Bitter Ending
Encyclopedia
Bitter Ending, is a recording of a work for eight voices composed by Andre Hodeir
as commissioned by Ward Swingle
. The work is performed by the Swingle Singers
with a jazz quintet. This was the last work by Hodeir and is inspired by James Joyce
's Finnegans Wake
The Swingle Singers:
André Hodeir
André Hodeir was a French violinist, composer, arranger and musicologist.-Biography:André Hodeir was born in Paris. His initial training was as a classical violinist and composer. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he took Olivier Messiaen's analysis class, and won first prizes in...
as commissioned by Ward Swingle
Ward Swingle
Ward Swingle is an American vocalist and jazz musician.Swingle was born in Mobile, Alabama. He studied music, particularly jazz, from a very young age. He was playing in Mobile-area Big Bands before finishing high school. After high school, Swingle graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Cincinnati...
. The work is performed by the Swingle Singers
The Swingle Singers
The Swingle Singers are a mostly a cappella vocal group formed in 1962 in Paris, France by Ward Swingle with Anne Germain, Jeanette Baucomont, Jean Cussac and others. Christiane Legrand, the sister of composer Michel Legrand, was the group's lead soprano through 1972. Until 2011 the group...
with a jazz quintet. This was the last work by Hodeir and is inspired by James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's Finnegans Wake
Finnegans Wake
Finnegans Wake is a novel by Irish author James Joyce, significant for its experimental style and resulting reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language. Written in Paris over a period of seventeen years, and published in 1939, two years before the author's...
Personnel
- Roger GuérinRoger GuérinRoger Guérin was a French jazz trumpeter and singer.Initially a violinist, Guérin studied trumpet and cornet at the Paris Conservatory and won a first prize there as a teenager....
– trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air... - Pierre Gossez – saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
- Jean-Louis Chautemps – saxophone
- Jacques (Jacky) Cavallero – double bassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
- Marcel Sabiani – drums
The Swingle Singers:
- Christiane LegrandChristiane LegrandChristiane Legrand was a French singer.Legrand was born in Paris, the daughter of film composer Raymond Legrand, who wrote "Irma la Douce."She studied piano and classical music from the time she was four...
– soprano - Nicole Darde – soprano
- Hélène Devos – alto
- Claudine Meunier – alto
- Ward SwingleWard SwingleWard Swingle is an American vocalist and jazz musician.Swingle was born in Mobile, Alabama. He studied music, particularly jazz, from a very young age. He was playing in Mobile-area Big Bands before finishing high school. After high school, Swingle graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Cincinnati...
– tenor, arranger - Joseph Noves – tenor
- Jean Cussac – bass
- José Germain – bass