The exuberant amorousness of a newly-wed couple pulsates in every note of Gabriel Fauré’s Dans les ruines d’une abbaye (In the ruins of an abbey). In this piece, the reverent silence of prayer no longer prevails, but within the venerable walls “various shouts of joy” and “sparkling laughter” are now heard. The old graves have long been overgrown by stinging nettles, and a new dawn of spring and of love fills the air. Napoleonic post-revolutionary France, which drove the author of the poem, Victor Hugo, into exile, is also building a new world on the ruins of olden days. Although the setting by the composer, 40 years younger than the poet, uses the romanticized backdrop of the old abbey, with its 6/8-meter it reflects the uninhibited happiness of the two lovers, who do not look back.
These art songs were originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted them to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the 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 Kennst du das Land... (Carus 83.495/00).
Explore
View
Listen
(1)
- Dans les ruines d'une abbaye
Practise
-
Pronouncing Aid
- Dans les ruines d'une abbaye
Additional material
- Purchase additional material as a download product.
-
Digital text (without sheet music) incl. printing licence, html file, singing text, originalhtml file, singing text, original (Sample)Seuls, tous deux, ravis, chantants,
Comme on s’aime;
Comme on cueille le printemps
Que Dieu sème.Quels rires étincelants
Dans ces ombres,
Jadis pleines de fronts blancs,
De coeurs sombres.On est tout frais mariés,
On s’envoie
Les charmants cris variés
De la joie,Frais échos mêlés
Au vent qui frissonne.
Gaîté que le noir couvent
Assaisonne.On effeuille des jasmins
Sur la pierre
Où l’abbesse joint les mains,
En prière....
-
Digital text (without sheet music) incl. printing licence, html file, singing text, german translationhtml file, singing text, german translation (Sample)
Alleine zu zweit, entzückt, singend,
wie sehr lieben wir uns;
wie nehmen wir den Frühling auf,
den Gott aussät.Welch funkensprühendes Lachen
in diesen Schatten,
einst voller weißer Angesichter,
voller dunkler Herzen.Wir sind ganz frisch verheiratet,
wir schicken uns
vielfältige reizende
Freudenrufe entgegen,Frische Echos verschmolzen
mit dem erschauernden Wind.
Fröhlichkeit, die das schwarze Kloster
würzt.Wir zupfen die Blütenblätter des Jasmin
auf dem Stein ab,
auf dem die Äbtissin ihre Hände faltet
zum Gebet....
Purchase
Additional product information
-
Composer
Gabriel Fauré
| 1845-1924French composer, 1845-1924.
He was a pupil of Camille Saint-Saëns and studied at the Paris School of Sacred Music. Fauré worked as an organist and choirmaster and gave piano lessons and recitals in Parisian salons. He was able to improvise brilliantly on the piano, which is also reflected in his compositions. He was director of the Paris Conservatoire from 1905 to 1920.
Fauré mainly wrote vocal, piano and chamber music. He is best known for his piano songs for solo voice and his Requiem, which was also performed at his own funeral service.
Personal details
-
Songwriter / Librettist
Victor Hugo
| 1802-1885
-
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.
Personal details
Reviews on our website can only be submitted by customers with a registered user account. A check whether the rated products were actually purchased does not take place.
No feedback available for this product.
Frequent questions about this work
There are no questions and answers available so far or you were unable to find an answer to your specific question about this work? Then click here and send your specific questions to our Customer Services!
