Collaborative pianists who want to demonstrate a depth of flute repertory should have this piece under their fingers. Students in strong flute studios often view this work as a landmark in their own growth and development. It is also a popular competition piece. Although a difficult work, it will help one’s repertory list stand out when presented to flute professors.
Tactile Tips Note – It is recommended to double check all of the accidentals (and lack thereof) in this piece. Due to the nature of the composition, it is very easy to forget an accidental that previously occurred in a given measure The only edition currently in use is this one here (or here).
Editions
History.....Heracles the murderer Jolivet started a group known as La Jeune France in the 1930’s. Messiaen jumped on board. They were getting tired of the fun-and-games coming from Les Six and really weren’t a big fan of the neoclassicism that Stravinsky was pursuing at that time. Jolivet was constantly trying to connect his music to the idea of primitiveness. He liked the flute for this purpose because it was, “endowed with life by the breath, man’s deepest emanation.” (Yes, a lot of instruments are powered by the breath, but we see where he’s going with this…there were types of flutes discovered tens of thousands of years ago…can’t say the same for the harmonica). Jolivet had already explored the use of the flute in his compositions back in 1935 with his Five Incantations for Flute. (The fact that his teacher,Edgard Varèse, wrote his Density 21.5 this year must just be a coincidence). By 1944, Jolivet still holding on to that primitive/ancient obsession of his… The Chant de Linos was a type of threnody (song or lament to the dead) from Greek antiquity interrupted by wailing and dancing. (That’s what it says in the score). And this Linos… Well, he was the son of Apollo and a muse, so he could really tear it up on the pan flute and the lyre. He even gave music lessons to Orpheus. But he criticized Heracles a bit too much. Heracles ended up killing Linos with his own lyre. Getting away from the mythology for a bit, there is a song genre from ancient Greece known as Linos, a type of dirge. The Chant de Linos was composed as a competition piece for the Paris Conservatory. One must not forget that although “competition piece” often brings images of the 310,297th Demersseman solo, many landmark compositions originated as competition pieces. The year before the Chant de Linos was Dutilleux’s Sonatine. These guys weren’t just phoning it in.
Did You Know?.....If you don't like piano Not just for flute and piano: Jolivet also scored this work for flute, string trio, and harp. That score is available here. This alternate version was created one year after the flute/piano version as a replacement for it. Where do these sounds come from?: It has been argued that this work is based on a six-note scale (G, Ab, B, C#, D, F, G) [1. This book page 664] If someone has taken this ball and ran with it, let me know. These are the notes that make up the entirety of the first page if you conveniently ignore the c-naturals.
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