Honegger, Arthur, 1892-1955. Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher

Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake) is a mystère lyrique, or sung mystery play (a dramatic sort of oratorio), by Paul Claudel with music by Arthur Honegger. Commissioned by Ida Rubinstein, it was written in 1935, premiered in 1938 and published in 1947 after rounds of minor revisions that extended into 1944. Claudel narrates Joan of Arc's last minutes of life with flashbacks to her trial and younger days. His poème of eleven scenes and a prologue is the work's backbone, with key scenes spoken, but the music, particularly the choral writing, is generally considered its strength, despite Honegger's avowal that he had merely put his services “at the disposal of” the poet. Claudel's frame gave Honegger a space between Heaven and Earth, past and present, for mixing styles and using musical tools — monody, harmony and counterpoint — to build sculpted blocks of sound. One detail of his score is its part for ondes martenot, an early electronic instrument played at the premiere by its inventor Maurice Martenot. The mystère lyrique lasts about 75 minutes.