Darius Milhaud - Chansons de Ronsard for Voice & Orchestra, Op. 223 (1941) | Текст песни

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Darius Milhaud - Chansons de Ronsard for Voice & Orchestra, Op. 223 (1941)

The verse of Pierre de Ronsard (1524 - 1585) has proven attractive to composers over numerous centuries, from Janequin and Lassus to Wagner, Bizet, and Honegger. The most popular texts to set have come from the \"Odes\" (1550 - 1552); some of these settings have been almost as well known and loved in France as indigenous folk songs. The Chansons de Ronsard (4) were the second group of verse by the poet that Milhaud set: in 1934, he had composed Les Amours de Ronsard for chorus or vocal quartet and small orchestra. Unlike the earlier settings, the Chansons de Ronsard (4) were composed for coloratura soprano and chamber orchestra (or piano reduction). In this case, the soprano was none other than Milhaud's fellow French emigrée, coloratura absoluta Lily Pons. The chansons were written in Oakland in 1941, in the year after Milhaud escaped his Nazi-occupied French homeland and became visiting professor of music at Mills College. It was also ten years after Pons' triumphant debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The dedicatee, Pons, gave the premiere of these pieces on December 8 of the same year in the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in the same city. The gracious poetry -- celebrating love, nature, and springtime -- and the bright, quite tonal music give no indication of the horrors in the composer's native land. Nor do they reflect his personal grief and anxiety for his family, friends, and country. Indeed, as most of the music from this period, the Chansons (4) show Milhaud's ability to compose just about anything in practically any circumstance. \"À une fontaine\" (to a fountain), the first number, is a graceful French waltz reflecting the embrace by the member of Les Six of the more popular styles advocated by Satie. Although the coloratura writing isn't demanding in this setting, it ends on a fairly long, sustained a4. In \"À cupidon\" (to Cupid), Ronsard protests that the love god's arrows couldn't have been meant for him and begs him to choose someone else. The moderate-tempo ballad contains some particularly delightful orchestral sonorities. In the third number, \"Tais-toi, babillarde arondelle\" (be quiet, babbling swallow), after allowing the swallow to sing most every other time, the poet asks it not to wake him in the morning, particularly when he has his Cassandra sleeping in his arms. In the high tessitura and florid passagework of this song, the singer imitates the bird. \"Dieu vous gar'\" (God look after you), the last number, is a paen to spring and nature, naming all the birds, plants, and insects beloved of the poet.

Description by Neil Cardew-Fanning

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