' (''Madagascan Songs'') is a set of three exotic
art song
An art song is a Western vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment, and usually in the classical art music tradition. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the collective genre of such songs ...
s by
Maurice Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
written in
1925
Events January
* January 1
** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria.
* January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Italia ...
and
1926
Events January
* January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece.
* January 8
**Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz.
** Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne, the last monarch of V ...
to words from the poetry collection of the same name by
Évariste de Parny
Évariste Desiré de Forges, vicomte de Parny (6 February 17535 December 1814) was a French poet.
Biography
De Parny was born in Saint-Paul, Réunion, Saint-Paul on the Isle of Bourbon (now Réunion); he came from an aristocratic family from th ...
.
Structure
Scored for
mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...
or
baritone
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...
,
flute
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
,
cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...
and
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
, and dedicated to the American musician and philanthropist
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge aka Liz Coolidge (30 October 1864 – 4 November 1953), born Elizabeth Penn Sprague, was an American pianist and patron of music, especially of chamber music.
Biography
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge's father was a we ...
,
the set is usually performed complete as a true
song cycle
A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online''
The songs are either for solo voice ...
although this was not the composer's designation. The songs are:
*"Nahandove" (incipit: "Nahandove, ô belle Nahandove")
*"Aoua!" (incipit: "Aoua! méfiez-vous des blancs"
w! Beware of white people
*"Il est doux" (incipit: "Il est doux de se coucher durant la chaleur"
t is sweet to lie down during the heat
T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is der ...
Premiere and recordings
Jane Bathori
Jane Bathori (14 June 1877 – 25 January 1970) was a French mezzo-soprano. She was famous on the operatic stage and important in the development of contemporary French music.
Life and career
Born Jeanne-Marie Berthier, she originally studie ...
sang the premiere on 8 May 1926, in Rome, accompanied by flutist
Louis Fleury
Louis Fleury (24 May 1878 – 10 June 1926) was a French flautist, pupil of Paul Taffanel at the Paris Conservatoire. Claude Debussy dedicated the piece for solo flute Syrinx (Debussy), Syrinx to him in 1913, and Fleury performed the première ...
, cellist Hans Kindler, and pianist
Alfredo Casella
Alfredo Casella (25 July 18835 March 1947) was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor.
Life and career
Casella was born in Turin, the son of Maria (née Bordino) and Carlo Casella. His family included many musicians: his grandfather, a f ...
.
The first edition print was made by Luc-Albert Moreau. The first known record was that by
Madeleine Grey
Madeleine Grey (11 June 1896 – 13 March 1979) was a French classical singer whose voice is usually described as soprano but which also encompassed a mezzo-soprano repertoire.
Early life
Madeleine Grey (née Madeleine Nathalie Grumberg) was bo ...
, a highly regarded singer, in 1932. More recent recordings include:
*
Janet Baker
Dame Janet Abbott Baker (born 21 August 1933) is an English mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer.Blyth, Alan, "Baker, Dame Janet (Abbott)" in Sadie, Stanley, ed.; John Tyrell; exec. ed. (2001). ''New Grove Dictionar ...
(mezzo-soprano),
Richard Adeney
Richard Gilford Adeney (25 January 1920 – 16 December 2010) was a British flautist who played principal flute with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra, was a soloist and a founding member of the Melos Ensemble. ...
(flute),
Terence Weil
Terence Weil (9 December 1921 in London – 25 February 1995 in Figueras) was a British cellist, principal cellist of the English Chamber Orchestra, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading chamber musician and an influential teache ...
(cello),
Lamar Crowson
John Lamar Crowson (May 27, 1926 – August 25, 1998) was an American concert pianist and a chamber musician.'' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (2009)
Crowson was born in Tampa, Florida. His early education was in Portland, Oregon, wit ...
(piano) – L'Oiseau-Lyre SOL 298 – released 1967
*
Felicity Palmer
Dame Felicity Joan Palmer, (born 6 April 1944), is an English mezzo-soprano and music professor. She sang soprano roles until 1983.
Palmer was born in Cheltenham and educated at Erith Grammar School, now named Erith School. She studied at the ...
(soprano), Judith Pearse (flute), Christopher van Kampen (cello), Clifford Benson (piano) – Argo ZRG 834 – recorded May 24–25 and July 9, 1975, in
St John's, Smith Square
St John's Smith Square is a redundant church in the centre of Smith Square, Westminster, London. Sold to a charitable trust as a ruin following firebombing in the Second World War, it was restored as a concert hall.
This Grade I listed churc ...
*
Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade OAL (born June 1, 1945) is a semi-retired American opera singer. Since her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1970, she has performed in operas, musicals, concerts and recitals in venues throughout the world, including La Scala, th ...
(mezzo-soprano),
Doriot Anthony Dwyer
Doriot Anthony Dwyer (; March 6, 1922 – March 14, 2020) was an American flutist. She was one of the first women to be awarded principal chair for a major U.S. orchestra (following hornist Helen Kotas, who was appointed principal horn of the C ...
(flute), Jules Eskind (cello),
Martin Katz (piano) – CBS Masterworks
36665 – recorded November 10, 1979, in
CBS 30th Street Studio CBS 30th Street Studio, also known as Columbia 30th Street Studio, and nicknamed "The Church", was an American recording studio operated by Columbia Records from 1948 to 1981 located at 207 East 30th Street, between Second and Third Avenues in Manha ...
*
Nora Gubisch
Nora Gubisch (born Paris, 1971) is a French operatic mezzo-soprano. ...
(mezzo-soprano), (flute),
Jérôme Pernoo
Jérôme Pernoo (born 1972) is a French contemporary cellist.
Biography
Jérôme Pernoo learned to play the cello with Germaine Fleury then Xavier Gagnepain. After his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris with Philippe Muller, he obtained t ...
(cello),
Alain Altinoglu
Alain Altinoglu (born 9 October 1975) is a French conductor of Armenian descent.
Biography
Born in Paris, into an Armenian family who were originally from Istanbul, Altinoglu studied music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et ...
(piano) –
Naïve Records
Naïve Records is a French independent record label based in Paris, specializing in electronic music, pop music, jazz and classical music.
Founding and expansion
It was founded in 1998 by Patrick Zelnik, former CEO of Virgin France, Gilles Paire ...
V5304 – recorded June 2011 in the
See also
In 2011, the British composer
James Francis Brown
James Francis Brown (born 7 December 1969) is an English composer. He studied composition with the Viennese émigré Hans Heimler (a pupil of Alban Berg) and then at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
Career
Francis Brown's significant ch ...
wrote a work in three movements for the same instrumentation called ''Songs of Nature and Farewell'', which is a setting of three little-known poems by the French composer
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...
. In 2015 the British composer
Judith Weir
Judith Weir (born 11 May 1954) is a British composer serving as Master of the King's Music. Appointed in 2014 by Queen Elizabeth II, Weir is the first woman to hold this office.
Biography
Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish parent ...
wrote a work in three movements for the same instrumentation called ''Nuits d'Afrique''; it was commissioned by
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadin ...
for the soprano
Ailish Tynan
Ailish Tynan (born 1975) is an Irish operatic soprano. She was born in Mullingar, Ireland.
Career
Tynan trained at Trinity College Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. In 2000, ...
.
''Nuits d'Afrique''
published by Chester Music
Wise Music Group is a global music publisher, with headquarters in Berners Street, London. In February 2020, Wise Music Group changed its name from The Music Sales Group.
In 2014 Wise Music Group (as The Music Sales Group) acquired French cla ...
(2015) Both works are intended as a companion to Ravel's ''Chansons madécasses''.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chansons Madecasses
Song cycles by Maurice Ravel
1926 compositions
1926 songs
Art songs
Music with dedications