In "Au bord de l’eau" (By the water) two lovers sit as in a dream, removed from the real world with all its conflicts. They only take themselves seriously, the surrounding nature lies as beneath a dream-like veil: steadily like the river flowing by, the passing clouds, the babbling brook, time also passes. The poet Sully Prudhomme, the first Nobel prizewinner for literature (1901), ends the poem with the assertion that only love is immortal. With this knowledge, Gabriel Fauré’s setting turns from a dreamy, deceptive C sharp minor to a more promising C sharp major.
These art songs were originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted them 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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- Au bord de l‘eau
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- Au bord de l‘eau
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text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, originalhtml file, Singing text, original (Sample)S’assoir tous deux au bord du flot qui passe,
Le voir passer ;
Tous deux s’il glisse un nuage en l’espace,
Le voir glisser ;
A l’horizon s’il fume un toit de chaume,
Le voir fumer ;
Aux alentours si quelque fleur embaume,
S’en embaumer.Entendre au pied du saule où l’eau murmure,
L’eau murmurer ;
Ne pas sentir tant que ce rêve dure,
Le temps durer ;
Mais n’apportant de passion profonde,
Qu’à s’adorer ;
Sans nul souci des querelles du monde,
Les ignorer.Et seuls tous deux devant tout ce qui lasse,
Sans se lasser,
Sentir l’amour devant tout ce qui passe,
Ne point passer....
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text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, originalhtml file, Singing text, original (Sample)
Sich alle beide an das Ufer des Stromes, der vorbeizieht, setzen,
ihn vorbeiziehen sehen,
alle beide, wenn eine Wolke durch den Raum gleitet,
sie gleiten sehen,
am Horizont, wenn ein Schilfdach raucht,
es rauchen sehen,
ringsum, wenn eine Blume die Luft mit ihrem Duft erfüllt,
sich von dem Duft erfüllen lassen.Am Fuße der Weide, wo das Wasser plätschert,
das Wasser plätschern hören,
nicht fühlen, während dieser Traum dauert,
wie die Zeit dauert,
aber tiefe Leidenschaft haben nur,
um sich glühend zu lieben,
ohne jedwede Sorge ob der Streitigkeiten der Welt,
Sie nicht beachten.Und alle beide alleine vor alldem, das ermüdet,
ohne zu ermüden,
Vor alldem, das vergeht, fühlen, dass die Liebe
nicht vergeht....
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Composer
Gabriel Fauré
| 1845-1924
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Songwriter / Librettist
Sully Prudhomme
| 1839-1907
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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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