Psalm 150 (Franck)

Composer César Franck (photographed by Pierre Petit)

Psalm 150 ( French Psaume 150 ) is a setting of Psalm 150 in French for choir, orchestra and organ by César Franck from 1883.

history

The 150th psalm is the last psalm from the biblical psalter . As a summary, he calls for praising God with music, mentioning a number of instruments. This is why it is sometimes called the "musician psalm". He has inspired many composers to set music, for example Anton Bruckner , Igor Stravinsky and Benjamin Britten .

César Franck was born in Liège , but worked mainly in Paris as an organist at several churches, most recently at the Cavaillé-Coll organ in Ste-Clotilde , where he served from 1858 until his death. He also taught at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1872 . He composed church music from motets to oratorios . His best-known work is a setting of the hymn Panis angelicus , which he composed in 1872, originally for solo tenor, harp, cello, double bass and organ.

In 1883 he set Psalm 150 to music in French, “Hallelujah! Louez le Dieu, caché dans ses saints tabernacles ” . He wrote the work on behalf of the Paris school for the blind, Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles , the first school for the blind in France, for the inauguration of the organ there. The work was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1896 . In 1976, Carus-Verlag published a version for choir, string orchestra and organ, optionally with harp and percussion, in order to make the music accessible to smaller ensembles as well, without having to forego its special sound. Carus also published a version for choir and organ, with French, German and Latin texts.

music

Franck's psalm setting is one of his later works. He wrote it symphonically, with bold harmonies and chromatics, and in an unusual form. The work in one movement is in D major in 4/4 time and is labeled Poco allegretto ma maestoso . Franck based the distribution of the orchestra's voices on the individual instruments on an organ register . The tonality often changes between major and minor. The choral movement is kept comparatively simple. The performance time is given as five minutes.

The composition begins with a long instrumental introduction, very soft and in long notes, in which the note D is constantly heard like an organ point . The bass begins softly in measure 26 with the word Alleluja, also on D, followed by the alto voices, while the accompaniment changes to quarter notes. After four bars of melodic lines in the instruments, the sequence is repeated in tenor and soprano, this time on A and louder. In a fourth imitation, all voices sing alleluia on D, again stronger.

After this long increase, the basses alone bring the first two verses of the psalm in a chorale-like melody. The text of the two following verses, which mentions the various instruments, is sung by all voices in imitation from bar 61, more lively in the vocal parts and in the accompaniment. The section ends homophonically in bar 75. The motif of the melodic interlude is taken up by the voices, first by the tenor, then with the soprano, and finally by all the voices to express the last two verses that conclude that all living beings praise God should. This leads to a very loud climax in measure 96. One bar later the first section of text is repeated with its chorale-like melody, this time sung by all voices in unison . The text and music of the second section are also repeated, and the composition closes with some powerful alleluia calls.