AFTER VENTADORN (2025) for string sextet (2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos)
Paul Paccione
(Composed for Apartment House)
(The work was first performed on October 21, 2025, at Wigmore Hall, London, England)
After Ventadorn (2025) by Paul Paccione for string sextet (2 violins, 2 violas, and 2 cellos) The musical material for “After Ventadorn” is derived entirely from the 12th-century lyric love poem and song (canso) “Can vei dei la lauzeta mover” (“When I see the lark beating its wings”). It was originally written in the Occitan language by the troubadour poet/composer Bernart de Ventadorn (1147-1180). It is one of the best-known troubadour songs and is widely disseminated in different languages. The medieval troubadours were lyric poets who flourished in the South of France in the 12th and 13th centuries. The word “troubadour” is extracted from the verb “trobar” meaning both “to invent or compose verse,” and “to find a song.” Words as sounds were of the utmost importance to the troubadours. In troubadour poetry, this resulted in intricate sound patterns that reverberate throughout the poem. Musically speaking, the resultant distribution of rhyme sounds is almost contrapuntal in character and, as in imitative counterpoint, each voice/pitch points beyond itself. I “found” or first became aware of Bernart de Ventadorn’s Can vei dei la lazeta mover” a number of years ago. What attracted me immediately was its lyrical sensibility (both poetic and musical). The vocal melody of this striking troubadour song forms the basis for the string sextet, “After Ventadorn.” In response to the poem’s distribution and use of rhyme sounds, the overall texture of the string sextet is highly polyphonic and contrapuntal. The harmonic language is modal - a return to pre-tonal forms - neither prevailingly centric nor acentric (what has been described by Stravinsky in his neoclassical phase as “floating tonality” or “triadic atonality”). “After Ventadorn” is modeled on the fluidity of the choral music of the Renaissance. It consists of six independent lines of interweaving, modular, motivic melodic fragments that are cut out of the original melody. Closely-knit imitative melodic motives are strung together and juxtaposed against each other and piled up one on top of another. The uninterrupted flow of repeated motives creates a pervasive, motivically dense, 6-voice, mosaic-like texture. The individual instrumental parts are both interdependent and interchangeable. The interplay of instrumental combinations is varied throughout and the Individual parts often cross voices, exchange their function, interfere with each other or merge, creating dramatic arcs. This results in a kaleidoscopic relationship between the voices. “After Ventadorn” was composed for and dedicated to Apartment House.
Score
After Ventadorn (Dedicated to Apartment House)
Largo sustenuto, tempo poco rubato
Violin I
Violin II
Viola I
Viola II
Cello I
Cello II
sempre sonoro
© 2025
sempre sonoro
Paul Paccione
2 9
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
sempre sonoro
sempre sonoro
sempre sonoro
17
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
sempre sonoro
Vc. I
Vc. II
3
4
25
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
espress.
espress.
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
espress.
espress.
33
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
espress.
espress.
espress.
espress.
sul pont.
sul pont.
5
6
41
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
espress.
sul pont.
espress.
ord.
espress. sul pont.
sul pont.
ord.
espress.
espress.
espress.
49
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
Vc. I
ord.
Vc. II
ord.
espress.
ord.
espress.
rallentando
mezza voce
sul pont.
mezza voce
7
mezza voce
8
57
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
a tempo
mezza voce
Vla. II
mezza voce
Vc. I
Vc. II
sul pont.
ord.
sul pont.
ord.
65
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
ord.
espress.
espress.
sul pont.
espress.
espress.
sul pont.
sul pont.
9
ord.
10
73
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
ord.
mezza voce
espress. ord.
espress.
81
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
sul pont.
sul pont.
sul pont.
11
ord.
espress.
12 89
Vln. I
Vln. II
sul pont.
Vla. I
Vla. II
ord.
sul pont.
Vc. I
Vc. II
sul pont.
ord.
ord.
97
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
ord.
sul pont.
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
espress.
espress.
ord.
espress.
13
14
105
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
espress.
espress.
ord.
espress.
rit.
espress.
piu mosso
cresc.
113
Vln. I
a tempo
espress.
cresc.
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
espress.
cresc.
cresc. espress.
cresc.
espress.
cresc.
rallentando
a tempo
tranquillo
tranquillo
tranquillo
tranquillo
tranquillo
tranquillo
15
16
121
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
rit.
a tempo
sul pont.
sul pont.
sul pont.
sul pont.
sul pont.
sul pont.
espress.
129
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
ord.
ord.
sempre molto sonoro
sempre molto sonoro
ord.
sempre molto sonoro
ord.
ord.
sempre molto sonoro
sempre molto sonoro
ord.
sempre molto sonoro
17
18
137
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
19
145
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
n
20
153
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla. I
Vla. II
Vc. I
Vc. II
rallentando
espress.