Responding to a request from Michael Zaugg, Music Director of Pro Coro Canada, for a work using texts in French that address the theme “light and shadow”, and a musical setting that would contrast the massed choir with a solo octet, I poured over countless French poems by various authors. I found myself returning again and again to those by Victor Hugo. Their vivid descriptions, raw emotion and dramatic flair remind me in some ways of Walt Whitman whose poetry I find equally arresting. I also noticed that Hugo routinely resorts to metaphors of light and darkness; the title of one collection, for instance, is Les Rayons et les ombres [Sunlight and Shadows]. Ultimately I settled on two poems as the basis for a musical diptych entitled L’Aube [Dawn]. The first, tranquil in mood and filled with wonderment, describes a simple scene: the rising sun illuminating the closed eyes of a sleeping baby girl. The second narrates the speaker’s intended journey, from dawn to dusk and across a mountain pass, to meet someone who awaits him, perhaps a lover. But the narrative takes a devastating turn when we realize that the destination is the addressee’s grave. The poem’s autobiographical inspiration makes it that much more poignant: Hugo is mourning the death of a daughter who drowned as a young woman. By prefacing this heartbreaking poem with one that celebrates life I attempt to further dramatize the tragedy while embracing broader questions of life and death, and of parent-child relationships. Images of light and darkness permeate both poems, literally and figuratively, something I draw out by scoring for heavily divided choir (SSSAAATTTBBB) that makes frequent use of a variety of solo textures (up to ssaattbbb). –R.R.
