Feux follets, from Pièces de Fantaisie op.53

Vierne's Feux follets cannot be qualifed as a very popular piece on CCH : only one upload before then, and it was 9 years ago :-).

Feux follets (Will o' the wisp) are those mysterious lights which appear at night in marshes. They were reputed to attract the unfortunate traveller towards dangerous places were he would get stuck.

Vierne wrote there an, imho, extraordinary scherzo (but it may also be considered as quite an odd piece) whick evokes both the mischievous character of feux follets, but also their malevolent side.

The piece is a kind of a scherzo with two trios :
0:00 scherzo
0:57 first trio
2:00 scherzo
2:47 second trio
3:52 scherzo and coda


The scherzo parts are full of unpredictable sudden flashes of light which appear and disappear suddenly here, and there, and there.... The trios create a worrying atmosphere, ominous, uncomfortable with some undefined menace. And in the coda, everything vanishes after a last pirouette.

To create this unstable and uncomfortable atmosphere, Vierne uses much chromaticism (perhaps not very far from and additional accidental every three notes on average), silences, short quick passagework, registration ( voix humaine for the trios), harmony (many augmented 4ths and 5ths) and also swell box to give a sensation of "nearer" and "further". Everything is used to make the listener feel as uncomfortable as the traveler in the marshes, and than the player too...

Supernatural creatures have often inspired composer for piano (Liszt's Irrichlichter and Gnomenreigen....), for orchestra (Berlioz menuet des Follets in Faust, Mendelssohn's ouverture and scherzo of Midsummer's night dream...), and for organ (Bonnet's Elves, Nevin's Will o' the wisp...).