Stlukesguild

French Mélodies Part 1

In our repeated debates as to which nation or culture has produced the greatest body of literature (or any sub-genre such as poetry or novels) our attempts to come to any sort of consensus have ultimately been thwarted by our limitations of language and the realization that we must almost certainly rely upon translations... some of which are unreliable... some of which are lacking in aesthetic merits... and some of which are non-existent. Music... however... would seem to be a different beast altogether. There is almost no way to dispute the fact that the Germans/Austrians literally own music. No other culture (at least in the West) even comes near. We could eliminate the three immortals of music (Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart) and we should still be presented with an entire slew of the most highly regarded composers: Wagner... Brahms... Handel... Haydn... Schubert... Schumann... Mahler, Richard Strauss...etc...

Over the past year I have been greatly broadening my collection of classical music... especially within areas and genres that I felt may just have possibly been underrepresented. As such, I have made a concerted effort to explore British and American composers, Modern and Contemporary composers, Russian opera, and Medieval music. At present I am experiencing something of a love affair with French music, and as a long-time lover of vocal music I have been especially seduced by the French Mélodie.

The Mélodie generally refers to French art songs of the mid 19th century to the present, and is something of an equivalent to the German Lied. Like the German Lied, the Mélodie was commonly composed for voice and solo piano, allowing for intimate performance in private homes and salons. As with later examples of the German Lied (one thinks immediately of Mahler and Richard Strauss) there are instances in which these Mélodies were composed with various other accompaniments: flute, violin, harp, small chamber ensembles, or with entire orchestral settings.

Just as the German Lied flourished during a period in which German lyrical poetry was also blossoming (Goethe, Schiller, Novalis, Heine, Hölderlin, etc...) so the French composers of song also greatly benefited by the wealth of beautiful, lyrical poetry being written in French in the late 19th and early 20th century. Composers could not help but be inspired by the poetry of Baudelaire, Gautier, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarme, Sully Prudhomme, Pierre Louÿs, and others. Indeed, the delicious merger of exquisite music and resplendent poetry cannot help but tantalize the lover of literature and song. "Where are some examples of song lyrics that stand alone as poetry?" another thread asks. Here. Here! Here is poetry in word and song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNs8H60vQTM

S'il est vrai, Chloris, que tu m'aimes,
Mais j'entends, que tu m'aimes bien,
Je ne crois point que les rois mêmes
Aient un bonheur pareil au mien.
Que la mort serait importune
De venir changer ma fortune
A la félicité des cieux!
Tout ce qu'on dit de l'ambroisie
Ne touche point ma fantaisie
Au prix des grâces de tes yeux.

Théophile de Viau (1590-1626)

French Mélodies have been embraced by a broad range of the finest singers active today. One of the most unique must surely be Philippe Jaroussky. One of the most delightfully decadent recordings I have come across recently is his Opium: Mélodies françaises...



This disc presents performances of songs by Reynaldo Hahn, Jules Massenet, Gabriel Faure, Ernest Chausson, Camille Saint-Saëns, Cesar Franck, etc... the greatest composers of France of the fin de siecle. These songs represent a rare and heady bouquet... perfumed and laden with the silk and satin and velvet of the French salons. The lyrics are commonly drawn from the delicate poems of French symbolism: Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Mallarme, etc... while the music speaks of the sophisticated and artificial world of the French ballet... the theater... the opera... and of the sun-dappled world of Impressionism.

Jaroussky takes these songs to an even greater height of decadence with his high falsetto. Along with Andreas Scholl, Alfred Deller, and Rene Jacobs, Jaroussky is one of a recent number of highly talented countertenors who are taking their vocal range into an oeuvre previously reserved to sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, and tenors... or even baritones. The artificially high male voice almost immediately recalls the use of castrati and/or young male choir-boy vocalists in the operas and other vocal works of the baroque age (from which period the poem in the above song comes). Jaroussky brings a sense of the extreme artifice of Rameau, Lully, Couperin, and French Baroque to the 19th century Parisian salons. While I would not be without the performances of such mezzos and sopranos as Cecilia Bartoli, Janet Baker, Sandrine Piau, Veronique Gens, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Dawn Upshaw in the performance of these works, Jaroussky admittedly brings an added edge of decadence... artifice... and debaucheries to this delicate French bon-bons.

Another gorgeous song from this disc is Jules Massenet's Elégie. Massenet has himself been long underrated among music critics... in spite of the fact that he is one of the most exquisite masters of melody, and has been credited by many with the revival of the French language in song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9X3H6mZcDY

Rêve d'un bonheur effacé,
Mon coeur lassé t'appelle en vain dans la nuit
Tendres serments échangés,
Soirs enivrés, vous reposez dans l'oubli...
C'est la fin des beaux jours, ô souvenir de nos brèves amours !
La nuit descend lentement sur nos coeurs
L'automne effeuille les fleurs,
La paix du soir vient adoucir nos douleurs
Tout nous trahit, tout nous fuit sans retour
Tout nous trahit sans retour ........

Pierre Louÿs (1870 - 1925)