12 Songs (DUPARC HENRI)

SKU: ST.C389

ISBN 9790570813896.

An Album of Twenty French Songs arranged for Bassoon and Piano by Martin Gatt

Fauréâ??s poignant love song Après un rêve exists in many different transcriptions for various instruments (the most famous version perhaps being the one for cello and piano that Pablo Casals made in 1910), and provides the initial inspiration for this album of French songs transcribed for bassoon and piano. The bassoon is capable of a broad range of timbres and expression, and it is the lyrical, vocal quality of the instrument that Martin Gatt has always been attracted to. In both his performance and teaching, his emphasis is on the importance of what he calls â??vocalisingâ?? through the bassoon, and for him, music for the voice â?? especially art songs of the 19th and 20th centuries â?? has been a rich source of material for exploring the expressive tonal colours of the bassoon.

The treasure trove of French art song from composers ranging from Claude Arrieu to Louis Vierne, not to mention the greats like Berlioz or Debussy or Ravel, has made the task of choosing which songs to include in this album a difficult one. In the end, Martin has settled on eight composers who have produced some of the most appealing music in the genre â?? Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921), Georges Bizet (1838-1875), Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894), Jules Massenet (1842-1912), Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), Henri Duparc (1848-1933), Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944), and Francis Poulenc (1899-1963). Rather than grouping by composer, the songs are set out in a way that contrasts different emotional worlds and sentiments, from the vibrant exuberance of Chabrierâ??s Lâ??île heureuse to the gentle melancholy of Poulencâ??s Mais mourir. These â??songs without wordsâ? for the bassoon, clearly demonstrate the instrumentâ??s cantabile qualities, varied nuances, and wide-ranging emotional possibilities.

SKU: HL.50566027

ISBN 9790044095377. UPC: 196288159414. 9.0x12.0x0.581 inches.

This edition belongs to “Musique vocale française”, a series devoted to French vocal repertoire – both in original and transposed key – designed for students and teachers as well as professionals; it includes 35 songs for medium-low voice, with original poems and English translations, that Camille Saint-Saëns composed throughout his entire career. The texts he chose for his music are proofof his excellent literary taste. It is not always easy to see a clear logic when looking at the entire corpus of the composer's melodies, coming to a total of around one-hundred and twenty works. Camille Saint-Saëns was one of the composers responsible for bringing nobility to French melody, thus paving the way for the generation, that of Gabriel Fauré and Henri Duparc, which would elevate it to its highest level.

SKU: CA.925100

ISBN M-007-24913-7. Key: E flat major. Language: French. Text: Lahor, Jean.

The few works which Henri Duparc composed and left to posterity display a deep preoccupation with grief and pain, coupled with a great fear of loneliness. His Chanson triste (Sad Song), composed in 1868 or 1869, was one such work. Duparc treasured it so much that he made an orchestral version of it in 1912. He set texts by contemporary French poets such as Charles Baudelaire, Sully Prudhomme, and Henri Cazalis, who wrote under the pseudonym Jean Lahor. Denis Rouger, founder and director of the figure humaine chamber choir, has arranged art songs for solo voice and piano for his ensemble, in the process carefully adapting these to the needs and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble. Music edition for the successful CD Kennst du das Land... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.928200

ISBN 9790007300869. Key: C minor / c major. French. Text: Baudelaire, Charles.

Sounds, colors and scents can conjure up places of longing. During the Romantic period, the desire to travel and see other places was seen as an expression of some inner state of mind. In L'invitation au voyage, the boundaries between what is real and imaginary seem to dissolve in the lyrical perception of a journey to the inner self: There we find nothing but order and beauty, splendor, peace, and delight”. This is unattainable perfection as a place of longing, where we are freed from all earthly cares. A never-ending sixteenth-note figure in the piano accompaniment flickers like a shimmering veil over these words, which in their poetry seem to remove us far from our earthly existence. “The world falls asleep in a warm light!

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. 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 songs demand from a soloist and pianist.

The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD ... wo die Zitronen blühn (Carus 83.514).