The Jean-Aubry SongsFlammes, opus 10Deux melodies, opus 19
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Albert Roussel became friends with the author and music critic Georges Jean-Aubry. He wrote two songs to Jean-Aubry's poems: "Flammes", opus 10, and the first song of opus 19, "Light". (The words of the second melodie of opus 19 were written by Oliphant.) In addition, Roussel wrote the incidental music for Jean-Aubry's conte lyrique, Le Marchand de Sable qui passe.
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Flammes, opus 10for voice and piano| Written: 1908 | Premiered: Le Havre, February 14, 1909 |
| Length: 5 minutes | One melodie |
| Words by: Jean-Aubry | Voice(s): soprano |
| Publisher: Rouart, Lerolle | Dedication: Mlle Madeleine Aubry |
About this Work:|
Like so very many of Roussel's songs, Flammes deals with the subject of saying farewell to a loved one. In this case he deals with the aftermath, rather than the moment, of departure. The poem describes the desolation of being left alone — a sensation that Roussel, who suffered the consecutive deaths of his father, mother, and grandfather by the age of 11 — knew all too well.
Written while Roussel was still a student at the Schola Cantorum, this the last mélodie he wrote while he was finding his way; after Flammes, his songs are mature and of uniformly high calibre. Like the songs he wrote to poems by Henri de Regnier, Flammes suffers not just from the composer's relative inexperience, but from incompatibility with the sentimental text. Roussel was to have greater success with texts that matched traits of his personality: clarity, subtlety, restraint, and irony. |
Other opinions:|
The romanticism and profound nostalgia suffusing this relatively long piece are well conveyed by the piano part given the role of suggesting the flames dancing in "the fireplace where used to dream"... the conclusion is left hanging in the air like an unanswered question. [Dom Angelico Surchamp]
There is a vigour and depth of thought about [La Menace] which is absent from the previous songs, and the same can be said of Op. 10 -- "Flammes" -- to words by Jean-Aubry. Neither, however, gets us very much farther. [Norman Demuth]
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Deux melodies, opus 19for voice and piano| Written: 1918 | Premiered: Paris, December 27, 1919 Lucy Vuillemin, Louis Vuillemin (piano) |
| Length: No. 1, 4 minutes No. 2, 3.5 minutes |
Two songs: Light A Farewell |
| Words by: No. 1, G. Jean-Aubry No. 2, E. Oliphant |
Voice(s): contralto |
| Publisher: Durand | Dedication:
No. 1, Mme Gaston Frager No. 2, Edwin Evans |
About this Work:|
Despite his fragile health, Roussel served his country during the Great War first as an ambulance driver and later as an officer in the artillery. By January 1918, however, his health broke down and Lt. Roussel was invalided out of the service. His first musical chore was finishing the orchestration of his great opera Padmavati, which had occupied his mind throughout the war years. Following that, however, he eased himself back into composing by working on small, yet significant works; the Deux melodies op. 19 and op. 20.
Jean-Aubry's text for the song "Light" is as romantic and sentimental as that for the less-successful Flammes. However, Roussel's skill had improved enough to virtually overcome what was, for him, an obstacle. Whatever the response of critics, "Light" is one of his most popular songs. The second song in this set, "A Farewell" to words by Oliphant, returns to Roussel's favorite theme, leaving a loved one. However, it is unusual in that it is in English. The only other works that Roussel set to English words were Psalm 80 and the melodie A flower given to my daughter. |
Other opinions:|
With Op. 19, Deux melodies — "Light" (Jean-Aubry) and "A Farewell" (Oliphant)... we are on different ground and can begin to consider Roussel seriously as a composer of songs. [Norman Demuth]
Neither of the settings of poems in English is among the composer's best songs. "A Farewell" is handicapped by its insipid text. [Basil Deane] [Roussel was] not greatly given to overt expression of romantic feeling (there is awkwardness even in a relatively successful attempt such as Light). [Roger Vignoles and Peter Reed] The second of the Jean-Aubry settings, Light, is more coherent than its predecessor; but the conventional verse has not evoked a profound response from the composer, and the song lacks interest. [Basil Deane] The first, Light,.... is a pure materpiece, one of the composer's most beautiful creations. The combination of both a profound poem and the hardship of wartime (not yet ended) most probably inspired the composer to write this dense, unusually tense piece, with its utter simplicity, its deliberate monotony, its superb harmonies and rare modulations closing on a sudden and unhoped-for ray of light. [Dom Angelico Surchamp]
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