Concerto pour une Voix (''Concerto for one Voice'') is a contemporary classical song written by the French

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Saint-Preux in 1969, combining elements from

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

and

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

. The piece was first sung by

Danielle Licari Danielle Licari (born Danielle Cuvillier on 30 November 1936, in Boulogne-sur-Mer) is a French singer who was active in the 1960s and 1970s. She's now remembered primarily as the vocalist in Concerto pour une Voix. Career In 1964, she dubbe ...

History

Saint-Preux composed the ''Concerto'', his biggest hit, in Poland, where he had been very well seen by the criticism after defending in August 1969, in the

Sopot International Song Festival The Sopot International Song Festival or Sopot Festival (later called ''Sopot Music Festival Grand Prix'', ''Sopot Top of the Top Festival'' from 2012–13 and ''Polsat Sopot Festival'' in 2014) is an annual international song contest held in S ...

, ''La valse de l'enfance'' (''The Waltz of Youth'') with Saint-Preux conducting the

symphony 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, ...

. When Saint-Preux returned to France, René Boyer, head of the music publishers Fantasia, arranged ''Concerto pour une Voix'' and recorded it.

sang it using a vocalise technique similar to

scat singing Originating in vocal jazz, scat singing or scatting is vocal Musical improvisation, improvisation with Non-lexical vocables in music, wordless vocables, Pseudoword#Nonsense syllables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. In scat singing, t ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

. The song, released on the Disc'AZ label in 1969, made both her career and his. In a few months it had sold over 3,000,000 copies in France alone,''

L'Express (, stylized in all caps) is a French weekly news magazine headquartered in Paris. The weekly stands at the political centre-right in the French media landscape, and has a lifestyle supplement, ''L'Express Styles'', and a job supplement, ''R� ...

''
Issues 991–1002
Presse-Union (1970) p. 43. and gained recognition outside France as well. In the week of 22 August 1970 it entered the charts in Mexico at #10 and Japan at #20, He won

Gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

and a Japanese "Oscar" for the best original music. Since that time ''Concerto pour une voix'' has been recorded by many other musicians, including Maxim Saury,

Caravelli Caravelli (born Claude Vasori; 12 September 1930 – 1 April 2019) was a French orchestra leader, composer and arranger of orchestral music. Biography He was born on 12 September 1930 in Paris. The son of an Italian father and a French mother, ...

, Aimable Pluchard, and

Raymond Lefèvre Raymond Lefèvre (20 November 1929 – 27 June 2008) was a French easy listening orchestra leader, arranger and composer. Biography and career Born on 20 November 1929 in Calais, France, Raymond Lefèvre is best known for his interpretation o ...

. An excerpt from the original Licari version appears in

Wyclef Jean Nel Ust Wyclef Jean ( ; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian rapper, singer, and record producer. Born in Haiti, Jean emigrated to the Northeastern United States, United States as a child. He gained fame as a founding member of the Fugees, a Ne ...

's 1997 album '' The Carnival'', and the song was also performed in

André Rieu André Léon Marie Nicolas Rieu (, ; born 1 October 1949) is a Dutch violinist and conductor best known as the founder of the waltz-playing Johann Strauss Orchestra. Rieu and his orchestra tour worldwide, often playing in stadiums. He resides ...

's 2007/2008 ''In Wonderland'' tour. In the Rieu show, ''Concerto pour une Voix'' was performed by Mirusia Louwerse dressed as an angel singing from high above the orchestra. In 2005, Saint-Preux adapted ''Concerto pour une Voix'' for two singers. This latter version, ''Concerto pour deux Voix'' (''Concerto for Two Voices''), was recorded in 2005 by the composer's daughter Clémence and

Jean-Baptiste Maunier Jean-Baptiste Maunier (, born 22 December 1990) is a French actor and singer. He is best known for his role in the 2004 French film '' Les Choristes''. Early life Jean-Baptiste Maunier was born to Thierry Maunier, a cameraman, and Muriel Maunie ...

who starred in the film, ''

Les Choristes ''Les Choristes'' ("The Chorus" or "The Chorus Singers") is an 1877 pastel on monotyping, monotype by French artist Edgar Degas. Part of a series of similar works depicting daily public entertainment at the time, it shows a group of singers perf ...

''.

Arrangements

This song has seen dozens of arrangements and recordings. * Sung by

, 1977 * Sung by Mirla Castellanos, 1974 * Sung by

Dalida Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti (; 17 January 1933 – 3 May 1987), professionally known as Dalida (, ; ), was an Italian naturalized French singer and actress. Leading an international career, Dalida has sold over 140 million records worldwide. Some ...

, 1970 * Sung by

Giorgia Fumanti Giorgia Fumanti (born February 22, 1975) is an Italian soprano singer of operatic pop and crossover music based in Montreal, Canada since 2002. She is also a composer, producer and arranger. Her debut EMI album ''From My Heart'' reached the top 20 ...

, 2010 * Sung by

and Clemence, 2011 * Sung by Zhou Shen, 2022

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Concerto Pour Une Voix 1969 songs French songs