Les nuits d'été
Les nuits d'été (Summer Nights), Op. 7, is a song cycle by the French composer Hector Berlioz. It is a setting of six poems by Théophile Gautier. The collection was completed in 1841, and initially composed for either baritone, contralto, or mezzo-soprano, and piano.[1] Berlioz later adapted the work for soprano voice, and also gave it full orchestral accompaniment in 1856; almost all modern performances of the piece use the orchestral rather than the piano version.[2] [3]
The title of the song collection is a nod to the French title of A Midsummer Night's Dream[4], by Berlioz's beloved Shakespeare.
At first Berlioz had difficulty in deciding on a suitable order for the songs, but he finally settled on the following sequence, which is generally used for performances today, and which places the two liveliest movements at either end:
- Villanelle
- Le spectre de la rose
- Sur les lagunes
- Absence
- Au cimetière
- L'île inconnue
[edit] References
- ^ Gérard, Yves. Page 6 of liner notes to Les nuits d'été, Virgin Classics 7243 5 45422 2 0.
- ^ Ellis, Katharine (November 1993). "Reviews of Books: Berlioz Studies (ed. Peter Bloom)". Music & Letters 74 (4): 594–598. ISSN 0027-4224. JSTOR 737596.
- ^ Holoman, D Kern (1992). "The Berlioz Catalogue: History, Structure, Problems, Lessons". Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae T. 34 (Fasc. 3/4): 295–306. ISSN 0027-4224. JSTOR 737596.
- ^ L'éducation musicale septembre/octobre 2002
[edit] Sources
- Yves Gérard, liner notes to Les nuits d'été by Hector Berlioz, Véronique Gens (soprano), Virgin Classics 7243 5 45422 2 0.
- Track listing of "Les nuits d'été", Veronique Gens (soprano), Virgin Classics 7243 5 45422 2 0
[edit] External links
- BerliozSongs.co.uk | Scores and texts of Berlioz songs for voice and piano
- Texts of Les nuits d'été.
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