This is one of two duets that Leguerney wrote for Geneviève Touraine and her brother, the famousFrench baritone Gérard Souzay. It was completed on 21 January 1950. The first performance, withSouzay and Touraine, was 21 June 1950 in the Parisian Salle Gaveau with Jacqueline Robin (Bonneau)at the piano.Previously unpublished, De l´abîme profond, was first recorded by soprano Danielle Borst and baritonePhilippe Huttenlocher with Mary Dibbern at the piano.
This was for the CD 50-9618, 28 Mélodiesissued by Claves Records-Radio Suisse Romande: Espace 2 in 1996. The recording was recognizedwith the Grand Prix du Disque de l´Académie Charles Cros. The US premiere performance was bysoprano Jill Pearon and baritone David Pittman-Jennings, accompanied by Mary Dibbern, during arecital at the Crane School of Music, SUNY-Potsdam, New York, 23 October 2007.
The vocal range for the soprano line is C1-G#2 and for the baritone line is B-F1.
The text´s poet, Jean de La Céppède (1550-1622), was born in Marseille and spent most of his lifeworking as a lawyer and magistrate in Aix-en-Provence. His principal work, Théorèmes, consists of515 sonnets dealing with the life of Jesus Christ and the "sacred mysteries of our redemption." LaCéppède´s poem is a translation of a psalm by David from the Old Testament of the Bible. Leguerneyalso set a psalm of David for medium voice and chamber orchestra, which was premiered by GérardSouzay in 1954. This orchestral Psaume LXII de David is also published by Musik Fabrik.
The French author Jean Roy, reviewing this duet in Le Monde de la Musique (January, 1997), wrote:"There is a grandeur and a dramatic sentiment that surpasses [a] work that one might dismiss as minor.
"For a detailed discussion of the music and both a word-by-word English translation and InternationalPhonetic Alphabet transcription of the French text, see The Songs of Jacques Leguerney: A Guide forStudy and Performance by Mary Dibbern, Carol Kimball and Patrick Choukroun. Series VOXMUSICAE: The Voice, Vocal Pedagogy, and Song. General Editor : Kathleen L. Wilson. New York:Pendragon Press, 2001.