Esoteric French Art...
Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 11/23/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
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The chamber oratorio The Mirror of Jesus: Fifteen Sonnets on the Mysteries of the Rosary (1911) is André Caplet (1878-1925)'s masterpiece. Immaculately scored for mezzo-soprano, female chorus, string orchestra and harp, The Mirror reflects the Ralliement esthetique--the resurgence of interest in Romish mysticism in the late-19th/early-20th Centuries--of Huysmans, Satie, Debussy, Tournemire, et alii.
(E.g., The Damned (La-Bas) (Penguin Classics) En Route (European Classics) The Oblate of St. Benedict (Dedalus European Classics) / Erik Satie: Musique de la Rose-Croix; Pages Mystiques; Uspud [Import] / Claude Debussy: Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien / Charles Tournemire: L'Orgue Mystique [Hybrid SACD] )
In The Mirror, Caplet synthesizes Debussian/Ravelian Impressionism with the modalities of Gregorian organum--(Satie had done something similar with his "Ogives"). The fifteen poems are subdivided into three sections, each preceeded by a prelude. TT: :61mins.
The rabbi Saul of Tarsus has said, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror" (1Cor. 13:12); nevertheless, in art appreciation, it is not necessary to incorporate Scriputural hermeneutics: indeed, one can appreciate The Mirror as absolute music--especially as the French language has a large percentage of vowel sounds, the vocalise is exquisitely wrough in combination with the strings.
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Track Listings (18) - Disc #1