0 Clair de lune Paul Verlaine Gabriel Fauré (1844-1896) (1845-1924) Opus 46, no. 32. Original key: B-flat minor. Composed 1887. The song was first published by Hamelle in 1888, and was ‘orchestrated by the composer the same year. The first performance was at the Société nationale de musique, Paris, in April 1889, sung by Marice Bags tenor, with orchestra, The poem is taken from Verliine’s Fétesgalantes (Romantic Festivities) of 1869. In these poems Verlsine blends the world of the commedia dll art (a popular comedy form improvised by traveling players, using stock characters) with the atmosphere of the fees galantes as depicted in I8th-century paintings by Watteau: scenes of charming, elegantly dressed couples, amusing themselves in the great parks amidst fountains and statues. Fauré always created an atmospher ‘oF poetic mood in his songs, nowhere more elegantly than here, an extraordinary example of text and music that mutually enhenee ‘one another. This song was Fouré’s firs setting of Verlaine, Paul Verlaine was a groundbreaking symbolist poet, an evoe: anticthetorical verse, Verlaine led a colorful life, abandoning his wife for poet Arthur Rimbaud, whom he later shot in the hand in a drunken rage of jealousy. Verlaine taught in England and France, but in later years deank absinthe to excess in Pars. His poetry we red in the 1890s, and he was elected “Prince of Poets” of France in 1894, style of Chair de hone Moonlight Votre ime est un paysage choi Your soul sa rare landscape Que vont charmant marques et bergamaxques? (Charmed by masks ard bergamasks Jonane du luth et dansant et quasi Playing the te and dancing, and almost “Triste sous leurs déguisements fantasques. Sad beneath ther fantastic dices, ‘Tout en chancant sur le mode mineur While singing inthe minor key Lamour vainqueur et la vie opportune, Of sccorious love and the good if Hs n'ont pas Pair de croite& leue honheut ‘They do mot seem to believe in their happiness, Et leur chanson se méle i clair de lune. ‘And ther song blends with the moonlight Au calme clas de lune triste et beau, With the calm moonlight, sad and beatiful, Qui fait rever les oiseaux dans les arbres ‘That makes the binds dream in the tres, Ex sanglocer d'extase les jets de, And the fountains sob with rape, Les grands jets d'eau sveltes pot les marbres. ‘The tall slender fountains among the marble states. * Ahh the term “heamask” normaly veers wo a dance, Vein sas appar wing the won orf thne cheaters ofthe Ham coma such a Haroun, who spe the dake of Bom Andantino quasi Allegretto. J =78 aE sempre dolce heSI Que vont. char~mant sempre cantabileet qua ssi t Se = fe Me Re Me Ws Raw leurs dé : ments fan a x Rad. BD Ba. * 6 dolce en chan -tant sur Je mo-de mi - neur L'a - mour vain - queur_— 2 2 ” oe Ge Ce] oe me | C2 GSVair de croire.a leur bon =39 espressivo e dolce me meno p = glo - ter dex -2 se les jets d'eau, sempre em Re Tide De 7 — poco pitt ON grands jets d'eau svel Ms Dye Me De Me WM #*