''Phidylé'' 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 " ...

by the French composer Henri Duparc, dedicated to his friend

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 ...

. It is a setting of a poem with the same title from ''Poèmes et poésies'' (1858) by the French Parnassian poet

Leconte de Lisle Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle (; 22 October 1818 – 17 July 1894) was a French poet of the Parnassian movement. He is traditionally known by his surname only, Leconte de Lisle. Biography Leconte de Lisle was born on the French overseas i ...

. Duparc first completed a setting for high male voice and piano (1882), and then orchestrated it (1891-1892). The music, which shows the influence of

Wagnerian Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most ...

voice leading and

chromaticism Chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic scale, diatonic pitch (music), pitches and chord (music), chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. In simple terms, within each octave, diatonic music uses o ...

, progressively rises from languid tranquillity to the singer's triumphant climax, accompanied by heavy chords and

tremolos In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are multiple types of tremolo: a rapid repetition of a note, an alternation between two different notes, or a variation in volume. Tremolos may be either ''measured'' ...

in the piano, before a solo postlude for the piano which gradually dies to a pianissimo finish. It has been suggested that ''Phidylé'' was inspired by

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. ...

's 1870 mélodie ''Lydia'', also a setting of a poem by Leconte de Lisle.

External links

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phidyle Compositions by Henri Duparc 1882 compositions Mélodies Music based on poems