''Un grand sommeil noir'' () is the earliest surviving composition by French composer

Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French and American composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; h ...

. Written for voice and piano, the piece was finished in 1906 or before, more than a decade earlier than the next surviving composition, ''

Amériques ''Amériques'' is an orchestral composition by Edgard Varèse, scored for a very large, romantic orchestra with additional percussion (for eleven performers) including sirens. Written between 1918 and 1921 and revised in 1929, it was the first w ...

''.

Background

This short composition was written while Varèse was still a student in

Charles-Marie Widor Charles-Marie-Jean-Albert Widor (21 February 1844 – 12 March 1937) was a French organist, composer and teacher of the late Romantic era. As a composer he is known for his ten organ symphonies, especially the toccata of his fifth organ sympho ...

's composition class at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

. It is a setting of an eponymous poem by

Paul Verlaine Paul-Marie Verlaine ( ; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolism (movement), Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' ...

. It was presumably finished around 1906, although the precise date of completion is hard to ascertain. Dedicated to Léon Claude Mercerot, it was published in 1906 by Benjamin Roudanez and later republished by

Éditions Salabert Francis Salabert (born François-Joseph-Charles Salabert, 27 July 1884 – 28 December 1946) was an innovative and influential French music publisher, who was the head of Éditions Salabert in the first half of the twentieth century. Biography ...

in 1973.

Structure

''Un grand sommeil noir'' is scored for an unspecified

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound produ ...

and

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, although it is usually sung by a

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

. A typical performance has an approximate duration of around three minutes. It is in the key of

E-flat minor E-flat minor is a minor scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature consists of six flats. Its relative key is G-flat major (or enharmonically F-sharp major) and its parallel key is E-flat major. ...

and has an unchanging

time signature A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates th ...

of . Consisting of only 34 bars, it is a rather conventional composition by Varèse, who later became known for being a leading avant-garde figure. The score is marked ''Modérément lent'' ("moderately slowly") and, aside from other expression indications, it presents no tempo changes. Just like the original poem which expresses ideas of despair, solitude and the longing for release, the piece is itself somber and melancholic. It is generally a piece with delicate dynamic shading, never using a

forte Forte or Forté may refer to: Music *Forte (music), a musical dynamic meaning "loudly" or "strong" * Forte number, an ordering given to every pitch class set * Forte (notation program), a suite of musical score notation programs * Forte (vocal ...

and with very little dynamic variation.

Arrangement

Musicologist Antony Beaumont wrote an arrangement of the piece in 1996. The arrangement, written for soprano and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

, was commissioned by

Riccardo Chailly Riccardo Chailly (, ; born 20 February 1953) is an Italian conductor. He is currently music director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and of La Scala. Prior to this, he held chief conducting positions at the Gewandhausorchester (2005–20 ...

and the

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (, ) is a Dutch symphony orchestra, established in 1888 at the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw (concert hall). It is considered one of the world's leading orchestras. It was known as the Concertgebouw Orchestra u ...

. It was performed directly for a recording with the commissioners of the piece taken in May 1998 and featured soprano

Mireille Delunsch Mireille Delunsch (born 2 November 1962) is a French soprano. She was born in Mulhouse, and studied musicology and voice at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg. Her debut was at the Opéra national du Rhin in Mulhouse, in Mussorgsky's ''Boris Goduno ...

. The recording was later released by

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

Recordings

References

External links

* {{Edgard Varèse Compositions by Edgard Varèse 1906 compositions 20th-century compositions Compositions in E-flat minor Musical settings of poems by Paul Verlaine