Philippe Hersant's Draw-Bridge

[Spineur]

Philippe Hersant is a french composer born in 1948 in Rome.  Today, he is most performed french contemporary composer

Philippe Hersant, a pianist by training and master in literature,  completed his musical studies at the Conservatoire de Paris (student of Alain Weber and André Jolivet).
At the Casa de Velázquez (1970-72), he has been a teacher and a producer of radio programs since 1973. After a long maturation (1970-78) and a passage at Villa Medici, Philippe Hersant renounces his first works and finds his style. He is one of the first to find himself once again in the tonal and modal space, claiming through personal music a certain mannerism and a subjective use of memory.Subtle orchestrations, poetic climates and introspective reveries reveal themselves in his works, nourished by the most diverse literary and cinematographic sources.

Here are a few of his most notable composition

(1983, chamber opera created at the Avignon Festival),
Missa brevis (1986),
Stances (1992, creation at the Présences festival),
the opera Le château des Carpathes (1993),
Painted Words (1995, poem by Paul Eluard),
Im Fremden Land (2002),
the opera The Black Monk (2005),
Clair obscur (2008)
Instants limites (2012)
Vepres de la vierge Marie (2015)

In addition, Philippe Hersant composed a number of film scores.  The film music of Nicolas Philibert award winning Etre et Avoir  (To be, To have) film was composed by Philippe Hersant.




A more complete biography and list of works and recorded music (some 25 CDs) can be found on his web site

http://www.philippehersant.com/

[Spineur]

I have the following CDs of his music, in chronological order

Le chateau des Carpathes, opera, based on Jules Verne novel.


A work which may be compared to Bartok Bluebeard castle

Clair obscur, a serie of vocal and instrumental (viol) works performed by the ensemble Sequenza 9.3.



My favorite CD is this one:
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It was composed to illustrate the text written by some of Clarvaux prison inmates in a writing class.  There is also a piece for solo bassoon "Niggun".  Niggun are Hasidic traditionnal songs without text, which are meant to tell an experience that cannot be expressed in words.

Finally his vêpres de la Vierge Marie

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that were commission by Notre Dame de Paris for the 850 jubilee celebration.

The day I came across Philippe Hersant music, I knew I had reached home.

On youtube, there is also a number of instrumental piece (duos most of the time) he composed for young teenager students.  They are all wonderful.

[snyprrr]

All I have is his 1st (I think) SQ on one of those Adda CDs, with Dutilleux as the main course. I recall Hersant's being a very thoughtful piece with lots of nice touches. I'll find it....


btw- about your Thread Title ... 1) you must know how I feel about lower case letters in a Title, and, 2) shouldn't there be an apostrophe after "Hersant"? Hersant's Draw-Bridge?

Hersant's Harem
Hersant's Haberdashery

[Spineur]

In french, Hersant = the person operating the "Herse".  A "Herse" is a defence device usually combined with a draw bridge (also an ancient agricultural tool used for ploughing). Musically, it is an allusion to some of his renaissance & medieval inspiration.

[snyprrr]

In french, Hersant = the person operating the "Herse".  A "Herse" is a defence device usually combined with a draw bridge (also an ancient agricultural tool used for ploughing). Musically, it is an allusion to some of his renaissance & medieval inspiration.

Well, OK, you get a SuperBonusPoint for really goin' deep! I applaud your scholarly brain!!

[Spineur]

This is "Chants du sud" for solo violin.  Six short pieces inspired by mediterannean traditional music.  They are played by two 16 yo teenagers with an impressive self assurance.  Their parents and teachers should be pround of them.  At the beginning there is a brief introduction.by Philippe Hersant.

https://www.youtube.com/v/TqGiOtbBiVs

[Spineur]

There are several excerpts of "Instants limites" on soundclound availiable

"Nostalgia"

https://soundcloud.com/outhere-music/philippe-hersant-nostalgia

performed by the Aedes vocal ensemble, Mathieu Romano, cond., Pascal Gallois, bassoon, Régis Pasquier, violin, Jean-Luc Menet, flute

"Wanderung"

https://soundcloud.com/pascal-gallois/philippe-hersant-wanderung

Pascal Gallois on the basson and the Mikrokosmos vocal ensemble (On the CD it is the Aedes vocal ensemble)

and "Niggun" for solo basson

ttps://soundcloud.com/erika-leigh-10/hersant-niggun

performed by Erika Leigh.  The performance by Pascal Gallois on the CD is smoother, I would say.

[Spineur]

Many of you know "La Sonnerie de Ste Genevieve du Mont de Paris"  composed by Marin Marais in 1723.  It is quite famous and can be heard in the film Tout les matins du monde

https://soundcloud.com/peterkramermusic/marin-marais-sonnerie-de-ste

Well, Philippe Hersant wrote variations on this theme.  Actually, I find it sound quite different, but this illustrates very well where Philippe Hersant gets his inspiration

https://soundcloud.com/thibaud-epp/philippe-hersant-variations

[Spineur]

Just got myself another CD of Philippe Hersant music:



His 2nd cello concerto is a 38 minutes long piece in a single movement.  There is a parenthood with Dutilleux Tout un monde lointain with the use of chords on the cello, a very lush orchestation and an interesting use of the piano.  Very pleased with this first listen.  Exactly my type of contemporary music.  Played here by Cyrille Tricoire (cello) and the Orchestre National de Montpellier.

HeathCliff is the music Philippe Hersant wrote for the Ballet "Wuthering Heights".  It was created in 2006 in Montpellier.  It takes the form of an orchestral suite with the top line moving from the cello the the wind instruments. It produces an Eerie atmosphere, a little vaporous.  Maybe a distant parenthood with Daphnis and Cloe.

[Turner]

I´ve got this one with Hersant choral works (Psaume, Der Wanderer, Poemes Chinois ...) & I remember it as quite attractive music.

[Spineur]

I´ve got this one with Hersant choral works (Psaume, Der Wanderer, Poemes Chinois ...) & I remember it as quite attractive music.

This is one of the few I dont have (yet !)

[Spineur]

I believe Le chemin de Jerusalem for viola da gamba is part of this set

https://www.youtube.com/v/17pvGLx78RU

I am a tonal composer willing to turn music's entire heritage -- from Monteverdi to Janacek to Stokhausen -- to my advantage.

This is a perfect example of how he is able to blend music of the past with the present.

[Mandryka]

A thoroughly enjoyable CD of rich, well made, expressive and attractive music - The Hugo Wolf Quartet. I have no hesitation recommending it.

[pjme]

This is a work I love (posted it on GMG before): austere, serious, admirably unusual - even if it uses the same set up as Charpentier's Mass

"The Song of the Three Children in the Furnace is a work composed by Philippe Hersant as a mirror to Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Mass for 4 Choirs, it uses its same forces: four choirs, period instruments and a fifth element (three solo children's voices). It was commissioned by the Maîtrise de Radio France and the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, first performed in Abbeville on 17 May 2015 and recorded during this concert at the Auditorium de Radio France (published by Radio France) in 2019. It also uses its spatial arrangement in the form of a Cross.


Contrasting with the modernist movement of the 1970s, his music is tonally based and remains deeply personal, a free style borrowing from many musical eras. Here is what he says about his work:
"References to baroque music (which I particularly like) are often present in my work, both instrumental and vocal. I have written several pieces for viola da gamba, used old brass in my Vespers, and paid homage to Marin Marais in my Trio, Variations sur la Sonnerie de Sainte-Geneviève. I am probably going even further with this Canticle, by using only period instruments and by openly inscribing myself in a baroque tradition.

Olivier Schneebeli, director of the Pages et des Chantres of the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, introduced me to the Poésies of Antoine Godeau, bishop of Grasse and mystical poet, on this occasion, suggesting that I set one of his poems to music. I hesitated for a long time, then finally came across a long and very beautiful paraphrase of the Book of Daniel, which seemed to me to be perfectly suitable. The Song of the Three Children in the Furnace recalls chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel in the Bible: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has three young Jewish boys thrown into a fiery furnace because they refused to bow down before his statue. Walking through the flames, Sidrach, Misach and Abdenago enter into prayer, bless God and sing the beauty of the world, the stars, the elements and creatures. An angel appears to them in the middle of the furnace and saves them.""