Odes anacreontiques, opp. 31 and 32for voice and piano
| Written: 1926 | Premiered: Paris, May 30, 1927 Edmond Warnery |
| Dedications: Op 31 Tony Jourdan Charles Sautelet Rene Dommange Op 32 Henry Fabert Edmond Warnery Henry Le Boeuf |
Three songs in each set: Op 31 Ode XVI, Sur lui-meme Ode XIX, Qu'il faut boire Ode XX, Sur une jeune fille Op 32 Ode XXVI, Sur lui-meme Ode XXXIV, Sur une jeune fille Ode XLIV, Sur un songe |
| Words by: Anacreon, tr. by Leconte de Lisle |
Length: 1 to 1.5 minutes each; 9 minutes in total |
| Publisher: Durand | Voice(s): middle |
About this Work:|
These two sets of songs, so close in style, content and time that they can be discussed as one, exhibit Roussel's interest in ancient classical culture. Other examples of this interest include the lyrical tale La naissance de la lyre and the ballets Bacchus et Ariadne and Aeneas.
Anacreon was a notable Greek lyric poet of the fifth century B.C. who composed imaginative and graceful verses about love, friendship and wine. The Anacreontea (Anacreontique in French) is a famous collection of poems that influenced writers for centuries. Or perhaps millenia is more accurate; for the music of "The Star-Spangled Banner" was originally composed as a setting for the poem "To Anacreon in Heaven", celebrating the joys of music, love, and wine. Roussel's settings are of a gentle nature that could never be considered either drinking songs or national anthems — with the possible exception of Sur lui-meme from opus 32, which has a tipsy lilt captured by minor seconds in the piano. As in La naissance de la lyre, Roussel breathes life into his classical subject with music of great purity and clarity. This is nowhere more true than in the two "Sur une jeune fille" songs, with words that are quite earthy; yet the purity of the music lifts them above the flesh and into the realm of eternal love. In the other odes also, the quiet simplicity of the music is striking — and deceptive. Hidden behind Roussel's seeming simplicity is music of depth and sophistication. |
Other opinions:|
Whether it be in the irony of Le bachelier de Salamanque... or in the
full-fleshed eroticism of the Odes anacreontiques, the music is poured
out sparingly, yet attains at times an intensity and a pungency rarely
equalled in French song. [Laurent Barthel]
The most ambitious set [of songs] is that of six "Odes Anacreontiques." The most notable feature is the absolute diatony of the voice lines and their complete singableness. [Norman Demuth] In effect, Roussel's songs show two essential strains: playfulness (Le bachelier de Salamanque or L'Ode à un jeune gentilhomme)... and the interior (the Anacreontiques or the Poemes chinois), a quality inherent in the traditions of Faure's melodies but which, in Roussel, tends to break out of the genre... and which has perhaps involuntary echoes of psychoanalytic investigations. [Michelle Biget] Six odes, divided into two collections, once again reflect a deliberate search for conciseness. Yet they evoke, often humorously, the delights of love and wine with an intensity marvellously conveyed by a lush, dense music, highly significant of Roussel's art. [Dom Angelico Surchamp] These highly polished verses... with their precise literary allusions and elaborate imagery, are unsuited to transposition into the evocative language of music, and Roussel's settings are a remarkable tour de force. [Basil Deane]
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