The French composer Emmanuel Chabrier (1841–94) wrote music in many genres, including opera and operetta, piano, orchestral music, and songs with piano accompaniment.Chabrier (Emmanuel). In: Larousse Dictionnaire de la Musique. Édition 2005, p. 193. The songs of Chabrier cover most of his creative years, from the early 1860s to 1890, when the illness which would kill him prevented much composition. He came late to music as a profession, but – although being an exceptional pianist – he had no trappings of a formal training: no conservatoire studies, no Prix de Rome, "none of the conventional badges of French academic musicians, by whom he was regarded as an amateur" (in the best sense).Crichton, Ronald. Chabrier – high spirits and a soft heart. Opera, September 1991, p. 1028-1033.
There are forty-three published songs by Chabrier. He began composing these mélodies when he was about twenty-one; the first nine were written between 1862 and 1866. Chabrier never set any verse by his friend Verlaine (although they did collaborate on two opéras-bouffes Fisch-Ton-Kan and Vaucochard et fils Ier), but among the better-known poets whose verse Chabrier did set in these early songs were Théodore de Banville ("Lied") and Alfred de Musset ("Adieux à Suzon").Johnson, Graham. Musique adorable! The songs of Emmanuel Chabrier. (The Hyperion French Song Edition). Booklet accompanying Hyperion CDs CDA67133/4, 2001. Chabrier gave up his job at the Ministry of the Interior in 1880; as a full-time composer he set texts by Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, Catulle Mendès, Edmond Rostand and his wife Rosemonde Gérard, as well as lesser-known poets, and these songs were often intended for notable singers, such as Lucien Fugère, Émile Engel, Jeanne Granier, Ernest Van Dyck and Paul Lhérie.Delage, Roger. Emmanuel Chabrier. Fayard, Paris, 1999. Catalogue des oeuvres, pp. 685–715.
In a 1891 letter to Madame Colonne, wife of the famous conductor, Chabrier wrote "I'm not a natural writer of romances, which is unfortunate, because the song, agreeably warbled in salons is, at the present time, the only way for a French composer to more or less pay the rent." None of his songs was a commercial success.
Introduction While not on the level of his contemporaries Fauré and Duparc, some of Chabrier's songs are "unique in the nineteenth century for their wit and satirical humour". Examples such as the "Villanelle des petits canards", the "Ballade des gros dindons", and the "Pastorale des cochons roses" (from the Six mélodies of 1890) "anticipated by some years the twentieth-century reaction against Romantic song".David Tunley: The New Oxford History of Music. Romanticism 1830-1890, vol IX, IX Solo song (b) France, p. 703. Ravel claimed that "it is impossible to hear two of his chords without attributing them at once to him, and to him alone". French composer Henri Barraud asserted that he was "the most gifted inventor of unimagined harmonies, of rare combinations of timbres, the most vigorous colourist and the most straightforward melodist".Bernac, 1970, p. 81. Enoch, his publisher, tried to get Chabrier to simplify what they judged to be complex piano parts which would discourage amateurs (and thus reduce sales); despite objections from the composer an edition with easy accompaniments was issued by them.Delage, Roger: "Chabrier Mélodiste", in: Emmanuel Chabrier: Ostinato rigore – Revue internationale d'études musicales, No. 3, 1994 (Paris: Jean-Michel Place/Centre national du livre), p. 68.
All are strophic songs, but the rhythm is usually cleverly modified in each stanza to suit the prosody of the literary text. They require, together with perfect precision, a supple, elegant style of interpretation, slightly whimsical; as remarked by Poulenc, a "laisser-aller contrôlé".Bernac, 1970, p. 81. The singer Claire Croiza (1882-1946) argued that in Chabrier's mélodies there is "a male quality that a woman singer can never give entirely. It must be a man who drinks well and eats well". She continued, "There is a basic roundness, and frankness. Fugère knew how to sing Chabrier. He brought to it his own roundness, his joviality."Claire Croiza: The Singer as Interpreter (Paris: Gollancz, 1989), p. 78–79. The pianist and scholar Graham Johnson comments in relation to several of the songs that the demands on the singer, particularly in range of expression, can be extreme, for example "Ivresses!". In his book on the composer, his spiritual descendant, Francis Poulenc, contends that the difficulty for many singers – amateur and professional – is that Chabrier's songs fall half-way between the concert platform and the stage. He cites Jane Bathori, Roger Bourdin and Pierre Bernac as singers of his time who sought to keep their spirit alive in performance.Francis Poulenc: Emmanuel Chabrier (Paris/Geneva: La Palatine, 1961), p. 108–109.
A complete edition of the 25 original songs (excluding the regional folk song arrangements), edited and with an introduction by Roger Delage, was published in 1995 (Heugel, Paris), including two which had never before been published, Le Pas d'armes du roi Jean and Ivresses.Jacques Girard: Emmanuel Chabrier: d'Ambert à Paris (Champetières: Éd. de la Montmarie, 2009), p. 194–195.
Early songs
Couplets de Mariette « Son absence me désespère » (Mariette's song : "His absence makes me despair") (1862) – anon
Mariette laments the loss of her partner of 15 years. Johnson sees a precursor of the "Chanson de l'alouette" from Act 1 of Le Roi malgré lui. Darius Milhaud inserted the song, with new words by René Chalupt, into a production of Une éducation manquée for Diaghilev in Monte Carlo in 1924.Buckle, Richard. Diaghilev. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1979, p. 414.
L'Enfant « L'enfant est roi parmi nous » ("The child rules us as a king") (1862) – words by Victor de Laprade (from Idylles héroïques, 1855)
Parents welcome the arrival of a baby, and an impending exacting presence in the home.
Ronde gauloise « J'ai vu la fille du meunier » ("I saw the miller's daughter") (1862) – anon
The song evokes a bourrée folk song as a young man gives voice to his love.
Le Sentier sombre « Il est un sentier sombre au fond de nos vallées » ("There's a shady path down in the valley") (1862) – anon
A country lad recalls his first love.
Lied « Avec ces traits harmonieux » ("with these harmonious features") (1862) – words by Théodore de Banville ('Inviolata' from Améthystes, 1862)
Another love song, where the performers are instructed to sing "con passione".
Chants d'oiseaux « Quand nous chantons nos amours » (Bird songs :"When we sing about our love") (1862) – words by Victor de Laprade (in the Livre troisième of Rose Mystica from Idylles héroïques, 1855)
Johnson regards it as "one of Chabrier's earliest masterpieces – a perfect example of his musical conjuring". Predating the barnyard songs, in this second Laprade setting, a bird in a tree comments on the vicissitudes of human love.
Sérénade « La plus charmante femme » ("The most charming woman") (1862) – words by the painter, sculptor and poet Auguste de Châtillon (from À la Grand'Pinte, 1860)
A man sings of his obsessive love.
Adieux à Suzon words by Alfred de Musset (1862; later set by Bizet in 1866)
A man's vigorous farewell to his love which ends in "renunciation and gentle melancholy" (Johnson). Musicologist Winton Dean describes Bizet's version as a "delightful setting of a half-tender, half-mocking love poem",Dean, Winton. Bizet. J M Dent & Sons Ltd, London, 3rd edition, 1978 reprint, p153. but Delage considers that Chabrier's setting, with its triple rhythm, sly chromaticism in the bass line, all part of an "allegro risoluto ed appassionato" captures better the mood of the poet.Delage, 1999, p. 79
Ah! petit démon (« Ha, little devil ») (1862) – words by Auguste de Châtillon (from À la Grand'Pinte, 1860)
The second Châtillon setting concerns the 'little devil' who comes to steal the singer's grapes at midnight.
The developing songwriter
Le pas d'armes du roi Jean « Ça! qu'on selle » ("Right, saddle-up") (1866) – words by Victor Hugo (Ballade XII from Odes et Ballades, 1826).
The song is about a page who falls in a tournament. The young Saint-Saëns set fourteen of Hugo's 32 verses in 1852; Chabrier set eight. "One must admire Saint-Saëns's skill in making a long and effective piece out of unpromising material [...] how much better Chabrier captures, right from the start, the spirit of the festive joust with music which rattles jovially between the hands", Johnson comments. Chabrier regularly sang this song at the Marquise de Ricard's Parnassian salon. It evokes the galop of a horse and plays on ambivalence between modal and tonal harmony, creating new and strange effects.Delage, Roger. Chabrier Mélodiste. In: Emmanuel Chabrier. Ostinato rigore – revue internationale d'études musicales. No.3, 1994, Jean-Michel Place/Centre national du livre, Paris, p. 59.
Ivresses! Grande Valse – « Viens! je veux les caresses » ("Come, I want your caresses") (1869) – words by Léon Labarre.
The song is about uncontrollable physical love with wild and impassioned pleas for wine and kisses; Delage describes the words of this song as "improbable" (« invraisemblables ») but Chabrier manages through two gay and rhythmic waltzes to evoke the world of the café-concert. The music reappears subsequently in his Suite de valses of 1872.Delage, Roger. Chabrier Mélodiste. In: Emmanuel Chabrier. Ostinato rigore – revue internationale d'études musicales. No.3, 1994, Jean-Michel Place/Centre national du livre, Paris, p59. After a vivace introduction, interrupted by a mysterious andante, the first waltz mimes musically an ardent, unbuttoned love. The second waltz 'espress. Ed appassionato' starts after a short recitative like passage ; the first waltz returns with new harmonies. Notes on the score (cymbal, timpani, violins) indicate that Chabrier had an orchestration in mind.Delage Fayard 1999 p126. Steven Huebner notes that Chabrier's melodies (instrumental and vocal) are frequently combined with chromatic decoration, citing as an example 'Ivresses'.Huebner, Steven: 'Chabrier, Emmanuel', The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001), v, 403-408.
L'invitation au voyage « Mon enfant, ma sœur, songe à la douceur d'aller là-bas » (Call to expedition : "My child, sister, think how sweet to go over there") words by Charles Baudelaire (from Les Fleurs du mal, 1855, 1857), set at the same time by Duparc (two verses only)
This is about lovers escaping to a place of luxury, calm and sensuality. Chabrier's longest song contains an obbligato part for bassoon. Chabrier savoured the richness of full 9th harmonics; the phrase "d'aller là-bas vivre ensemble" in this song is "set to a succession of 9th chords with root movement by a 5th. The whole song is a study in such harmonies where Chabrier pays particular attention to the colour of the 9th in different registers of the keyboard and even the voice".
Couplets de Mariette « À quoi bon entendre les oiseaux des bois ? » ("Why listen to the birds from the woods" – the most tender bird sings in your voice...) (1873, published in 1913) words by Victor Hugo (from Act II of Ruy Blas, 1838; off-stage voices of laundrywomen)