Francis Poulenc - Deux poèmes de Louis Aragon [With score]

-Composer: Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (7 January 1899 - 30 January 1963)
-Performers: Felicity Lott (Voice), Pascal Rogé (Piano)
Deux poèmes de Louis Aragon for Voice and Piano, FP 122, written in 1943
00:00 - I. C
03:08 - II. Fêtes galantes
I. [...] The bridges of C, sometimes called Ce, are the four "Caesar Bridges" are near Angiers. In 51 B.C.E., the Gauls were defeated there by the Romans. In 1940, the Germans invaded at the same spot, and the French were again defeated.
Louis Aragon, the poet, speaks of the ancient defeat, and the tales of glory that followed. Then he speaks of the present time and the ill-concealed tears for his beloved, abandoned France.
Every line ends with a rhyme to the word "Ce". The vocal line moves syllabically, and the piano part is equally unextravagant. In total, this is one of those heartrending moments in music that achieves its goals through simple means.
II. [...] While Aragon consciously evoked a period of France's past in the "C," here he ironically applies a title Watteau used in painting and Verlaine in poetry. But whereas these two creative artists of earlier times were celebrating grace and beauty, Aragon points out the ugliness -- and the absurdity of the ugliness -- of the period of Occupation. Every line except the last is a miniature portrait of yet another horror, always presented in the same way: "You see [On voit] fops on bicycles, you see pimps in kilts...you see motor cars run on gasogene...you see guttersnipes you see perverts, you see drowned folk...." This entire litany, eerily comic in its piling-on of horrors, rattles out from a music-hall accompaniment as the baritone declaims the text with extreme rapidity. Poulenc applies the tempo marking Incroyablement vite (Unbelievably Fast), with a tempo marking not less than quarter note = 152. Like Shostakovich did so often, Poulenc here confronts the drab, valueless life under a dictatorship with the commonplace, with banality, with the sound of a low cabaret.
[allmusic.com]

[@SuperMelvyn]

Exquisite. Shows how much can be done by precise adherence to the composer's dynamics.

[@tabby7189]

With Poulenc certainly. He had a way of stitching together somewhat emotionally disjunct pieces almost like changing radio stations, and the dynamics would jolt around accordingly.

[@dariocaporuscio8701]

The beginning melodic line of the piano reminds me the beginning of the second movement of the flute sonata!

[@sylviaberry4810]

Yes! This was written in 1943 during WWII, and the Flute Sonata was written in 1957. Amazing that he came back to this material. Both are so moving.

[@nirn6333]

sehr schön

[@oldacccount]

sehr wahr, ich habe poulenc immer geliebt

[@vinista256]

Given that Aragon wrote these poems in 1942 and Poulenc set them in 1943, I think both men would have been deeply moved if a visitor from the future had told them there would be appreciative comments in German 80 years later.

[@tjden777]

❤

[@Protosini]

I bet a Lott is people hadn’t heard of this one- I definitely hadn’t!

[@MaxenceLasserreEngberts]

You really never miss an opportunity for a pun, do you?

[@cristopherbonn2675]

Does anyone know where I can get the sheet music in PDF?

[@yuehchopin]

geniales Werk

[@user-sd8bb2fw2c]

Does anyone know the score of this song?I want to learn this song