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Henri Dutilleux and Maurice Ohana: Victims of an Exclusion Zone?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2023

Caroline Rae
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Extract

Until recently, the music of Henri Dutilleux and Maurice Ohana was largely overlooked in Britain, despite both composers having achieved widespread recognition beyond our shores. In France they have ranked among the leading composers of their generation since at least the 1960s and have received many of the highest official accolades. In Britain, the view of French music since 1945 has often been synonymous with the music of Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Boulez, to the virtual exclusion of others whose work has long been honoured not only in France and elsewhere in Europe but in the wider international arena. These ‘others’ include Dutilleux and Ohana. Developing an innovative and forward-looking approach, independent from the preoccupations of their contemporaries who congregated at Darmstadt, both Dutilleux and Ohana were excluded from representation at the concerts of the Domaine musical. As a result, their music was neglected in Britain throughout the years when the programming policies of Boulez and Sir William Glock were at their most influential. Undoubtedly, Boulez is one of the most phenomenal figures in music of the last 50 or so years and the position of his erstwhile teacher Messiaen is secure as one of the giants of the 20th century. Yet, however significant their respective contribution, Boulez and Messiaen represent only one facet of French music since 1945.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 212 , April 2000 , pp. 22 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2000

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References

1 Both composers settled in Hans in the early 1930s, Ohana in 1932 and Dutilleux in 1933.

2 Dutilleux, Henri: Mystére et mémoire des sons – entretiens avec Claude Glaymann (Paris, 1997) p. 42 Google Scholar.

3 The score is no longer extant. Ohana destroyed nearly all works composed before 1944.

4 Dutilleux, op.cit., p.43.

5 Roger Nichols: ‘Dutilleux at 75’, BBC Radio 3, 1991.

6 Dutilleux: op.cit., p.67–68.

7 ibid.

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9 Dutilleux: op.cit., p.47–48.

10 Ohana and Daniel-Lesur also maintained a two-piano duo during this period.

11 The covers for many of Ohana's CD recordings reproduce paintings of Sergio de Castro.

12 Interview with Pierre Ancelin 1964: cited in Rae, Caroline ‘Maurice Ohana: iconoclast or individualist?’ The Musical Times, 02 1991, p.70 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Lorca, F. Garcia: Deep Song and Other Prose, tr. and ed. Maurer, C. (London. 1980)Google Scholar.

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15 It is interesting to note that the inaugural concert of La Jeune France on 3 June 1936, also at the Salle Gaveau, also included a work composed by a non-grou p member: Germaine Tailleferre's Ballade for piano and orchestra.

16 Dutilleux: op.cit., p.48.

17 ibid. p.68.

18 Noted in Potter: 1997 p.188 andjameux: 1991 p.257.

19 Dutilleux in conversation with the author in Paris, March 1998.

20 Dutilleux: op.cit., p.54.

21 Ohana, Maurice: ‘Anonyme XXe siècle’ (entretien avec Jean Christophe Marti) Opéra d'aitjourd'hui, Avant-Scène Opéra no.3 (1991) [special Ohana edition] p. 15 Google Scholar. Translation by the present author.

22 Dutilleux, Henri in Le Monde de la Musique, Cahier no.2, ‘Maurice Ohana, le musicien du soleil’ (1994) p. 18 Google Scholar. Translation by the present author.

23 The Boston Symphony under Leonard Bernstein gave the first performance of Messiaen's, Turangalîla-Symplwnie in 12 1949 Google Scholar, with Yvonne Loriod and Ginette Martenot.

24 Double numéro 351–353 ‘Maurice Ohana Essais études et documents’ (1982) and a Triple numéro 391–393 ‘Maurice Ohana miroirs de l'oeuvre’ (1986).

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27 Dutilleux in conversation with the author in Paris, March 1998.

28 Caroline Potter: op.cit., p.22.

29 ‘Portrait – Marius Constant’, Salabert-Actuel no.5 (Paris, 1987) p.11–12 Google Scholar. Translation by the present author.

30 Routh, F.: ‘Cause for Concern’, Contemporary British Music (London, 1972), p.372 Google Scholar.

31 The files of composers, performers and broadcast schedules 1945–69 at the BBC Written Archive Centre, Caversham, Reading.

32 Bien Cher Félix: Letters from Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod to Felix Aprahamian & ed. Simeone, Nigel (Cambridge, 1998)Google Scholar.

33 Messiaen first visited London in 1938 to perform La Nativité de Seigneur at St Alban the Martyr, Holborn. He visited again n December 1945 whe n he and Yvonne Loriod performed Visions de VAmen for an invited audience at the home of Felix Aprahamian. (N. Simeone op.cit.).

34 Glock, W.: ‘With Boulez at the BBC’, Pierre Boulez A Symposium (1986) p.233 Google Scholar.

35 The work had already received its UK premiére at Dartington two years before.

36 The Kontarsky brothers first performed at th e Proms 1960.