Victor Hugo’s text describes an unequal love between a fluttering, "heavenly" butterfly and a flower "rooted in the earth". Both resemble each other in their beauty, but their love cannot be fulfilled as long as the butterfly has no roots, or the flower has no wings. The piano accompaniment in Fauré’s setting reflects in its dance-like 6/8 movement both the enraptured hovering of the butterfly, and the deep-rootedness of the flower in the earth.
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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- Le papillon et la fleur
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- Le papillon et la fleur
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text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, originalhtml file, Singing text, original (Sample)La pauvre fleur disait
au papillon céleste : Ne fuis pas !
Vois comme nos destins sont différents.
Je reste, tu t’en vas !Pourtant nous nous aimons,
Nous vivons sans les hommes, et loin d’eux !
Et nous nous ressemblons,
Et l’on dit que nous sommes fleurs tous deux !Mais hélas ! l’air t’emporte
Et la terre m’enchaîne, sort cruel !
Je voudrais embaumer
Ton vol de mon haleine dans le ciel !Mais non, tu vas trop loin !
Parmi des fleurs sans nombre, vous fuyez,
Et moi je reste seule
À voir tourner mon ombre a mes pieds !Tu fuis, puis tu reviens,
Puis tu t’en vas encore luire ailleurs !
Aussi me trouves-tu toujours
À chaque aurore toute en pleurs!...
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text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, German translationhtml file, Singing text, German translation (Sample)
Die arme Blume sagte
zum himmlischen Schmetterling: Fliehe nicht!
Sieh, wie unsere Schicksale verschieden sind,
ich bleibe, du gehst davon!Dabei lieben wir uns, wir leben
ohne die Menschen und weit weg von ihnen!
Und wir sind uns ähnlich,
und man sagt, dass wir alle beide Blumen sind!Aber leider trägt dich die Luft hinweg,
und die Erde legt mich in Ketten, grausames Los!
Ich würde gerne deinen Flug mit meinem
duftenden Atem erfüllen, dort im Himmel!Aber nein, du gehst zu weit!
Unter die zahllosen Blumen, ihr flieht,
und ich bleibe alleine zurück, um meinen Schatten zu meinen Füßen wandern zu sehen!Du fliehst, dann kommst du zurück, dann gehst du wieder davon, um anderswo zu leuchten!
Auch findest du mich
bei jeder Morgendämmerung in Tränen aufgelöst!Ach! Damit unsere Liebe
aus den treuen Tagen heraus fließt, oh mein König!...
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Composer
Gabriel Fauré
| 1845-1924
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Songwriter / Librettist
Victor Hugo
| 1802-1885
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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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