Pedagoga

Le Colibri
E. Chausson
Poem by Leconte de Lisle
Le vert colibri, le roi des collines,
Voyant la rosée et le soleil clair,
Luire dans son nid tissé d'herbes fines,
Comme un frais rayon s'échappe dans l'air.
Il se hâte et vole aux sources voisines,
Où les bambous font le bruit de la mer,
Où l'açoka rouge aux odeurs divines
S'ouvre et porte au cœur un humide éclair.
Vers la fleurdorée, il descend, se pose,
Et boit tant d'amour dans la coupe rose,
Qu'il meurt, ne sachant s'il l'a pu tarir!
Sur ta lèvre pure, ô ma bien-aimée,
Telle aussi mon âme eut voulu mourir,
Du premier baiser qui l'a parfumée.
Le Colibri completes Chansson’s Opus 2. Like most of its opus mates, this song summons nature as witness to, and allegory for erotic love. Texts by poet Leconte de Lisle openand close this cycle, but while the style is the same, there is a vast difference in mood: in the last song, all is ecstasy.
The seventh song seems more sophisticated musically than its predecessors. The 5/4 rhythm is a departure from more common meters and the harmonies are richer and more varied. The four bar piano introduction is based on an ostinato A,the dominant key (original key). Thethird measure is a particularly lovely A triad over the Apedal point. The 5/4 time has no special effects in the introduction, but in the body of the piece it tends to push the music precipitously from one measure to the next. One feels that that a sixth beat is missing, especially in the measures with descending eighth note figures.
The green hummingbird, king of the hills,
Seeing the dew andthe clear sunlight
Shining into his nest, woven of fine grasses,
Darts into the air like a ray of light.

He hurries and flies to nearby springs,
Under this last line the 5/4 rhythm aids the sense of flight, and now the tempo actually moves forward a bit (“en pressant peu a peu” means get faster little by little),
The poet uses strange-sounding names of tropical flora and fauna.
Where thebamboo reeds make the sound of the sea,
Where the red hibiscus with its divine fragrance
Unfolds the dewy brilliance at its heart.
Under these lines the music has been working its way towards the song’s climax. There are several long crescendos to the forte on “Vers.” The intensity and sound level are maintained for four bars, then the gradual pulling-back in tempo and dynamics begins. Thefour climactic measures repeat the harmonies found in the piano introduction, but now the chords are arpeggiated and the melody rides on top.
Toward the gilded flower he descends, poses,
At “bois” (drinks) the climax begins to fade:
And drinks so much love from the rosy cup
That he dies, not knowing if he had exhausted its nectar!
Now the melody with the voice first entered is repeated:On your pure lips, O my beloved,
Likewise my soul wishes to die,
On the word “mourir” (to die) there is a secondary climax. The piano has a falling, dying line under the held note. The final phrase is gentle and wistful:
Of the first kiss, which perfumed it.
Appendix 2
Le spectre de la rose
H. Berlioz
Poem by Teophile Gautier
Soulève ta paupière close
Qu'effleure un songe virginal!Je suis le spectre d'une rose
Que tu portais hier au bal.
Tu me pris encore emperlée
Des pleurs d'argent de l'arrosoir,
Et, parmi la fête étoilée,
Tu me promenas tout le soir.
Ô toi qui de ma mort fus cause,
Sans que tu puisses le chasser,
Toutes les nuits mon spectre rose
À ton chevet viendra danser;
Mais ne crains rien, je ne réclame
Ni messe ni De Profundis.
Ce légerparfum est mon âme,
Et j'arrive du paradis.
Mon destin fut digne d'envie,
Et pour avoir un sort si beau,
Plus d'un aurait donné sa vie;
Car sur ton sein j’ai mon tombeau,
Et sur l'albâtre où je repose
Un poète avec un baiser
Écrivit: "Ci-gît une rose,
Que tous les rois vont jalouser."
Raise your closed eyelids
Caressed by a virginal dream,
I am the spectre if a rise
which...