Jump to content

Chansons madécasses

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chansons madécasses
Song cycle by Maurice Ravel
The composer, c. 1925
EnglishMadagascan Songs
Textpoems Chansons madécasses by Évariste de Parny
LanguageFrench
DedicationElizabeth Sprague Coolidge
Performed8 May 1926 (1926-05-08)
Movementsthree
Scoring

Chansons madécasses (Madagascan Songs) is a set of three exotic art songs by Maurice Ravel written in 1925 and 1926 to words from the poetry collection of the same name by Évariste de Parny.[1]

Structure

[edit]

Scored for mezzo-soprano or baritone, flute, cello and piano, and dedicated to the American musician and philanthropist Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge,[2] the set is usually performed complete as a true song cycle although this was not the composer's designation. The songs are:

  • "Nahandove" (incipit: "Nahandove, ô belle Nahandove")
  • "Aoua!" (incipit: "Aoua! méfiez-vous des blancs" [Ow! Beware of white people])
  • "Il est doux" (incipit: "Il est doux de se coucher durant la chaleur" [It is sweet to lie down during the heat])

Premiere and recordings

[edit]

Jane Bathori sang the premiere on 8 May 1926, in Rome, accompanied by flutist Louis Fleury, cellist Hans Kindler, and pianist Alfredo Casella.[3] The first edition print was made by Luc-Albert Moreau. The first known record was that by Madeleine Grey, a highly regarded singer, in 1932. Recordings include:

See also

[edit]

In 2011, the British composer James Francis Brown wrote a work in three movements for the same instrumentation called Songs of Nature and Farewell, which is a setting of three little-known poems by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns.[5] In 2015 the British composer Judith Weir wrote a work in three movements for the same instrumentation called Nuits d'Afrique; it was commissioned by Wigmore Hall for the soprano Ailish Tynan.[6] Both works are intended as a companion to Ravel's Chansons madécasses.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Arbie Orenstein (1975). "Ravel's Musical Language". Ravel: Man and Musician. Courier Corporation. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-486-26633-6.
  2. ^ Maurice Ravel; Arbie Orenstein (1 August 2003). "Correspondence". A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews. Courier Corporation. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-486-43078-2.
  3. ^ Deborah Mawer (24 August 2000). The Cambridge Companion to Ravel. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge University Press. pp. 264ff. ISBN 978-0-521-64856-1.
  4. ^ Maurice Ravel: Chansons madécasses / Sites auriculaires / Sonata for Violin and Cello at Discogs (list of releases)
  5. ^ Songs of Nature and Farewell (no date) Available at: http://www.musichaven.co.uk/Songs-of-Nature-and-Farewell.html Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (Accessed: 13 October 2015)
  6. ^ Nuits d'Afrique published by Chester Music (2015)
[edit]