L’Horloge de Flore (Flora’s Clock)

A true inheritor of the Parisian tradition as represented by the “Groupe des Six” and like-minded contemporaries, Jean Françaix generally avoided writing music that was too serious, too long or too complicated. He liked well defined tunes, attractive rhythms and clarity in both texture and construction. L’Horloge de Flore, one of the most picturesque of his many scores, was written in 1959 for John de Lancy, the American oboist who had commissioned Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto fourteen years earlier. If it is not in the same league as the Strauss Concerto for sheer quality, its material is characteristically entertaining and its source of inspiration possibly unique.

L’Horloge de Flore, or “Flora’s Clock” was the name given by the great Swedish botanist Linnaeus to his listing of flowers according to the hour of the day or night at which each one blooms. It is an intriguing concept, although exactly what appealed to the composer in each case - the flower itself, its poetic French name or just the hour associated with it - is not always clear. For Françaix there was probably no more difference than there is for most of us between 3 am and 5 am but there clearly was a distinction for him between the gently melodious Galant du jour and the sprightly Cupidon bleu, even though the latter does have its lyrical side too. There is a similar contrast between the Cierge à grandes fleurs at 10 am, reflected in a shapely line drawn by the oboe over rustling strings, and the Nyctanthe du Malabar at midday, which inspires playfully exotic rhythms in both the solo oboe and the clarinet.

To judge by the sultry colouring on clarinet and strings and the somewhat lethargic melody of the oboe itself, the Belle de nuit appreciates a warm evening. Two hours later the air is so fresh that the Géranium triste is not in the least sad and, indeed, is almost as cheerful as the Silène noctiflore which, two hours later again, is positively mischievous and even, in its cheeky Poulenc harmonies, just a little vulgar.