Samuel Ternoy - Emile Gou: Piano Works 1

Between dream and necessity Emile Goué (1904 - 1946) has left some forty compositions as well as a number of writings on the theory of musical composition. Yet his career was scientific and academic, and outstanding in that he obtained his doctorate in physics at the age of twenty-five and was Professor in specialised mathematics at the lycée Louis-le-Grand at the time of his death. But his gift for science was not his only one, as he was an artist who felt the overpowering need to abandon himself to composition, something that was more than a passion, indeed a genuine philosophy: "Music for me is a metaphysical activity and is inseparable from my life." Goué entered the Toulouse Conservatory in 1924, at that period under the direction of Aymé Kunc. Coming to Paris in 1936, he received advice from Albert Roussel, before becoming one of Charles Koechlin's special pupils. A promising pupil who unfortunately was to see his career cut down by the war: called up in 1939, he was held prisoner from June 1940 to May 1945, interned during this period in Oflag XB in Nienburg an der Weser. Once repatriated, he was never able to shake off the effects of his captivity, dying less than eighteen months after his return. "Nothing is more detestable than music without an idea behind it," said Chopin. Amazingly this quotation applies just as much to Goué, although it goes against the romantic spirit. If he does not display the sentimental states of his soul, he completely opens the gates of his tormented inner life to the listener, something which gives his work a rare depth. In the works from before the outbreak of war, he still seems to be looking for a style of his own: the influence of Debussy and Koechlin are clearly important. But it was when Goué was made prisoner that his language attains it's full maturity: without in any way standing in way of his creative activity, this internment proving taxing morally as well as physically, was bound to give grounds for total despair and paradoxically to transcend this "inner necessity" to express his soul's torments. Making use of the modern harmony and counterpoint's developments, his music has most often an unequalled severity, his pupil's work being described by Koechlin as follows: "It's extremely serious, often bitter, even unusual, sometimes quite austere, tragic as well." "Goué makes use of certain compositional devices," described to perfection by his friend and pupil in the Nienburg camp, Philippe Gordien. "Emile Goué considered the traditional assertion of tonality an essential part of the French temperament, but a developed tonality reaching without complex polymodality. The infinite resources of contrapuntal writing allowed a multitude of combination of themes. His passionate reflexions on the theory of form, develop those of Vincent d'Indy. His temperament for a construction aware of unity made him prefer the use of a single theme from which a whole work develops, as exemplified by Bach." If Goué is a French musician, it is difficult to speak of French music in the sense of the aesthetic generally understood, at least for the compositions of maturity, his taste for counterpoint and form dominates most of his work and is rather the heritage of the German school. To assign him to any particular movement presents problems, his composition is so personal and the influences are so varied that this is impossible. Emile Goué is simply a great name of the twentieth century, with an exceptionally original language, which should be known. The first suite Ambiances (1935) recalls the Préludes or even more Les Six Epigraphes Antiques of Debussy. His influence appears all important in Goué, whether pianistically or harmonically, the most obvious element of this being the great use of the tonal scale (it should be noted that it is the same for the youthful works of Milhaud who like Goué, will gradually wean himself from Debussy's influence). The writing of this suite remains very personal from the point of view of expression and claims impeccable craftsmanship, immersing the listener into varied mysterious atmospheres, as if these pieces were the transcription of a dream , at times delicious, at times disturbed The element of the sea appears as the source of the Deux Nocturnes (1936), titled respectively Rives Changeantes (Changing Banks) and Le Phare (The Lighthouse). The gentle modality as well as the relative liberty of form that Goué uses in these nocturnes, make of them a sort of great melancholic reverie of which Nature and the Sea are the central elements, without being able in any way to speak of musical description. The rhythmic form in it's way, seems continually to reflect the to and fro of the waves, which recalls another score with a more explicit title: Les jeux de l'océan sur les falaises de Vendée (The games of the ocean on the cliffs of Vendée) (1934), underlining the composer's attachment to the ocean and it's poetic aspect. The Petites Suites Faciles (Easy little suites) (No 1: 1937 and No 2: 1938) resemble the Sonatines or even more the Pastorales of Koechlin, whose pupil he was for a time. In neo-classical style, they are part of the continuity of the language of the eighteenth century, but a language enriched by modern evolution. Here Goué creates pages of a touching eloquence, the pieces comprising the suites being genuine jewels of clarity and sensitivity. But they are not frivolous pieces: beyond their apparent simplicity they display, subtleties and ideas are numerous to the point that these suites scarcely deserve the description of "easy". The aesthetic of the Préhistoires (1943) collection is very close to that of the second suite Ambiances (1942). Goué's style, very different from anything met before 1940, shows itself to be that of maturity, presenting a more original language clearly drawing on polytonality and a genuinely personal subject matter, going from severity to precocity. The first piece Incantation creates an archaic mood, aided by the empty fifths and the absence of the tangible, Goué seeming to reinvent thanks to polytonality and harmony a music that comes from remote ages. Touching on the unreal, Imploration is a strange reverie whose first movement is basically constructed on two chords, a triton's distance on the pedal of F, a reminder of Debussy's writing. Invocation, entirely polyharmonic, begins with a sort of very dissonant mad march, before developing as astrange and enveloping bitonal development. The triptych Prélude, Choral et Fugue (1943), composed when Emile Goué was prisoner of war, is one his greatest successes. The artist's soul in it's entirety is in the work, a soul profoundly bruised by captivity, seeming constantly to waver between joie de vivre and despair, pride and resignation. This dramatic situation led him to surpass himself in expressing himself, something of which he was fully aware, as expressed in a letter of 7 April 1943 to his wife: "I've posted you directly the Three Rilke Poems and the Prélude, Choral et Fugue, which I offer to my three children as being what I have composed in the most simple and pure style. I hope that later they will come to play and understand this work. They will understand me through it." The choice of title is significant. This reference to César Franck's masterpiece allows Goué to make clear the line to which he assigns himself. Both share numerous preoccupations concerning composition: a taste for counterpoint, harmonic liberties, a concern for form and an art for digression that is particularly obvious in their respective Prélude, Choral et Fugue. The Prélude is constructed on a theme of character, accompanied by a polyharmonic ostinato with a syncopated rhythm, sounding like an echo and conferring an ethereal dimension on the piece. Faithful tohis ideas on form, Goué is a notable advocate for monotheism and the Prélude is constructed on the different possible presentations of this theme. The Choral is profoundly poe