Trois (3) Pieces

Description

Pierre-Octave Ferroud (1900-1936) described his music as without superfluous ornament or flaws, a music that is sturdy, healthy, optimistic, a music that just works. Claude Debussy’s Syrinx (1913) started a fashion for pastoral scenes; it was echoed by Arthur Honegger’s Danse de la chèvre around 1919, then by Ferroud’s Trois Pièces, which had its première on 13 December 1922. The first movement, Bergère captive [Captive shepherdess], embodies the pastoral idea with a melody which uses the Locrian mode of B to A. The following movements, Jade and Toan-Yan, are imbued with another theme that was fashionable at the time: orientalism. Since Chinese poetry often refers to jade, and in particular to the jade flute, it is only natural that Ferroud should have made the titleh is own, giving it a local flavour through pentatonic scales, glissandi, appoggiaturas and repetitive rhythms. Historical introduction and notes on interpretation in French and English by the flutist Anne Cartel. New engraving.