Dr. Takt über Lili Boulanger: „Pie Jesu“, Takt 33/34 - Deutsche Oper Berlin
Dr Takt on Lili Boulanger: "Pie Jesu", bar 33/34
This is the 23rd episode in our series of videos with Dr Takt
Lili Boulanger was the wunderkind of French impressionism. In 1913 she became the first woman to win the coveted Prix de Rome scholarship. Yet, even in her childhood, she was prone to sickness and died at the young age of 24 in 1918. On her deathbed she composed "Pie Jesu" for vocals, string quartet, organ, and harp. The delicate, otherworldly parting work consists of an overlapping of various harmonic layers. Take, for example, bar 33/34 where, via a bass D, the singing voice is in D minor like the treble of the organ in the melody F-A-F-D. Behind these melody notes are a sort of truncated seventh-ninth chords that have nothing to do with D minor, nor are they resolved in the "regular" fashion. Rather, they are transposed upward and downward in regular intervals, resulting in the fragile, ambiguous sound of disappearance.
