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- John Tavener
Popule Meus (2009)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
- vc + timp/str
- Cello
- 14 min
Programme Note
Popule Meus is a meditation on the Judaic and Christian text “O my People, what have I done to you?”, but it is also a Universalist contemplation of the wholesale rejection of God by modern man. However much man rejects God, he cannot escape Him, and indeed he is condemned to the supernatural by his deiform nature. In Hindu terms he is the Absolute – Ayam Atma Brahma (The Self is the Absolute).
In this work the Solo Cello is the all-compassionate one, while the Timpani represent man in his vain and pointless rejection. Although the solo cello and strings, and the timpani, share the same material (four ideas are gradually revealed, and they revolve four times during the piece), the timpani music is violent and becomes increasingly frenzied and contracted, while the cello and strings remain still and serene.
So even in winning, the Darkness loses, and even in losing the Light wins. Passion, Resurrection and Redemption; or in Hindu terms Atma (The Absolute) alone is real, Maya (The Relative) is merely illusion.
J.T.
In this work the Solo Cello is the all-compassionate one, while the Timpani represent man in his vain and pointless rejection. Although the solo cello and strings, and the timpani, share the same material (four ideas are gradually revealed, and they revolve four times during the piece), the timpani music is violent and becomes increasingly frenzied and contracted, while the cello and strings remain still and serene.
So even in winning, the Darkness loses, and even in losing the Light wins. Passion, Resurrection and Redemption; or in Hindu terms Atma (The Absolute) alone is real, Maya (The Relative) is merely illusion.
J.T.
Media
Tavener: Popule Meus
Scores
Reviews
...what appeals most about Popule meus is the sensitive quality of the solo line, which sounded as if it could have come straight from one of the composer's haunting choral works. Its composer fully deserved the audience's rapturous applause.
3rd September 2011
Brief, expressive and purposeful, it opens with lightning-strikes by the timpani that threaten the cello’s solemn answering theme. This alternation continues, with the timpani full of sound and fury and the cello, which plays incessantly, not so much responding to the challenge as maintaining a steady, progressively warmer and more affirmative stance.
Tavener undoubtedly intends the cello to symbolise the power of steadfast faith against the temptations of the secular world hurled out by the timpani. Throughout, the orchestra is mostly a backdrop, providing thrumming support. In the end, although the timpani does not go whimpering away, the cello has the last quiet word.
Tavener undoubtedly intends the cello to symbolise the power of steadfast faith against the temptations of the secular world hurled out by the timpani. Throughout, the orchestra is mostly a backdrop, providing thrumming support. In the end, although the timpani does not go whimpering away, the cello has the last quiet word.
16th May 2010
Discography
No longer mourn for me & other works for cello
- LabelHyperion
- Catalogue NumberCDA68246
- ConductorOmer Meir Wellber
- EnsemblePhilharmonia Orchestra
- SoloistSteven Isserlis
- Released30th October 2020