A prevailing melancholy mood is characteristic of Théophile Gautier’s (1811–1872) poetry; a melancholy mood which inspired composers such as Hector Berlioz and Gabriel Fauré to compose settings. Tristesse ("Sadness”) is taken from the 1838 collection “La Comédie de la Mort” (“The Comedy of Death”). With over 50 poems this is regarded as Gautier’s major Romantic work. Although the narrator in the poem is conscious of the joy and zest for life of spring coming into bloom around him, he cannot share this: “Hélas! j’ai dans le cœur une tristesse affreuse.” (“Alas, in my heart I bear a terrible grief.”). Fauré’s setting portrays this effect less as a dramatic sigh than a melancholic unworldliness with peaceful piano accompaniment in the minor key.
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 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 "... Wo die Zitronen blühn" (Carus 83.514).
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- Tristesse
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text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, German translationhtml file, Singing text, German translation (Sample)Unbenanntes Dokument TristesseAvril est de retour,
La première des roses,
De ses lèvres micloses,
Rit au premier beau jour,
La terre bienheureuse
S’ouvre et s’épanouit ;
Tout aime, tout jouit.
Hélas ! j’ai dans le cœur une tristesse affreuse.Les buveurs en gaîté,
Dans leurs chansons vermeilles,
Célèbrent sous les treilles
Le vin et la beauté ;...
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Composer
Gabriel Fauré
| 1845-1924
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Songwriter / Librettist
Théophile Gautier
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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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