Songs
Au cimetière
Op. 51 no.2
Au cimetière
Heureux qui meurt iciAinsiQue les oiseaux des champs!Son corps près des amisEst misDans l’herbe et dans les chants.Il dort d’un bon sommeilVermeilSous le ciel radieux.Tous ceux qu’il a connus,Venus,Lui font de longs adieux.À sa croix les parentsPleurantsRestent agenouillés;Et ses os, sous les fleurs,De pleursSont doucement mouillés.Chacun sur le bois noirPeut voirS’il était jeune ou non,Et peut avec de vraisRegretsL’appeler par son nom.Combien plus malchanceuxSont ceuxQui meurent à la mé,Et sous le flot profondS’en vontLoin du pays aimé!Ah! pauvres, qui pour seulsLinceulsOnt les goëmons vertsOù l’on roule inconnu,Tout nu,Et les yeux grands ouverts.
Au cimetière
Happy he who dies hereEvenAs the birds of the fields!His body near his friendsIs laidAmid the grass, amid the songs.He sleeps a good sleep,CrimsonBeneath the radiant sky.All those he has knownAre comeTo bid him a long farewell.By the cross his weepingParentsRemain kneeling,And his bones beneath the flowersWith tearsAre gently watered.On the black wood allCan seeIf he was young or not,And can with trueRegretCall him by his name.How much more unfortunateAre theyWho die at sea,And beneath deep watersDriftFar from their beloved land!Ah! poor souls! whose onlyShroudIs the green seaweed,Where they roll unknown,Unclothed,And with wide-open eyes.
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
Jean Richepin, French poet, novelist and dramatist, the son of an army doctor, was born at Médéa, French Algeria.
At school and at the École Normale Supérieure he gave evidence of brilliant, if somewhat undisciplined, powers, for which he found physical vent in different directions—first as a franc-tireur in the Franco-German War, and afterwards as actor, sailor and stevedore—and an intellectual outlet in the writing of poems, plays and novels which vividly reflected his erratic but unmistakable talent. A play, L'Étoile, written by him in collaboration with André Gill (1840–1885), was produced in 1873; but Richepin was virtually unknown until the publication, in 1876, of a volume of verse entitled La Chanson des gueux, when his outspokenness resulted in his being imprisoned and fined for outrage aux mœurs.
The same quality characterized his succeeding volumes of verse: Les Caresses (1877), Les Blasphèmes (1884), La Mer (1886), Mes paradis (1894), La Bombarde (1899). His novels have developed in style from the morbidity and brutality of Les morts bizarres (1876), La Glu (1881) and Le Pavé (1883) to the more thoughtful psychology of Madame André (1878), Sophie Monnier (1884), Cisarine (1888), L'Aîné (1893), Grandes amoureuses (1896) and La Gibasse (1899), and the more simple portrayal of life in Miarka (1883), Les Braves Gens (1886), Truandailles (1890), La Miseloque (1892) and Flamboche (1895).
Taken from Wikipedia. To view the full article, please click here.
See Full Entry
Sorry, no further description available.
Previously performed at:
Au cimetière
Au cimetière
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
Jean Richepin, French poet, novelist and dramatist, the son of an army doctor, was born at Médéa, French Algeria.
At school and at the École Normale Supérieure he gave evidence of brilliant, if somewhat undisciplined, powers, for which he found physical vent in different directions—first as a franc-tireur in the Franco-German War, and afterwards as actor, sailor and stevedore—and an intellectual outlet in the writing of poems, plays and novels which vividly reflected his erratic but unmistakable talent. A play, L'Étoile, written by him in collaboration with André Gill (1840–1885), was produced in 1873; but Richepin was virtually unknown until the publication, in 1876, of a volume of verse entitled La Chanson des gueux, when his outspokenness resulted in his being imprisoned and fined for outrage aux mœurs.
The same quality characterized his succeeding volumes of verse: Les Caresses (1877), Les Blasphèmes (1884), La Mer (1886), Mes paradis (1894), La Bombarde (1899). His novels have developed in style from the morbidity and brutality of Les morts bizarres (1876), La Glu (1881) and Le Pavé (1883) to the more thoughtful psychology of Madame André (1878), Sophie Monnier (1884), Cisarine (1888), L'Aîné (1893), Grandes amoureuses (1896) and La Gibasse (1899), and the more simple portrayal of life in Miarka (1883), Les Braves Gens (1886), Truandailles (1890), La Miseloque (1892) and Flamboche (1895).
Taken from Wikipedia. To view the full article, please click here.
See Full Entry
Sorry, no further description available.
Previously performed at:
Oxford Lieder Live Online
The Oxford Lieder Festival goes LIVE ONLINE, 10-17 October 2020. Enjoy the world's greatest singers at home, across 40 events live-streamed from iconic Oxford venues.
Book Now