. As a French composer he was overshadowed somewhat by Debussy and Ravel. He contributed music to the concert hall, songs and chamber music for the salon, incidental music, ballet, opera for the theatre and solo piano, piano duet and two piano works. Like many of his contemporaries he was reluctant to challenge the great piano repertoire of Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. He was highly regarded as a conductor particularly of Mozart operas focusing particularly onthe composer’s intentions rather than stylistic influences prevailing at the time. Close
