In Les berceaux the ships of men setting off into the unknown and the cradles with children pushed by the women’s hands both rock in 12/8 meter. Amongst all of this, an eighth-note motif is heard rocking to and from in the piano accompaniment in Fauré’s unique and subtle pianistic language.
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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- Les Berceaux
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- Les Berceaux
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text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, originalhtml file, Singing text, original (Sample)Le long des quais, les grands vaisseaux,
Que la houle incline en silence,
Ne prennent pas garde aux berceaux
Que la main des femmes balance.Mais viendra le jour des adieux,
Car il faut que les femmes pleurent,
Et que les hommes curieux
Tentent les horizons qui leurrent.Et ce jour-là, les grands vaisseaux,
Fuyant le port qui diminue,
Sentent leur masse retenue
Par l’âme des lointains berceaux.Sully Prudhomme (1839–1907)
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text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, German translationhtml file, Singing text, German translation (Sample)
Die entlang der Kais liegenden großen Schiffe,
die die Woge still neigt,
achten nicht auf die Wiegen,
die die Hand der Frauen schaukelt.Aber es wird der Tag des Abschieds kommen,
denn die Frauen müssen weinen
und die begierigen Männer
sich gen der lockenden Horizonte wagen!Und an diesem Tag fühlen die großen Schiffe,
die den kleiner werdenden Hafen fliehen,
ihre Masse von der Seele
der fernen Wiegen zurückgehalten.Sully Prudhomme (1839–1907)
Übersetzung: Christiane Rouger-Ortwein...
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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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