THE
MADOC
QUARTET
Germaine Tailleferre
String Quartet
I was attracted to Tailleferre as one of “Les Six”. She was the only woman to be admitted into this elite group. That she was there at all, as a professional musician and published composer is remarkable. Since we’re also playing Borodin and he was part of a group of 19th Century Composers dubbed the “Mighty Five,” it seemed to fit to also perform the music of another composer who was part of a “school” or “style” that were grouped together this way. But once we all listened to the piece, and then played through it, we found the music had it’s own attractions. It also made a good fit with the Bach and the Borodin, that’s important too in planning a program. We wanted something a little less “mainstream” that our listeners might not have heard before.
MQ Violist, Sarah de Niverville
Germaine Tailleferre (1892 - 1983) born Marcelle Germaine Taillefesse in Paris did not change her name because she married, but because she was angry at her father. Taillefesse senior refused to support his daughter’s professional commitment to music study, telling her she might as well aspire to be a prostitute. Defying him, Germaine pursued her career in what to this day remains a male dominated field. A prodigy at the piano and beginning composition at the age of six, she studied first at home and then later with the likes of Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and Charles-Marie Widor. By 1920 she’d earned her place among the influential group of composers known as ‘Les Six” dominating French musical life throughout the 20th century.
Tailleferre’s music is characteristically “pretty”, and at first glance, whimsical. Classmate Francis Poulenc wrote, “How ravishing our Germaine was in 1917, with her schoolgirl’s satchel full of all the Conservatoire’s first prizes! How kind and gentle she was! … What a charming and precious contribution her music makes!”
It is a misleadingly light hearted characterization. Tailleferre herself wrote, “I have had a very difficult life, you know. Only I do not like to talk about it, because I write happy music as a release. But anyway things were always against me. Whatever happened, it was against me.”
The release is in the light hearted “prettiness” of the effect, The depth is in the poignant use of harmonic dissonance and polyphone complexity that in its own way conveys the struggle. “It pretty music,” MQ violinist Sebastian Sallans says. “It’s pretty, but it is also strong,” MQ violist, Sarah de Niverville counters.
The piece is in three movements, the first in C# minor offers two central themes, reiterated in different guises. That melodic material is supported by throbbing rhythms. When the cello steps up with a counter melody it offers a brief moment of revelation, before i subsiding again into the flow, as all seems to be at peace, even if it isn’t.
The second movement is a sprightly dance, a scherzo, with the two violins setting the tone, then the cello stepping up to highlight the mood. This proves a ready transition to the final movement, an Italian Saltarello, also a dance, fast and vigorous. Tailleferre leads the ear by way of manipulating timbre and colour through dense thickets of polyphony without abandoning the control and sensibility. We can ride pleasantly along on the surface, even as the tension thickens by way of the increasing complexity of the underlying texture.
Germaine Tailleferre: Her name literally translates as “Brother Blacksmith.” She was a woman striving to make it in a man’s world, in, at the time, what was pretty much exclusively a man’s field. The music is, as all that was associated with women was expected to be, indeed pretty. It survives and is celebrated today because supporting all that loveliness is a core of steel.