Chansons madécasses

Song cycle by Maurice Ravel

voice (mezzo-soprano or baritone)
flute
cello
piano

Chansons madécasses (Madagascan Songs) is a set of three exotic art songs by Maurice Ravel written in 1925 and 1926 to words from the poetry collection of the same name by Évariste de Parny.^[1]

Structure

Scored for mezzo-soprano or baritone, flute, cello and piano, and dedicated to the American musician and philanthropist Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge,^[2] the set is usually performed complete as a true song cycle although this was not the composer's designation. The songs are:

"Nahandove" (incipit: "Nahandove, ô belle Nahandove")
"Aoua!" (incipit: "Aoua! méfiez-vous des blancs" [Ow! Beware of white people])
"Il est doux" (incipit: "Il est doux de se coucher durant la chaleur" [It is sweet to lie down during the heat])

Premiere and recordings

Jane Bathori sang the premiere on 8 May 1926, in Rome, accompanied by flutist Louis Fleury, cellist Hans Kindler, and pianist Alfredo Casella.^[3] The first edition print was made by Luc-Albert Moreau. The first known record was that by Madeleine Grey, a highly regarded singer, in 1932. More recent recordings include:

Janet Baker (mezzo-soprano), Richard Adeney (flute), Terence Weil (cello), Lamar Crowson (piano) – L'Oiseau-Lyre SOL 298 – released 1967
Felicity Palmer (soprano), Judith Pearse (flute), Christopher van Kampen (cello), Clifford Benson (piano) – Argo ZRG 834 – recorded May 24–25 and July 9, 1975, in St John's, Smith Square
Frederica von Stade (mezzo-soprano), Doriot Anthony Dwyer (flute), Jules Eskind (cello), Martin Katz (piano) – CBS Masterworks 36665 – recorded November 10, 1979, in CBS 30th Street Studio
Nora Gubisch (mezzo-soprano), Magali Mosnier [de] (flute), Jérôme Pernoo (cello), Alain Altinoglu (piano) – Naïve Records V5304 – recorded June 2011 in the Salle Colonne [fr]

References

^ Arbie Orenstein (1975). "Ravel's Musical Language". Ravel: Man and Musician. Courier Corporation. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-486-26633-6.
^ Maurice Ravel; Arbie Orenstein (1 August 2003). "Correspondence". A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews. Courier Corporation. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-486-43078-2.
^ Deborah Mawer (24 August 2000). The Cambridge Companion to Ravel. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge University Press. pp. 264ff. ISBN 978-0-521-64856-1.
^ Songs of Nature and Farewell (no date) Available at: http://www.musichaven.co.uk/Songs-of-Nature-and-Farewell.html Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (Accessed: 13 October 2015)
^ Nuits d'Afrique published by Chester Music (2015)