SSATB Choir, Piano

SKU: CA.927600

Composed by Gabriel Faure. Arranged by Denis Rouger. Carus digital: Extra digital products. Full Score. Op. 6,2. Duration 3 minutes. Published by Carus Verlag (CA.927600).

ISBN 9790007296117. French. Text: Gautier, Theophile.

A prevailing melancholy mood is characteristic of Theophile Gautier's (1811-1872) poetry; a melancholy mood which inspired composers such as Hector Berlioz and Gabriel Faure to compose settings. Tristesse (Sadness) is taken from the 1838 collection La Comedie de la Mort (The Comedy of Death). With over 50 poems this is regarded as Gautier's major Romantic work. Although the narrator in the poem is conscious of the joy and zest for life of spring coming into bloom around him, he cannot share this: Helas! j'ai dans le coeur une tristesse affreuse. (Alas, in my heart I bear a terrible grief.). Faure's setting portrays this effect less as a dramatic sigh than a melancholic unworldliness with peaceful piano accompaniment in the minor key. This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist.The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD ... Wo die Zitronen bluhn (Carus 83.514).

SSATB Choir, Piano

SKU: CA.926400

Composed by Camille Saint-Saens. Arranged by Denis Rouger, Denis Rouger. Carus digital: Extra digital products. Full Score. Composed 1862. Op. 13, No. 1. Duration 5 minutes. Published by Carus Verlag (CA.926400).

ISBN 9790007261870. French. Text: Victor Hugo.

In his poem Soiree en mer, Victor Hugo describes how the sea can be perceived very differently by two lovers at the same time in the same place. While the man perceives the deepening shadows on the dancing waves, the woman marvels at the stars shining ever brighter in the firmament. In nature, as in the words of the poem, the painful ambiguity that represents life at its core can be experienced. Like no other poet, Hugo captures this almost unbearable simultaneity of living and dying, of love and suffering. Saint-Saens translates this into music - probably the most ephemeral and contemporary of all art forms. His balanced musical form leaves plenty of room for the poetry and his subtle variations in timbre, which also inspired Denis Rouger to his choral arrangement, create a seething motion under the surface of the sea.

This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD ...wo die Ztronen bluhn (Carus 83.514).