Transcript Gabriel Fauré*s "Après un rêve" and Benjamin

 Gabriel Fauré was a French composer
and music professor who lived 18451924. He is known for his piano and
symphonic works, and his “mélodie.”
 “Après un rêve” (“After a dream”) was
first published in 1878. The poem, a
loose French translation of an
anonymous Italian poem, describes a dream in which the
narrator and her beloved come together in an otherworldly
meeting. After awakening, she longs to return to this
dream state.
 Both the piano and voice parts conjure up vivid images of
the passion and dreaminess the words describe.
 http://youtu.be/lMKyTAe6yeM
 In a slumber enchanted by your image
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I dreamed of happiness, passionate mirage,
Your eyes were softer, your voice pure and resonant,
You shone like a sky lit up by the dawn;
You called me and I left the earth
To run away with you towards the light,
The skies opened their clouds for us,
Unknown splendors, divine flashes glimpsed,
Alas! Alas! sad awakening from dreams
I call you, O night, give me back your lies,
Return, return radiant,
Return, O mysterious night!
 Benjamin Britten was an English
composer who lived 1913-1976.
He is known mostly for his operas,
choral and symphonic works, but
he also wrote four art song cycles.
 Art Song Cycle: A set of art songs
that connect through a shared
storyline. Sometimes they also
share melodic themes.
 “Encinctured in a Twine of Leaves” is from the 1958 song
cycle Nocturne, a collection of songs (from various poets)
that talk about the night and sleeping.
 Unlike most art songs, Nocturne was written for a small
orchestra and voice. However, the instruments vividly
portray the story and setting, just like the piano normally
would.
 The poem “Encinctured…” is the beginning fragment of an
epic poem about Cain that Samuel Taylor Coleridge (17721834) never finished. It describes the innocent young son
of Cain alone in a “wilderness” at night picking fruit.
 You will first hear the strings “breathing,” and then the
harp describing the “vines” and the pizzicato “plucking” of
fruit. The melody flows and loops to create the dream-like
atmosphere.
 Encinctured with a twine of leaves,
That leafy twine his only dress!
A lovely Boy was plucking fruits,
By moonlight, in a wilderness.
The moon was bright, the air was free,
And fruits and flowers together grew
On many a shrub and many a tree:
And all put on a gentle hue,
Hanging in the shadowy air
Like a picture rich and rare.
 It was a climate where, they say,
The night is more belov'd than day.
But who that beauteous Boy beguil'd,
That beauteous Boy to linger here?
Alone, by night, a little child,
In place so silent and so wild—
Has he no friend, no loving mother near?
 https://youtu.be/o0y8mEtxVYU?t=8m55s
 Write a quick definition of Art Song in your notes.