Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été - "From Nothing, to Something" Summer 2026 Composition Competition Submission

Attached is my submission to the "From Nothing, to Something" Summer 2026 Composition Competition Submission. I decided to set Verlaine's original French poem for two vocalists (solo soprano and solo tenor). To fit the French vibes, I rounded out the ensemble with a trio of flute, viola, and harp.

The French sound I continued into parts of the harmony, opening with chords mostly made out of whole tone scales. As for form, the tenor takes the firs stanza, the soprano second with a mixed around order of phrases, and then they sing primarily together for the final stanza. I was composing this with professional players in mind, so the parts are of a higher difficulty level.

Program Note:

This setting, originally created for the Young Composers Forum "From Nothing, to Something" Summer 2026 Composition Competition, casts a different light on Paul Verlaine’s summer love poem, Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été. With the challenge being to capture the sensation of summer, I hoped to focus in on liminal moments throughout the season. The two vocalists, being the depicted couple in Verlaine's poem, first sing individually to each other, telling of the fleeting beauty and pleasure found in a summer love. Finally the two join together in harmony, as the stars look down gently on husband and wife.

Devor - Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été_FINAL.pdf

This sounds like a beautiful and atmospheric composition. The combination of soprano, tenor, flute, viola, and harp should create a delicate, summer-like sound. It would be a lovely piece to discover through a music app or playlist.

Hello @JDevorMusic,

thank you for sharing such an incredible piece of music, and by the way – a hearty welcome at the forum.

Interestingly, the very first submission to the competition, and the last one – so far – have the same instrumentation, a flute, a viola and a harp (while you’ve added two vocals).

Melodies Themes Motives and Harmony Chords Textures:

There is a memorable motif that recurs throughout the piece and is first introduced by the flute in measures 4–5. The sung poem features relatively long note values or coloraturas for the faster notes, so that the vocal parts are somewhat reminiscent of Renaissance singing.

The accompaniment contrasts that with its – one the one hand „percussive“ arpeggiated chords – and, in other passages with energetic ostinatos (on the harp or viola), so that the piece unfolds a varied texture.

As a piece in „contemporary style“, or to be said „atonal“, it is difficult to speak about „harmonies“ in the traditional sense. However, there are some chords which could be perceived as „pentatonic“.

Form Development Structure Time:

The piece has no „traditional“ form (such as sonata or rondo form), but is clearly structured due to the realization of the poem as a modern „aria“ (or better duet), with passages of increasing tension and „rests“, calming down between the stanzas. And finally, you were thoroughly enough to meet the requirements of the competition by finishing the piece exactly at the 7:00 minute limit.

Originality Creativity:

This piece is absolutely unique among all the submissions, obviously for its atonality, but also because of its detailed and meticulous craftsmanship.

Score Presentation:

The score presentation is absolute professional, starting with the title page, preface (including instrumentation, program notes etc.) and is full of information.

So I didn’t look around to find some nitpicks but was rather impressed by the vast majority of details, including markups on articulation, playing instructions, harp pedals, breakdown of compound meter signatures etc.

Instrumentation Orchestration Playability:

The instrumentation works well, the three instruments from different families blend together and complement each other in their timbre, as well with the vocals.

As for playability, you yourself mentioned the the difficult level, which would be suitable for professionals only. And I'm sure you've checked all the passages for “unplayable” notes or chords.

Execution of Given Challenge:

Your piece represents a very thorough realization of the task of the contest: To take Paul Verlaine’s poem and create „Something“ in music. The question remains, whether the dissonant character of this contemporary piece will evoke associations with summer, beauty, and love in the majority of listeners.

Taste:

That might be the problematic part. For me, it's a fascinating piece when I can really focus on it (maybe during a live performance). But I don't think it works as well if you're just listening to it in the background.

Average Score: 8.5

Great work nothing to really criticize just some curiosities though since you definitely milk the hell out of almost every instrument in that piece with experimental extended techniques, I’m a strings player so I understand more information about the viola stuff and some information about the flute stuff. I’ll definitely be studying the harmonics and how flute harmonics work. (wood wind harmonics are a big part of my next upcoming composition for large Orchestra. “morse”). Anyways, the textures are amazing in the harmony, though is dissonant works extremely well with that dreamy quality of the whole tone scale.

Time for interrogation in my assumptions

again, this is more about curiosity as that these techniques are not thoroughly explained either in the actual score or in performance notes

1. Xyl. -harp- i’m assuming this is a xylophone sounding technique though I don’t know how exactly is it to be reproduced I’m assuming that you kind of just strike the fingers against the strings

2. bamboo tone flute- this is pretty self-explanatory as in the idea that they’re trying to achieve a sound similar to a bamboo flute, but how could it be reproduced?

3. how is a jet whistle produced I’m assuming that you make a jet of air near the opening mouthpiece of the flute, but harsh enough not to make an actual sound

4. for the flute harmonics there’s two ways I could feel about them that first they are usually used as a method to extend the range so they are played as a normal actual technique used in producing a “normal” sound , are the flute harmonic similar to artificial harmonics on string instruments?

average 9.26. I also have watched part of your live stream about the composition process so that was nice only though five minutes of some parts. I don’t know if you explained the techniques there so I may have to look back.

Anyways, other than the lower score for originality due to the convergent factor of all the pieces of this competition almost having the same aesthetic it was a very nice piece and it was amazing. Great job and I hope you join more competitions in the future.