“A wide canvass for the language of sound”: Florent Schmitt’s De vive voix for a cappella female voices (1955).

Within the catalogue of compositions by Florent Schmitt are a large number of choral works, great and small. Of these, music-lovers are most likely to be familiar with Schmitt’s grandiose setting of Psalm 47, which he composed in 1904 and which was premiered in Paris in 1906. But the Psalm isn’t all that representative of […]

Enigmatic poetry ingeniously set to music: Florent Schmitt’s Quatre monocantes (1949).

In the latter part of his career as a composer, Florent Schmitt devoted a good portion of his energies to writing vocal music, both for solo voices and for chorus. These projects give him the opportunity to indulge his passion for writing for the human voice — a persistent trait we can see throughout his […]