''Une saison en enfer'' (English: A Season in Hell) is
Léo Ferré's last studio album. It sets into music the whole
eponymous poem written in 1873 by French poet
Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he start ...
. The album was released in 1991 by
EPM Musique
EPM Musique is a French record label that was created in 1986 by François Dacla, former president of RCA France. The label specializes in Chanson and its legacy. It is also dedicated to poetry, theater, and children's music.
"EPM is a French la ...
(982 181), for the 100th anniversary of Rimbaud's death, both as double LP and CD. It was reissued in 2000 by Ferré's son's label La Mémoire et la Mer, under a new cover.
Unlike his previous musical works on poets such as
Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent.
Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of th ...
(1954),
Baudelaire (
1957
1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...
,
1967
Events
January
* January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair.
* January 5
** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...
,
1977
Events January
* January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
* January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...
, 1987),
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He ...
(1961), or
Verlaine and Rimbaud (1964), Ferré chose here bareness in the arrangements (piano, whistling, claps of hands, and nothing more but the voice declaiming, whispering or chanting) to provide the illusion of a half-improvised music and keep the poem's "original spouting strength", and most of all express his own conception of oral poetry by letting himself being only guided by musicality of rimbadian prose itself.
Being connected with Rimbaud's poetic themes, Ferré gives an interpretation which "lightens" the meanings of the text.
[Céline Chabot-Canet, ''Op. cit.'', p. 163.]
Track listing
Text : Arthur Rimbaud. Music, piano, whistling, clapping & singing : Léo Ferré.
External links
Album listening & presentation(French)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saison en enfer (album)
Léo Ferré albums
French-language albums
1991 albums
Musical settings of poems by Arthur Rimbaud