The "Chanson perpétuelle", Op. 37 is a

mélodie A ''mélodie'' () is a form of French art song, arising in the mid-19th century. It is comparable to the German '' Lied''. A ''chanson'', by contrast, is a folk or popular French song. The literal meaning of the word in the French language is " ...

Ernest Chausson Amédée-Ernest Chausson (; 20 January 1855 – 10 June 1899) was a French Romantic composer. Life Born in Paris into an affluent bourgeois family, Chausson was the sole surviving child of a building contractor who made his fortune assisting Ba ...

, written in December

1898 Events January * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queen ...

. It is one of the major

vocal The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

l works of Chausson, along with the ''

Poème de l'amour et de la mer The ''Poème de l'amour et de la mer'' (literally, ''Poem of Love and the Sea''), Op. 19, is a song cycle for voice and orchestra by Ernest Chausson. It was composed over an extended period between 1882 and 1892 and dedicated to Henri Duparc. ...

''. Besides the better-known version for

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

and orchestra, Chausson also wrote a version for soprano,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

and

string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

. The text comes from a poem by Charles Cros, describing the suffering of an abandoned woman. It is the last completed work by Chausson, as he left his

String Quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

, Op. 35, unfinished. The work was dedicated to the singer Jeanne Raunay, who gave the premiere on January 28 or 29, 1899. Half a year later, Chausson himself died in an accident. The score was not published until 1911. A performance of the ''Chanson'' lasts about six or seven minutes.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chanson perpetuelle Compositions by Ernest Chausson 1898 compositions Mélodies Music based on poems Songs with instrumental ensemble Orchestral songs