Chansons madécasses explained

Type:	Song cycle
Composer:	Maurice Ravel
Image Upright:	0.8
Translation:	Madagascan Songs
Dedication:	Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge
Text:	poems Chansons madécasses by Évariste de Parny
Language:	French
Movements:	three

(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), (flute), Jérôme Pernoo (cello), Alain Altinoglu (piano) – Naïve Records V5304 – recorded June 2011 in the

See also

In 2011, the British composer James Francis Brown wrote a work in three movements for the same instrumentation called Songs of Nature and Farewell, which is a setting of three little-known poems by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns.^[4] In 2015 the British composer Judith Weir wrote a work in three movements for the same instrumentation called Nuits d'Afrique; it was commissioned by Wigmore Hall for the soprano Ailish Tynan.^[5] Both works are intended as a companion to Ravel's Chansons madécasses.

References

1. Book: Arbie Orenstein. Ravel: Man and Musician. https://books.google.com/books?id=1b_JlAZLiZAC&pg=PA92. 1975. Courier Corporation. 978-0-486-26633-6. 92. Ravel's Musical Language.
2. Book: Maurice Ravel. Arbie Orenstein. A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews. https://books.google.com/books?id=CxNQAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA267. 1 August 2003. Courier Corporation. 978-0-486-43078-2. 267. Correspondence.
3. Book: Deborah Mawer. The Cambridge Companion to Ravel. Cambridge Companions to Music. 24 August 2000. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-64856-1. 264ff.
4. Songs of Nature and Farewell (no date) Available at: http://www.musichaven.co.uk/Songs-of-Nature-and-Farewell.html (Accessed: 13 October 2015)
5. https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/work/56293/Nuits-dAfrique--Judith-Weir/ Nuits d'Afrique