Songs
Dans la forêt de septembre
(1902)
Op. 85 no.1
Dans la forêt de septembre
Ramure aux rumeurs amollies,Troncs sonores que l'âge creuse,L'antique forêt douloureuseS'accorde à nos mélancolies.Ô sapins agriffés au gouffre,Nids déserts aux branches brisées,Halliers brûlés, fleurs sans rosées,Vous savez bien comme l'on souffre!Et lorsque l'homme, passant blême,Pleure dans le bois solitaire,Des plaintes d'ombre et de mystèreL'accueillent en pleurant de même.Bonne forêt! promesse ouverteDe l'exil que la vie implore,Je viens d'un pas alerte encore Dans ta profondeur encor verte.Mais d'un fin bouleau de la sente,Une feuille, un peu rousse, frôleMa tête et tremble à mon épaule;C'est que la forêt vieillissante,Sachante l'hiver, où tout avorte,Déjà proche en moi comme en elle,Me fait l'aumône fraternelleDe sa première feuille morte!
In the September forest
Foliage of deadened sound, Resonant trunks hollowed by age, The ancient, mournful forestBlends with our melancholy. O fir-trees, clinging to chasms,Abandoned nests in broken branches,Burnt-out thickets, flowers without dew,You well know our suffering! An when man, that pale wanderer, Weeps in the lonely wood, Shadowy, mysterious lamentsGreet him, likewise weeping.Good forest! Open promiseOf exile that life implores,I come with a step still briskInto your still green depths. But a slender birch by the path,A reddish leaf brushesMy head and quivers on my shoulder - For the ageing forest, Knowing that winter, when all withers, Is already close for me as for her,Bestows on me the fraternal gift,Of its first dead leaf!
Translation © Richard Stokes, from A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000)
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Composer
"Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, nocturnes for piano and the songs "Après un rêve" and "Clair de lune". Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style." (Wikipedia)
For more information about the life and work of Gabriel Fauré please see the Wikipedia article here.
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Poet
Catulle Mendès was a French poet and man of letters.
Of Portuguese Jewish extraction, Mendès was born in Bordeaux. After childhood and adolescence in Toulouse, he arrived in Paris in 1859 and quickly became one of the proteges of the poet Théophile Gautier. He promptly attained notoriety with the publication in the La Revue fantaisiste (1861) of his Roman d'une nuit, for which he was condemned to a month's imprisonment and a fine of 500 francs. He was allied with Parnassianism from the beginning of the movement and displayed extraordinary metrical skill in his first volume of poems, Philoméla (1863). His critics have noted that the elegant verse of his later volumes is distinguished rather by dexterous imitation of different writers than by any marked originality. The versatility and fecundity of Mendès' talent is shown in his critical and dramatic writings, including several libretti, and in his novels and short stories. His short stories continue the French tradition of the licentious conte.
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Previously performed at:
Dans la forêt de septembre
In the September forest
If you would like to use our texts and translations, please click here for more information.
Composer
"Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, nocturnes for piano and the songs "Après un rêve" and "Clair de lune". Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style." (Wikipedia)
For more information about the life and work of Gabriel Fauré please see the Wikipedia article here.
See Full Entry
Poet
Catulle Mendès was a French poet and man of letters.
Of Portuguese Jewish extraction, Mendès was born in Bordeaux. After childhood and adolescence in Toulouse, he arrived in Paris in 1859 and quickly became one of the proteges of the poet Théophile Gautier. He promptly attained notoriety with the publication in the La Revue fantaisiste (1861) of his Roman d'une nuit, for which he was condemned to a month's imprisonment and a fine of 500 francs. He was allied with Parnassianism from the beginning of the movement and displayed extraordinary metrical skill in his first volume of poems, Philoméla (1863). His critics have noted that the elegant verse of his later volumes is distinguished rather by dexterous imitation of different writers than by any marked originality. The versatility and fecundity of Mendès' talent is shown in his critical and dramatic writings, including several libretti, and in his novels and short stories. His short stories continue the French tradition of the licentious conte.
Taken from Wikipedia. To view the full article, please click here.
See Full Entry
Sorry, no further description available.