October 4, Saint Francis day. Anne-Marie Dubois - Liszt, Saint Francis of Assisi La Prédication aux Oiseaux | Preaching to the birds/The Sermon to the Birds. Liszt had personal relationships with these two saints, and particularly he regarded St. Francis of Paul as his patron. Liszt programmed these two Francis Legends as followed ideas. These programmatic works are liked of symphonic poem in piano. The first Legend, St. François d’Assise: La Prédication aux Oiseaux (St. Francis of Assisi: The Sermon to the Birds) was inspired by the moment that the thousands of birds were easing in the cloud above the Monte Mario. The second Legend carries another miracle story: Among the many miracles of St. Francis of Paula the legend celebrated is the one which he performed crossing the Straits of Messina. The ferrymen refused to rent their boat to a person of such humble appearance; he ignored them and walked on the sea with assured step. Liszt gave the first public performances of these on August 29, 1865 in Pest. At that time, they were not published yet. The following year, they were published in both places, Pest and Paris. He arranged them for orchestra in 1863 and then, he simplified the second Legend as the piano version. However, none of these arrangements (orchestra version and simplified piano version) were published in his life time.The orchestra version was published in 1983 by Editio Musica Budapest. After hearing a performance by Liszt, Camille Saint-Saëns wrote: As I write I picture myself once again in the home of Gustave Doré, gazing upon that pallid face and those eyes that fascinated all listeners, whilst, beneath his apparently indifferent hands, in a wonderful variety of nuances, there moaned and wailed, murmured and roared the waves of the Légende de Saint François de Paule marchant sur les flots! Never again will there be seen or heard anything to equal it. ST. FRANÇOIS D’ASSISE: LA PRÉDICATION AUX OISEAUX A. Biographical information Who is St. Francis of Assisi ? He was born in Assisi, Umbria in 1181 or 1182, and died in 1226. He was a founder of Franciscan order. He got his nickname, Francesco (the Frenchman) before he received his baptized name, John. He only obtained a deacon, not a priest. B. Program There is a charming story from Chapter 16 of the Little Flowers of St. Francis – Paris 1860: …and still in the same fervour of soul, he lifted up his eyes and saw the trees which stood by the wayside, filled with a countless number of birds; at which St. Francis wondered, and said to his companions: “Wait a little for me in the road, and I will go and preach to my little brothers, the birds”. And he went into the field, and began to preach to the birds that were on the ground; and forthwith those which were in the trees came around him, and not one moved during the whole sermon; nor would they fly away until the Saint had given them his blessing. According to what Brother Matteo afterwards related to Brother James of Massa, St. Francis went among them, touching them with his cloak, and none of them moved. The substance of the sermon was this: “My dear little birds, you are much beholden to God your Creator, and at all times and in all places you ought to praise him; he has given you liberty to fly about everywhere, and has given you double and triple raiment; know also, that he preserved your race in the ark of Noah, that your species might not perish; you are beholden to him for the element of air, which he has appointed for you; and also for this, that you sow not, neither do you reap, but God feeds you; he fives you the rivers and the fountains for your drink, he fives you the mountains and the valleys for your refuge, and the tall trees in which to build your nests. And since you know neither how to spin nor to sew, God clothes you, you and your young ones. Wherefore your Creator loves you greatly, since he has bestowed on you so many benefits. Therefore, beware, my little birds, of the sin of ingratitude, and study always to please God.” While the holy Father thus spoke to them, the little birds opened their beaks and stretched out their necks and spreading their wings, all reverently bowed their heads to the earth, and by their acts and their songs, showed that the sermon filled them with great joy. And St. Francis rejoiced and was glad with them, and marveled much at such a multitude of birds, at their beautiful variety, and their attention and their familiarity, for all of which he devoutly praised their Creator in thee. Finally, the sermon being finished, St. Francis made the sign of the cross over cross, which St. Francis had made over them, they divided themselves into four parts; and the one part flew towards the east, and another towards the west, and the third towards the south, and the last towards the north; and each of the four parts went their way, singing wonderful songs, signifying by this, that as St. Francis, the Standard-bearer of the Cross of Christ, had preached to them, and had made the sign of the cross over them, according to which they had separated themselves, going to the four parts of the world, so the preaching of the Cross of Christ, renewed by St. Francis, should be carried by him, and by his Brother to the whole world; and that, like the birds, these Brothers, possessing nothing of their own in this world, should commit their lives solely to the Providence of God. C. Analysis illustration not visible in this excerpt The musical structure is presented as a through-composed piece: Introduction, Presentation (entry of St. Francis), Development and Coda. The introduction presents the birds’ chirping. The next large section is ‘Entry of St. Francis’. There are three subdivided sections, and each represents the particular characters: bird song, St. Francis, and cross. The ‘St. Frances’ section contains the recitative of the saint, and the ‘cross’ section presents the religious choral style. The development section has two sections, and each section has two different styles. The ‘a’ section has two phrases of three bars plus two bars. The first ‘b’ section has a nine bar-phrase, and the second ‘b’ section has ten plus seven bar-phrases. There are numerous key shifts in the development. The coda section is stable in the tonic and uses the material from the section ‘B’ of ‘Recitativo’. It is a simple work comparing Liszt’s other piano works in lots of ways except technique. This piece demands highly trained techniques like various trills: multiple and double trills to represent chirping birds. [...] Anne-Marie Dubois - Liszt, Saint Francis of Assisi preaching to the birds With all the names of the bird painters only. Original title: Saint François dAssise, La Prédication aux oiseaux by Franz Liszt «Preaching to the birds [by Anne-Marie Dubois, Pianist] has an uncomplicated, uplifting force» (Fanfare) An audio version, in which this piano piece by Franz Liszt appears at the end of the Grand Classics by Edgar (Fruitier), Sacred Music, has sold over 30,000 copies. Anne-Marie Dubois dedicates this new video to the Sherbrooke Symphony Orchestra and its conductor, Stéphen Laforest, who offered his unique collaboration in the making of her video, Dubois plays the Grieg concerto, first movement, which she had interpreted with them. Ms Dubois would like to give special thanks to the following for their collaboration in making this video: - Alain Blanchette from Production Video MH, montage, sound/image corordination, special effets, - Daniel Dubois, from Canimex Ltd., artistic direction and images, - Canimex Inc., financial support, technology, and electronic versions of 6 paintings, - Michel Kozlovsky and Normand Savard - The extraordinary animal and nature artists, who graciously authorized the use of their paintings and who all agreed to work with her. In alphabetical order: Claudio DAngelo, Gisèle et Monique Benoit, Chantal Bourbeau, Ghislain Caron, Hélène Charland, Robert M. Deschênes, Robert Gérard, Luc Leclerc, Pierre Leduc, Andrée Marcoux, Danie Gagnon, Denis Nadeau, Karola Nowak, Clodin Roy, Donald Roy. - The Franciscan photograph collectors: Claude Rioux, Père Roland Bonenfant, Michel Laverdière. - Everyone who kindly provided additional pictures of Saint Francis of Assisi, by Internet, and who are too numerous to mention here. Pictures were sent from the US, England, France and elsewhere. There are also a number of pictures (20 in all) showing Saint Francis preaching to the birds.
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 17:17:23 +0000
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