''Le Bal de Béatrice d'Este'' is a seven-movement suite for chamber ensemble by

Reynaldo Hahn Reynaldo Hahn de Echenagucia (9 August 1874 – 28 January 1947) was a Venezuelan-born French composer, conductor, music critic, and singer. He is best known for his songs – ''mélodies'' – of which he wrote more than 100. Hahn was born ...

, first performed in 1905 in Paris.

History

The composer

– born in

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

and long resident in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, though not yet, in 1905, a French national – was devoted to France, and interested in its historical culture. In his ''

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 " ...

s'' he made several settings of words by French poets of medieval and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

times, and sometimes composed in a style evoking their eras.O'Connor, Patric
"Hahn, Reynaldo"
''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2001. Retrieved 29 October 2020 For ''Le Bal de Béatrice d'Este'', however, he turned to Italian history.

Beatrice d'Este Beatrice d'Este (29 June 1475 – 3 January 1497) a noblewoman from Duchy of Ferrara, Ferrara, duchess of Bari and Milan by her marriage to Ludovico Sforza (known as "Ludovico il Moro"). She was known as a woman of culture, an important patron ...

was the wife of the 15th-century

Duke of Milan Milan was ruled by dukes from the 13th century to 1814, after which it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia by the Congress of Vienna. List of dukes of Milan House of Visconti In 1395, Gian Galeazzo Visconti was titled Duke ...

, Ludovico ("Il Moro") Sforza. She presided over a glittering court, which included

Donato Bramante Donato Bramante (1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rom ...

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

and other leading artists. Hahn based his suite on archaic dance measures, to portray a grand ball at the ducal palace.Tchamkerten, Jacques (2015). Notes to Timpani CD 1C1231. The suite is dedicated to

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (, , 9October 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 ...

, with whom Hahn had studied in the 1890s.Depaulis, Jacque
"Un compositeur français sous-estimé: Reynaldo Hahn"
''Fontes Artis Musicae'', October–December 2006, Vol. 53, No. 4, p. 286 The work was first performed privately, at the Paris house of

Madeleine Lemaire Madeleine Lemaire, ''née'' Coll (1845 – 8 April 1928), was a French painter who specialized in elegant genre works and flowers. Robert de Montesquiou said she was ''The Empress of the Roses''. She introduced Marcel Proust and Reynaldo Hahn to ...

on 12 April 1905; the piano part was played by the composer. The public premiere was at a concert at the Théâtre Nouveau given by the Société Moderne pour Instruments à Vent (Modern Society for Wind Instruments) on 21 May 1905. The work attracted more press attention when it featured in a high-society ''soirée musicale'' given by the Princesse de Polignac at her Paris town house in April 1907.

Score

The suite is in seven movements, scored for an instrumental ensemble comprising two flutes, one oboe, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, one trumpet, one piano, two harps, timpani and percussion.Harding, James (1989). Notes to Hyperion CD CDH55167 #Entrée pour Ludovic le More. The opening, grand flourish, in

E-flat major E-flat major is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats. Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E minor, (or enharmonically D minor). The E-fla ...

, introduced by a harp glissando, is a dialogue between a group of four instruments and the rest of the ensemble. #Lesquercade. This movement, mainly in the key of

C-flat major C-flat major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has seven flats. Its relative minor is A-flat minor (or enharmonically G-sharp minor). Its parallel minor, C-flat minor, is u ...

is a variant of a pavan. It is played by the woodwind and first horn, accompanied by arabesques on the harps and piano. #Romanesque. The outer sections feature the solo flute, with a winding melody in

C major C major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and its parallel min ...

. The middle section comprises a series of contrasting modulations. #Iberienne. By contrast with the elegance of the Romanesque the Iberienne is percussive and strongly rhymical. The harps and piano introduce the movement with alternating chords, before the trumpet introduces a

C minor C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature consists of three flats. Its relative major is E major and its parallel major is C major. The C natural minor scale is: Cha ...

theme with an ambiguous beat that blurs two-time and three-time. The central section has a lyrical theme in C major. #Léda et l'oiseau. Subtitled "Intermède Léonardesque", the movement alludes to a celebrated painting of

Leda and the swan Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces Leda, a Spartan queen. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while a ...

, lost since the end of the seventeenth century. Harp arpeggios are followed by an arabesque figure for the winds and then a quiet arioso for solo flute. #Courante. The movement starts with a forthright melody for the concerted winds. The central trio section is a canon for the oboe and horn, echoed by the clarinet and.bassoon. #Salut final au Duc de Milan. The last movement is a shortened repeat of the opening Entrée. An arrangement of the suite for

piano four hands Piano four hands (, , ) is a type of piano duet involving two players playing the same piano simultaneously. A duet with the players playing separate instruments is generally referred to as a ''piano duet, piano duo''.Bellingham, Jane"piano du ...

André Gedalge André Gedalge (27 December 1856 – 5 February 1926) was a French composer and teacher. Biography André Gedalge was born at 75 rue des Saints-Pères in Paris where he first worked as a bookseller and editor, specialising in ''livres de prix' ...

was published ''circa'' 1911.

Recordings

Hahn conducted a recording of the suite with an anonymous Parisian ensemble in 1935, released on 78 rpm discs by the Compagnie Française du Gramophone, and reissued on CD in 1997 and 2004.

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

(November 2020) lists subsequent recordings conducted by Nicolas Chalvin, Jared Chase, Ronald Corp, Jean-Pierre Jacquillat, Janos Komives, Eric Laprade, Jean Maillot, Steven Richman, Timothy Salzman and Jeroen Weierink.WorldCat

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bal de Beatrice d'Este, Le Compositions by Reynaldo Hahn 20th-century classical music 1905 compositions Orchestral suites