Tableaux de Provence by Paule Maurice

Paule Maurice - Tableaux de Provence for saxophone and piano (1954)
I. Farandoulo di Chanouno
II. Cansoun per ma Mio
III. La Boumiano
IV. Dis Alyscamps L’ami Soupire
V. Lou Cabridan
Paule Maurice was a female French composer born in Paris in 1910. Little is known of Paule Maurice outside of her compositions and her twenty-five years as a professor at two important musical schools in Paris, the Paris Conservatory and National School of Music of Paris. According to Maurice’s own writings, she composed over fifty compositions. However, only seven compositions are documented. She was married to French composer, Pierre Lantier and regularly holidayed to the South of France with the Greatest Grandfather of the Saxophone, Marcel Mule to whom the work is dedicated.
Tableaux de Provence is a five movement work which describes with sensitivity and imagination the rich tapestry of Provence. The first movement shows a specific French dance where a large number of dancers hold hands, and, forming a chain, move to the rhythm of a tambourine player. The second is a short song for a female family relation - mother or aunt. “La Boumaino” is the third movement, evoking a gyspy women dancing. The fourth and most substantial movement translates as “From the Graveyard Les Alyscamps, a Soul Sighs”, describing a particular Roman burial site in Provence that has been shown in works by both Van Gogh and Gauguin. Paule Maurice wrote, “this movement was written during a very emotional period when I learned of the death of my husband’s cousin, whom we considered a brother. He was living in Provence in a vineyard with peach trees and olive trees in the country. I still remember the hours we shared reading poetry together. Thanks to him, I learned to experience the true charm of Provence, to appreciate the cricket’s song and the sound of the waterfall. I cannot express in words how devastating it was to lose him. This movement was written within two days at that period”. The final movement “La Cabridan”, is named after a large insect similar to a bumblebee or a cicada that is native to Provence.

Performers: Naomi Sullivan (saxophone) and Kumi Matsuo (piano)