Symétrie

Massenet composed Amoureux d'une étoile in August 1911, just one year before his death on the 13th of August 1912. The poem comes from a collection by Vice Admiral Eugène de Jonquières (1850-1919),...

The composer, known for his power of seduction, thus put his work at the service of his public image. He needed the press which, in turn, wished to benefit from his assistance, so much so that his pop...

Already practised in the salons of the second half of the 18th century, the genre of the romance experienced an unprecedented vogue under the Empire and then the Restoration. Defined in Jean-Jacques R...

These poetic 'collages' were born from a freedom left to words to arrange themselves in images, almost without the assent of thought. I say 'almost'. In this field, regardless of what one might allege...

Contrary to my custom, I decided to bring together in this cahier songs set to poems by three different writers. Their date of composition, which provides this (false) semblance of title, would certai...

I came to Reverdy late - I was already in my twenties - through two verses from Les Ardoises du toit, that I happened to be leafing through by chance at a friend's home: 'The last belltower still stan...

In the preface to my Trois Poèmes de Supervielle, recently published by Symétrie, I describe his poetry as 'familiar, peaceful and reassuring', deeming it 'faithful to all stages of our life'. But I d...

I can never repeat too often how much my taste in poetry - a certain kind of poetry - is indebted to Georges Schehadé. After a childhood carpeted with Victor Hugo's alexandrines, and an adolescence in...

Only seven secular compositions of his larger musical output have survived. Despite the small sample size, Pierre Fontaine's songs exhibit an originality and beauty that foreshadowed those of his famo...

La Légende de saint Nicolas (The Legend of Saint Nicholas) The Legend of Saint Nicholas was published on 1 January 1880 in the first issue of Saint-Nicolas: Journal illustré pour garçons et filles, a...

Recently discovered, Reynaldo Hahn's Sagesse cycle, inspired by Verlaine's collection, is among the works composed during his romantic relationship with Marcel Proust, between 1894 and 1896. He first...

In a tale by Anatole France, the king of Persia wanted to learn 'the universal history of men'. However, his scholars having taken so long in compiling the volumes, he will no longer have the time to...

My liking for Schehadé dates back to when I was very young. One of my aunts acted as secretary to the poet, and in the silken cocoon of those long afternoons when she was typing out the chansonnettes...

Those who feel intimidated by Le Soulier de satin or the Cinq Grandes Odes (and at the same time fascinated—and dwarfed—by their sheer immensity) are surprised, on opening his Phrases pour éventails,...

My liking for Schehadé dates back to when I was very young. One of my aunts acted as secretary to the poet, and in the silken cocoon of those long afternoons when she was typing out the chansonnettes...

Three poems by Charles Juliet were composed in 1999 for baritone Pierre-Yves Pruvot and pianist Charles Bouisset. These poems are taken from Ce pays du silence. (translation Philippe Do)

Missa Deo gratias - for children choir, mixed choir, two organs, two trumpets, two trombones and percussions - was premiered on Sunday, June 25, 2000, at the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, in the pres...

In Victor Hugo's tremendous production it seems everyone can find their own path. I was myself fascinated in the sixties by the strange beauty of poems collected by poet André du Bouchet under the ext...

The "Vienese concert" is a cycle of five songs after the Lyrisches Intermezzo by Heinrich Heine and was composed when Olivier Greif was 23 years old. The manuscript provides the exact dates of composit...

Thirty years later, still very present is the memory of that Lausanne studio, crammed by the two pianos and three protagonists hearing for the first time the Petite Cantate while recording it. This is...

When I consider, with hindsight and possibly an element of forgetfulness, the mélodies I have written, I am struck by the fact that, with a few exceptions (Fargue, Verlaine, Schehadé, Cocteau), I have...

A few words about Poil de Carotte; a few words to admit that his experience is very remote from my own… I am lucky in having had a happy childhood, whence the constant and ever-increasing feelings of...

Far from being an isolated work in Camille Saint-Saens' production, Ivanhoé belongs to a small set written at the beginning of his career in the particular context of the competition for the Prix de R...

Far from being an isolated work in Camille Saint-Saens' production, Le Retour de Virginie (Virginia's Return) belongs to a small set written at the beginning of his career in the particular context of...

Far from being an isolated work in Camille Saint-Saens' production, Ode belongs to a small set written at the beginning of his career in the particular context of the competition for the Prix de Rome....