Les Heures persanes op. 65
1. Sieste, avant le départ : Lent – 2. La caravane (rêve, pendant la sieste) : Pas vite – 3. L’escalade obscure : Adagio (non troppo) – 4. Matin frais, dans la haute vallée : Pas trop lent – 5. En vue de la ville : Moderato – 6. À travers les rues : Allegro vivo – 7. Chant du soir : Très calme – 8. Clair de lune sur les terrasses : Andante moderato – 9. Aubade : Moderato – 10. Rose au soleil de midi : Presque adagio – 11. À l’ombre, près de la fontaine de marbre : Moderato – 12. Arabesques : Allegro (non troppo) – 13. Les collines, au coucher du soleil : Très calme – 14. Le conteur : Assez lent ; Le Pêcheur et le Genni ; Le Palais enchanté ; Danse d’adolescents ; Clair de lune sur les jardins – 15. La paix du soir, au cimetière : Assez lent – 16. Derviches dans la nuit : Assez animé, nocturne, mystérieux ; Variante ; Clair de lune sur la place déserte.
“Given the Western approach to polyphony and the orchestra, how can we faithfully translate Arab thought for our ears and sensibility? We have come a long way from the time when a Turkish March was automatically expected to verge on the comical or at least be underpinned by ungainly rhythms. For several hundred years, Islam has been viewed from a completely different standpoint, with respect, admiration, and sympathy.” These lines, written by Koechlin in 1939 in an article for La Revue algérienne (“L’orientalisme dans la musique française”) reveal not only the composer’s lasting interest in the East (which dated back at least to his visit to Algeria in 1889), but also his shrewd approach to the influence of the Arab world on European music. It seems therefore significant that Les Heures persanes, inspired by the account of an expedition by Pierre Loti (Vers Ispahan, 1904), should have been composed between 1913 and 1919, a period during which Koechlin—faced with World War One—was endeavouring to find new ways of regenerating French music. In fact, this set of pieces for solo piano—in which the Orient is more imagined than transcribed—is sometimes similar in its musical language to that developed by Ravel in Gaspard de la nuit (1908) and also foreshadows certain of Messiaen’s compositions. In this work, Loti’s travels are condensed into two days, with each piece marking a stage, like a collection of traveller’s impressions. In 1921, two years after finishing the cycle, Koechlin prepared a version for orchestra.