The ''Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire'' ( L 64) constitute a

song cycle A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice ...

for voice and piano by Claude Debussy, on poems taken from ''

Les Fleurs du mal ''Les Fleurs du mal'' (; en, The Flowers of Evil, italic=yes) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. ''Les Fleurs du mal'' includes nearly all Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867. First publish ...

'' by

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited ...

. Composed from December 1887 to March 1889, these five highly developed vocal pieces were not well received by Parisian musical circles because of the Wagnerian influence they revealed. This aesthetic, following on from the harmonic innovations of ''

Tristan und Isolde ''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was comp ...

'', was gradually abandoned by Debussy, addressing the composition of '' Pelléas et Mélisande''. Thus, the ''Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire'' represent a particular moment of the musical evolution of Debussy. Musicologists agree that it is "a work of crisis and transition."

Songs

# "Le Balcon" # "Harmonie du soir" # "Le jet d'eau" # "Recueillement" # "La mort des amants"

Composition

The composition of the ''Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire'' extended over more than a year: "La mort des amants" was completed in December 1887, "Le balcon" in January 1888, "Harmonie du soir" in January 1889, and "Le jet d'eau" in March of the same year. "Recueillement" is an undated melody.

Publication

The work was ill received by Parisian musical circles. After the success of ''

Ariettes oubliées ''Ariettes oubliées'' (''Forgotten Songs'') is a song cycle for voice and piano, L. 60 by Claude Debussy, based on poems by Paul Verlaine.Pehlivanian, Elisabeth Zachary. “‘Ariettes Oubliees’: A Sonorous Symbolism.” California State Univ ...

'', nobody wanted to edit or perform the ''Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudelaire'', according to

Jean Barraqué Jean-Henri-Alphonse Barraqué (17 January 192817 August 1973) was a French composer and writer on music who developed an individual form of serialism which is displayed in a small output. Life Barraqué was born in Puteaux, Hauts-de-Seine. In 1931 ...

. Debussy was reduced to publishing an edition of his melodies by subscription, with only 150 copies.

References

Sources

* * Bruhn, Siglind. ''Debussy’s Vocal Music and its Poetic Evocations''. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon, 2018. * * *

External links

*
''Cinq poèmes de Charles Baudeaire''
Bibliothèque nationale de France * * ,

Nathalie Stutzmann Nathalie Stutzmann (née Dupuy; born 6 May 1965) is a French contralto and conductor. Biography Born in Suresnes in France, Stutzmann first studied with her mother, soprano Christiane Stutzmann, then at Nancy Conservatoire and later at the ''Éc ...

(contralto), Catherine Collard (piano) {{Portal bar, Classical music, Poetry, France Song cycles by Claude Debussy Les Fleurs du mal in popular culture Classical song cycles in French Musical settings of poems by Charles Baudelaire