"Beau soir" seems to have inspired musicians to make their own arrangements – for violin, cello, saxophone quartet, or even for five-part chamber choir and piano, as in this version by Denis Rouger. Unlike the instrumental versions, this one retains Paul Bourget’s text: the poetic depiction of a sunset on a mild summer evening, on which light and shade merge into one another like the rhythm and harmony in Debussy’s setting. It is not an unclouded depiction, but the recognition of our own finiteness.
This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD "Kennst du das Land ..." (Carus 83.495).
This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD "Kennst du das Land ..." (Carus 83.495).
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text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, originalhtml file, Singing text, original (Sample)...
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text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, originalhtml file, Singing text, original (Sample)
Lorsque au soleil couchant les rivières sont roses,
Et qu’un tiède frisson court sur les champs de blé,
Un conseil d’être heureux semble sortir des choses
Et monter vers le cœur troublé.Un conseil de goûter le charme d’être au monde
Cependant qu’on est jeune et que le soir est beau,
Car nous nous en allons, comme s’en va cette onde :
Elle à la mer, nous au tombeau.Paul Bourget (1852–1935)
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text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, originalhtml file, Singing text, original (Sample)
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text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, originalhtml file, Singing text, original (Sample)
Wenn während der untergehenden Sonne
die Flüsse rosa sind und ein lauer Schauder über die Weizenfelder zieht,
scheint ein Rat, glücklich zu sein, aus den Dingen zu steigen
und zu dem verwirrten Herzen aufzusteigen.Ein Rat, den Zauber des Auf-der-Welt-Seins zu genießen,
während wir jung sind und der Abend schön,
denn wir werden gehen, wie diese Welle geht:
sie zum Meer, wir ins Grab.Paul Bourget (1852–1935)
Übersetzung: Christiane Rouger-Ortwein
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Composer
Claude Debussy
| 1862-1918
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Songwriter / Librettist
Paul Bourget
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Arranger
Denis Rouger
| 1961Denis Rouger grew up as the son of a family of musicians in Paris, where he learned trumpet, horn, piano and singing. He studied composition at the CNSM (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique), obtaining first prizes in harmony, fugue and counterpoint. He studied choral conducting in France and Holland at the Kurt Thomas Academy and received the Certificat d’Aptitude for vocal ensembles from the Ministry of Culture.
As “Professeur agrégé” at the University of Paris-Sorbonne he conducted the “Choeur de Paris-Sorbonne” and taught choral conducting for twenty years. From 1993 to 2003, he was choirmaster at Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral and from 2005 to 2006 at the Madeleine Church, where he received the title of “Honorary Music Director.”
He has conducted numerous professional and amateur ensembles, among others in Germany – where he was invited as a guest conductor by the Landesjugendchor Baden-Württemberg and the Balthasar Neumann Chor, as well as by radio choirs in Hamburg (NDR) and Stuttgart (SWR) –, Italy, Holland, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland (Lucerne Festival). He has also collaborated in several world premieres of contemporary works by Klaus Huber, N’guyen Thien Dao, Philippe Mazé and Yves Castagnet, among others. Denis Rouger gives master classes in choral conducting in Sweden, Bulgaria, France, Germany and Switzerland.
In April 2011, Denis Rouger was appointed Professor of Choral Conducting at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart. The Chamber Choir of the Musikhochschule, which he founded in autumn 2011, won first prize at the International Choir Competition in Mosbach (Germany) in 2014. In collaboration with Carus the choral book French Choral Music has been published as well as the debut CD of the figure humaine kammerchor, founded in 2016 by Denis Rouger.
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