Alexandre Tansman, Suite pour Trio d’Anches (1954)

Javi Rodriguez

Alexandre Tansman was born on June 12, 1897 in Poland to a Jewish family. He lived

during a tumultuous time in the region seeing two world wars and moving twice across the

Atlantic in his life time. By 1918, Tansman had finished in studied in both law and music in

Warsaw. In 1919 he won first, second, and third prize at the Polish National Music Competition

sending these compositions under pseudonyms. This same year, Tansman left Poland for Paris

where he would befriend many composers: Ravel, Stravinsky, members of Les Six. He, himself,

became part of a close-knit group of displaced composers from Central or Eastern Europe known

as the École de Paris. Tansman left Europe for Hollywood in 1941 once the Nazi Regime

invaded France with the help of a committee headed by Charlie Chaplin. The Tansmans had to

leave urgently as he was named in the “Entartete Kunst” or “degenerate art list” by the Nazis. He

went back to Paris in 1946 with his wife. It was around this time in his either year back in Paris

that he wrote his Suite pour Trio d’Anches.

The instrumentation of this work is for oboe, clarinet, and bassoon. This specific

instrumentation has a place in history first used in 1897 by French composer Ange Flégier. The

genre became more established in the 1920s in France by a trio comprised on bassoonist,

Fernand Oubradous, oboist, Myrtile Morel, and clarinetist Piere Lefébvre; together they

comprosed the Trio d’Anches de Paris. Much of the repertoire of the period and region were

written for Oubradous trio originally.

This piece is written in Tansman’s neo-classic style while still staying true to his Polish

heritage. The work is in four movements: I. Dialogue II. Scherzino III. Aria IV. Finale. The first

movement is begun by the oboe and clarinet who interchange and melody while the bassoon
sustains one pitch. Then all voices move together as the oboe finishes their phrase. The bassoon

begins the next phrase that is again taken by the oboe. This movement seems to resemble some

variation of an ABABACoda form. This movement is truly a dialogue between the three voices

as Tansman writes. The second movement, Scherzino, begins with an ostinato in the bassoon that

is passed for only a moment to the clarinet where is dissipates into a tutti rhythmic section. The

section spins out and returns to the original ostinato line in the bassoon the same interaction

occurs where the clarinet takes over, the ostinato breaks, the tutti section happens but this time

the clarinet takes the ostinato. The bassoon and clarinet trade roles for a moment when suddenly

everything stops and the clarinet and bassoon trade very quick responses. Another tutti section

happens which is followed by a cadence where the clarinet and bassoon drop out and the oboe is

left playing a disjunct melody. This section is followed by a tutti chromatic ascending scale that

leads to an A’’ - Codetta section where the bassoon repeatedly plays a fragment of the ostinato to

end the movement. The form of this movement could be aurally described to be

ABA’B’CA’’Codetta. The third movement is slow and overall very cantabile. The tutti sections

are very melodic and the connective sections are all bassoon solos. The final movement is a fast

movement similar in meter to the second movement. Each of the voices plays a similar role

where the oboe bears the melodic material principally and the clarinet and bassoon pass ostinati

and support the melody rhythmically while being the principal voices in connective sections.

There is one section near the middle where the bassoon controls the time primarily and is solo,

this is proceeded directly by a change in tempo and in style – something very different than the

other movements. The movement ends soft and quiet which is unexpected given the beginning of

this movement and the fact that none of the other movements change tempo.