Samuel Ducommun (1914 – 1987): Chamber Music

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Media Review

2025-02-18— Original posting

Samuel Ducommun: Chamber Music (Claves, CD cover)
Samuel Ducommun: Chamber Music (Claves, CD cover)
Kammermusik von Samuel Ducommun — Zusammenfassung

Der Schweizer Komponist Samuel Ducommun (1914 – 1987) lebte ein bescheidenes Leben als Lehrer in und um Neuenburg. Im Gedenken an die Tochter des Komponisten, Jacqueline Andrée Tscholl-Ducommun (1947 – 2021), hat der Claves Verlag (Claves Records SA) nun eine CD mit Kammermusik von Samuel Ducommun herausgebracht. Acht MusikerInnen, zumeist aus dem Kreis der Familie Pantillon, spielen darauf die Pablo Casals gewidmeten Quatre pièces brèves pour violoncelle et piano, op.58 (1955), sowie drei Spätwerke:

  • Divertimento pour flûte, violon, alto, violoncelle et piano, op.100 (1982)
  • Quatuor pour Flûtes, op.104 (1984)
  • Sonatine pour violon et piano, op.108 (1985)

Allen Werken gemeinsam ist der persönliche Stil Samuel Ducommuns, der nie versucht, andere Komponisten nachzuahmen, sondern sich höchstens vom französischen Impressionismus oder von Werken seines Lehrers Marcel Dupré (1886-1971) inspirieren lässt. Die Kompositionen sind weitgehend atonal, in der Textur poly- oder bitonal, durchaus hörenswert. Die Aufnahme dokumentiert auch den Stil von Ducommuns Kammermusikwerken.

Contents

Introduction

I received the above CD from Claves Records, SA for review. The recording contains four chamber music compositions by Samuel Ducommun. For details about the CD (product information, etc.), please see the media information below. Prior to this CD, I was not familiar with the works of this composer. Since I therefore have no “external references”, I will not judge or evaluate the interpretations on this recording. Instead, I’ll try to describe my impressions of the music after and while listening to the CD several times. And, of course, I will also try to provide some context about the composer.

The Composer

Sources

Most of the biographical information below comes from two sources:

  • The biography and list of works on musinfo.ch
  • The text in the CD booklet is not so much a biography as a detailed essay (two pages, French) about Samuel Ducommun, written by the music critic, producer and essayist (with ties to Claves Records, SA) Antonin Scherrer (*1976). For reasons of efficiency, I primarily used the English translation by Estelle Massy-Parramore (also included in the booklet). However, I found the automatic English translation by DeepL to be more informative and closer to the French original.
  • The second part of the booklet text includes helpful information about the compositions in this recording.

I have avoided quoting text directly from these sources—I just want to give the outline of this information. Note that I do not have any of the scores for these pieces. Therefore my comments on musical form should be taken with a grain of salt.

Biography

Samuel Ducommun (1914 – 1987, see also Wikipedia) was a Swiss composer and organist. He was born in 1914 in Peseux, near Neuchâtel. His father was an accountant at a nearby chocolate factory. Samuel’s mother died in 1923, and from then on, his father was left alone to care for his two children. Samuel Ducommun and his sibling were pushed to become musicians, while at the same time, Samuel was told to seek a “real” job. So, whether to he wanted or not, Samuel became a teacher—a profession he held all his working life without complaining.

As for his musical career: Samuel Ducommun first studied the organ, completing his studies with the eminent French organist, composer and pedagogue Marcel Dupré (1886 – 1971). In 1934, Ducommun became organist in Corcelles (Neuchâtel), between 1938 and 1942, he moved to the Stadtkirche in Biel/Bienne, and from 1942 on, the city of Neuchâtel was the center of his activities. He was collegium organist, singing teacher in schools, piano teacher at the cantonal college and taught classes for organ, harmony, analysis, counterpoint and composition at the conservatory. He also gave concerts in many places in Switzerland, France and Germany.

Composing

Throughout his life, composing was an important part of Samuel Ducommun’s life as a musician. However, publicity and self-promotion were not “his thing”. The essay in the booklet even states that Ducommun never talked about himself, didn’t seem to have any personal ambitions, and showed no interest in the fate of his oeuvre, before or after his death. Toward the end of his life he stated that for him, the completion of a work, the solution of its challenges, the achievement of some progress as a composer, were the primary rewards. The joy of a public performance was a complementary pleasure, but not indispensable.

Oeuvre

Between 1932 and 1985, Samuel Ducommun composed an oeuvre of some 109 (numbered) works, covering a wide range of genres:

  • Some 30 organ works
  • Works for the organ and instruments: 2 concertos, a symphony, suites, works intended for concert or church service; also works in which the organ accompanies a voice, flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, horn, or alphorn
  • Works for solo voices, choir and orchestra, written for specific occasions, including also cantatas, an oratorio
  • Symphonic works and concertos: sinfonietta, nocturnes, concerto grosso with two violin solos, concertino for trumpet, concertos for organ and string orchestra, a symphony for large orchestra.
  • Instrumental works for a wide variety of chamber music formations.
  • Solo works for piano

Influences

One can get an idea of Ducommun’s sources of inspiration, i.e. composers who influenced his compositions, by looking at composers whose works he included in his public performances (apart from classical and romantic compositions):

The Artists

With the exception of three “external” flutists, all the performers on this recording are members of the Pantillon family, one of the most prominent musician families in the Lausanne-Neuchâtel region, and friends of the Ducommun family:

The Contents of the CD

With one exception (Quatre pièces brèves pour violoncelle et piano, op.58, from 1955), the works on this recording date from the last years of Samuel Ducommun’s productive life as a composer. The recording was made in memory of the composer’s daughter, Jacqueline Andrée Tscholl-Ducommun (1947 – 2021), with the support of the Fonds Samuel Ducommun. This foundation also manages the archive of Samuel Ducommun’s legacy within the framework of Patrinum (patrimoine numerique, the digital archive of the Cantonal and University Library, and Renouvaud, the Réseau vaudois des bibliothèques (the library network of the Canton de Vaud). The photos in the booklet are from the private collection of the Tscholl-Ducommun family.

The recording took place in July 2022 in the Studio Madrigal in Sion, Switzerland.

Track Listing

  • Quatuor pour Flûtes, op.104 (1984) — [21’27”]
    • (01) — I. Capriccio [5’39”]
    • (02) — II. Adagio [9’26”]
    • (03) — III. Rondo [4’12”]
    • (04) — IV. Quasi marcia [2’10”]
  • Sonatine pour violon et piano, op.108 (1985) — [6’47”]
    • (05) — I. Preludio: Moderato [3’05”]
    • (06) — II. Allegro scherzando [3’42”]
  • Quatre pièces brèves pour violoncelle et piano, op.58 (1955) — [13’38”]
    • (07) — I. Prélude grave: Poco sostenuto [2’20”]
    • (08) — II. Fughetta: Allegretto [2’37”]
    • (09) — III. Elégie sur le nom de Pablo Casals: Poco lento [5’34”]
    • (10) — IV. Rondo: Vif [3’07”]
  • Divertimento pour flûte, violon, alto, violoncelle et piano, op.100 (1982) — [20’13”]
    • (11) — I. Intrada [3’26”]
    • (12) — II. Allegretto scherzando [5’04”]
    • (13) — III. Pastorale [5’36”]
    • (14) — IV. Final [6’07”]

Total Duration: 62’04” (14 tracks)

Experiencing the Music

Although the works on this recording span a period of 30 years, they all bear witness to Ducommun’s personal style / musical language, which the composer’s daughter, Jacqueline Andrée Tscholl-Ducommun, describes as follows: “While the style and the spirit of the compositions is French inspired and the architecture calls on classical forms with the fugue, passacaglia and sonata forms as examples, the expression is generally polytonal, sometimes atonal and often modal. Samuel Ducommun discovered a personal musical language which does not want to imitate person nor deny origins. If the material is traditional, the work is original.“

Flute Quartet (Quatuor pour Flûtes), op.104 (1984)

Performers: Anne-Laure Pantillon, Theresa Wunderlin, Aline Glasson, Alba Luna Sanz Juanes, flutes (piccolo, flute, alto flute, bass flute)

Samuel Ducommun wrote his Quatuor pour Flûtes, op.104 in 1984, dedicated to and as a tribute to the Quatuor de flûtes Romand, at the suggestion of its principal artist, Jean-Paul Haering (1929 – 2019). The composer attended the rehearsals and was pleased with the result. Unfortunately, he did not live to attend the first public performance in 1989.

I. Capriccio

A sequence of canon-like imitations, rolling in waves, joking, carefree, almost casual, pleasant. The piece reveals the composer’s penchant for bi- and polytonality—though it is atonal overall. There is harmonic progression, but there is no “pull” toward closure or cadences. For me, the piece evokes an autumnal scenery with a slight sense of melancholy, inspired by French Impressionism, avoiding strong dynamic contrasts.

II. Adagio

Calm, solemn, dominated by the warm sound of the low (alto and bass) flutes, culminating in luminous climaxes in the high flutes. Broad dynamic arches, chorale-like. Much more tonal than the Capriccio, though not in the classic sense: there are no classical cadences, but arches tend to converge towards unison closures. Beautiful, soothing music!

III. Rondo

The Rondo returns to the spirit of the Capriccio—full of imitations in a dense web of four voices. I have not analyzed the music, but I hear a capricious fugue on a theme that opens with a cuckoo-like motif, and its inversion. Intricate, dense, entertaining.

IV. Quasi marcia

The final movement is close to the Rondo in spirit and texture, though not strictly a fugue: rather full of imitations and canon-like segments. Perhaps the most tonal of the movements, though mostly polytonal. Entertaining, interesting, complex, yet light, joyful.

Sonatina for Violin and Piano (Sonatine pour violon et piano), op.108 (1985)

Performers: Klara Flieder-Pantillon, violin; Marc Pantillon, piano

The Sonatina for Violin and Piano, op.108, consisting of only two short movements, is Samuel Ducommun’s penultimate composition. The only work to follow is an organ work, the Livre d’Orgue, op.109, written in 1985.

I. Preludio: Moderato

A melancholic cantilena on the violin, with a light accompaniment (at first only sparse chords, alternating between descant and bass). In a gentle climax, the melody livens up, before calming down again and retracting into pp, as if to leave a question mark.

II. Allegro scherzando

The opening segment (which returns in the second half) feels like an elegiac but flowing Andante. The Allegro scherzando character emerges somewhat later, through spiccato cascades, alternating with pizzicato passages combined with staccato piano accompaniment. Ethereal flageolets and a light legato accompaniment then seem to combine the elegiac atmosphere of the beginning and the humorous scherzando aspect. Reflective, atmospheric moments lead back to the initial theme, which eventually brightens into an affirmative (and tonal) ending.

All in all, a short, but multifaceted composition—not heavy, but entertaining and (lastly) cheerful.

Four Short Pieces for Cello and Piano (Quatre pièces brèves pour violoncelle et piano), op.58 (1955)

Performers: Christophe Pantillon, cello; Marc Pantillon, piano

In 1949, Samuel Ducommun composed a first work for cello and piano, the Two Pieces for Cello and Piano(Deux Pièces pour violoncelle et piano), op.49, which was broadcast in France in 1950. The next composition for this configuration followed soon after: the Four Short Pieces for Cello and Piano (Quatre pièces brèves pour violoncelle et piano), op.58, were completed in 1955. Ducommun dedicated them to the great cellist Pablo Casals (1876 – 1973). Beyond that, the third of the pieces is an elegy on the name of the dedicatee. The four pieces were first performed in 1972 only, during the Contemporary Music Concerts (CMC) in La Chaux-de-Fonds. This series of concerts lived in the 1970s, but were re-founded in 1995.

I. Prélude grave: Poco sostenuto

Earnest, elegiac, intense mourning on the cello, mysterious chords in the piano accompaniment, the right hand echoing motifs from the cello part. Thoughtful, pensive, unanswered questions. The movement as a whole is not tonal, but there are clearly tonal moments in the two complementary parts, even they don’t really lead to a lasting resolution. Beautiful music.

II. Fughetta: Allegretto

A genuine four-part fugue with a resolute theme that could almost be “inherited” from Bach, with a comes in quaver triplets. It is largely tonal, but of course, there are longer, dissonant episodes in the dense web of voices, which clearly place the piece in the context of 20th century music, even though it retains a baroque attitude. Ducommun kept it short (a fughetta, after all), so as not to make the fugue sound too “constructed”, “theoretical”, intellectual, or dry. Definitely interesting music!

III. Elégie sur le nom de Pablo Casals: Poco lento

The basic meter is indeed poco lento (which could be read as “a little slow”, or “not so slow”). But that is only the foundation. The opening of the piece feels forlorn, searching, raising expectations.

The main component is the intense, elegiac singing of the cello, especially in the main theme (presumably a transliteration of the name “Casals”). This dominates the entire movement, from the bass to the middle and high treble instances. The theme is also taken up by the piano, but for the most part, the piano mainly provides the harmonic foundation, or a contrapuntal / complementary “comment” on the theme. There are occasional non-thematic sections, but even these remain in the spirit of the thematic segments. The piano accompaniment (especially the right hand) is actually the “least lento” part: often in flowing (quaver?) motion. A beautiful, warm, reflective movement, perhaps inspired by Pablo Casals’ “El Cant dels ocells”.

Beautiful playing, beautiful sonority, especially on the cello: the highlight of the entire recording?

IV. Rondo: Vif

A cheerful rondo theme, alternating between the two instruments. The movement is mostly atonal, occasionally bitonal, momentarily also moody and dissonant, but gradually building up in motion and volume, leading to an affirmative ending in chord cascades.

Divertimento (Divertimento pour flûte, violon, alto, violoncelle et piano), op.100 (1982)

Performers: Anne-Laure Pantillon, flute; Klara Flieder-Pantillon, violin; Johannes Flieder, viola; Christophe Pantillon, cello; Marc Pantillon, piano

Samuel Ducommun wrote his Divertimento for Flute, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano, op.100, in 1982, for a group of young musicians in the Neuchâtel region, the Ensemble Ad Musicam, which also premiered the composition in October of that year.

I. Intrada

The first part of the Intrada presents the musicians and their instruments in turn: flute, cello, piano, viola, violin, gradually exploring combinations, first of two instruments, then three, four, with tonal reminiscences / allusions. At first calm, then taking on a march-like pace/rhythm under a lively theme—like a procession, in which the actors appear / present themselves on stage in a sequence. There is a gradual build-up in (polytonal) polyphony, volume, and intensity, finally accelerating to a vehement and abrupt ending.

II. Allegretto scherzando

The Allegretto scherzando takes up themes and patterns that were already presented in the Intrada. Polyphonic (often canon-like / imitative), lively, then mysterious tremolo segment in dialog with octave parallels on the piano. The last part feels like a moody peasant dance, broadening towards the climax with the strings often in unison, followed by trembling reminiscences and a hushed ending. Interesting and entertaining, imaginative, pictorial, picturesque.

III. Pastorale

A calm, but complex, sophisticated, reflective discourse, mostly between flute and the strings, building up to a lively climax, then calming down again, and leading into a mysterious flageolet / flute section, with the piano imitating the distant tolling of a bell. Suspenseful, gripping.

IV. Final

Throughout the Divertimento, I picture a lively theatrical scene in with characters appear, interact and engage in a lively, intense discourse, forming alliances. This last movement is a real theatrical finale! Each of the characters then has a short monologue, before the scene comes to a glorious, festive and affirmative conclusion.

The Four Short Pieces for Cello and Piano, op.58, may feel more accessible than the Divertimento. Still, I rate the latter to be equally a highlight on this CD.

Conclusions

This recording documents Samuel Ducommun’s chamber music. It covers the diversity in the composer’s chamber music oeuvre, his very personal and unique musical language in representative examples. More importantly, it keeps alive the memory of a composer who led a modest life and never made an effort to promote his music beyond a very small, private circle.

I have listened to the entire recording several times, and I can honestly say that there isn’t a single movement where interesting, often unique aspects (textures, polyphony, harmony, polytonality, melody / themes, etc.) caught my attention. The compositions on this CD do not contain “big” forms (neither in length nor in instrumentation). However, I consider the latter to be an equal highlight on this CD.

Reservations?

I stand behind the above, positive conclusions. However, I should say that (in general) this is not music that you can expect to be “drawn into” immediately. At least at first, if you listen to this music casually and without prior familiarization, it can become a distraction (even a nuisance?) and you can easily lose interest. In other words, it’s worth listening to these works one at a time—and perhaps not “consuming” the entire recording at once. Conscious listening makes for a rewarding musical experience!

Media Information

Samuel Ducommun: Chamber Music (Claves, CD cover)

Samuel Ducommun (1914 – 1987): Chamber Music

Anne-Laure Pantillon, Theresa Wunderlin, Aline Glasson, Alba Luna Sanz Juanes, flutes
Klara Flieder-Pantillon, violin; Johannes Flieder, viola; Christophe Pantillon, cello
Marc Pantillon, piano

Claves Records 50-3071 (CD, stereo); ℗ / © 2023
Booklet: 11 pp. fr/en

Samuel Ducommun: Chamber Music (Claves, CD, EAN-13 barcode)
amazon media link
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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Claves Records, SA, for sending me the CD for this review.

Rolf Kyburz (2024-05-02, © Rolf Kyburz, all rights reserved)
by Rolf Kyburz

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