In his poem Soirée en mer, Victor Hugo describes how the sea can be perceived very differently by two lovers at the same time in the same place. While the man perceives the deepening shadows on the dancing waves, the woman marvels at the stars shining ever brighter in the firmament. In nature, as in the words of the poem, the painful ambiguity that represents life at its core can be experienced. Like no other poet, Hugo captures this almost unbearable simultaneity of living and dying, of love and suffering. Saint-Saëns translates this into music – probably the most ephemeral and contemporary of all art forms. His balanced musical form leaves plenty of room for the poetry and his subtle variations in timbre, which also inspired Denis Rouger to his choral arrangement, create a seething motion under the surface of the sea.
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 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 ...wo die Zitronen blühn (Carus 83.514).
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(1)
- Soirée en mer
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- Soirée en mer
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Digital text (without sheet music) incl. printing licence, html file, singing text, originalhtml file, singing text, original (Sample)Soirée en merPrès du pêcheur qui ruisselle,
Quand tous deux, au jour baissant,
Nous errons dans la nacelle,
Laissant chanter l’homme frêle
Et gémir le flot puissant ;Sous l’abri que font les voiles
Lorsque nous nous asseyons,
Dans cette ombre où tu te voiles
Quand ton regard aux étoiles
Semble cueillir des rayons ;Quand tous deux nous croyons lire
Ce que la nature écrit,
Réponds, ô toi que j’admire !
D’où vient que mon coeur soupire ?
D’où vient que ton front sourit ?Dis, d’où vient qu’à chaque lame,
Comme une coupe de fiel,
La pensée emplit mon âme ?
C’est que moi je vois la rame...
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Digital text (without sheet music) incl. printing licence, html file, singing text, german translationhtml file, singing text, german translation (Sample)Abend auf dem Meer
Nahe dem durchnässten Fischer,
wenn wir beide, während der Tag sich neigt,
im Kahn dahingleiten,
und den schwachen Mann singen
die mächtige Woge rumoren hören;unter dem Schutz der Segel,
wenn wir uns in jenen Schatten setzen,
in den du dich hüllst,
wenn dein Blick von den Sternen
die Strahlen zu pflücken scheint;wenn wir alle beide zu lesen glauben,
was die Natur schreibt,
antworte, oh du, die ich bewundere!
Wie kommt es, dass mein Herz seufzt?
Wie kommt es, dass deine Stirn lächelt?Sage, wie kommt es, dass bei jeder Welle
gleich einem Kelch voller Bitterkeit
Gedanken meine Seele füllen?
Es rührt daher, dass ich das Ruder sehe,...
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Composer
Camille Saint-Saëns
| 1835-1921Camille Saint-Saëns was a true multi-talent. He was a pianist, conductor, organist, musicologist, music teacher and composer and became famous above all for the Carnival of the Animals and the opera Samson et Dalila.
He composed his Symphony in A major at the age of 15 and was accepted to the University of Paris at the age of 16. Saint-Saëns studied piano, organ and composition at the Paris Conservatoire and became organist of Saint-Séverin in Paris in 1852. In the same year, he also met Franz Liszt, who subsequently exerted an influence on Saint-Saëns' compositional work. A year later, he celebrated his musical debut as a composer. The opera Samson et Dalila, which premiered in Weimar in 1877, brought him lasting success in opera houses to this day. His Christmas oratorio Oratorio de Noël, which is available from Carus-Verlag, is probably the best-known of his sacred works. Personal details
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Songwriter / Librettist
Victor Hugo
| 1802-1885
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Arranger
Denis Rouger
| 1961Denis Rouger gained his initial musical experience as the son of a Parisian family of musicians and during his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where he received first prizes in harmony, fugue and counterpoint.
He was a lecturer and choirmaster at the University of Paris-Sorbonne for 20 years and choirmaster at Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral for 10 years. He is honorary conductor of the Parisian church La Madeleine. He also collaborates with numerous ensembles in Germany. He has been invited as a guest conductor by radio choirs, the Balthasar-Neumann-Chor, the Baden-Württemberg State Youth Choir and the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Concerts have taken him to Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland (Lucerne Festival).
He gives master classes in Sweden, Bulgaria, France, Germany, as well as in Switzerland.
Denis Rouger has been Professor of Choral Conducting at the Stuttgart State University of Music and Performing Arts since 2011. The chamber choir he founded at the university in the fall of 2011 won first prize at the International Choir Competition in Mosbach (Germany) in 2014.
In addition to his work as a choirmaster, he composes and arranges French and German songs for choir. His arrangements on the CDs Kennst Du das Land ... and ... wo die Zitronen blühn (Carus) were well received by the press and radio. In collaboration with Carus-Verlag, he has edited the choir book Französische Chormusik, which received the German Music Edition Award “Best Edition” in 2019.
In 2016, Denis Rouger founded the figure humaine kammerchor (www.figurehumaine.de), with which he regularly gives concerts at renowned festivals.
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